Add your promotional text...

About the

Author

MEET
A. T. NAPOLI

A. T. Napoli went from starving artist to celebrity makeup artist before writing his B*TCHCRAFT🌙 novels. Having studied English Literature and Women & Gender Studies at Marymount Manhattan and Hunter College, he now boasts over a decade of experience in fashion and beauty.

Napoli has worked with world-renowned entertainers such as Halsey, Lizzo, and the editors of Allure, in which he is frequently mentioned, and where, like Clark in B*TCHCRAFT, often tries to save the day. Napoli is a first-generation American who resides in his native Astoria, New York.

Q. What inspired you to write The Witch’s Assistant🌙?
A. As a working makeup artist for many years, I’ve assisted some of the world’s top artists pack away their “kits” just like Clark is hired to do—these caravans of giant black luggage bags full of cosmetics.

I thought one day, what if these bags were packed full of witchcraft?

What if I were being called to a penthouse not to contour, but to conjure? Beauty can be a sort of glamour we cast, after all. What if, like artists, witches had agents and bookers? What if witches were behind the most powerful names in the world — and one clueless intern got the job of a lifetime working for the biggest witch of them all?

From there, the archetypes, the tropes, the characters: the story unraveled so naturally it was like it spoke through me!

Q. What message or themes are you hoping readers take away from the story?

A. Being an adult can be scary! Bad bosses, b*tchy coworkers, first love, and surviving New York City: I wanted to take the horrors of new-adulthood and explore them in a witchy, fun way.

At its core, The Witch’s Assistant🌙 is about identity, ambition, and living in the American Dream. In Chapter 1, Clark makes a checklist of all the things he lacks and vows to get ahead no matter the cost, so when the opportunity knocks, he answers. He reads and watches witches and sees his victimhood in the world, and there witches appear! Clark is running from himself and his problems, and ends up a runner for the coven. I think it’s a fun metaphor for life!

I needed this story—and I think you do too!

This fairytale isn't all fluff. For more on the deeper themes, check out the Reader's Guide →

Q. Is Clark based on you?

A. Yes and no. He’s certainly more impulsive than I am! Every artist draws from personal truth and experience. Clark is what happens when you lack trust in your inner voice. He’s a runner—literally and spiritually. He wants to win at life without knowing how to love himself; his journey is in finding out how. And that's a thing I happen to have experience in.

Q. What draws you to stories about witches and magic?

A. I’m a Halloween baby, so the proximity alone makes sense! I think I found empowerment in stories of witches and magic, as an only child living between two parents who had maybe not the most autonomy growing up. When one feels limited in life, what better hope than to hope in magic. In believing in magic, we find the power to believe in ourselves—that the magic was within us all along.

Q. What made you want to write?

A. I know, right? Who the hell gave me a book deal?! (Even wilder: you’re gonna love it.)

Matilda by Roald Dahl was my favorite story growing up, so naturally, I wanted to be just like her (a ~fantastic~ role model, if you ask me!). In school, I found that I felt most myself in my creative classes and the fine and performing arts. I was that kid in English Class, especially (a total Hermione).

I've always dreamt of writing novels of my own, so one day I decided to do just that.

Q. What do the initials in your name, A. T. Napoli, stand for?

A. A is for my given name, Athanasios. Surprise! "Tommy" is a regional nickname here in Astoria, Queens, New York City, given to other Thanasi's like me (one a little easier, wouldn't you say?). It's not uncommon for me to eavesdrop on other Tommy-Thanasi's when I'm out in the neighborhood. Napoli is my mother's maiden name, from Brazil.

I wanted a pen name that both honored my heritage and felt genderless and apolitical, one where the story could have the first word.

Q. How does New York City influence the magic in your world?

A. I ❤️ NYC. I like to think of New York City as the telltale fifth character of B*TCHCRAFT. It's giving seeing the city through Carrie Bradshaw's eyes in Sex and the City.

While the city can jade some natives—that's what NYC is called here-just the city, the only city—a jaded protagonist would’ve made for the most dull and uninteresting of stories (as Monica Chase-Whiteley says, "I mean, obviously."). I wanted Clark to both appreciate the splendor of life in the city and also resent his place in it, as I often did as a broke, working college kid! I don't think I've seen that truth in a story yet, not with witches in the mix. It also reminds me of the adage, magic is always all around us, one just has to be willing to see it.

Clark's love of NYC also becomes a sort of superpower for him by book's end. You'll have to read and find out how!

Q. What pop culture witch inspirations influenced B*TCHCRAFT?

A. Oh my goodness, so many!

Some references will jump, like “Hermione and the Sandersons raised me” in Chapter I, The Interview, or “Wouldst thou like to live deliciously" in Chapter VII, A Golden Opportunity. Disney's Hocus Pocus and Robert Eggers’ The VVitch are movies I've rewatched a million times! You could say I was craving that level of comfort food in a new witch story—so I wrote one myself. A queer glam fantasy with bite and heart.

Other references are a little quieter, like how a good assistant witch should be.

What nods did you catch?

Q. What can we expect in Book Two, A Witch’s Ascension🌙?

A. More b*tchcraft! Higher stakes. Darker shadows. If Book One is about getting in the room, Book Two is about realizing the cost of staying there.

QUESTIONS FROM THE COVEN

Favorite writing snack?

Peanut butter with anything—celery, jelly, on its own, but most importantly, Oreos. Call me nostalgic for The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan!

What color is your aura?

Periwinkle and indigo-blue, just like Clark’s :] (at least, a witch once told me it was a shade of blue!).

What’s your coffee order—and would Clark approve?
You will never, ever catch me drinking hot coffee. Even in winter, I refuse to back down 🧊. Get me an iced cawfee with oat milk, one pump vanilla, one hazelnut.

But my dream order? It's always an espresso frappe with whipped cream and a caramel drizzle. Clark would absolutely approve.

(Okay, maybe these answers aren't so quickfire.)

Dream casting for The Witch’s Assistant🌙?

I think Kate Beckinsale has that cheeky British glamour to match Charisma’s; Zackary Arthur of Chucky the TV series would play a great Clark; and I’ve told Julia Fox, whom I've touched up a couple of times through work, that she would make a ~hot~ Melissa.

Who are yours?

Favorite witch?

I once helped Kathy Nijimy of Hocus Pocus when I worked at MAC :].

One witchy object you’d keep in your pocket?

Rose quartz to help keep that heart space open ❤️

Your NYC guilty pleasure?
Pumpkin scones at Alice’s Teacup, an old haunt of mine (just don’t ask how many calories are in one). Though honestly, there’s no such thing as guilty pleasures. Life is meant to be indulged in :].