Aubrey Plaza and Dan Murphy’s 2021 children’s book, “The Legend of the Christmas Witch,” which follows the tale of Santa Claus’ long lost twin sister, Kristtörn, got a sequel this year.
In their first book, they make several references to the First State, and in “The Return of the Christmas Witch,” Murphy says that continues.
“The Christmas Witch from our first book sort of wakes up and gets on this boat and ends up in Delaware, in the Delaware Bay,” said Murphy. “And so the second story takes place somewhere kind of unnamed in Delaware.”
The authors hosted a reading at Rockwood Museum in Wilmington, and shared their hopes of writing a third book in the series, and producing a film adaptation in the future.
Plaza says their decision to promote the book in the First State came with the understanding Delawareans may connect with it more.
“I just think it’s so much more special, the events here, because obviously there are so many Delaware references in the book,” Plaza explained. “The second book is set in Delaware, so I think people just appreciate it more.”
She adds the lack of understanding to Delaware references from out-of-state readers only encourages her to work harder to put Delaware on the map.
In 2016 the Delaware duo started “Evil Hag Productions,” which recently helped produce “Emily the Criminal,” with Plaza in the titular role.
She says she hopes that the buzz from that will help get their company’s name out.
“Our ultimate goal is to make something here, in Delaware. To shoot our movie that we wrote here. And we’re working on that, we’re getting really close,” said Plaza.
The team says they have a lot of projects brewing, and will continue working with the First State in mind moving forward.