Amazon.com: The Afflicted Girls (9780615323138): Suzy Witten: Books

Amazon.com: The Afflicted Girls (9780615323138): Suzy Witten: Books

The author of this book was nice enough to send me a copy to review. I haven't had the chance to look at it yet and have a few books ahead of it on my list, so it might be a while before I have the chance to pick it up.

However, it looks fairly interesting and I encourage the readers of this blog to get a copy and to give it a review.

A kindle version is also available.

The book's website is here.

Thomas Jefferson on witchcraft

In an attempt to make the criminal law of his day more humane, Thomas Jefferson proposed "a Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments" in 1778 to the Virginia House. Although many of the punishments may seem harsh, and were even later questioned by Jefferson himself, it was an improvement over the then current law which basically mandated the death penalty for all felonies. Jefferson's proposed bill was defeated because it was seen as too soft on crime. It is interesting to note that Jefferson believed that witches should be punished, not for using any supernatural power, but for fraud.

Amendment VIII: Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments: "All attempts to delude the people, or to abuse their understanding by exercise of the pretended arts of witchcraft, conjuration, inchantment, or sorcery or by pretended prophecies, shall be punished by ducking and whipping at the discretion of a jury, not exceeding 15. stripes."

Romanian witches could face jail if predictions don't come true -

Romanian witches could face jail if predictions don't come true -: "Romanian witches could face jail if predictions don't come true"

USA Today reports that Romanian authorities are considering a law that would criminalize inaccurate fortune telling. Not sure what to make of this. On the one hand, there is something to be said for offering honest services. On the other hand, I'm not sure how you could enforce this.

I'm not really sure why the Romanian authorities have decided to get into a pissing contest with witches. The whole thing just seems odd. Is this just the modern way of persecuting witches since they can no longer punish them for engaging in witchcraft itself?

Kindle/Ebook price increase for Justice at Salem

You might have noticed that I increased the price for the Kindle version of Justice at Salem from 99 cents to $2.99.  There is a very simple and good explanation for this - the Kindle version was professionally redone. Previously if you downloaded the Kindle version the formatting was horrible and the endnotes were not hyper-linked. Now, you should be able to easily navigate between the numerous endnotes and the text. With the proper formatting it should be easy to read.
Despite the prince increase, the book is currently listed as #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > United States > State & Local > New England.
$2.99 may be higher than 99 cents, but it is still a good deal.

Don't have a Kindle, the book is also available in Epub format at Barnes and Noble here.

A PDF is still available free of charge at Justice at Salem . I request a donation, but it is not required. The PDF will not read nearly as well on your ebook reader, however, so you may be better off with the paid versions.