Dry Tinder: A Witch Trials Book Talk with Author Janice Thompson

So much has already been written about the Salem witch trials. We see the drama depicted in countless screenplays, movies, novels and scholarly treatises.

So what don’t we already know about the story?

Dry Tinder is an historical novel based on the true story of the Towne sisters -- three innocent, godly women who are falsely accused of witchcraft in 1692. It offers a new perspective, as the narrative starts in 1670, a full twenty-three years before young girls begin accusing their elders of witchcraft. The trials are not a strange anomaly of history: Were the children possessed? Did witchcraft actually run rampant in Salem Village? Was it something strange that just….happened? Instead, told through the perspective of Sarah Towne, the story becomes personal. The hysteria grows from the extreme polarization and struggles of the Salem Village people at the time, including boundary disputes, the harsh judgment of their Puritan faith, wars with the native tribes and the sometimes troubled relationship between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Mother England.

Like dry tinder to a carelessly lit match, the conflagration that follows should not be a surprise to anyone.