The Inspiration Behind A Witch in Time

By Constance Sayers

My debut novel, A Witch in Time is a story about a young woman who has lived several lives—first as a young piano virtuoso, an actress in Hollywood during the 1930s, an aspiring rock star in 1970s Los Angeles—only she doesn’t know it.  When a mysterious man tells her that she is living in a curse, she begins to uncover the secret of her many lives and learns that she will die in a month unless she finds a way to stop it. 

The idea for the story began when my sister brought home a print from William Bouguereau called The Broken Pitcher.  She thought the girl in the painting looked exactly like me.  The painting’s theme is that the broken pitcher represents the subject’s loss of innocence. From the girl’s remorseful face to the wild strands of dark hair and double-jointed elbow, I had to admit that the likeness was pretty unsettling.  I recall looking at it and thinking, “What if I had a character and the subject of the painting from 100 years ago was her?”

I hadn’t written any fantasy. Prior to this book, most of my work had been very realistic, rural noir fiction. I’d had a few short stories published and I’d finished a novel that had gotten me an agent, but the book had failed to sell and I struggled trying to figure out what to do next so I returned to this idea of the painting.  

The original premise of the novel was structured as a death bed confessional. I recall taking a very early draft to my writers’ group to critique the first few chapters. Overwhelmingly, the group felt the death bed confessional was a horrible idea, but loved the idea of one woman in multiple time periods. From there I sketched out an outline of the timelines that I knew I needed. 

The structure of four time periods with one character definitely posed challenges in that it was hard to craft unique stories that had to both be both individual capsules of their own with unique character arcs, but also needed to tie to a larger character narrative.  I looked for several inspirations to make the book feel whole.  

I’m a giant Francophile. Not only does the story really originate in France, but the character returns there again in the second life.  Also, Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit is featured in this book both literally (as the name of the band in 1970) and figuratively in that you have three characters—Marchant, Luke and Juliet—returning again and again in love triangle that is a form of hell with each character appearing in slightly different forms (at least for Juliet and Marchant) in each life.  

Music is another key tie between the women.  Juliet is a pianist and passes this off to Nora who becomes a composer then Sandra cuts an album with the songs she hears in her head (from Nora).  I didn’t realize how much music always finds a way into my fiction. Growing up, our house was always filled with music. When I went off to college, I thought that I would study piano and voice with an eye toward a career singing opera.  While I love music, I’m a terrible piano player, so I switched my major to English. The piano is such a precise instrument that I loved making that the tie between the characters. I find musical instruments haunting and mysterious things.  

In terms of theme, think the book is definitely chronicling what is was like to be a woman in different times. Juliet is seduced by a painter, then brutally raped before being rescued by Lucian Varnier. Her story has some basis in my own family. While walking home in 1918, my grandmother (who was a young woman at the time) was raped by three men. It’s a rather tragic story in that, as a result of the attack, she got pregnant.  Her family had little options in 1918, so they sent her (along with her child) to work as a housekeeper for a seventy-year old widower in a different part of the state.

Despite the fact that he was so much older, that man would eventually become my grandfather, marrying her a few years later on Valentine’s Day. They went on to have three children before she died at the age of twenty-seven. My father had heard whispers about his mother’s attack through the years. In the 1980s, he attempted to find out more details, but no one who had been alive at the time would discuss it, so we were forced to go to the city archives to find her police case files. Her story haunted me and I always hoped that she found happiness before she died. I tried to put flesh around her story—one that honestly has been lost to time. The character of Juliet is very much based on her story.

As the women’s stories progress through the book, the idea of what it means to be a woman changes and I try to chronicle that from 1930s Hollywood which would be the time when the “ideal” woman was created on screen to modern-day.  While there is some fun traveling from time to time with this character, there is a seriousness about the limitations she faces, especially in the Juliet and Nora stories. 

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Constance Sayers is a media executive who has twice been named one of the “Top 100 Media People in America” by Folio.  Her short stories have appeared in Souvenir and Alternating Current as well as the anthologies Amazing Graces and The Sky is a Free Country.  Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

She received her M.A. in English from George Mason University and is the co-founder of the Thoughtful Dog literary magazine. She lives outside of Washington DC.  A Witch in Time is her debut novel.

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/constancesayers

Find out more about her on her website https://constancesayers.com/

A WITCH IN TIME

A young witch is cursed to relive a doomed love affair through many lifetimes, as both troubled muse and frustrated artist, in this haunting debut novel.

Helen Lambert has lived several lives-a young piano virtuoso in 1890s Paris, an actress in 1930’s Hollywood, a rock star in 1970s Los Angeles-only she doesn’t know it. Until she meets a strange man who claims he’s watched over her for centuries, bound to her from the beginning.

At first, Helen doesn’t believe him. Her life is as normal as any other modern career woman’s. Then she begins having vivid dreams about ill-fated love and lives cut short.

Caught in a curse, Helen will be forced to relive the same tragic events that ruined her previous lives. But with each rebirth, she’s developed uncanny powers. And as the most powerful version of herself, Helen must find a way to break the curse before her time runs out.

A Witch in Time is a bewitching tale of passion, reincarnation and magic perfect for fans of A Secret History of Witches and Outlander.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

 

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Category: On Writing