Kinley’s Mirror

Note: This post first appeared in my newsletter on 22 September 2022.
***
I've got a neat little tidbit about Kinley's, the bar owned by Nessa's twin Nick in the Vanessa Kinley, Witch PI Series, later in this email that has something to do with this (truly awful) poem I wrote for you:
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Dimitri has no reflection a'tall
I know. Horrible, right? But that's why I write novels instead of songs like my singer-songwriter dad...
Recently, I saw the following meme on Facebook and it reminded me of the very first scene in Between a Witch and a Hard Place.
Fun Vampire Fact

In that scene, Nessa notices the lack of a reflection for Dimitri Stanislov in the mirror behind the shelves of liquor at her brother's bar.

At first read, it may appear that I've forgotten a very important element pointed out by this meme, that modern mirrors are, indeed, backed by something other than silver. Dimitri should therefore have had a reflection, yes?

Well, no. Remember that Crossville, the setting for this series, was a mill town, built around the cotton mill which now stands in the downtown area (now the renovated mixed use building where Nick and Nessa live and run their separate businesses). And in mill towns, just like in other 19th century towns, the other businesses served the workers...

...including brothels.

Yup, the mirror hanging on the wall at Kinley's came out of Crossville's 19th century cathouse. A dealer salvaged it while the building was being torn down, then had it cleaned and re-silvered. Nick ran across it when he was searching for inexpensive fixtures for Kinley's. As soon as he heard the mirror's history, he knew it needed to hang in the bar.

That mirror, in fact, is one of the reasons Kinley's became a sanctuary for local supernaturals, a safe spot where they could go and quietly mingle without fear of being attacked. Most supernaturals fear vampires, rightly so; they're one of the more deadly creatures out there and they can be hard to spot when they've recently fed. Naturally, it's easier to relax when you can spot the creature stalking you in the night.

Mirrors have all sorts of interesting uses in witchcraft. They can be used to scry, for one, and they can also be easily bespelled. Not to mention all the folkloric beliefs surrounding them: that they reflect one's true nature, harbor evil, or capture the souls of the newly dead.

But now I'm getting ahead of myself...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *