The Truth about Witches, a Special Edition of First Lines

Illustration of a foggy woods on a moonlit night. The path down the center is lined with large pumpkins and the path ends at a spooky house with orange-yellow lights in the windows and at the door

The 31st of October is many things. It is:

  • Martyrs’ Day (observed in Burkina Faso),
  • Reformation Day (observed in Germany and Slovenia), 
  • Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayani (observed in India),
  • Public Holiday (observed in Israel),
  • Boun Ok Phansa (observed in Laos),
  • Bank Holiday (observed in New Caledonia), and
  • Samhain (an ancient Gaelic word pronounced “sow-win”) (historically observed in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man). 

For those of you observing a solemn day(s) of remembrance (including those who observe All Saints Day on November first), I see you and hope that your day is peaceful with reason to hope for the future. Best wishes to you and yours.

Halloween

Here in the U.S. we greet the onset of the darker winter months on October 31st, All Hallows Eve (an older term for the day) we now call Halloween. We celebrate the weird, the spooky, the mundane, the ghosts, and ghouls and goblins and the witches with tricks and treats. I’m twisting my usual blog schedule a bit to bring you first lines for stories that are suitable for readers from 9 to 99 and they are all about witches. 

The cover of Roald Dahl's The witches is black with simple gray-white eyes scattered across it, A mouse carries a jar across the page. In the bottom third, a pair of hands with green warts and long curled green fingernails reaches toward a child.

In fairy-tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks.

But this is not a fairy-tale. This is about REAL WITCHES.

The most important thing you should know about real REAL WITCHES is this. Listen very carefully. Never forget what is coming next.“

The Witches, Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake (Illustrator)

The cover of not just witch has a pink-yellow-orange background full of stars and twinkles. A woman with curly red hair and large round glasses stands slightly to the side, wearing a cape. One hand is held up as if she's performed a spell. In front of her is a boy looking aghast at his dog who has turned into a dog-faced baby in a cradle.

When people quarrel it is bad, but when witches quarrel it is terrible.

Heck was an animal witch. This didn’t mean of course that she was a witch who was an animal; it meant that she did animal magic. Her full name was Hecate Tenbury-Smith and she had started when she was still a child…“

Not Just a Witch, Eva Ibbotson

The cover of L.A. Witch Birthday has a painterly background of blue with an orange burst behind a young girl looking up at a white cat sailing through the air above her head.

I always supposed that the bets thing about having a life that sucks is that it can never get worse. I was wrong.

My name is Holly Ivy McNee—how bad is that, huh? I suppose Holly is okay but “Ivy” is just a little girl’s name and I’m twelve. Okay, just about.

L.A. Witch: Birthday, Todd McCaffery

The cover of Tardy Bells and Witches Spells is an illustration. The background is in sepia tones and hints at a spooky forest and the edge of the front door of a cabin. A Witch stands front and center, her long red hair and ruby lips the only strong colors on the page.

Prologue

Magic is not real,” I said as I waited for my therapist to come in.

Magic wasn’t real—because if it was—that would mean I was a witch. And if I was a witch, it would mean I had killed two people using my magic. It was better to be normal. It was safer.“

Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells, A Cozy Witch Mystery (Womby’s School for Wayward Witches Book 1) Sarina Dorie

The cover of River Run shows a cloudy night sky with the moon peeking through the clouds, A church with a tall steeple is the focal image, Candlelabra sconces on its walls and door. A group of women stand off to the side. In the foreground a stands a young girl wearing early American cap and dress, we see one half of her face and skirt.

The sign loomed before us, old and weathered, standing like a sentinel at the edge of the property. It creaked slightly in the wind as it hung precariously from a rusty iron bar. “River Run,” it read, the painted letters chipped and fading yet still proudly announcing our new home.”

River Run, River Run Series, M.L. Bullock

The cover of Thirteen Witches: the Memory Thief has large title in gold lettering with curly flourishes. In the center, bottom two thirds is an orange-yellow circle in the center of which a young girl hunches with her back to a strong wind that blows her long hair out in front of her, she clutches a book to her chest.

Prologue

In a stone courtyard at the edge of the woods, a ghost with glowing red eyes floats back and forth past the windows of Saint Ignatius Hospital, waiting for a baby to be born. 

In the decades that he’s been haunting this place, the ghost has seen it all: visitors and patients coming and going, the hopeless cases, the lucky people with small complaints.“

The Memory Thief, Thirteen Witches Book 1, Jodi Lynn Anderson

Clarification

There are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. Usually I pull these titles at random. They are from Amazon, my personal library, my area public library, or other online booksellers. 

Buy Books, Support Authors

Did you know, that authors “take home” only a portion of each book sale? Sellers like Amazon charge a fee for each sale. Add on fees for editors, cover artists, and advertising the costs of selling one book often outweigh the “take home.” This means that authors depend on selling lots of books in order to make a living. It also means that “free” advertising like reviews and blog posts like this one, are vital to an author’s ability to “make it.”

Did any of the first lines above hook you? Do you want to read more or do you think one of these books might make a great gift for a young person in your life? 

First Lines posts are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to support authors by buying more books and reviewing or rating the books you love.

Check out previous First Lines posts. 

Top image by Jasmin777 from Pixabay

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