Digging Up a Story: Weaving Fact into Fiction by Kathleen Kaska

I write two mystery series, one set in the 1950s and one in current times. In plotting the mysteries, I start digging—researching actual events at the time and location of my story’s setting. For example, my upcoming Sydney Lockhart mystery, Murder at the Pontchartrain, is set in New Orleans, a city rich in culture and tradition. And one of those traditions is the religious practice of voodoo. While exploring the French Quarter, I stumbled on Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo and knew I’d have to use this in the story. I didn’t realize then that Marie Laveau was New Orleans’s most powerful voodoo queen to ever reign, a coveted position passed down from one queen to the next and often usurped by a wannabe queen. For more than forty years, Laveau had the ultimate say-so about how voodoo should be practiced. She was born in 1801, a free woman of color. Her father, Charles Lavewu Trudeau, was a white man of French origin, and her mother, Marguerite D’Arcantel a mix of white, black, and Native American ancestry. Her clientele came from all walks of life, wealthy merchants, politicians, people in trouble with the law, but most were white and Creole women. Not only did Laveau believe in, and practice voodoo, she was also a devote Catholic attending Mass every day at St. Louis Cathedral. She was known to meld rituals from both religions in her practice.

Today, the House of Voodoo attracts more tourists than people seeking help and advice. So, what can you buy in the House of Voodoo?

Like any souvenir shop, you can purchase coffee mugs, shot glasses, T-shirts, tarot cards, and books, but you’ll also find amulets, talismans, voodoo dolls, and incantations to ward off evil or bring good luck. One item that caught my attention and ended up in my book was gris gris. These are small bags containing objects such as bones, beads, herbs, roots, coins, or verses. You can also customize your own. However, there are rules you should follow in making a gris gris bag.

The bag should be two by three inches, made of cloth, and small enough to carry in your pocket or worn on a chain or cord around your neck. It must contain an odd number of items between three and thirteen. Next, bless your bag with anointing oil or holy water and recite incantations over it. And finally, breathe on your bag to bring it to life. Gris gris bags can be designed for special purposes, but you must know what you’re doing. Otherwise, you might create one that is too powerful to handle and might backfire on you. 

In Murder at the Pontchartrain, my character Mildred Threadgill visits Frida Mae, the current voodoo queen, to help deal with issues surrounding her dead husband. Unfortunately, Mildred, pushed her voodoo pursuit too far, and things didn’t work out well. To find out more, you’ll have to read the book. It will be out this summer.