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Julie Anne Stratton was born in Seattle, Washington in 1959 and grew up in NYC and Syracuse, NY. She spent most of her childhood & teen-age years reading books. Julie loved to explore worlds opened up by the page of a good story. As a child, her family put on elaborate marionette shows of their favorite stories for the neighborhood children. Julie fell in love with the role of the wicked witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
During the summer months her father, a scientist, took her and her family to both Cape Cod and Friday Harbor. These trips awoke a deep passion for the ocean and nature. She spent hours on the beach writing plays, journals and poetry.
She had her first flute lesson at 10 years old which eventually led to her life- long career as a classical musician. Julie studied at SUNY Brockport for year before leaving the US for Europe where she attended the College of Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. Instead of coming back to the states, she married and had a family there, loving the European life style.
While raising her three daughters, Julie stumbled on the book; “Ich bin eine Hexe”-(I am a witch) by Gerlinde Schilcher. She traveled to mountains of upper Austria where Gerlinde introduced her to Goddess worship and was hooked. Her passion is writing fiction about strong women and continuing to practice her earth-based, reclaiming Goddess religion.
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
The Witches of Riegersburg is a work of historical fiction set from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries, as well as the modern-day, and it was penned by author Julie Anne Stratton. The novel is suitable for adult readers due to some scenes of a sexual nature and one particularly harrowing scene of torture and violence. This time-spanning novel focuses on several characters and concepts, all brought together by Sarah, a young American woman who discovers an inherited book of shadows. Sarah’s investigation into the book leads her to follow her grandmother’s origins to Austria, where she delves back in time to discover the persecution of witches and what that really means.
Author Julie Anne Stratton has crafted a compelling tale of self-discovery, family history and heart with just a little touch of magic along the way. Sarah makes for a blank slate kind of heroine whom we can follow on her journey of self-discovery as she heeds the calling from her Oma and begins her quest to uncover the secret of the book and the place it came from. The prose is beautifully crafted with fine word choices that give emotion and atmosphere to every scene, and the presentation of Riegersburg is vibrant and enveloping in both past and present. Overall, this is a well-researched and well-plotted drama with plenty of genre-crossing content to please readers of all kinds. I’d definitely recommend The Witches of Riegersburg for fans of historical, family saga, drama and interpersonal narrative styles of fiction.
