Dark Destinies: An Explanation

I've tagged a lot of posts in this blog with the name 'Dark Destinies' but I've never really gone into detail about what it is, the genesis and progression of the story.
The Story as it stands today:
Explores 1900 rural Victoria where central character, Matilda Morgan, witch/ pagan/ possible feminist resides in a fictional town. She clandestinely practices her craft, until direct accusations bring her to the fire.

Genesis:
An obsession with learning all I could about witchcraft trials started me on this path. I read Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan when I was a high school student and the story stuck with me. Lots of research later, specifically on Salem equals a lot of useless information to someone else, but I knew I'd use it one day.
In my 2nd year of university, I wrote a short story about a witch being brough back from the dead and wreaking havoc on the town that burned her. The story should end there, a mediocre short storythat probably would have ended up in a file, never to be read again.
I never passed it in to my teacher. Instead it became the basis for my short filme manuscript for my scriptwriting class. Back then it was called "Calling up the Dark", yeah, when I created the novel, I made sure to change the title. I passed in a complete manuscript at the end, but I couldn't let the story go.

Returning to the well countless times:
Over nine years I've gone back to it several times. Each time I've explored different angles, adding and deleting to it. At first Matilda's story was going to be told in the prologue and through other character's interpretations. That ended up being not good enough for me. I wanted to tell her story, show readers what her life was like. So it became two parts. Then, as of last year became just one part, focused entirely on Matilda's life and the people populating it.

Change is inevitable:
Before it's ready to publish, it still needs a lot of work. More stuff needs to be added/ deleted to it. I still have theories, ideas, characters, motivations that I want to explore

I can't wait to tell this story