I’m beyond excited to be welcoming Kirsty Ferry back to my blog today to talk about her new book The Witch’s Stone.
Kirsty Ferry is from the North East of England and lives there with her husband and son and far too many books and art supplies to count. She holds a First Class Honours Degree in Literature, and an MA in Creative Writing, and won the English Heritage/Belsay Hall National Creative Writing Competition in 2009 with the ghostly tale “Enchantment”. Kirsty loves writing ghostly mysteries and interweaving fact and fiction. The research is almost as much fun as writing the book itself, and if she can add a wonderful setting and a smattering of history, that’s even better. Her day job involves sharing a building with an eclectic collection of ghosts, which can often prove rather interesting.
Her timeslip novel, ‘Some Veil Did Fall’, a paranormal romance set in Whitby, was published by Choc Lit in Autumn 2014. Many of her subsequent Choc Lit books have since been re-published by Joffe Books, including her popular Cornish Secrets timeslip series. Kirsty now writes dark, witchy, Gothic timeslips for Boldwood, with her first Boldwood book being ‘The Witch’s Stone’ and the second ‘The Snow Witch’, is due out later in 2026.
Kirsty, it feels like ages since we’ve chatted, and I am so excited to see your new book The Witch’s Stone out in the wild world. before we start, can I interest you in anything to eat or drink? The elderflower tree is looking very lovely at the moment. How about an elderflower cordial? And I’ve recently found a recipe for Peach and grape flaugnarde with cold vanilla cream, that I thought I’d try, would you like a slice.
Oh my word, absolutely! I love elderflower cordial and hey, peach and grapes count as part of my five a day, so….yes please! Thank you very much.
Lots has been happening in your writing world since we last spoke, can you say something about how you came to join Boldwood?
Hang on, I’ve blobbed cream on myself. There we go. Sorted. Yes, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride over the last couple of years, but it was very much being in the right place at the right time. I’d gone to York for an Afternoon Tea, which was basically a huge, wonderful gathering of authors, bloggers, agents and publishers, and was introduced to the publishing director of Boldwood, Emily Ruston. We had a chat, and I came away with three things: a.) write what you love, don’t try to fit into a mould. You’re going up against big hitters in a flooded market with romcoms. b.) have an elevator pitch ready, or you will just burble to someone and pray silently for your friend to bail you out with some sensible responses on your behalf (thanks Ella Cook!) and c.) a ‘no promises’ invitation to drop Emily an email, and she’d pass my info on. The upshot of that was an exchange with the wonderful Emma Beswetherick who is now my editor, and a four-book deal with Boldwood, based on ten thousand words and four terribly flexible pitches for Gothic, witchy timeslips concerning legends in my native north east. What an absolute gift to be able to write the stuff I love and have the backing of such an incredible team. It’s made me love what I do all over again.
We should say something about The Witch’s Stone:
When Jess Morgan arrives in Northumberland to research the history of a crumbling chapel, she’s drawn to the legend of the Brinkburn Witch – a woman said to appear when blood is spilled near an ancient standing stone. But the longer Jess stays, the stranger things become. Whispers echo through empty corridors, shadows move where none should, and the boundary between dreams and memory begins to blur.
Over a century earlier, Eliza Stratford turned to the witch for help after a violent betrayal – and sealed her fate with a terrible bargain. Now her story, and the secrets she died to protect, are surfacing again.
As Jess unearths the truth behind the legend, she begins to suspect her own connection to the past runs deeper than she ever imagined – and that some ghosts will do anything to be remembered . . .
I loved The Witch’s Stone and couldn’t put it down, but before we get into the in-depth conversation, I have to ask you about something happened quite late in the book digging with a plastering trowel what earth was your character thinking of? My sister’s a cabinet maker, my father an engineer. Both of whom would be horrified to see that happen. I got told off for using a chisel once to open a pot of paint.
I know! I guess Matt was desperate to release that gravestone from the mud! I suppose in that situation you’ll take anything at hand. I thought it was more believable that he had a plastering trowel in his car, rather than a spade, given his job in building restoration.
I know you say that in your day job you share a building with some interesting ghosts, did any of them inspire this or any of your books?
No, I don’t think they did. We have very domesticated ghosts in that building. It used to be a row of Georgian townhouses that has been knocked into one building, so you can pretend you’re a ghost yourself and walk through the walls from one end to the other, which is fun. But we have people who lived in the houses haunting that structure – a nurse from when one of the houses was a sort of Victorian care home, an industrialist who sits in his office and hides from his five kids, a man who walks up the stairs (just his legs are seen) and a woman who tells off a servant in my own office. I entered one day very early and there was a proper argument going on. I peered into my manager’s office as I thought she was angry with someone, but it was empty, so make of that what you will. The ghosts in The Witch’s Stone are very different, but Jess does hear an argument so maybe I have subliminally borrowed a bit of it. The difference being, she hears the words of the argument, whereas I just heard the tone of it.
How would you describe your personal ghost-hunting style: fearless investigator, enthusiastic believer, or hiding behind someone else?
Interesting question! I’ve been on a few hunts, and start off lurking a bit, then suddenly want to be part of it! I’ve done dowsing rods, crystal pendulum divination and once I did a circle séance-thing in a graveyard where we were all supposed to call for this demonic goblin thing to appear. I was squeezing my eyes shut saying ‘don’t come, don’t come’ and it didn’t which was good although I had to act disappointed like everyone else. That circle things was at Newcastle Castle which is very creepy, and I still have nightmares about the graveyard and the Castle to this day. I got messages with the dowsing rods and the crystal though at other places. The rods spelled out a name, and the pendulum apparently summoned a witch who was known to hang around that area, but the bloke took the pendulum off me at that point and told her to go away. I was a bit cross at that. I would have been interested to hear her story.
I know you work, when do you get time to write?
Well thankfully I only work three days a week, so I have two days allegedly to concentrate on it. In reality, I squeeze it in when I can, which is usually on a night time at this time of year. I write more in the winter, but in the lighter months I like to be out and about and in the garden. My husband works away and my son is old enough not to need me too much at home, so come 9:00 p.m. I take my laptop upstairs and just go for it. It gets me away from distractions such as snacks. I never put pressure on myself in terms of word count. I just try to make sure I do a bit every day if I can. I’m currently working on book four of the contract, but it isn’t due for submission until next year so I’m hopeful I can get it done. I like to be ahead of the game if I can, but that’s the only pressure I’ll allow myself.
This book feels a little darker than some of your previous timeslip novels, you write some very interesting characters. Do you enjoy writing the darker and shall we shall say complex characters?
I love them. My favourites in this one were Lucian and Eliza. I think that because I’m slightly Wuthering Heightsobsessed (and my editor encourages the dark and the tragic) I’ll always gravitate to the Byronic heroes and the Cathy/Heathcliff dynamic. I’ve written pretty crazy characters in other books – Daisy in The Girl in the Painting was fun, and Edie in Edie’s Summer of New Beginnings was a joy. Boring people make boring characters, and if I’m bored of them, I dislike them, and the readers will guess!
I’m fascinated to know how you go about writing a timeslip? What comes first the gothic concept or the contemporary one?
I start with a concept – I’m no good at planning. What I generally start doing is writing a bit about the contemporary characters, and a bit about the historical ones until I get a feel for them. Then I’ve found the best way for me is to just pick a strand and go with it. Then once that’s done, I do the other strand. Then comes lots of tweaks to see where the strands cross over and where the timeslips happen, and then the ‘filler’ bits go in to smooth it over.
Do you find it easy to write and dip in and out of two very different worlds?
I find it too difficult to jump from strand to strand as I lose the flow, but I must confess the historical bits are my favourite (because the characters are usually the craziest and the darkest) and I tend to do those first. Sometimes, though, I will surface into the real world afterwards, blinking at the time I’ve lost, and that can take a bit of adjusting to if I’m honest!
Do you do anything to set the mood for writing the gothic scenes?
I do actually like to light a wax melt, get a good playlist going and make a strong coffee. Then I feel ready to go. I have some marvellous melts with names such as Gothic Castle and Graveyard Walks from a company called Northern Soul Scents and they are my favourite.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever researched that made you think, “I hope nobody checks my search history”?
For my next book, The Snow Witch, I checked to see how long a body would take to float to the top of a pool of fresh water and what it would look like. Therefore, I got the word ‘macerated’ in the book which is a very good word. I am always checking weird stuff. I have lot about witch trials in my recent history, and then the numerous rabbit holes I go down after that don’t help. In general, my search history is very bleak, and I think people would be very concerned if they saw it!
Stratford Chase and the Ashcombe Estate feel like they are based on very real places. Are they?
They are entirely fictitious, but if anything, I’d say Stratford Chase was a little bit like Wallington in Northumberland, which is owned by the National Trust, and Ashcombe was possibly based on Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire, again owned by the National Trust, where just the footprint of the old house remains.
I know you mention Cragside, but which real-life Northumberland location would you recommend readers visit after finishing the novel?
Obviously Cragside is up there, along with Rothbury which is also mentioned. You could pop into Wallington Hall as well, and if you were feeling brave and athletic, have a walk up the Simonside Hills. They really are beautiful but not for the faint-hearted!
Do you have a room at home decorated in William Morris’s wild tulip design?
Ha ha, I wish! No. My lounge is magnolia. I keep contemplating a feature wall, so you never know – but also I hate disruption and decorating so the likelihood is remote.
If Eliza Stratford suddenly appeared in the twenty-first century, what modern invention would shock her most?
I think she’d absolutely freak out if you dropped her into a city like London and she saw the built-up areas and things like the Shard. She’d hate the people and the noise, and not quite get the fact that skyscrapers existed.
And a question another writer asked me last year, was what was on my vision board for 2026? So I thought it would be fun to ask all my guests this year to share one item on your board for 2026 – I might come back to you to later in the year and ask whether you achieved it!
Oh my – a vision board. Well I suspect I’ve already achieved some things that were on mine. I’ve had a trip to London and been on an electric bike (not connected- two different visions!). In 2026, I’d like future-me to have a top 100 Amazon book. So we shall see!
And final question, if the Brinkburn Witch could grant you one writerly wish what would it be?
That my new writing career is successful and sustainable, people love the books and I sell lots of them.
Thank you, Kirsty, for talking to me today and good luck with your book. Ax
Thank you for having me, as always.
(And is there any more cake, please? I’m a bit hungry after all that chatter…)
Book link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witchs-Stone-atmospheric-haunting-historical-ebook/dp/B0GQXCPQJ6/
Social media links:
Instagram – @kirstyferrybooks
Facebook – Kirsty Ferry Author
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