Salem
by Jon May
Unwanted and handicapped by effects of their own power, the magical
community, a repressed minority, struggles to gain the equality, rights and
respect due them as Magical Americans. Salem is a contemporary novel with storylines
involving the men, women and children of Salem. We have everything: teens in
school, love stories, ghost stories, death stories, addiction stories, Jesus’s
office on the Otherside stories, police stories, almost have a mad scientist
story, we have love stories, discrimination stories, everything....did I mention
witchcraft? OH! and here is backstory:
About 100 years after the Salem Witch trials, witches went underground, creating
a secret community. Interested in the success of the quiet little American
community, three powerful European wizards/witches, Albert Apoidea, Edward
Jasper and Olga Ruffner purchased land and the asylum on it, establishing the
first American school for magical children, The Salem School. They encouraged
the Americans to stand their ground & be proud of their heritage.
Armed with education and confidence, their fear diminished and they once again
dared out among the American non-magicals, but found them, unprepared, fearful,
suspicious, paranoid and unwelcoming. They found themselves oppressed and
persecuted. The European wizards rejoiced in the freedom of the American witches
and returned to Europe, confident in the future of the Americans, hiding their
magic in their own country and closely watching the experiment across the ocean.
Time went on and the magical Americans found themselves hiding their magic in
order to survive. Unable to gain employment and make a living, some witches left
the east coast and traveled across the country, happily living life far away
from anyone who knew about and feared magical people. Tiny pockets of magical
communities popped up across the US and large government supported magical
villages in the large cities as well as in the small so-called Witch City,
Salem. The community faltered the and slid into a destructive attitude of apathy
, anger and disarray. The ailing witches were kept down for fear they'd rise up
and use their power against the majority. Magicals were looked down upon,
discriminated against and are considered the dregs of society as sex, drugs,
crime etc, all that comes with self loathing and a lack of self esteem, are
rampant in the community.
Talented and powerful magicals were enticed into lucrative positions in the
government.. Witches were offered subsidies, compensation to make amends for the
suffering inflicted upon them. The witches were split. One side warned the
people of deceit, the other side encouraged them to accept what was due them,
demanding reparation.
Payment was difficult. The government in their wise benevolent ways found the
perfect solution. They created a special bracelet, encoded with the witch's
social security number, personal information and account number. The bracelet
was magically charged by the talented government witches to act as an
identification card, allowing the wearer to access his or her government account
in special government mandated financial institutions and gateways. The witches
were thrilled, that is until the money ran out and witchcraft, with few
exceptions, became illegal, taxed and monitored via government issued tracking
/ID bracelet. Salem School continued, financed and protected by the great
wizards of Europe.
The 1970s came. Non magical and magical youth protested anything protestable.
They wore funny clothes and smoked fun herbs. The magical youth learned from
other oppressed cultures and demanded to be heard. They chose a reluctant
leader, Thomas Keene, the son of Albert Apoidea. They demanded their rights.
They marched, they protested, they got involved in politics and used their right
to vote. A magical branch of the government was created to appease the magicals
and the popular Dean of the Salem School, Kenneth Marks was made the first US
Secretary of Magic. The magicals continued to raise their voices. They demanded
to not only be heard but to be seen as well. They adopted a leather beaded
identification bracelet with magically enhanced beads that shone colors when
near that of another witch, acknowledging each other and reminding the non-magicals
that witches lived among them. The reluctant leader made speeches, he was
active, vocal and seemingly fearless. The activists were elated when their
voices reached across the country without magic! Their cause was shown on
national television and splashed across newspapers and magazines.
The Los Angeles School of Universal Energy and the Chicago School of Magic were
eventually built. Thomas, the new Dean of the Salem School, was invited to
Washington to meet with the Secretary of magic and discuss the creation of the
department of magical education. Witches were finally called a race and were
granted minority status, enabling them to all rights within the law. Gaston
Clerec declared it the decade of magic and vowed to be the next Secretary of
Magic, echoing Thomas' sentiment of reform and a new magical America, and
promising 'hell to pay' to those who stood in the way .
Slowly attitudes started to change, beginning with the witches rights movement
and a new breed of magical role models The new magical pride continued on
through the decades nurtured by the magical schools and reinforced by the
cultural leaders. And very slowly it is changing the attitudes of the
non-magical community.
The Salem novel is an original concept and is not based on the JK Rowling
world. We offer a guide, (available by link on the Salem DJ) albeit a scattered
one, as a reference to our readers and writers. There you’ll find much of the
lingo, vocabulary, a bit of history, magical medicine & illness etc. The
vocabulary/lingo is also found at the Salem Planning Boards.
All one has to do to write in Salem is write within the novel and witchculture
101 guidelines, be able to intelligently string at least 3 original sentences
together and be able to hold your own in the novel.