Coming Soon: Basil, Pepper, Salt, and Garlic Greens: A Year in a Witch's Kitchen

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Dragonstairs Press (whose creator, editor, and sole proprietor, I feel obliged to occasionally mention is Marianne Porter) is releasing a new chapbook this Saturday at noon, Philadelphia time (EDT). It's a lovely creation--handstitched, numbered, and signed, in an edition of 80. The wrapper is Thai mulberry paper with incursions of flower petals. 

The story, written by yours truly, is a gentle Medieval fantasy in four rounds, all narrated by Auld Agnes, a witch and a brilliant cook rapidly approaching thirty years of age. 

Here's how it begins:

Basil

Sumer is icumen in

Lhude sing cuccu

—Medieval English Round

Ah, me dears, but when the weather turns into a blistering heat that coats a body in sweat, that's when a cook is at her best. Listen carefully to Auld Agnes. Though I am twice a widow and almost at an age when a woman turns crone and thus unmarriageable, I know my way around a hearth. And life too, for that matter.

Cooking in summer is easiness itself. Fruits and nuts fall from the trees, vegetables burst from the earth, and rabbits, squirrels, and other wildlife blunder into snares without a second thought. Songbirds can be caught with quicklime, plucked, roasted, and eaten cold for breakfast. If you have a milch-cow, as I do, your table will groan under the weight of butter and cheese.

In summer, the laird of the estate is at his least difficult...

And since you ask . . .

The chapbook will go for $11 shipped domestically or $13 shipped internationally.  PayPal only. At 

www.dragonstairs.com. 

Best set your alarm clocks, though. Dragonstairs chapbooks sell out fast.

And though you didn't ask . . .

I really like Auld Agnes as a character. She's capable, outspoken, direct, and a tireless worker. And not one bit more ruthless than a woman occasionally has to be in this difficult world of ours.

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