I Want to Be Rachel Morgan

To me, the ideal witch is Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison's Hollows Series. What I love best about Rachel is she starts out with some firm rules about right and wrong; she breaks every single one of her rules.

I'm not saying we should throw out our moral code. What I value about Rachel is when life throws a curve she adapts. She reevaluates her code to survive. if her rules aren't working, she changes them. Along the way, she discovers she didn't have life figured out after all.

Rachel starts off fearing demons. But by the last book

she demands the coven acknowledge her as a demon.  Rachel became what she most feared. And guess what? She's still Rachel!

Some other things I like about her is the fact that she uses magic as a last resort. She always looks for a practical solution first. She takes care of the mundane business before breaking out the potion bottles. In the opening of Pale Demon Rachel is relaxing in her garden when she is attacked. She chases the bad guy down the street in her bikini! I don't think I could run down my road barefoot and nearly naked just to tackle a guy and haul him back for questioning. Not with any serious credibility anyway.

I also like the splat gun loaded with sleeping potion, the boots and leather, her living in a church, and her mix of wildly different friends which include pixies, vampires, werewolves, elves, and a ghost. I've always attracted a wide range of people but my problem is I can't keep them all in close proximity without fighting.

Here's one of those examples of me finding real magick in fiction- after I got into the Hollows Series, I started working with ley lines. Rachel is always 'tapping a line' to draw power. I've discovered it's not exactly that easy- I need to be standing on the line to feel it, whereas Rachel reaches for the nearest line irregardless of where she is standing. I also discovered lines vary in intensity from time to time. Sometimes the lines have a wallop and sometimes it's more of a trickle. I've also noticed the energy is slow, heavy, and intoxicating, like drinking wine. Don't drink too much. Were it not for my fascination with Rachel, I probably wouldn't have branched out into other forms of magick. Maybe I'm a little more like her than I thought.