Norfolk author writes magic into road from slavery
Slaves, of course, were generally forbidden to learn to read and write — too much power. But what if they knew magic? What if slaves had magic, and hostile whites had magic, and this was a point of conflict and struggle?
In her debut novel “The Conductors” Nicole Glover of Norfolk draws on years of spinning tales, and her historical research, to spin out this “what if.” What if conductors on the Underground Railroad had magic. If slaves had spells and potions to heal those harmed by owners’ cruelty. If spells had thrown off kidnappers during Reconstruction, on the cusp of Jim Crow. If spells had helped humans solve murders, find the missing, find justice.
Glover will discuss her book Wednesday in a virtual event hosted by Prince Books, the shop not far from the public library where she did a lot of her research.
Her main character, Hetty, was a conductor. Now in 1871 she lives with her husband, Benjy, in Philadelphia, where they investigate mysteries and she has a secret or two to hide. She’s independent, resolute, married for convenience and companionship, not love (yet?).
As a teen she escaped a South Carolina plantation using “Celestial” magic, rooted in the stars and nature. And she used words — written words learned, a map surreptitiously deciphered. The slaveholders used violence and “Sorcery”; onto certain slaves they attached shock collars. Hetty’s could sense magic afoot, could ring an alert, could track her, could prick and burn her. Her wanted poster said her neck bore “raw ringed scars ... three fingers wide.”
“The Conductors” is a struggle between good and evil, with an old friend’s murder, a lost sister, families forged, and — Glover says — in the fall, a sequel.
Glover’s novel (John Joseph Adams Books, paperback, 432 pp.) is being published simultaneously in the U.K.
Details: 6 p.m. Wednesday, conversation with Alyssa Cole, in a virtual event hosted by Norfolk’s Prince Books. (Cole is the author of an acclaimed Civil War espionage romance, “An Extraordinary Union,” and a New York Times Notable book, “A Princess in Theory.”) Register at www.prince-books.com. No fee to attend, but buying the book through the host store would be nice.
The annual Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival is Saturday, a virtual event running from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with 40 authors in mystery, suspense, thriller and horror; historical and romance; and women’s fiction. Live panel discussions, on subjects such as culinary mysteries, smalltown crime, and strong women characters, will run every hour. Several author interviews — including headline guest Catriona McPherson talking with Kellye Garrett — are taped and can be watched any time from 8 a.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Monday the 8th. Admission is free; register at suffolkmystery authorsfestival.com
Obituary note: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “a poet, publisher and political iconoclast who inspired and nurtured generations of San Francisco artists and writers from City Lights, his famed bookstore,” died Monday. He was 101. Ferlinghetti in 1956 published Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” and was arrested on charges of “willfully and lewdly” printing “indecent writings.” In a major First Amendment case, he was tried and acquitted. The poem became one of the century’s most famous. (NYT)
In the Pipeline: Cindy McCain’s “Stronger: Courage, Hope, and Humor in My Life with John McCain,” due late April. (Publishers Lunch)
Didn’t See This Coming Dept.: Hillary Clinton, writing with friend Louise Penny, has a thriller due in October. In “State of Terror,” a female “novice secretary of state” begins work for a president who’d been her rival. Terrorist attacks ensue, in a scheme “designed to take advantage of an American government dangerously out of touch and out of power in the places where it counts the most,” says Simon & Schuster. (Axios via The Guardian)