Skip to main content

Witcherature

 

There I was in my family’s half-finished basement, surrounded by my friends. It was the mid-1970s at the end of October, in a small town in Ohio and my mom was throwing me an epic Halloween party.

We had just finished a game where we sat in a circle on the old rug that barely protected our bottoms from the cold linoleum basement floor. My mom started telling us a scary story that involved body parts and, as the story went along, she would pass the ‘body parts” around the circle. It was pitch dark in the room and we could only use our hands, not our eyes. Ice cold hands (water that had been frozen in rubber gloves, a heart (peeled tomato), and eyes (peeled grapes) were solemnly passed around. My friends and I were around eight years old at the time, so we tried to laugh off our fear, tried to remind ourselves it wasn’t really body parts that were being passed around, but I think we were all relieved when the story was over, the lights turned on, and cupcakes started getting passed around instead of body parts.

My mom turned up the lights a bit, but it was still dark and gloomy and our Chilling Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House record was crackling through its haunted house noises. About halfway through my cupcake, I began to realize there was a sound that wasn’t coming from where the record player was. It was coming from the basement stairwell.

“Here kitty, kitty.” a decidedly scratchy voice called.

I tried to rationalize with myself, tried to stay cool in front of my friends as I came to the slow realization that I was positive that there was no witch calling her cat on my Halloween album. I was sure of it. I looked around at my friends and realized many had their own heads cocked listening too. We giggled nervously as the voice came closer.

“Here kitty, kitty.”

We were all looking towards the other room, where the staircase was when, as if by magic, she appeared. A witch! Long dark hair, green skin, a tall black hat, and a broom. We jumped as she leapt into the room.

As the witch began walking around the circle, asking who had taken her black cat, I squinted into her face, trying to see which of my parents’ friends it was. My blood ran cold as I realized it wasn’t anyone I knew.

The witch was only there for a little while. She cackled and left. The party was over. My parents sent my friends home, filled with candy and terror. (can you imagine doing that in today’s world?) and my mom eventually fessed up that the witch was a woman who worked for my father who agreed to come to our house and scare the living daylights out of his children (again, can you imagine that being okay today?).

It was probably the most memorable Halloween party I have ever been to.

What to Read In October: Witch Cozies

I love to read “witcherature” (a genre of books that feature, you guessed it, witches!). It’s one of my guilty pleasures and, since October is sneaking up us on like a witch going down basement stairs, I thought I would share my favorites.

The witches in these books might own cats but they don’t wear black hats or carry brooms. In fact, my favorite witch books feature creative woman who are domestic goddesses-they always live in gorgeous, old houses, in small towns where it is perpetually fall. They cook with herbs and make everyone in town swoon over both their recipes, if something is ailing you, they usually have an herb to cure you-including being love sick. The witch books I love are COZY.

The Practical Magic Series by Alice Hoffman

You’ve probably seen the movie, but the books are worth reading. Hoffman traced the entire line of her witches to their origins in the series. I love Practical Magic because it’s all about sisters and aunts-something close to my heart. There’s also Tipsy Chocolate Cake being eaten. Who could ask for anything more?

I love the first two books in the series best, Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic best-I think because they are set in the modern age, but the last two are good too. You can read the series in the order they were written or in chronological order (basically the reverse of when they were written).

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

I’ll read just about anything by Sarah Addison Allen but Garden Spells is by far, my absolute favorite. I love that the house is a character, slamming and locking it’s own doors, that the tree in the backyard throws it’s apples, and that the main character (Claire) is caterer who makes food that is magical. (Click here for some of Claire’s recipes.)

There’s a second book in this ‘Waverly Sisters’ series, First Frost, but I love Garden Spells most of all.

 Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

This one takes place in a small, southern town and Anna Kate has just returned to bury her grandmother and get her own life on track as the new owner of her grandmother’s café. Are you seeing a theme? It’s a sweet book-in so many ways.

Now, tell me about your favorite 'witchy' books. 

Did you like this post?   

Don't miss out on the next. Sign-up for my monthly newsletter to get the latest news and posts. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 7, 2025 at 3:14 PM

    I can't imagine holding a Halloween party like the one your mom put on in today's world, but there is a part of me that thinks our kids are missing out. Wow. What a memory! Also, while I've never read a witch story (perhaps if I'd realized there was a cozy aspect to the genre, I would have). I'm inspired to read a few of your picks. Starting with Practical Magic. Lovely October post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NicoleOctober 20, 2025 at 4:42 AM

    Eeeeee this was exciting to see pop up in my reader! Ah, the old-school Halloween parties! Good fun!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Building a Cookbook Library

I collect cookbooks.  I know I could look-up just about any recipe online, but I can't give up my cookbooks. I love sitting down with a stack of cookbooks and planning a holiday meal or dinner party. Sometimes, if I'm feeling bored or anxious, I'll pull a favorite cookbook off the shelf and just read it. I love the photos. I love to daydream about making the dishes. Sometimes they inspire me so much I get up and bake something. To me, cookbooks are so much better than cooking blogs. Is it just me or have they gotten impossible to navigate? First there's the pop-up ads that always seem to crash the website at the very moment I'm rushing to check how long the brownies are supposed to bake. By the time I reload the website, I have burnt bricks of chocolate. I also hate the long, drawn-out stories before I get to the actual recipe. Don't get me wrong. I love a good story behind a recipe. Heck, when I share my recipes, I usually give you a story. What I hate about mo...
20 comments
Read more

On gardening, reading, and dreaming

Yesterday was a spectacular spring day. After getting dumped on with a late snow in mid-April, and then days and days of cold wet rain, the sun and 70-degree weather was a welcome respite.  Gardening We headed into the garden early, just after breakfast, with carrot, radish, and lettuce seeds in hand. All cool weather crops, we usually have luck planting them early. If all goes well, we’ll be eating from our garden in mid to late May. The rest of our plantings will have to wait until Mother’s Day weekend or later, when the chance of frost is long past.  Cooking As we poked around the garden, we were able to harvest some kale and parsley which somehow survived the winter. To celebrate, I made a big bowl of tabbouleh which will take care of a few lunches this week and made creamed kale to go with the shrimp and grits my husband made for dinner last night. I don’t know why I feel so much happier when I’m eating food directly from my garden, but I do. I know it’s all in my head, ...
18 comments
Read more

A Year of Food Memoir

  Last year, when I decided to turn my creative attention to writing memoir, I knew I had to read it as well as write it . Looking at my reading journal, it looks like I read over twelve memoirs, each bringing me a different view on not only life, but also how to write one's personal story.  This year, I'm turning my attention to food memoir. If you have spent any time reading my old blog , you know that I love to cook and I've played with the idea of writing a cookbook or a food memoir for a long time so I thought it might be fun to read food memoirs and cookbooks this year to get inspired and learn how authors share their lives through food. Looking at my shelves, I realize that this interest isn't new to me. There's Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, who single-handedly ruined going out to eat for me. Isabelle Allende's Aphrodite is one of the most sensual books about food I've ever read. MFK Fischer's description of eating an orange that sa...
11 comments
Read more

The Garden Through the Years-June

This is our sixth year gardening. It's been a journey, every year we learn a little more. The garden has not only taught us how to grow plants, but also how to have patience and hope. It's taught me the healing power of nature. It has helped my husband and I grow our marriage through planning the garden and working side by side. It's inspired me creatively. Every year, I usually share a monthly update of my garden during the summer months. I'll continue the tradition this year, but I am also planning to share the garden's growth over the past six years. I'll show you what it looked like each month over the years. We started our garden in 2017, about 10 months after we moved to the Pacific Northwest.  My husband built our raised beds and we put up temporary fencing around the perimeter to keep the deer out. It was cumbersome to get in and out of the garden and it didn't deter the deer or the bunnies. They found a way in regardless. We grew tomatoes (too many)...
24 comments
Read more

How to Stay Friends without Social Media

How do you stay in touch with people once you leave social media? This one of the main concerns I hear from people when they find out that I’ve quit social media. To be truthful, you will fall out of touch with some people. But you know, that’s not always a bad thing. At least it wasn’t for me. According to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the number of people humans can sustain relationships with is 150. He based this number (called Dunbar’s Number ) on the size of the human brain. The thesis is that primates are wired to be in group sizes that will assist with survival. While there are arguments about the validity of this theory, I know I feel stressed-out when I have too many relationships going on and not enough time to nurture them.   Being a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend is very important to me. It brings me joy to take care of the people I love. I cook for them, check-in on them regularly, and give them my focused attention when I am with them. But I mus...
12 comments
Read more

The Seed Library

I am standing in front of the old, wooden card catalog of the Washougal Library and am reminded of the card catalogs of my past. The first was in my elementary school library where we learned how to look up books using the Dewey Decimal System. I remember the sound the drawers made as I slowly and carefully pulled them out-a quiet creak of wood in a silent library. Then the smell would fill the air. It was the smell of old paper and the typewriter ink the librarian used to carefully catalog the books.             Now, I look up my books on a computer but today I am, once again, standing in front of the card catalog. I pull out the drawer and am surprised that the sound and the smell are still there, even though I am standing in a library 2,455 miles away from the one in my memory. The drawer no longer holds cards listing a multitude of books to be read, instead it holds small packets of seeds.      ...
13 comments
Read more

A Slow Holiday Season

It is Christmastime at our house. We have pulled our trees and ornaments out of storage just in time for the darkest days of the year. It is an unusually wet season (even by Pacific Northwest standards) and most days it seems the sky is under a large piece of dark gray flannel. The sparkling fairy lights strewn over the mantel and the lights of the tree illuminate the house in a way that lamps cannot. The light fades just as I leave to pick-up my daughter from school. Before I go, I walk through the house, lighting the trees and all the fairy lights. It is a small, festive way to welcome her home from a wet day out in the world. When we get home, I make a simple snack. Apples and peanut butter, cheese and crackers, or, for a special treat, hot cocoa and popcorn. We sometimes turn on the gas fireplace.  We settle under quilts my mother-in-law made and watch Dash and Lily on Netflix . It is our second year watching it. We greedily look at the dreamy holiday interiors.The holiday soun...
4 comments
Read more

Ghosts of Christmas Past

One of the best Christmas gifts I ever received was a Sindy doll’s dining set from my father’s sister, my Aunt Kathy. Aunt Kathy always bought my sisters and I the best presents. She had three boys and I think she relished the chance to hit the girl’s section of the toy store. Many of my most beloved gifts were from Aunt Kathy. I mean, she’s the one who bought me The Barbie Beauty Center Styling Head too. Oh, I can still smell it-the plastic, sweet smell. I remember the way the powdery, blue eye shadow glided onto Barbie’s perfect eyelids, smooth as silk. And how her hair, always satin blonde, immediately became tangled, never to be like new again. But back to Sindy’s dining room set. A creamy, French provincial style. It was made for Sindy dolls but at my house, Barbie took it over. Barbie was kind of priviledged and tended to think the world revolved around her so she often furnished her life from the spoils she stole from other dolls. She took my Jody doll’s dog and, worse,...
15 comments
Read more

Leaving Social Media

I took my first social media detox in November 2018. I decided to take a break for 30 days. It felt amazing and I learned a lot about myself and my use of social media. I returned to social media, as planned, determined to take the lessons I learned from the detox to mindfully interact with Facebook and Instagram. I had the very best intentions. By May 2019, all my good intentions were forgotten and I found I was back to a place where social media was affecting me negatively . I promised myself that I would get back on track. (You know where this is going, right?) Before long, I was back to what I perceived as an unhealthy relationship with Instagram and Facebook. Something needed to change. The pandemic hit. I used it as an excuse to stay 'connected'. Instead of feeling connected, I watched in horror as people tore each other apart online, saying things they would never to say to one another if they were face to face.  In September 2020, I deleted my business page and told my...
10 comments
Read more