It’s the season for walks through the trees, favorite desserts, and small hangouts with close friends. During fall, the magic of season changing is thrown into the air with every chilly breeze, and when we’re too busy with school or work to chase those feelings, our only hope for more cozy magic is a good book.
Don Martin’s latest young adult fantasy, Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire, takes readers to a small mountain town with big magical problems. Foxfire, a town cut off from everyone by an evil magician named Earl, is the latest challenge for witch-in-training Verity Vox. The curse has left the citizens of Foxfire with broken items, little food, and a heavy distrust of magic. Verity has a year to win them over, but more than that, she’ll have to put everything on the line to see if she can help save them from Earl.
Readers who love magic, cozy stories, and found families will find themselves with a curse of their own…wishing they could visit Foxfire themselves. We caught up with Don Martin to look between the lines of Verity Vox and find out how he brought his characters to life with a little real-world magic—and if he has anything else in store for our new favorite witch.
Read the full interview below.
Showstopper Magazine Online: Hi Don! Tell us a bit about yourself. Are you currently breaking any curses?
My husband and I just moved into a new home that we aren’t entirely sure isn’t haunted. So far, the only curse we had to break was the Hex of the Poison Ivy Growing All Over the Dilapidated Garage. But who knows? Spooky season is upon us. We may yet have to break out the bell, book, and candle.
SMO: Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire is your YA debut. What was it like to see your story hit shelves?
Honestly, this many books into my career, and you’d think I’d be used to this part of the process, but my last two books came out during the pandemic. This has been my first proper book release where I could meet my readers and have all those traditional hallmarks of a release. It’s been surreal to hold onto a story for years and then have it fly off to take on a life of its own.
I still cannot get over a comment I received the first weekend the book came out. A woman wrote to me to tell me she’d given it to her young niece who hadn’t been much of a reader up to that point, but when she discovered Verity Vox, she stayed up all night under the covers with a flashlight to finish it, only leaving her room to come tell the rest of the family what was going on in the book. That formative flashlight under the covers moment is better than any list I could hit or any award I could win.
SMO: How did Verity and your other characters come to life?
Verity Vox began life as a short story I wrote during the pandemic and turned into an audio drama for Halloween with a full cast. The story was inspired by the Vulcan, West Virginia bridge collapse and the deal with the devil (so to speak) the people of Vulcan had to make in order to rejoin the world. It was also inspired by my love of the Appalachian Mountains. I’ve always thought they were the most magical place on Earth and never understood why more fantasy stories weren’t set there. There’s so much magic in our own backyard. And so the novel includes bits of my family history, some cryptids, and, of course, stories of traveling witches like Kiki’s Delivery Service or Wandering Witch: the Journey of Elaina.
SMO: Do you have a favorite character or character moment?
That’s an evil question. Haha, I could never choose a favorite character. They’re all little parts of me. However, I really, really enjoyed writing the moment Tacita faces down Earl. No spoilers, but there’s something about quite literally overcoming your demons that I found cathartic. I hope new readers do as well.
SMO: The novel takes place over a year, and it really feels like you’ve given your readers space to live in the world. What are your favorite details of the world?
Almost every place and setting is pulled from my childhood. Gilly’s shop is a real place my grandfather took me when I was little. Mae’s dairy farm is down the road from my uncle’s house. Mrs. Mason’s house out on the ridge was inspired by a similar home near a lake where my Granny once lived. I think the reason the world feels so lived in is because it is. It’s a pastiche of memory that, with the help of a bit of fuzzy, finicky little magic, turns into something new.
SMO: From our traveling witch in training to an ousted “king” to a girl who wants to leave her small town, Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire is full of tales about belonging (or not). What does it mean to you to find your community?
I dedicated the book to the people and places I’ve called home, and there’s a reason for that. I was born in West Virginia, raised in Texas, and have lived in Illinois for the better part of the last twenty years. All three of them are home, and none of them are home. Home is people. It’s hearts and hands and recipes and a favorite blanket that travels with you from house to house. It’s songs and old jokes and the sweeping of change into your doorway at midnight as one year dies and another is born. I think the concept of home continues to come up in my work because I have never felt like I belonged, only to later realize that belonging isn’t in a place you’re told to be but in the people you choose and who choose you back.
SMO: It’s back-to-school season, and many students are in the process of finding their way into new classes and new friend groups. What’s your advice for finding your people (with or without magic)?
Trust yourself. You are far smarter and far more capable than you probably give yourself credit for. You have immense value. There has never in the whole history of the universe been a You before. Remember, everyone has a little spark of magic inside of them, a bridge connecting us to the beating heart of a star. So, don’t waste your time impressing people who cannot recognize you for the brilliant, magical being you are. Move through the world with integrity and authenticity. Good people have a way of finding one another, and not-so-good people have a way of outing themselves. When someone shows you which they are, believe them and act accordingly.
SMO: It was so much fun to discover from your author’s note that many of the “mundane” details of Foxfire are inspired by real life. Can you tell us more about those places?
I got to visit the real Foxfire recently, and I walked the real bridge. Even today, it’s easy to see how losing that tenuous connection to the outside world would be devastating for such a remote mountain community.
There are bold, brilliant people living in places we forget exist or write off because their population or tax bracket have pre-determined their importance. Nobody deserves to be forgotten because they live in a flyover state. Nobody deserves to have their access to quality healthcare or education or safety determined by geography. It’s in that forgetting of people that villains can ride in on their red wagon and steal joy, trade in lies, and hurt people. Bridges work two ways, and I think we should build more of them.
SMO: If you were a cursed resident of Foxfire, what would you have made a deal with Earl for?
Probably a book that never ran out of stories. I was addicted to Greek mythology and tales of King Arthur and Merlin and all sorts of novels about aliens and magic. I would probably have asked for an endless supply of stories. Though I cannot imagine the price I’d have paid. Oh no…he’d probably have taken my hair. Never mind. This head doesn’t look good bald.
SMO: You end your author’s note with the line, “Thank you for visiting Foxfire. I hope you enjoyed your stay. We’ll see you again soon.” Should we keep an eye out for more Verity in the future?
I don’t think I can definitively answer that other than to say I’d be thrilled to follow Verity, Jack, and the rest of the Foxfire family wherever they’d like to go.
On a totally unrelated note…what’re you doing Winter of 2027? Or the year after that?
