Serpent on a Cross: Wendy Garfinkle’s Jewish fantasy twist

Wendy Garfinkle

For most of Wendy Garfinkle’s childhood, her Jewish ancestry was shrouded in mystery. During the Russian pogroms, her paternal great-grandparents left for America between 1896 and 1900.

Garfinkle, who grew up Christian, recalls her great-grandparents sharing some stories of their lives in Belarus and Ukraine, but it wasn’t until she wrote her first fiction book that she established a deeper connection in Jewish mysticism.

Set in medieval Poland, Serpent on a Cross (Northampton House, 2012), is the first in a Jewish fantasy series about 17-year-old Dennah, who discovers she possesses innate magic, whilst an evil warlord embarks on a violent rampage in her village Drovania. When her mother is kidnapped, Dennah travels with Jeth, a blacksmith, and her village guardsmen to a world of witches and half-humans.

The birth of Garfinkle’s novel began in 2009 when she was studying for her MA and MFA degrees in creative writing at Wilkes University. Her mentor, Dave Poyer, made her write an outline, which Garfinkle said she hates to do.

She knew she wanted to write a fantasy set in medieval times, but Poyer told her it needed it’s own flavor to make it stand out. Garfinkle told him about her bloodlines and he encouraged her to delve into her Jewish background.

Serpent on a Cross

(Booktrope Editions, out of print)

Garfinkle, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., travelled to Poland and Ukraine and read more than 75 books in her research on Slavic mythology and Jewish mysticism.

“I got my hands onto everything I could,” said Garfinkle, who writes under the pen name Darya Asch.

Serpent on a Cross also incorporates Hebrew and the rise of the Yiddish language.

“A lot of what we find to be powerful scriptures [to fight demons] in Christianity come out Jewish mysticism,” Garfinkle said. “Hebrew is considered a defense against demons. It’s not wicked magic or pagan magic, but it’s religious magic.”

Now she is working on the second book in the series with a prologue on fallen angels. The Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text that was not part of the biblical canon, describes how angels mated with humans and shared heaven’s secrets of weapons and seduction.

Garfinkle, who initially disliked outlines, said she has outlined the entire second book. “Every once in a while, someone will want their own scene. They say it’s a good thing when your characters start demanding and talking to you.”