Did you know that most of my story ideas begin with a question? Often, I don’t even realize I’ve asked the question until I start looking for the answer. Once I begin digging, it’s only a matter of time before the real story surfaces and the characters begin to speak to me.
When I began writing Daughters of the Sea, I started out on an entirely different path from where I eventually ended up. I’ve always been a bit obsessed with Salem, Massachusetts, and witches. The idea that so many people could be wrongfully accused and put to death without any real concrete evidence has always blown my mind. I wanted to write something that had to do with history, because I adore historical research, but I wanted to throw in a bit of the supernatural as well. Salem and witches seemed to be the perfect fit.
I began digging into witch trials, and I was shocked at all the details that came up in my search. Witch hunting was so much broader and much more widespread than I had ever realized. It went far beyond Salem and happened much earlier in other parts of the world. About that same time, I was also digging into my own family history, and I had just come across a connection to my Norwegian heritage. It was the perfect storm for two of my passions—history and genealogy—to collide.
As I was searching, I learned about a witch trial in Norway, and the details wouldn’t leave me alone. Given my newly discovered family connections to the country, I was intrigued. I began reading, and what I found was shocking. In the remote region of Troms og Finnmark, in northern Norway, lies a coastal village called Vardø, with the catchy moniker “Witch Capital of Norway.” Needless to say, I was hooked.
Between 1593-1692, there were more than 140 witch trials in this small community. Ninety-one people were found guilty of witchcraft and executed. While that number might not sound like much, given the fact that the area is sparsely populated, it is an astronomically high number. They even have a monument, The Steilneset Memorial, which was constructed 348 years after the trials as a way to commemorate the horrible events.
As I began to read about the trials, my first thoughts were ones of anger and sadness. It seems unthinkable that so many innocent people were condemned and executed. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to live in that village, waking up in fear every day that you might be the next one who was accused. It must have been such a feeling of helplessness, especially for the women of Vardø, who made up the vast majority of those accused and condemned.
Then another thought popped into my brain—what if you were a woman who actually was different? What if you were a woman who had some kind of power that you couldn’t explain? What if all the women in your family had the same power? That would certainly be a death sentence. What would you do to survive?
Daughters of the Sea was born from my research and endless questioning. It blends the historical with the supernatural in a way that I hope you’ll love. Perhaps it will leave you with some lingering questions of your own. Maybe someday I will still write that book about Salem witches, but for now, I give you the Norwegian ones.
HR Mason