The Witch Hunt Never Ended | N.R. Farias, Splinters of the Soul

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In the author's spotlight, where the stories collide. Twenty authors waiting. Let curiosity guide. All genres invited. From horror district. Unravel the tales at our podcast heartbeat.

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Welcome to the Author Spotlight series. This is where we step behind the pages to meet the people who create the stories we love. We'll talk about their latest book, their writing journey, and the story behind the story. And probably a few things neither of us plan to talk about. Because around here, the best conversations have a way of taking us somewhere unexpected. Always.

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Today we're putting NR Farius in the spotlight. Welcome to Travel Time Stories. We're so glad to have you here.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

Hi, thank you.

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I'm so excited to be here. Before we dive into your book, tell us a little bit about who you are so that our audience can get to know you better.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

My name is Natalie. I am actually Brazilian, but I live in Germany and I traveled quite a little bit because I when I was starting to become an engineer, I did my first internship uh in the in Europe, in Germany. And from here I tried to travel quite a lot. And then when I went back to Brazil, I thought I'm missing something. Like my heart stayed in Germany. And I came back. And then I met my co-husband. And we are living together here in Germany like for 10 years now. So I love that. Yeah. So I'm a full-time engineer, actually. A mechanical engineer in the automotive industry, which is by also Germany is a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. So then I started writing, and I kind of got sick. I'm chronically ill now, so I'm not practicing engineering at the moment because of my disease. So this kind of aligned with the whole writing because doing something new, something else, getting used to my new body as it is. So that's me.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Wow. That's incredible. We had another young lady author on here a few weeks ago, and she's in South Africa. And the same thing, she fell chronically ill and then decided to start writing. Like that wasn't her original path, but that's where it took her. And so that's incredible that you're kind of in the same situation following that path where you know you've switched from engineering to now here you are riding.

SPEAKER_05 2:50

Yeah, it's kind of crazy, but when your body doesn't do the same things anymore, when you're not able anymore to work as before, and your mind doesn't work the same way anymore. My my disease I got after COVID and I got this mygic encephalomyelitis, and it really affects your brain. So I had to learn to use it differently, so it's alright. And it's so fun. I really found something I really love doing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yes, I'm excited for your book.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Exactly. So your debut novel is Splinters of the Soul and has a hook that immediately caught my attention. Witches are still being hunted, only now they burn without fire. I mean, that's an incredible hook. I love it. Thank you. And the story follows Marie, a Brazilian engineer student, and she leaves her hometown for an internship in Germany only to discover that witches are real, and she's supposed to be one of them on top of that.

unknown 4:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

So where did the idea for Maria's story begin? And what inspired you to explore witch hunts in a modern world?

SPEAKER_05 4:12

Yeah, it's a lot of new perspective of life. As a woman in STEM, I had a lot of things happen to me like out of sexism. And I felt like I never got the same chances as my male peers, that I was treated differently. So I have been feeling this my whole life. And then when it came to a point where I created Marie and her story of being a witch, and that something is hunting her. Like it's the same thing that's hunting me and most of the women I know. And I decided to make this whole witch hunting in a modern way because it's hidden, it's not spoken about enough, and we are still suffering, not talking enough about it.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Well, something that interests me about Marie is that she's supposed to possess magic, but it hasn't awakened yet. She's discovering that hidden world while also trying to understand who she really is. Why was it so important to create a character whose power doesn't come easily to her?

SPEAKER_05 5:21

Because Marie, as I did too, and as I got inspired by many stories. You must know this. So we suffered traumas. And these traumas kind of stop us from getting connected to a magical part of ourselves. That's how I visualize the whole thing. So when this there is this island, this magical place, beautiful, tiny, there are magical creatures, dragons, fairies. But she can't go there because she suffered so much and she internalized it so much. Also the witch hunting that she isn't worth it, that she won't get what she deserves to get and stuff like this. All of this was in her way. So there was this magical aspect of it that I brought in, but it's also very near the truth, or how we feel, how I felt at least.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So Maria's had, you know, experienced this major life change from leaving from Brazil and going to Germany. How does being far from home influence the way she approaches these discoveries and challenges?

SPEAKER_05 6:34

This is such a good question because that's the core of why she had to leave home. So she would be free of the previous judgments, of her life with her family, of being too busy to think about what she was doing at all. So she gets to Germany where she is alone first, and then she starts meeting people who have another perspective. So she meets another witch, which she doesn't know is a witch at the moment. And this person helps her see the witch hunt, help her see that she's worth more. She needed this distance from home first, from her culture, too. Because in the beginning of the book, you see you're gonna read it. So I'm gonna spoil it just a little bit. But in the beginning of the book, you see Marie in her life in Brazil, and you see it's dangerous to take a bus at night as a woman. And I walk you through like a scene where you need to wait for a bus, like you're waiting with Marie, right? And people come and she's afraid, and she crosses the street. And I I try to bring it really close to this feeling of like not feeling safe at all as a woman alone. And then she moves to a country where, as I also do, I feel safe. And that that's this first moment of oh, life can be different.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Wow. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

And it's and is that portrayed closely to your real life experiences?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yes, that's what I wanted to know.

unknown 8:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

A lot.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

A lot, yes. I decided to inspire Marie. Of course, there is a point where Marie is her own person. She became a character and she has a lot of other influences too. But at the beginning, much of this is based on my own experience. And I went a step further because I wanted to have the full experience of everything, like bring the reader really in. And I worked with my therapist. We did some the R sessions to help me feel the feelings that I would be feeling in a certain moment in my life. Like when I was in Brazil in the bus, waiting for the bus at night, how did it truly feel? And then I would go back and write it.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

I think there's something many readers can relate to in feeling as though there's a part of themselves that they haven't fully discovered. What does Marie need to learn about herself before she can begin to reclaim her magic?

SPEAKER_05 9:13

Oh, that's also such a good thing because I I thought a lot about it. What would bring Marie to be her? And it's many steps. That's why the book is quite long. But there are many things where we need to recognize. First, she needs to face her traumas and heal. She definitely needs to heal. She also needs to accept that she's bisexual. Because up until the moment that she leaves her hometown, she is like straight passing, and she never really said to anyone that she is also interested in women. And she gets to have this first experience, like really accept her sexuality and her queerness and everything. And Marie also needs to understand how to use all of this that she is because there is a rage inside of her. There is something like when she learns she's been hunted her whole life, she gets angry. And what will she do with this power and this anger at the same time? It's what she also needs to find out and experiment. Sometimes really do some messy stuff, but also sometimes get it right.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Yeah, so basically being a real person, because that's how it is. Exactly. When you're a real person, I mean it's the it's not good all the time. You it gets messy.

SPEAKER_05 10:36

Yes, it was so important that Marie isn't the kind of character you're gonna love all the time. I'm already saying this. Sometimes you're gonna think like, oh Marie, why are you doing this? But that's the idea. We do this when we are in our twenties.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

We do a lot of things. Exactly. Yeah. Didn't we though? And I love characters that have depth like that. You know, they have layers. They're not just one, you know, like a heroine that never does anything wrong or something like that. I like the layers. I like them to be more real. Yes, me too.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

It was really important to me. And also uh for the side characters, too. There is an antagonist who is also a witch. And you're gonna understand when you read why she's so angry, why she does what she does. Because it was for me to show there is a woman who is suffering the same things and she's dealing with it differently than Marie. And in quite a lot of aspects, it's a parallel between what they are dealing with, but they go in extremely different directions. So it's also interesting to see how this antagonist is also going to grow and develop.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

What a great bounce off of the characters. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Thank you. Exactly. Yeah. So you you mentioned the parallels, but did you want to draw between historical witch hunts and the ways that women can still be silenced and punished today? Yes.

SPEAKER_05 12:10

I also went into the part of the real witch hunts in Europe. I got access to the archives because I can't, I'm I live in Germany, I can speak German. So I got to read this like old German witch hunt archives. Oh my gosh, I'm so jealous. It is, it is. And then I also put this into the story, not as there was a witch hunt, more like it truly was. It was hunting women, women with power. And there is some parallels in the story, and I go into the visit to the archives, and she discovers stuff in the archives.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Oh, I cannot wait for this book. Yeah, I'm super excited. And just the fact that you you did your research. You really, you really stepped into this when you wrote it. And I love that. Thank you. It means that throughout history, women who challenged expectations or steps out outside of their accepted roles were sometimes treated as dangerous back in those days. And why did fantasy and particularly the idea of witches feel like the right way to explore those experiences?

SPEAKER_05 13:26

This is such so interesting. This side of us that is more intuitional, more laid on, something that we can't directly explain. And I'm an engineer, I'm actually very rational, and I think straight and in numbers. And still, there is a side of me that we can't that explain that much. And there is a magic, there is a whimsy, or something like this that we can't just say that doesn't exist or ignore it. And it comes like, feels like fantasy, feels like magic because we can't really explain this. So it really feels like the witch hunts still going on in other form, in other way, because there is still people trying to make this smaller, like make it not as worth. I like to use the example, like we women, we are normally very empath, empathetic, empathetic, and we we have this side of us. And when I was in my job, I noticed that this side wasn't very valued at all. It was not cared for, and which I thought it would be a good quality for a leader, was seen the as the opposite of it. And this is the thing when I say we have something special, and people are not using it to the best, so it's something magical.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

I really do agree with that.

SPEAKER_05 14:51

Yeah.

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We all have it.

SPEAKER_05 14:53

We have it. Yeah, when you read the book, you can imagine yourself as one of the witches. And there are many witches, which one has an island, and each island is also different. So you can be your witch from your island and have it your way because we are all different and we are all special. So I would be okay with that.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Yeah. That's great. Now I'm excited to find out which island is mine. I know. When I read the book, pick pick my island. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

Pick your island, create your island.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Yeah. You can give me ideas for the next books. Right? Oh, there you go. And I think you're right. You know, there was witch hunts back in the day, and there's still that hunting going on nowadays, even though it's not called a witch hunt anymore. But women are targeted. Yes. And yeah, and so it's it's a modern day witch hunt. It's just not called that anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

We all agree.

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We all feel it, we all go through it.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

It's a witch hunt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah. In disguise.

SPEAKER_05 16:06

Yeah. Yeah. Just without flames.

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So what do you hope readers take away from watching Marie fight to reclaim her power in a world that wants to take it away from her?

SPEAKER_05 16:20

Inspiration, of course. And to see themselves in Marie too. Because if I portrayed a hero who is only making everything right, not everybody would see themselves. And I want them to see, like, oh yeah, I did this too, and I went through this too. Marie goes through a journey of her to with uh including Suicidal Ali Adiation. So it's a book that goes also into heavy aspects of depression, too. So that you see that this is possible to to go through and pass this and see a way of healing and finding your own magic and your own mirror that's going to show you how to heal from your traumas and how to deal with your anger and everything. Yeah. Yeah. But also a good time because I also wrote stuff that's also funny. I spoke a lot about things that aren't very deep, but the book also has some funny parts. And there are two very little creatures I created called Ego Sintons. And they are like the angel and the devil on your shoulder. I was gonna say, yeah, on your shoulder. And they are all the time a little bit fighting, like sisters do, like all the time. I love that. Yeah, they are also so funny. There is a guy who wants to convince Marie that he deserves to be with her and everything, but she shouldn't be with him. But he is all like, I'll help you come to Germany, I am the guy for you, and everything. And then the end of symptoms come and make him say the truth. And the truth is he was only interested in a fling, and he says it in front of everybody. So Marie gets these moments of yeah, I can use my magic to have my vengeance right here.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

I love that. I love that. You need to balance it out, right? Exactly. There are some funny moments.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

I cannot wait to read this book. It just sounds right up my alley. Something that I would love to read.

SPEAKER_05 18:35

But I'd love to read.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Oh, good, good, good, good. That's you just in time for the holiday readings.

SPEAKER_05 18:43

Yes, I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

A great holiday gift.

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Yes.

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A great holiday gift for somebody.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

That would be awesome.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

For sure. Available on Amazon for pre-sale.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

There we go. So I'd love to turn the conversation toward your own journey because one of the topics you wanted to discuss was moving from Brazil to Germany. And you did touch on that, but that's a major transition, not just geographically, but culturally and personally. What was the biggest adjustment for you?

SPEAKER_05 19:16

The culture is very different. In Brazil, we are used to talking to everybody on the street. If you're waiting to pay in the supermarket, you're talking to the people in front of you. Right. So if you're new at work, people are already integrating you and calling you to go real with them and everything. When I came to Germany, the Germans, they are very good friends, but they are not as open. So once you have a German friend, they are your friends for life. They are the best people ever. I really love German people. But it takes a while to understand they are not like the like I was used to. In the beginning, it was hard to make friendships and also to learn the language. It's also not that easy. So I had to struggle a little bit for a lot learning German.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Wow. Well I bet because your language is Portuguese, right? Being from Brazil. And yeah, German and Portuguese, that's two totally different dialects and everything there. Yeah, it's not like, you know, I would think that learning English may be easier than learning German for you as your Portuguese being your primary language. Oh, yes. German has dad.

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And when do you use?

SPEAKER_05 20:38

I still don't know. I throw them like sprinkles.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Great.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

That's great. Well, I'm sure you probably know more than Ann does. And Anne's been married to a German for over 40 years. Yeah. Really?

SPEAKER_06 20:54

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Where is he from?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Bamberg.

SPEAKER_05 20:59

Oh, okay.

unknown 21:01

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

So he's Yeah, he has family in Bamberg. His his great-grandmother lived in Munich for a long time.

SPEAKER_05 21:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

So he spent time in both places quite a bit. Yeah. He'd get shuffled from one place to the other, just depending on who had time to who wanted to put up with him.

SPEAKER_05 21:22

Amazing. Yeah. I love I love Germany. It's a beautiful country to live in. And my family is down here. I'm married. My husband has two kids. And I it's just amazing to be able to live here, even though I hate the cold.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Right. And it does get cold there. But it is a really nice country to live in. It is. It is. I love here. So did moving from Brazil to Germany in any way influence the topic of your story? I mean, witches. You said that you went to the archives in Germany, which I think is Fascinating.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

Yeah. We learn in school in Brazil about the witch hunts, but it's so far away, right? So it's something we learn, and then it's the centuries ago, and it's so far from us. And then went to Germany. I visited museums and I had more contact to the story of everything to the history. So then I lived in Aachen, and there is also like the um the Christmas market is witch themed and everything. So it stayed in my mind as something from the region. And of course, it kind of built it up a little bit from the idea. But I love fantasy, I love witch stories, I love also vampire stories and stuff like that. I started with witches, but I might go like in other directions with future books too. Of course it has something special to it.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Yeah, and I I'm like you. I I love those kinds of stories. Witches, vampires, werewolves. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_05 23:15

I'm already dreaming of a next books being about vampires.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Awesome. That's great. I say go for it because I'll definitely read it, that's for sure. You too. Really? Yeah, exactly. So you kind of touched on it earlier that you know you're an engineer by trade, and then you had some illness that happened, and that led to you to writing becoming part of your life. And how has pursuing that, this journey of writing, how has that changed your perspectives or or life from the way it was before?

SPEAKER_05 24:01

Completely. It changed everything because of my disease, I can't work anymore. So I was kind of lost. What was I supposed to do in my life? I'm 35. So I'm soon to be 36. Oh, you're still young, girl. You got very long, long time to go. And I was dreaming before, I was working on my career, dreaming of getting to a leadership position and stuff like this. And sick, and suddenly everything changes. So picking up writing means that I have another possibility. I can do something that's mine. I can publish books, I can write as I want them, I can edit as I want them, and then I can publish. This is it's my baby. Like it's my art, and it's it really gives me perspective and makes me wake up in the morning. So I have like I need to work the book and edit it because needs to send the art, I need to do this, and so it motivates me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

I like that. Let's talk about your uh your self-healing journey and creating art. I thought that was quite interesting.

SPEAKER_05 25:17

I feel like when we heal enough, we get creative again. Sometimes we lose our creativity in the way because life gets too rushed or things happen and we are so busy suffering, we don't have the side of us. And when we heal, and that's what happened. When I came to Germany, I as I told about Marie, I also faced a lot of stuff. I had to face myself, had to face things that I wanted to change from the perspective of how I learned with my family, things I wanted to maintain too, of course. But there is always something you want to do different when you have your own kids, for example. So I faced all of this to heal, to change, to really select these aspects of who is Natalie, who I really want to be. And then I healed enough that I could put all of this in a story, in a book, without feeling like this is making breaking me anymore. But being in a place where I can talk about it without feeling like this is going to bring me down at all.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

Yeah. Has writing this book and and bringing the story to fruition has that taught you anything about yourself, either as a writer or as a person? Oh, a lot of stuff. I can do hard things.

SPEAKER_05 26:44

I can do real hard things. Writing a book and stay in a project for two years. Because I was used to doing a lot of stuff, and then I would pick up sewing, I would pick up drawing, and then I would do something else, and something else. And to decide to focus all my creative attention into one project and really stay two years, focus on this. It's I never did this before. So now I know I can.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

I can. Yep. Exactly. That's dedication. You're a woman, of course you can. We're strong. We can do anything.

SPEAKER_05 27:22

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Anything we put our minds to. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 27:27

They're trying to prove different.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Uh that that's true. That's true. So, Natalie, one of the things that we like to do on the show before we wrap up is we like to do a rapid fire session called Under the Spotlight. And so we'll just give you a couple of options and you tell us which one you would choose. Okay. Witches or dragons. Which is a magical island or an enchanted forest. Oh, I need to say the magical island. I chose it. Brazil or Germany?

SPEAKER_05 28:01

No, don't put me in a tough spot.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

My family's going to watch this. I don't want to answer that. I played the fifth.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Hey, we know where she lives. We know. Exactly. Coffee or tea while you write? I am a coffee drinker. I like some tea, but I drink coffee a lot. Yeah. I know. I do too. Probably, probably more than I should.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah. I actually have my doll Myers right here. No, mine's straight caffeine.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

I changed the decap since I got sick, but still, too much coffee. Yes. Yeah. If you could have a magical power, what would it be? This is a good one. That's hard, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 28:47

Thinking if I would like the same power as Marie, but I don't think I would. So I think read people's minds. But just when I want it. Sometimes it's difficult to understand what people mean. And yeah. Yeah. That would be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

That would be an awesome gift.

SPEAKER_05 29:06

Living in Germany, it's close to this, you know. People in Germany, they say the truth to your face.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Mm-hmm. They're very real. Yeah, exactly. They're straightforward, no nonsense kind of people.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

So here's an example of that. We were there and I was trying to speak German to be nice. And my husband's cousin said, Aunt, quit trying to speak terrible German. Just speak English. We understand you better. Yeah. You're very no-nonsense people. No, this happened to me too, but I wanted to learn German.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

So I stayed on, like, no, we're gonna talk German now. I learned to be just like they are. Like, just straightforward. No, we're gonna speak German. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

I like that. So if your life were a book, what would the title be? This is great.

SPEAKER_05 29:57

The Adventures of a Crazy Brazilian Woman.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

But no titles. Hey, that's a good title. A lot of people would pick up that book just based on that title.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Exactly. Exactly. Okay. Natalie, we have really enjoyed getting to know you and learning about the world behind Splinters of the Soul. Are you working on another novel or any new creative projects you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_05 30:24

Yeah, I'm working on the second book because Splinters of the Soul are the first book of the trilogy. So I already wrote the second book and now I'm editing it.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

So I want to read them.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

Yeah. I don't want to leave too much time between books. So I'm trying to hurry up the writing process and then see that I'm bringing the next one as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

I love that. Usually you have to wait so long in between books that you have to reread the first one before you read the second one. So that's awesome. Tell all of our listeners where they can find Splitters of the Soul and connect with you.

SPEAKER_05 31:07

Splitters of the Soul comes out December 12th as an ebook at Amazon. Available at Kindle Unlimited. And if you want to wait until the paperback comes out, totally fair. It comes out February 6th. So you can reach out and buy and store Amazon 2, of course, and other portals to connect with me. I mean all social media as NR4. You can find me there and see more about the story, the art. There is cool things is to be seen in my profile. There's character art, the cover. You can all go there and take a look and follow me.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Awesome. And it's available now for pre-order on Amazon, correct? Yes. Correct. Okay, good. Just want to make sure to throw that out there. So if anybody wants to go ahead and pre-order it, they can instead of waiting until December.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

Yeah, and if you pre-order, send it to me, to my email, the receipt, and then you can get a bonus from me. Because if you pre-order, I think it's something really special, like you don't know me, you don't know my book yet, and you pre-order, I want to offer you more to for what you you get. So I'm doing an annotated version of the book. So it's going to feel like you're reading the book, telling you some little inside jokes and things that went out of the book because we didn't have space anymore, but that I still think that are to be read or art. There's be there's still to be everything in this annotated version. So you have a little bit more fun and a little bit more time in this magical island, too. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:52

Yeah, that's wonderful. All right, great. So yeah, if you pre-order the book, then you get a little extra treat for pre-ordering the book if you send your receipt over to NR Farius' email, and she'll take care of you for that. And thank you so much for joining us and taking us behind the pages of The Splinters of the Soul. I love the ideal that beneath a story filled with magic and danger, there's actually a deeper conversation about finding our voices, discovering our strength, and refusing to let others decide who we're allowed to become. And then on top of that, your personal journey reminds us that sometimes the greatest transformations happen when we step outside of the familiar and begin discovering new parts of ourselves. So to everyone watching and listening, you'll find the book and all the author's information in our episode description and on our website at traveltimestories.com.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

And remember, every book has a story, but so does the person that wrote it.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

So join us each week in the splendor, in the author spotlight, we capture the heart with every story shared. A new world takes flight. As we gather tonight.