HEKATE (aka Hecate) is heroine Katie Trillo's family goddess. She is also Katie's namesake (Kate isn't short for Katherine). But who exactly IS Hekate, and why did I choose her for SOMETHING WICKED? Hekate is one of the oldest goddesses in literature. She is often portrayed as three images in one--the classic maiden, mother, and crone, which made her perfect for a fam-trad of witches. She is the Goddess of the Crossroads. She is also a goddess of the underworld, the Guardian of the Gate, who uses her symbolic torches to lead souls into death. And yet, despite her dark reputation, she was once hugely popular, and remains one of the better known of the witches' goddesses, right down to her inclusion in Shakespeare's famous scene from MACBETH. These websites can explain Hekate better than can I: As for why she was the perfect goddess for Katie? In some ways, I'm unsure which elements came first... Katie's, or Hekate's. I knew that for SOMETHING WICKED, I wanted to write a heroine who, though a GrailKeeper, was significantly different from Maggi Sanger of the previous two GrailKeeper books. Hence I knew my heroine should be middle-class, and possibly a little ethnic... like Italian American, perhaps? Perhaps Greek? I also knew I wanted to write a Witch, since I got my start at Silhouette writing adventure novels about Wiccans--that decision definitely narrowed down my decision on Which Goddess might be the best matron for my heroine. But the final decision hit when I realized how much of a roll Death was going to play in the book. I'd recently experienced some losses, and wanted to work them out in writing form. At this point, it became obvious that Hekate--a goddess of transitions, often maligned, and a traditional Witches' Goddess--would be the perfect choice for my heroine, who now became Katie Trillo. Katie is definitely at a crossroads in her life! It was after this that I realized Katie's profession as a hospice nurse--like the goddess whose worship she has been neglecting, Katie helps people cross over to the next world. The choice of Hekate also led to the settings of SOMETHING WICKED--as I researched Her through Italian, Greek, and then Turkish history, so I understood what steps Katie would have to follow in order to make peace with her destiny. |
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HEKATE (aka Hecate) is heroine Katie Trillo's family goddess. She is also Katie's namesake (Kate isn't short for Katherine). But who exactly IS Hekate, and why did I choose her for SOMETHING WICKED? Hekate is one of the oldest goddesses in literature. She is often portrayed as three images in one--the classic maiden, mother, and crone, which made her perfect for a fam-trad of witches. She is the Goddess of the Crossroads. She is also a goddess of the underworld, the Guardian of the Gate, who uses her symbolic torches to lead souls into death. And yet, despite her dark reputation, she was once hugely popular, and remains one of the better known of the witches' goddesses, right down to her inclusion in Shakespeare's famous scene from MACBETH. These websites can explain Hekate better than can I: As for why she was the perfect goddess for Katie? In some ways, I'm unsure which elements came first... Katie's, or Hekate's. I knew that for SOMETHING WICKED, I wanted to write a heroine who, though a GrailKeeper, was significantly different from Maggi Sanger of the previous two GrailKeeper books. Hence I knew my heroine should be middle-class, and possibly a little ethnic... like Italian American, perhaps? Perhaps Greek? I also knew I wanted to write a Witch, since I got my start at Silhouette writing adventure novels about Wiccans--that decision definitely narrowed down my decision on Which Goddess might be the best matron for my heroine. But the final decision hit when I realized how much of a roll Death was going to play in the book. I'd recently experienced some losses, and wanted to work them out in writing form. At this point, it became obvious that Hekate--a goddess of transitions, often maligned, and a traditional Witches' Goddess--would be the perfect choice for my heroine, who now became Katie Trillo. Katie is definitely at a crossroads in her life! It was after this that I realized Katie's profession as a hospice nurse--like the goddess whose worship she has been neglecting, Katie helps people cross over to the next world. The choice of Hekate also led to the settings of SOMETHING WICKED--as I researched Her through Italian, Greek, and then Turkish history, so I understood what steps Katie would have to follow in order to make peace with her destiny. |
