Writer and former investigative journalist Jolie Harper comes to the quiet town of Salem’s Crown looking for a fresh start. Instead, she finds the Heartwood—an ancient tree surrounded by whispers, disappearances, and generations of unsettling stories.
As strange dreams begin to blur the line between folklore and reality, Jolie is pulled into a mystery involving the missing, the people who never stopped searching for them, and something beneath the Heartwood that may be listening.
Whispers of the Heartwood is an atmospheric supernatural mystery about secrets, grief, memory, and the danger of answering when something in the darkness calls your name.
Salem is one of those places that seems familiar long before you ever set foot there.
You know the witches. You know the trials. You know the black hats, the October crowds, the ghost stories, and the storefronts filled with everything from history to magic. But once you begin looking beyond the version of Salem most people know, something else starts to appear.
That is the Salem I wanted to find.
Beneath Salem is a personal journey through the strange places, dark history, and overlooked stories hiding beneath one of America’s most fascinating cities. I didn’t want to write another book that simply retold the Salem Witch Trials from beginning to end. I wanted to know where these events actually happened, what remains today, what we have misunderstood, and what other stories have been quietly sitting beside the famous ones all along.
What if magic isn't something you have to search for?
It may already be waiting along a forgotten road, beside a quiet river, beneath an old tree, within an ancient place, or under a night sky you've stopped noticing.
THE BLENDING OF EXPLORATION AND MAGIC is a short journey into the connection between curiosity, nature, history, symbolism, and magical practice. It begins with something simple: exploring the world around you and learning to see ordinary places differently.
From forgotten cemeteries and old stone walls to rivers, forests, crossroads, moonlit trails, and ancient ground, the book explores how attention and understanding can transform a landscape from simple scenery into something filled with memory, meaning, and wonder.
From there, the journey goes deeper.