Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft

Description

From good witches to bad witches to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a diverse collection of feminist authors. TOIL & TROUBLE delves deep into the wide-ranging mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view to create modern and unique ideas about witchery that have yet to be explored. Scorn the witch. Fear the witch. Burn the witch. History is filled with stories of women accused of witchcraft, of fearsome girls with arcane knowledge. Toil & Trouble features fifteen stories of girls embracing their power, reclaiming their destinies and using their magic to create, to curse, to cure - and to kill. A young witch uses social media to connect with her astrology clients - and with a NASA-loving girl as cute as she is sceptical. A priestess of death investigates a ritualised murder. A bruja who cures lovesickness might need the remedy herself when she falls in love with an altar boy. A theatre production is turned upside down by a visiting churel. In Reconstruction-era Texas, a water witch uses her magic to survive the soldiers who have invaded her desert oasis. And in the near future, a group of girls accused of witchcraft must find their collective power in order to destroy their captors. This collection reveals a universal truth: there's nothing more powerful than a teenage girl who believes in herself.

Jessica Spotswood is the author of the historical fantasy trilogy The Cahill Witch Chronicles and the contemporary novels Wild Swans and The Last Summer of the Garrett Girls. She is the editor of the feminist anthologies A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers, & Other Badass Girls and The Radical Element: 12 Stories of Daredevils, Debutantes, & Other Dauntless Girls and co-editor of Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft. Jess lives in Washington, DC, where she works for the DC Public Library as a children's library associate. She is a feminist, a Hufflepuff, and an INFJ. Tess Sharpe is the author of the young adult mystery Far From You and the feminist thriller for adults Barbed Wire Heart. She lives in the backwoods with a pack of dogs and a cabal of slightly feral forest cats. Her favorite witch is Morgan Rowlands from Sweep.