Magicka School

Christine Wicker

Christine Wicker was interviewed in the August 2007 edition of The Magickal Light ezine.

During her 17 years at The Dallas Morning News, she was a feature writer, columnist and religion reporter. Her work took her from demonstrations in Nairobi to peace communes in Belfast. She slept in Mexican chicken shacks, trailed homeless people through Dallas alleys and tracked down East Germans who had worked for the Communist secret police. She covered Lady Diana's funeral in England and Pope John II's historic visit to Cuba.

Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead was written after her husband Philip, who was a Southern Methodist University journalism professor, accepted the Lucius W. Nieman Professorship of Journalism at Marquette University. Christine left her job as a newspaper reporter when they moved to a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She had previously visited Lily Dale, a community of Spiritualists in Western New York, and written about it for the Dallas Morning News. The community so charmed her that she went home hoping to return some day and write a book about what she'd found there. But returning to Lily Dale, which was 1,600 miles from Dallas, didn't seem likely. However, as her first winter in Wisconsin was coming to a close, she pulled out a map and looked for Lily Dale. It was 600 miles from her new home. She called, made reservations at one of the community's guest houses and within a few weeks was on her way.

Not in Kansas Anymore: The Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America started with a visit to Salem, Massachusetts. Christine had planned to write about Wiccans and witches, but while she was there one of the town's most prominent witches mentioned that a California wizard was scheduled to visit Salem soon.

"Wizard," Christine said. "I didn't know there were any."

"Well, there must be since he is one, the witch said.

"Who says he's a wizard?" Christine asked.

"He does," the witch said. "Everyone in the magical community knows him."

"Magical community," Christine said. "I didn't know there was one."

And thus began the book.

Christine has begun work on her next title, which will once again look into the lives of people who have faith in otherworldly power. This time she'll be going into Texas mega-churches for a close-up look at the real lives and struggles of conservative evangelicals, a group that is shaping American politics and culture in ways even the most prescient social scientists wouldn't have believed thirty years ago.

To learn more about Christine and her work please visit: http://www.christinewicker.com/default.asp

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