Sep 30, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min · 11 segments
In the second episode of this week, I am joined by author Martha Waters to talk about her brand-new novel, Spellstruck. The story is set in a magical 1920s Britain where spellcasting is outlawed and…
Yeah, it was so interesting trying to figure out how this would all work because like the idea for the book really started with I was like, I wanted to write a book that had obviously parallels with prohibition because I love the 20s.
And I was like, what can I do to take the concept of prohibition, but put like a magical spin on it? And so I first started thinking about, you know, well...
Maybe it would be like, they're still doing like spell work and using wands and stuff, but that's now illegal.
And so instead they pivoted to this, but I was like, actually, it's much more interesting if they're even before when magic was legal, they still weren't able to do those things anymore.
And it's kind of, I kind of wanted to like, uh parallel sort of like the fading fortunes of like the british aristocracy um like over the course of like the 19th century and something like similar was happening with magic at the same time um and because yeah then it becomes this real like well but they can't do magic they're not out there waving wands like they can't fly like they they're not super powerful like being able to use this one word that their family has to uh make potions that have very different effects and the kind of way it kind of works with like different families words kind of have different effects so they kind of the clubs kind of specialize in different things um like that's cool but it's not like they're not all powerful warlocks or something so it is like when it when it's outlawed is a genuine threat to like their livelihoods and their way of life and so you kind of are like well yeah of course they would figure out a way around this and start like operating these these speakeasies that i never actually call a speakeasy in the club in the book because i was trying to keep it very like separate from like american prohibition even though that was obviously the inspiration but they're speakeasies
Yeah, I think that's it.
There is this sort of correlation, as you said, between prohibition that was taking place in the 1920s in America, because you have that, no, you're not allowed to do this and you're not allowed to do that.
And they are targeting a specific group of people.
And you sit there thinking, well, that's very similar because that was targeting those who went out and they had a very free or this was their way to enjoy themselves.
And this is the way that people enjoy themselves safely with the potions.
But if you start tampering with them, which is what happens, it is going to immediately change popular opinion.
So, oh, the evils of drink.
in comparison with, oh, look what this magic has done.
It seriously hurt somebody.
I don't know, the world-building element of this was really fun for me just because I was...
It's not total, I mean, aside from the fact that magic exists, it's not like completely historically accurate.
Like I tweaked some things, like I made this world a little more progressive in terms of things like I make, women got the right to vote a few decades earlier in this universe than they did in real history.
I have it in this, I'm just gonna throw away line in the book about how they got the right to vote when Victoria was queen.
um and the like homosexuality was decriminalized like a few decades like it had already been decriminalized in this um universe whereas it would be several decades more in real history but it was really interesting trying to figure out like how to thread in all the world building in a way that was not like because i wanted it to be fairly historically accurate like i wanted to sit within like i wanted there to have been um like the great war like because i just think that the 20s doesn't feel like the 20s if you don't have world war one like the entire vibe of that decade is completely different without without it the thing
is i think that the 1920s were as they were because of the great war
And so I had these thoughts where I was like, oh, well, should I – I initially was like, well, maybe I could weave in like a magic being used in war as like a thing where people then like turned against it because of that.
But I was like, actually, I think it's something simpler than that, whereas it's just like fear-mongering on the part of the government assisted by some of the – press
also which like the oh that's not real at all that never happens
Yeah, it was so interesting trying to figure out how this would all work because like the idea for the book really started with I was like, I wanted to write a book that had obviously parallels with prohibition because I love the 20s.
And I was like, what can I do to take the concept of prohibition, but put like a magical spin on it? And so I first started thinking about, you know, well...
Maybe it would be like, they're still doing like spell work and using wands and stuff, but that's now illegal.
And so instead they pivoted to this, but I was like, actually, it's much more interesting if they're even before when magic was legal, they still weren't able to do those things anymore.
And it's kind of, I kind of wanted to like, uh parallel sort of like the fading fortunes of like the british aristocracy um like over the course of like the 19th century and something like similar was happening with magic at the same time um and because yeah then it becomes this real like well but they can't do magic they're not out there waving wands like they can't fly like they they're not super powerful like being able to use this one word that their family has to uh make potions that have very different effects and the kind of way it kind of works with like different families words kind of have different effects so they kind of the clubs kind of specialize in different things um like that's cool but it's not like they're not all powerful warlocks or something so it is like when it when it's outlawed is a genuine threat to like their livelihoods and their way of life and so you kind of are like well yeah of course they would figure out a way around this and start like operating these these speakeasies that i never actually call a speakeasy in the club in the book because i was trying to keep it very like separate from like american prohibition even though that was obviously the inspiration but they're speakeasies
Yeah, I think that's it.
There is this sort of correlation, as you said, between prohibition that was taking place in the 1920s in America, because you have that, no, you're not allowed to do this and you're not allowed to do that.
And they are targeting a specific group of people.
And you sit there thinking, well, that's very similar because that was targeting those who went out and they had a very free or this was their way to enjoy themselves.
And this is the way that people enjoy themselves safely with the potions.
But if you start tampering with them, which is what happens, it is going to immediately change popular opinion.
So, oh, the evils of drink.
in comparison with, oh, look what this magic has done.
It seriously hurt somebody.
I don't know, the world-building element of this was really fun for me just because I was...
It's not total, I mean, aside from the fact that magic exists, it's not like completely historically accurate.
Like I tweaked some things, like I made this world a little more progressive in terms of things like I make, women got the right to vote a few decades earlier in this universe than they did in real history.
I have it in this, I'm just gonna throw away line in the book about how they got the right to vote when Victoria was queen.
um and the like homosexuality was decriminalized like a few decades like it had already been decriminalized in this um universe whereas it would be several decades more in real history but it was really interesting trying to figure out like how to thread in all the world building in a way that was not like because i wanted it to be fairly historically accurate like i wanted to sit within like i wanted there to have been um like the great war like because i just think that the 20s doesn't feel like the 20s if you don't have world war one like the entire vibe of that decade is completely different without without it the thing
is i think that the 1920s were as they were because of the great war
And so I had these thoughts where I was like, oh, well, should I – I initially was like, well, maybe I could weave in like a magic being used in war as like a thing where people then like turned against it because of that.
But I was like, actually, I think it's something simpler than that, whereas it's just like fear-mongering on the part of the government assisted by some of the – press
also which like the oh that's not real at all that never happens
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