I’ve recently been asked about Witchy Wu, the out and out baddy of the Dralfynia sagas, and why I made her a Chinese shaman instead of a Grimm Brothers witch. The name popped into my head first, and I looked up the meaning afterwards. According to Wikipedia, a wu is a Chinese shaman who is a spirit medium practising divination, prayer, sacrifice, rain making and healing in Chinese traditions, dating back over 3000 years. Like European witches, they can use powers for good (healing) or bad (sacrifice). In the case of my character, Witchy Wu starts her life at school planning to use her powers for healing, but after a specific event (detailed in The Uncomfortable Glass Slippers, which I would hate to spoil here), the taste of her bitterness becomes so strong, only the taste of sugar (and children) can temporarily relieve it.
In effect, I’ve combined the mythology behind two types of witch; as a writer, I wanted to flex my creativity and develop a character that was an evolution of the ones in stories I grew up reading, making the books bi-cultural. The more I have written her, the more I adore her! Of all the characters in this trilogy, she is the one I planned the fate of first. I hope you like what happens to her!