Magical Musings – Guest Post by Kerry Barrett

Today, I’m welcoming author Kerry Barrett to the Urban Fae blog.  Kerry is author of the book Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered.  Her new book is available in the Kindle Store.

Magical musings

By Kerry Barrett

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stared in dismay at the departure board as my train showed ‘delayed’ and wished I could wiggle my nose like Samantha in Bewitched and be home in a jiffy. Or looked at the Lego strewn across my living room floor and wanted to snap my fingers like Mary Poppins and have it cleared up in a flash.

In fact, who wouldn’t love a bit of magic in their life?

And from that simple idea  – the idea that life would be a little bit easier with a sprinkling of magic – came Esme McLeod. Practical, urban, sophisticated – and a witch, Esme’s the heroine of my novel Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. When we meet her she’s turned her back on her magic, and her witchy family, to concentrate on her successful legal career and her far less successful love life.

I loved the idea of having a bit of power at your fingertips, a way of getting out of scrapes, or simply making the bus come quicker. I wondered what it would be like to be able to manipulate situations to suit your own ends – and how often you’d use that power.

And then I wondered how you’d go about hiding it in modern Britain, because you’d have to, right? You couldn’t go around sprinkling magic on stuff without people being freaked out.

Esme’s turned her back on her family because they used magic to meddle in her love life, and is instead trying very hard to live a normal life in London. She shuns relationships and is involved with a married man – it’s easier that way. And yet, she can’t resist using a teeny bit of magic when she needs a helping hand – and I don’t blame her!

When Esme’s aunt falls ill, she’s forced to head home – back to the Scottish Highlands – and help out in the family business. And that means not only confronting the problems she has with her mum, but also relearning everything about magic that she’s tried very hard to forget.

I’m very close to my mum, and I love the idea of things being passed on from mother to daughter. But what if you don’t want the gifts that are handed down through the generations? Esme’s from a family of female witches – her mum, her aunt and her glamorous, prickly cousin, Harmony – but she’s not interested in witchcraft and that doesn’t make for a fun family life.

So from my longing for a bit of magic to make life run more smoothly, and my love of female relationships, came Esme. She’s in for a bit of a rough ride, but I think she’ll be okay in the end. Find out all about her journey in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered – out on Halloween!