Deborah Harkness
Deborah Harkness
Deborah Harknessis an American scholar, novelist and wine enthusiast, best known as a historian and the author of the "All Souls" Trilogy which consists of the The New York Times best selling novel A Discovery of Witches and its sequels Shadow of Night and The Book of Life...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
strong blood risk
Matthew kept hinting that his desire - for blood, chiefly- was so strong that it put everything else at risk. But vampires weren’t the only creatures who had to manage such strong impulses. Much of what qualified as magic was simply desire in action. Witchcraft was different- that took spells and rituals. But magic? A wish, a need, a hunger too strong to be denied- these could turn into deeds when they cross a witch’s mind.
discovery blood desire
It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.
blood secret vampire
These days vampires gravitated toward particle accelerators, projects to decode the genome, and molecular biology. Once they had flocked to alchemy, anatomy, and electricity. If it went bang, involved blood, or promised to unlock the secrets of the universe, there was sure to be a vampire around.
blood best-effort vision
You persist in this romantic vision of what it is to be a vampire, but despite my best efforts to curb it I have a taste for blood.
good magic material since work
I'm a storyteller, and I have really good material to work with: I've been studying magic and the occult since about 1983.
provides room science unlimited
Magic provides a way of still having room for possibilities, an unlimited sense of what the world offers. Magic is always there when science is found wanting.
books decided history horseback inn journeys love passages soup spice stop wood
As a historian, I love every little detail, but whole long passages about wood paneling and journeys on horseback and every stop at every inn had to go out the window. I decided the history in the books should be like spice in a soup - a little went a long way. Like cilantro.
appreciation measured popular
The world of scholarship is much more measured in its appreciation and also its criticism than the world of popular literature.
books discovery exploding grew hope love serve teach voracious
I teach 18- to 21-year-olds - the 'Harry Potter' generation. They grew up as voracious readers, reading books in this exploding genre. But at some point, I would love for them to give Umberto Eco or A.S. Byatt a try. I hope 'A Discovery of Witches' will serve as a kind of stepping-stone.
bump demons interested people reading realised subjects today
I realised that today we are very much interested in reading about subjects that would have also interested people in the 1500s: ghosts, demons and things that go bump in the night.
characters clues few historical pages plot relevant resist throughout
I couldn't resist hiding some historical details and a few clues relevant to the plot and characters of 'A Discovery of Witches' throughout the pages of the novel.
cheap defined depends spending
Cheap wine is defined by its price, and it depends on personal spending limits. So for me, any wine under $10 is cheap.
convoluted maybe midwife series time title
Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, I thought maybe I could write a mystery series about a midwife in Elizabethan England. I had an elaborately convoluted title and an elaborately convoluted plotline, and at that point I got stupendously bored.
empathize helping highlights lived love people students time
I really love helping students and helping them empathize with people who lived a really long time ago. That's one of the highlights of working in fiction.