Welcome to the latest installment of the Witches Save the World Micro-Interviews! In honor of the upcoming Halloween/Samhain holiday, and in celebration of the release of Witches Save the World, Forests Haunted By Holiness will be featuring a series of interviews with the contributors throughout October.
Witches Save the World was a labor of love. Across these two volumes you will find poems, short stories, and essays celebrating the witch and their role as wisdom keeper, protector of nature, avenger of the forgotten, and defender of the oppressed. Individual poems and stories range from historical fantasy to contemporary horror to science fiction, with many questioning the nature and cost of honor, integrity, and freedom.
In concert with these interviews, one physical copy of Witches Save the World — either Hags, Harridans, and Hexes Gone Right or Covens, Cauldrons, and Curses Gone Right— will be given away at the end of the month! Two books, two winners! To enter the drawing, just comment below and share the interview on your favorite social media platform.
Ready? Let’s get started!
Forests Haunted By Holiness: What is the title of your story and can you give us a spoiler-free summary?
Lauren Talveryn: “Reciprocal Elixir” opens up in the cabin of a Scottish sorceress who brings the wrath of the thanes unto her village after performing a vicious sacrifice at their behest. She must make the difficult choice of whether to take her Reciprocal Elixir, which can inflict pain instantly but she must sustain the same damage herself, to save a village who has turned on her.
FHBH: How did you go about writing your poem/story/essay? Lot of research? Or did you just wing it?
LT: I wrote this story at a time in my life where I was really consumed by anger. I found it so intriguing that no matter how much I directed the anger outwards to the world around me, I always felt worse myself. It makes your stomach roil and your head hurt. I combined this idea with a lifelong obsession with Lady Macbeth and Scotland as a whole to create “Reciprocal Elixir.”
FHBH: What draws you to the character and theme of “the witch”? What do you find so compelling about it?
LT: I’ve always felt a magnetic pull towards the witchy and weird. There’s an incredible allure to the spooky but seductive witch in pop culture: Melisandre from A Song of Ice and Fire, Morgan le Fay, and The Hex Girls from Scooby Doo. As I’ve grown older, I’ve found myself more drawn to the crone and cunning folk of reality. These women were sought after for herbalism and healing abilities by communities all over the world. But as Christianity and patriarchal systems started to take hold, they were easy to villainize and ostracize.
