I'm very happy to announce my latest release, NATHANIEL AND SOPHIA
HAWTHORNE: OUR DESTINED BOND, about the Hawthornes' storybook romance
with a paranormal twist.
UNIVERSAL LINK 
About NATHANIEL AND SOPHIA HAWTHORNESalem, Massachusetts witnessed horrific
and shameful events in 1692 that haunted
the town for three centuries. Accused
as witches, nineteen innocent people were
hanged and one was pressed to death.
Judge John Hathorne and Reverend
Nicholas Noyes handed down the sentences. One
victim, Sarah Good, cursed
Noyes from the hanging tree: “If you take away my
life, God will give you blood to
drink!” She then set her eyes on Judge
Hathorne. “I curse you and your
acknowledged heirs for all time on this wicked
earth!” Hathorne was not only Sarah
Good’s merciless judge; he also fathered
her son Peter and refused to
acknowledge him.
In 1717, Nicholas Noyes choked on
his own blood and died. Every
generation after the judge continued to lose Hathorne land and money, prompting
the rumor of a family curse. By the time his great great grandson Nathaniel was
born, they faced poverty.
Ashamed of his ancestor, Nathaniel
added the ‘w’ to his last name. His novels and stories explore his beliefs and
fears of sin and evil, and he based many of his characters on overbearing
Puritan rulers such as Judge Hathorne.
When Nathaniel first met Sophia
Peabody, they experienced instantaneous mutual attraction. Sparks flew. He rose upon my eyes and soul a king among
men by divine right, she wrote in her journal.
But to Sophia’s frustration,
Nathaniel insisted they keep their romance secret for three years. He had his
reasons, none of which made sense to Sophia. But knowing that he believed Sarah
Good’s curse inflicted so much tragedy on his family over the centuries, she
made it her mission to save him. Sarah was an ancestor of Sophia’s, making her
and Nathaniel distant cousins—but she kept that to herself for the time being.
Sophia suffered severe headaches as
a result of childhood mercury treatments. She underwent routine mesmerizing
sessions, a popular cure for many ailments. Spirits sometimes came to her when
mesmerized, and as a spiritualist and medium, she was able to contact and
communicate with spirits. She knew if she could reach Sarah and persuade her to
forgive Judge Hathorne, Nathaniel would be free of his lifelong burden.
Sarah’s son Peter had kept a
journal the family passed down to the Peabodys. Sophia sensed his presence
every time she turned the brittle pages and read his words. John Hathorne’s legitimate
son John also kept a journal, now in the Hawthorne family’s possession. Living
on opposite sides of Salem, Peter and John wrote in vivid detail about how the
Salem trials tormented them throughout their lives.
Nathaniel finally agreed to
announce their engagement, and married Sophia on July 9, 1842. They moved into
their first home, The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. Wanting nothing else but to spend the summer enjoying each other, we
became Adam and Eve, alone in our Garden of Eden, Sophia wrote in her
journal.
As success eluded Nathaniel, they lived
on the verge of poverty. After being dismissed from his day job at the Salem
Custom House, he wrote The Scarlet Letter, which finally gained him the
recognition he deserved.
But the curse he believed Sarah
cast on his family still haunted him. On a visit to his cousin Susannah Ingersoll at The House of the
Seven Gables, Sophia spotted a judge’s gavel. Out of curiosity Sophia picked it
up and a shock ran through her as if electrified. She dropped it, instantly
knowing it carried something evil. Susannah told her Judge Hathorne had used it
during the trials.
Sophia urged Nathaniel to write a
novel about the house, knowing it would be cathartic for him. While they lived
in Lenox, Nathaniel finished writing The
House of the Seven Gables. The Gothic novel explored all his fears and
trepidations about the curse. He told Sophia, “Writing it, and especially
reading it aloud to you lifted a tremendous burden off my shoulders. I felt it
physically leave me. I carried this inside me since my youth and couldn’t bring
it out to face it. And I have you, and only you, to thank.”
But he did not believe the curse could
be lifted.
At that moment Sophia knew what she
needed to do. “We’re going to The Gables. Only there can I make sure Sarah
forgives the judge.” She invited renowned spiritualist John Spear to The
Gables. She explained that she needed to complete one final step to convince Nathaniel
the curse was lifted.
At The Gables, John asked Susannah
if anything in the room was connected to the witch trials. She retrieved the
gavel and handed it to him. As John curled his fingers around the handle, he
told them that the judge suffered lifelong anguish after condemning the victims.
He didn’t publicly atone because he needed to carry out his duties as a judge.
His energy, his essence, was still attached to the gavel.
He told Nathaniel that his belief
in the curse fed this object, physically creating a monster.
Sarah herself did not curse his
family—but the energy of all the anger, bitterness, venom and hatred in her
words survived the centuries. That caused the misfortunes that befell him and
his family. Only his final and unconditional forgiveness would end that. He
urged Nathaniel to forgive Judge Hathorne. “You don’t have to say it out loud,” John said. “Just
forgive him in your heart.”
Nathaniel bowed his head and
whispered his forgiveness.
A ghostly mist formed in the
doorway. Sarah conveyed to Sophia through the ether what she needed them to
know. As she faded to nebulous mist and vanished, Sophia assured Nathaniel that
his forgiveness of the judge now balanced out the suffering of the victims.
She turned to the last page of
Peter’s journal and saw words that were not there before: Dear John, I forgive you. Signed, Sarah Good.
John Spear, Nathaniel and Sophia
went to Judge Hathorne’s gravesite to give the journals and the gavel proper
burial.
As they turned to leave, Nathaniel
grasped her hand. “We’re going home, my Dove. And I don’t mean Salem or the
Berkshires, but to where you and I started, as Adam and Eve. Back home. To our
Garden of Eden in Concord.”
