I’m thrilled to welcome Josh Roberts to the Mixed-Up Files . . . Just in time for Halloween. Today we chatted about his new middle grade, THE CURSE OF WILLOW COVE. This is the second book in THE WITCHES OF WILLOW COVE series.
Grab a cup of hot chocolate and pull up the covers; it’s time to talk all things spooky.
Lisa: Tell us about THE CURSE OF WILLOW COVE.
Josh: Thanks for inviting me to talk about my new book. I always love chatting with the Mixed-Up Files! The Curse of Willow Cove is the second book in my upper middle grade series aimed at tweens and teens ages 10 and up. I call it a standalone sequel to book one, The Witches of Willow Cove, because it’s intended as an accessible entry point for anyone discovering the series for the first time.
School Library Journal says that the Willow Cove books “may be written for middle grade, but the exciting narrative could appeal to young adults,” and that’s exactly what I was going for—stories that can be enjoyed by a lot of different age groups.
The Witches of Willow Cove and The Curse of Willow Cove are both set in a small New England town with a secret history dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. In the first book, a 13-year-old girl named Abby Shepherd learns that she and several of her seventh grade classmates are witches—with all the spell casting powers and flying broomsticks that come with it. Working together with a group of non-magical friends from their middle school, the young witches must solve a mystery from their town’s distant past before it can threaten the lives of everyone living in the present.
In The Curse of Willow Cove, Abby and her coven are all now 14 years old and they have a year of witchcraft under their belt. Things seem to be going well, until some of their classmates begin to vanish in the night… only to come back as something dangerous and different. Just as the first book in the series pulls from the real history of the Salem Witch Trials, The Curse of Willow Cove leans into another mysterious episode from the past called the Great New England Vampire Panic.
Lisa: Did you always plan to write a sequel to THE WITCHES OF WILLOW COVE? If yes, did you always know where you wanted to go with the story?
Josh: Yes and yes. From the beginning, I envisioned The Witches of Willow Cove as a series, and my publisher encouraged me to think of it that way, too. Although the first book is a standalone novel with a beginning, middle, and end, I was able to
plant certain seeds for the sequel in it so that the second book feels very much like a natural continuation, even though it can be read on its own without having read the first book. Of course, things change when you sit down to write. Once I really dug into the story, not everything I’d planned for the second book made sense to me anymore, or new ideas came along, or certain characters began to demand more page time than I’d initially planned… but that’s one of the things that keeps it fun as an author.
I would say that The Curse of Willow Cove ends exactly where I always planned for it to end, but the route we took to get there changed quite a bit from my initial notes.
Lisa: What kind of research did you do while writing books about witches?
Josh: As a lifelong New Englander, I was already very familiar with the history of the Salem Witch Trials in particular. But “familiar with” and “an expert on” are two very different things, so for book one I did a lot of research into the real history of the period and then tried to weave a plausible secret history around those events while remaining respectful to the real historical victims. For The Curse of Willow Cove, almost all of my research went into understanding the Great New England Vampire Panic of the late 19 th century when farmers and townspeople all across the region were literally digging up their dead relatives because they believed they’d come back as vampires. The Curse of Willow Cove began with the question, “What if they were actually right about the vampires?”
Lisa: Do you think there are real witches with magical abilities?
Josh: Living so close to Salem and its modern witch culture, I would never be foolish enough to deny the existence of real witches!
Lisa: Do you base characters on people you know? If yes, spill the beans! (Translation: Do you know a witch?)
Josh: That’s a really good question. I don’t think I’ve ever set out to intentionally base a character on someone I know, at least not entirely, but without a doubt there are certain personality traits and habits I’ve borrowed from people in my life. It’s always fun to see if they recognize themselves in those characters. There’s one character in particular that reminds me of my wife when she was around the same age (we met when we were young teenagers) and so she’s obviously a favorite character of mine.
Lisa: How much of your real-life experiences play a role in the stories you tell?
Josh: Growing up in Massachusetts, I became fascinated by the fact that not only were there accused witches all across the state—including one in my hometown—but also that the witch trials did not actually occur in modern day Salem. I think there’s even a line in one of my books that basically amounts to “Salem gets all the tourists, but the real witch history happened elsewhere.” For the purposes of my story, that “elsewhere” is my invented town of Willow Cove, and it’s based off of the places I’ve lived all my life. So while Willow Cove isn’t literally a real place, it’s real to me because it feels like I’ve walked every inch of it at one time or another.
In terms of the characters I write, The Witches of Willow Cove series has a big and diverse cast, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s a little bit of my personality in each and every one of them—the witches and non-witches alike.
Lisa: What books did you like to read when you were a kid? Do those books influence your writing?
Josh: I loved everything by Lloyd Alexander, but especially The Prydain Chronicles. Those were the first books I ever fell in love with, and also the first to make me sad when I reached the end because it meant I’d never get spend more time in that world with those characters again. I think you can see the influence of those books in my writing most clearly when you look at the kinds of characters I’m drawn to write. The main female character in The Prydain Chronicles is a girl called Eilonwy, who is smart, strong-willed, sharp-tongued, brave, and (at times) sensitive. I think that describes most of the girls in The Witches of Willow Cove series, too.
Lisa: What advice would you give twelve-year-old Josh?
Josh: When I was younger, I wasted a lot of years believing I wasn’t talented enough to write a book because the words never came out the way I hoped they would on the first try. I wish I’d understood that writing is a journey and no one starts out perfect at it. You have to work hard, and you have to keep working hard even when it gets frustrating—or maybe especially when it gets frustrating.
I came from a family of readers, but no one else I knew ever wanted to write like I did. That made it hard for me to understand that writing is not something you’re expected to be instantly good at. So in short, I’d tell twelve-year-old Josh to keep writing and trust the process. If we’re being honest, sometimes I still need to be reminded of this!
Lisa: If you could cast one spell, what would it be?
Josh: I would conjure up the one thing every writer dreams of and that we all know doesn’t exist… a perfect first draft!
Lisa: Last, but most important . . . What are you working on now?
I’ve got a lot going on! My big focus right now is a young adult historical fantasy called Victoria Dare and the Blood of Kings, which I pitched as Indiana Jones meets The Diviners. It comes out in 2026 and follows the adventures of 16-year-old Victoria Dare, who accompanies her father on an excavation to uncover a lost Egyptian tomb and gets drawn into a plot involving Nazi occultists, Bolshevik assassins, and a mysterious figure her psychic friend calls “The Shrouded Man.” It’s everything I’ve ever loved all rolled into one story. If you’re interested, you can add it on Goodreads to get notified when it comes out. I’m also doing some early work on the next book in The Witches of Willow Cove series, which is already under contract and tentatively called The Haunting of Willow Cove. I have so many ideas for where the story will go and I can’t wait to get back to these characters again.
Josh Roberts is the author of The Witches of Willow Cove series for tweens and teens, and the forthcoming Victoria Dare series for young adults. His debut novel received starred reviews from Kirkus and School Library Journal, and was a Massachusetts Book Awards Must-Read, a Kirkus Book of the Month, and A Mighty Girl Book of the Year.
