A girl has her spectrum

On The Witch Hunter series (and characters!)

by Virginia Boecker

Six years ago, when I first sat down to write The Witch Hunter, I only knew two things: the setting (a fictionalized Tudor-era England, with magic) and my protagonist (Elizabeth, a girl who is good at getting herself into trouble). What I didn’t know was the rest: the plot, the supporting characters, the themes, motifs, structure, arcs…or how to do any of it (talk about getting yourself in trouble!). It was my first book—hell, it was the first thing I’d ever written. But write I did. After three years, three titles, nine drafts, and more revisions than I care to count, I finally had a story I would allow friends to read without making them sign a nondisclosure agreement. It was still two more years before the story became what it is on the shelves today.

What I ended up with was also a story much bigger than I had originally intended. It was enough to span into a series, filled with characters I felt as if I met along the way, as opposed to feeling like I created them. When they first appeared on the page, I didn’t know who they were. Yet so in many ways they began as Horcruxes of me: Elizabeth was my brave side, John my caring side, Fifer my bitchy side, Schuyler my irreverent side. If that sounds one dimensional, it’s because it was, at first – but over the course of those three years, three titles, etc., those singular characteristics became more of a baseline from which these characters grew to their full potential. Elizabeth became brave and foolish; the act now, ask questions later kind of girl. John became caring, nerdy, reserved, and tortured. Fifer became bitchy and smart and loyal with serious abandonment issues, and Schuyler became fatalistic, sarcastic, irreverent, and tortured (I do like me a tortured boy).

While The Witch Hunter and The King Slayer allowed me to explore these characters and their growth, it was all done through Elizabeth’s eyes. Fortunately, the novellas provided just the opportunity I was looking for: the chance to dive in deeper to the other cast members’ back stories. With The Healer, we get to learn more about John, what’s important to him, why he’s so tortured, and get a glimpse into that nerdy, occasionally eccentric side. With The Chase, we learn more about both Fifer and Schuyler, their equally strong personalities, and how sometimes two people who appear to be complete opposites are a lot more alike than they’d like to think.

Now that The Witch Hunter series is complete, I like to think I’m putting the characters—these little pieces of myself—in my readers’ care.  I hope you enjoy getting to know them as much as I did.

Thank you, @virgboecker! 

Not the first time this happened to Jax

Get a load of Lucifer being in a state of shock and confusion when his heart skipped a beat from seeing this creepy red guy's genuine smile for the first time. Here's Alastor's experience