Why We Love the Magic So Much: Women’s Fiction and the Supernatural By Rachel Dacus

What makes some of us crave women’s fiction that has elements of magic? In my case, it all started with the Oz books. At a formative age, I learned to identify with a kickass heroine like Dorothy, who made her way through mystifying, dangerous magical lands. I also identified with the magical female denizens of that land. Glinda and Ozma and even the Wicked Witch of the West wielded real power through their magical powers.

Then into my world came Nancy Drew, whose powers were of this world, but she had a supernatural ability to detect, an analytical genius well out of the ordinary, especially as girls were portrayed in the 1950s. 

These brave girls, who were comfortable equally in the material and supernatural worlds, set me on a search for more heroines who contend with both dimensions of life, the magical and the realistic. Isabelle Allende, whose fiction has been called magical feminism. Her writing appeals to me for the way the magical elements infuse and transform the ordinary.

The magic that I love in fiction isn’t another world completely, but the dimensions of this one that are internal. The nexus of heart-mind, where poetry lives and images speak to deep places within. Poetry was also one of my early literary influences. It exists in the double realm of metaphor, which is bringing two unlike things together for a transformation. A magic trick of meaning.

Reality in a poem shifts into an altered state. You make a point, but make it slant (as Emily Dickinson would say). And sometimes that altered world that is more real than the mundane.

Women’s stories and the supernatural seem to me a natural fit. Among magical realism authors, many are writing what’s also classed as women’s fiction. Sarah Addison Allen is some of the best women’s fiction, and her books always have a story that hinges on magical realism. Kate Atkinson’s stories bend time and dimension. Amy Tan’s Saving Fish From Drowning was another magical realism read that inspired me to stories of blended magic and reality.

When I lost my younger brother three years ago, it was an unimaginable event. My only sibling, the sharer of my family history (and many jokes about it) was beyond the reach of telephone and visits. The shock was so physical that the only thing I could do for months was binge-watch television and write.

The month after his death coincided with National Novel Writing Month. I entered this magical zone of timelessness and lost myself in unraveling a story of two sisters whose troubled relationship lands in a haunted cottage in Italy and the need to dispose of their inherited house. Their conflicts had nothing to do with me and my brother, but we had gone through a similar estate sale after our father’s death. That was a bonding experience and a half! Then came supervising our ailing stepmother’s care, again bonding us in ways we hadn’t imagined.

I’ve always had a feeling that we might get messages from beyond. The impact and power of love never dies, though the ability to call a loved one may end. That’s how I came up with the idea of a family ghost and a heroine who may help spirits of the dead make their transition fully. She has a superpower of vision, and a secondary one of compassion for bewildered ghosts. 

Stories and magic seem to me a natural pairing. The very telling of a tale implies that the listener will be lifted out of ordinary reality. Real life has its magical moments, and a novel with magic lets us binge on the kind of transformed feeling you might have had when you were a kid, lying on a lawn and puzzling out the changing shapes in the clouds. Fiction can be a truer reality, lifting you up into the magic we all knew was in those clouds. 

#

Rachel Dacus’s debut novel is The Renaissance Club, a time travel love story involving a young art historian and the great 17th century Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. The book has been called “Enchanting, rich and romantic…a poetic journey through the folds of time.” She’s also the author of four poetry collections: Gods of Water and Air is a collection of poetry, prose, and drama; Earth Lessons, Femme au Chapeau and Arabesque. Rachel resides in Northern California with her husband and Silky Terrier, where she raises funds for healthcare, homelessness, programs serving elders, and other good causes.

www.racheldacus.net

@Rachel_Dacus

THE INVISIBLES

Two sisters. One ghost. An impossible sacrifice.

Sisters Saffron and Elinor inherit a cottage on the Italian coast from their father, along with its resident ghost and a secret manuscript. Their rivalry explodes through a struggle for control of the inheritance.

Saffron has a genius for creative living, but ever since her judgmental older sister interfered in her love life, Saffron and Elinor haven’t spoken. When death brings them together at their father’s funeral in Rome, the battle re-ignites. It continues as they travel up the Italian coast to take possession of their cottage. Both secretly wish to mend fences, but they have opposite views about the best way to live.

Saffron has always sensed the “Invisibles”, people lingering after their demise. When the spirit who lives in the house predicts one sister might die, she takes it seriously, but can’t convince her practical-minded sister.

As they prepare the house for sale, Italy infuses its magic in food, festivals, and local love interests — until a shocking night changes everything for the sisters and their friends.

A tale of sisterhood and the supernatural, perfect for fans of Mary Ellen Taylor and Barbara O’Neal.

PRAISE FOR THE INVISIBLES

THE INVISIBLES charms as both bookish mystery and ghost story, but it’s Dacus’s deft portrayal of the love and strain between sisters that will keep many readers on the edge of their seat. — Willa Ramsey, EVERYTHING BUT THE EARL.

Sisters torn apart by their personalities—Saffron is creative and carefree while her older sister, Elinor, has buried her romantic self in spreadsheets and dollar signs—are brought together when they inherit a house on the Italian coast. Two ghosts, two boyfriends, and one kidney assist in their reunion. Author Dacus does a superb job bringing the village of Lerici to life, from the smells of the sea to the pungency of the local olive oil, and showing how the Italian way of life changes both women. An enjoyable, romantic read. — Suanne Schafer, HUNTING THE DEVIL

A timeless story of sisterhood, with all its joys and challenges, and also a reminder that we can dearly love and care for those who are not exactly like us. The Invisibles was a joyful and poetic read, set among the sun dappled towns of the Ligurian coast. A chance to live vicariously through a book; like taking a vacation to Italy and enjoying scrumptious coastal food, local festivities and sunshine with new friends. I enjoyed this book enough that I now want to read all of Rachel Dacus’ other novels. — Lainey Cameron, forthcoming EXIT STRATEGY

Two sisters, very different, both love and frustrate each other. When their father dies, they are co-inheritors of his house in Italy and must agree on what to do with it. They descend on the house and, slowly and gently, come to terms with their differences and reinforce the love they’ve always had for each other. Beautiful descriptions of the house, the view, and their small town draw the reader into this delightful story. Romance blooms in all directions as each sister finds what she most needs, in a most surprising way. – Diane Byington, author of WHO SHE IS

BUY THE BOOK HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips