230: Jamaican Witches (with Ciannon Smart)

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One trip and one story can change your life, as author Ciannon Smart showed us in this episode. Listen to how her trip to Rose Hall in Jamaica stuck with her for a decade, how she embraced her weird kid energy to learn about vampires and witches, and how it evolved into her debut novel! </span></p> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Content Warning:</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">This episode contains conversations about or mentions of slavery, murder, religious persecution, military/war, racism, and panic attacks. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Guest</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Of Jamaican heritage,</span> <a href="https://www.ciannonsmart.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Ciannon Smart</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">grew up in a small town in the south-east of England. As the only daughter in a house full of boisterous sons, she developed a voracious appetite for reading from an early age, preferring anarchy in stories rather than real life. In YA she loves her heroines exactly as she loves her villains: wilful, wily, and unpredictable. When not writing, Ciannon can be found reading, painting, or taking the long way home to listen to a good song more than once. Her debut novel,</span> <a href= "https://bookshop.org/a/822/9780062945983"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Witches Steeped in Gold</span></em></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, is now available. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Housekeeping</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">-</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Recommendation</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">: This week, Julia recommends</span> <a href= "https://bookshop.org/a/822/9780062936042"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Galaxy, and the Ground Within</span></em></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by Becky Chambers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">-</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">Books</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">: Check out ou