Wax & Wane: Jonathan Cromack

The power that Witches have over what happens around them and how they can influence things; the fear and respect that they have and their vast knowledge of things outside of our normal comprehension. Most importantly though, I think it would be great to be able to fly!

I am fascinated by the Pendle witches and the Salem witch trials – real-life  reports. During the witch trials of the European Middle-ages, the fear and paranoia among society must have been terrible. Some of the tortures inflicted on the poor women was awful – I have read accounts somewhere of the witch-hunters forcing the accused ‘witch’ to swallow a knotted rope using boiling water to aid it’s journey, only to yank the rope violently back up again. Or to tie a ‘witch’s’ arms behind her back then hang her from her arms, throwing her from a height so that her shoulders dislocate horribly as the rope jerks. This kind of nightmare reportedly actually happened to some poor people. That is real life horror.

I should say here, that I would like to be a good witch and fight the good fight, but to be honest, bad witches seem to have the most fun. I guess that’s why they’re always cackling. Such mischief!

As well as my story for Wax and Wane, I have another short story, possibly two stories due for release early 2016 in horror anthologies; other than that, I am busy working away on several stories at the moment to be (hopefully) unleashed into the world in 2016. After that, who knows…