There’s been a little bit of buzz about the witch bottle Addie discovers in present day Alexandria in AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET and whether or not I invented it for this book. The answer is that witch bottles aren’t fictional. They’re part of our history. Hundreds of years ago the fear of witches was very real. We forget that in the colonial era and before then, death was always close. Women wishing to protect their families against evil or even to curse others created these bottles, often under the light of the full moon. The bottle was filled with sharp objects designed to attack the evil and it was also filled with items close to the creator—buttons, strands of hair, bits of clothing, herbs and even blood.
You can see the first mention of witch bottles in AT THE CORNER OF KING STREET and find out how they’re made here.