Myths and Magic with Janet Maile

The Write Way Cafe welcomes author of The Druid's Cup, Janet Maile, who shares an amazing backstory.


Some years ago, I had a very strange experience of Past Life Regression, a technique where a therapist uses hypnosis to help you recover memories of past lives.  My life had been difficult and unhappy and I wanted to know whether it was related to anything that had happened in a past life.

A few moments after lying down on the couch, I found myself in a dark place, a cupboard or dungeon.  I was a lady in a castle and being locked in the dark was a punishment for supposedly using magic to attract men.  My father eventually married me off to a cruel man, who was the only one who would have me.

Whether you believe past life regression is possible, or whether you think it was the imagination at work, it did explain some of the things that had happened to me in this life.  It was an experience I never forgot.  Once day, I was talking to a friend about it when it gave me an idea for a story.

The Druid’s Cup is set around Glastonbury in Somerset, a place I know well.  You might have heard of it in connection with the annual music festival which attracts over 175,000 people from around the world.  Here, New Age meets Christianity with shops selling crystals, dream makers and magic spells rubbing shoulders with the church in the High Street, the ruined Abbey, and the church tower at the top of the Tor.

Myths surround the place.  Does the Glastonbury thorn tree really flower twice a year?  Yes, it does.  It’s a hawthorn that flowers both in Winter and Spring.  Did it first grow when Joseph of Aramathea struck his staff into the ground?  Probably not.

Hamsters live beneath the tor but they are all male.  How does the population keep on growing?

Is there a labyrinth of tunnels under the Tor?   As most of the tor is made of iron, it seems unlikely, but we know about one tunnel.  Beneath the church at the top of the hill was a prison until 2011 when it closed.  The prison authorities discovered that the prisoners had dug an escape tunnel that led all the way to the bottom of the hill and onwards towards Castle Cary Station, a distance of about ten miles.

I wove the myths of Glastonbury and my experience of Past Life Regression into a murder/mystery story.  Esther has lost her memory and is possibly the only witness to a murder.  She is hypnotized to help regain her memory, but starts talking about a medieval castle and Lady Estrila, a story that helps the police discover Esther’s identity and who the murderer is.

© Janet Maile 2017

The Druid’s Cup is available from Amazon as an ebook and a paperback.  More details are on my website, www.janetmaile.com/.

Amazon USA

Amazon UK



About Janet:

I have been writing since I was a child.  When I was a teenager, I wrote a lot of poetry and later on, I wrote articles and short stories which were published in various magazines.  The job I liked best was interviewing a man called Ben Clapp, who was assistant to John Logie Baird but had never received any recognition.  The Scottish Field carried my two-page article which came to the attention of Radio Rentals, who gave him a video recorder so that he could record his favourite TV programmes.

I am often asked how I write.  I start with an idea and then let the characters walk about in my head, doing whatever they want.  My task is to write it down.  That way, the plot is never artificial.  I will never force my characters to do something that simply isn’t in their natures in order to progress the plot.  Sometimes I have plans for them, but they decide to go in another direction, like the lady who got on a motorbike and went to a beer festival!  That hadn’t been my idea at all.

I am retired and live in the UK near to my sons, daughter-in-law and grandson. When I am not writing, I like to dance or play music on my piano, keyboard, violin or recorder.