The author was a descendant of some of the main characters in his (and my) story of Isobel, but his Isobel was a red-haired, middle-class sex siren—a turn-of-the-century romantic male rendering. Brodie-Innes was involved in the occult movement of his time, and his version of Isobel’s story is fun to read.
Carmichael, Alexander. Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations, 1899. https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/.
A contemporary of John Gregorson Campbell, Carmichael traveled the islands and highlands of Scotland collecting folklore, rhymes, stories, songs, and prayers, the melodies woven into the daily lives of the people.
Collace, Katharine. “Memoirs or Spiritual Exercises of Mistress Ross. Written with her own hand.” In Women’s Life Writing in Early Modern Scotland: Writing the Evangelical Self, c.1670-c.1730, edited by David George Mullan. Hants, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2003.
Like Alexander Brodie, Katharine Collace writes of her anguish over her many losses, turning from and then back to her faith, her interactions with people, and her work in the beleaguered Covenanter movement. Like Brodie’s writing, the diary is written as a spiritual exercise.
Goodare, Julian, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller, and Louise Yeoman. The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, 1563-1736. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh, January 2003. http://witches.shca.ed.ac.uk/
A massive study including a database compiling facts about witches accused and executed, genders (of whom 80+ percent were women,) marital status, geographical context, and dates and locations in Scotland.
Kirk, Robert. The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, with an introduction by Andrew Lang (2nd edition). New York: 2008. A delightful little book written in 1691 by a Presbyterian minister who studied and sympathized with the beliefs of his parishioners. He describes second sight, the different levels of seers, the otherworld of spirits, and the fairy kingdom with thoroughness and a sense of awe and respect for this complex belief system.
Melville, Elizabeth. Ane Godlie Dreame. A Calvinist dream-vision poem. Edinburgh: Robert Charteris, 1603. https://digital.nls.uk/selected-wee-windaes-books/archive/125652021 - ?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=21&xywh=0,-586,5965,5383. This poem is the earliest known published work by a Scottish woman.
Wilby, Emma. Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Sussex Academic Press, U.K, 2006.
Exploring similarities in British witchcraft with shamanism in tribal societies throughout the world.
Wilby, Emma. The Visions of Isobel Gowdie: Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth-Century Scotland. East Sussex, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 2013.
An important study of Isobel’s life and trial that compares her experiences to international accounts and theories of shamans, visionaries, night flights, fairies, witches, and the otherworld. This book contains the complete confessions of Isobel Gowdie in the original Scots language.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Emma Wilby, whose stupendous research in The Visions of Isobel Gowdie provided the foundation for my understanding of Isobel’s life, stories, experiences, and the community she was in.
I am grateful to the people in the Moray region in Scotland who graciously welcomed and helped me with the research for this story: Andrew Coombs, whose Lochloy House sits in the midst of Isobel’s territory, for the generous gift of his guest cottage during my stay in the area as well as his knowledge of local history. It was wonderful to walk through the Lochloy Wood, to feel and smell the air in the very place where Isobel lived her magical and tragic life; John Stuart, 21st Earl of Moray, and Grant Kerr, castle keeper, for access to and information about Darnaway Castle and its great hall, built in the 1500s; James and Doreen Campbell, owners of the land where Inshoch Castle sits; Morag Paterson, who caught my enthusiasm for Isobel and gamely joined me in the search for Downie Hill.
Thanks to my doulas in the birthing of this novel: sister writers Anne Bergeron, Rebecca Buchanan, Miranda Moody, and Tania Aebi. For feedback and encouragement, I thank the writers of the Burlington Writers Workshop, the Writers in Paradise Workshop, and the Spanocchia Writers Workshop. I am grateful to Laura Lippman, who helped with the novel’s direction, plot, and points of view. Many thanks to my pastoral psychotherapist writing group, Ron Baard, Laura Delaplain, and John Karl, whose ongoing support, wisdom, and inspiration has sustained me throughout.
For time apart to focus exclusively on writing, I thank Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks Ministry Program, and the Turkey Land Cove Foundation.
Last but not least, thanks to my husband, Jess, for unstinting and continual support of my writing, including his creation of the map of old Moray.
About the Author
Nancy Hayes Kilgore is the author of two other novels, Wild Mountain (Green Writers Press, 2017) and Sea Level (RCWMS, 2011). Her writing has won a Pushcart Prize nomination, the Vermont Writers Prize, and a ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award. She holds Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees and is a graduate of the Radcliffe Writing Seminars. She is a psychotherapist and former parish pastor who coaches writers and leads workshops on creative writing and spirituality.
As in Bitter Magic, Nancy’s other books express reverence for the natural world while exploring clashes in beliefs and values in people and their communities. Sea Level, set in an isolated seacoast town, is about a church in conflict and two women searching for spiritual truth; Wild Mountain, set in a Vermont mountain town in conflict over gay marriage, is an adult love story.
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NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Nancy Hayes Kilgore.
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FIRST MILFORD HOUSE PRESS EDITION: April 2021
Set in Adobe Garamond | Interior design by Crystal Devine | Cover by Sara Oliver | Edited by Lawrence Knorr.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kilgore, Nancy Hayes, author.
Title: Bitter magic / Nancy Hayes Kilgore.
Description: First trade paperback edition. | Mechanicsburg, PA : Milford House Press, 2021.
Summary: Bitter Magic, inspired by the true story of Isobel Gowdie and her witchcraft confession, reveals a little-known corner of history—the lives of both pagan and Protestant women in the Scottish Reformation of the 1600s as witch trials and executions threatened their lives, values, and beliefs.
Identifiers: ISBN : 978-1-62006-842-7 (softcover).
Subjects: FICTION / Historical / General | FICTION / Women | FICTION / Literary | FICTION / Romance / Paranormal / Witches.
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