It follows her journey from England to the Caribbean to Salem, Mass.
ALICE HOFFMAN:I definitely did not think it was gonna be more than one book.
If I had, I would have planned it out at the time.
Credit: Alyssa Peek; Simon & Schuster
It was very difficult to do because I wrotePractical Magic25 years ago.
It was because my readers kept saying they wanted to go back to that family.
I did too, but I just had never really thought of doing it.
But I’m so glad I did.
It felt like a homecoming.
Where did Maria and the Owens family come from?
This is what I’ve been interested in since first grade.
It’s really about the power of women in a man’s world.
How did writing Marias story compare to writing the first two books of the series?
In some ways, it was harder because there was a lot more research.
I did a lot of research about Salem.
I did a lot of research about pirates, which figure into it.
I did a lot of research about what was happening in England at the time.
But Maria just walked in the door.
Sometimes that happens; a character will appear and walk through the door and just be whole.
Lovers ofPractical Magicwill certainly come in with assumptions about her.
Did you want to upend or subvert those?
Yes, in some ways.
She revealed herself to me.
I think some of the story will be a big surprise, especially who she’s involved with.
She’s always been involved with a member of the Hathorne family.
John Hathorne, who was one of the judges at the witch trials.
You dont live too far from Salem.
Were you able to visit for research?
I did go up there, but everything looks so different.
Its really the Massachusetts of my imagination [in the book].
It is kind of a commercial place, but there’s still a spirit there.
Salem now is far from Salem then.
But you could feel the excitement of the people who come there.
It’s kind of sweet revenge.
The book is so steeped in the historical record of witchcraft and persecution.
Women who were not physicians, but [practitioners of] folk medicine.
Women who were literate.
The connection between magic and words and writing is really interesting to me.
Also, I was fascinated by the Spanish Inquisition.
Some of the characters are shaped by that.
Fear of the other.
How much of those things are your own invention and how much are you drawing on folklore?
I draw a lot on real practices of healing of the time, herbal remedies, folk remedies.
But some of them are invented.
All the Owens women are reacting to a world afraid of powerful women.
Were current events potent in your mind?
Yes, very much so.
I wanted to tell her story because it’s really important for us to support women.
I’m coming to it from a sense of sisterhood.
And thats true right now.
In this book, evil really exists.
People do terrible things.
And you still have to find a way to have faith in the world.
Youre writing a fourth and final book in thePractical Magicseries.
Can you tease it for us?
It begins in a library, and I always feel the best stories begin in a library.
