Some Witchy Advice

 

 Just Cross Stitch's 2020 Halloween issue had a lovely design by Natalia Luneva inspired by Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic:

The original design called for black fabric, but I used a natural linen to better go with a couple other homey items I made (also, cross stitching on black is a major pain). For the writing I switched to DMC 844.

The trio:

Book Round-Up: Eclectic Fall Edition

 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I don't know why I didn't read this when it first came out. It is dreamy and romantic and perfect for cool fall nights. 

Sweet Alaskan Fall by Jennifer Snow: Part of a series of romances set in Alaska, I grabbed it because of the title (I'm a sucker for all things fallish). It's your standard romantic plot line, but I liked that both of the main protagonists were coping with temporary and permanent disabilities.

The Devil's Wedding Ring by Vidar Sundstøl: It's set in midsummer, but has a spooky vibe that makes it a great read now. I loved the Norwegian setting and the introduction to local folklore and customs, and the two protagonists -- a detective returning to his homeland and a nosy young librarian -- were a treat. I half expected them to form their own agency at the end, but alas, this is a stand-alone novel.

 Echoes by Ellen Datlow, ed.: A large collection of ghost stories. An excellent collection, with a number of stand-outs: "A Shade of Dusk" by Indrapramit Das (melancholy and touching), "The Puppet Motel" by Gemma Files (just confirms my desire to never use Air BnB), "A Burning Sword for her Cradle" by Aliette de Bodard (a novel take on assimilation), "The Other Woman" by Alice Hoffman (an impressive amount of story packed into just a few pages), and "Jasper Dodd's Handbook of Spirits and Manifestations" by Nathan Ballingrud (heartbreaking).

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James: these are classics for a reason: short stories that are spooky but not too horrific, with a bookish bent. There is an odd level of distancing to them -- each is told in the first person, but the narrator is relating something he heard happen to other people. 

 Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft: The first story was so stupid, I almost refused to read the rest. But then I was stuck in a doctor's office for hours, so I did, and some of the stories were genuinely enjoyable. Others were not. I am not a fan of young adult fiction.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rules of Magic is the first book of the season for the Inspired by Reading group, and a good choice for October. It's a sequel to Hoffman's Practical Magic, and while there were some contradictions between the books and the timeline doesn't make sense, I enjoyed it as much as the first one.

The story centers around Jet and Franny (the aunts from Practical Magic) and their brother Vincent as they grow up and come to terms with their magical and familial legacies. Despite the lush prose, there is a lot of ugliness and violence depicted – the Vietnam war, the way outcasts are treated, the innocent people who suffer from the results of ill-advised spells, the birds killed for a heart or broken wing. But also a lot of beauty – the gardens and parks the characters keep returning to, the love they feel for each other, and most movingly, the true grace shown over the course of Jet and the Reverend’s relationship. It's that love for another, whatever form it takes, that makes life worth living in the face of suffering.

Franny and Jet make a living growing herbs and selling potions, and my inspiration came from that. I filled a tiny bottle with dried rosemary and lavender bud, adding a sprinkling of seed beads for sparkle. I strung the vial on brass chain and a length of purple faceted glass.

Hoffman has indicated she has other stories to tell about the Owens family; I look forward to reading more.

Book Round-Up: Witchy Edition

Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell: A witch, a priest, and an atheist meet up at a bar.  It's not a joke, it's the set-up of a novella where the three women team up to defeat the demonic forces (personified by a British version of Walmart) threatening their town and the world.  I loved it -- a fun, spooky story that handled everyone's beliefs, and resulting crises of faith, respectfully.  The only real flaw was that it was so short.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman: A lovely, lush novel I return to every few years.  Gillian and Sally, descendants of a long line of witchy women, do their best to lead normal, unmagical lives, but of course magic won't leave them alone.  Twin themes of sisterhood and passionate love dominate the story.

Babayaga by Toby Barlow: The last two survivors of an ancient coven of Russian witches try to survive in post-war Paris, alongside American ex-pats who may or may not be CIA agents, a nefarious scientist, and Frenchmen being French.  It was an entertaining book with some interesting concepts, but there was an underlying cynicism about human nature (especially feminine nature) that marred it for me.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab: The plot -- someone or something is snatching the children of a small village -- was an intriguing riff on the Pied Piper of Hamlin, but the story suffered from a surfeit of YA tropes: the impulsive, tomboy heroine; the male relative who tries to make her more ladylike (an odd thing to insist on in a peasant village where day-to-day living requires physical labor from everyone); adults who are either weak or evil; angsty teenagers; secret-keeping; and misunderstandings galore.  The ending, too, was unearned.  Too bad, because there was the making of a genuinely spooky story here.