Witch in the Kitchen

[zephrbabe]

I just recently finished reading a book called "The Kitchen Witch" by Annette Blair, and I had what appears to be a good idea for a story.

I'd like to discuss the setting and the plot. Feel free to take any ideas from here for your own writing.

Here's what I've got so far:

A witch named Luciana (or whatever; I was going for something a little old, but easily changed into a nickname) who puts her spells in food. (Along the lines of: Happiness Brownies, Lucky Lemon-Herb Chicken, mystical omelettes, ...)

Several possible scenarios:
- She owns a restaurant and matchmakes the regulars, using her food as relationship prodders.
-She’s a freelance witch, and uses the food stuff only on her friends and acquaintances.
-She could be a more erotically-inclined witch, and uses her food to hook people up for sex (this would give good opportunity for the tales of her “clients” on Lit). (I guess then her food would be aphrodisiacs. )

=> Any one of the above could lead to her own story, with a man possibly named Blake Douglas (I dunno- it's a very Nora Roberts name, I was just trying it out).

I'd like to flesh it out, and my first question is: where should it be set? New Orleans, Stratford-upon-Avon, and San Francisco all pop into my mind, but I'm really looking for sugggestions.

-Kathryn


PS. To certain regulars on the Lit forum- don't worry, my whole story won't be taken from the posts, I am only after info on what people would like to see.

 

[vargas111]

What about some way for her to move from place to place? I'd see her setting up cooking demonstrations for housewives. These would help women who need something to get hubby fucking her again, maybe getting him into a bit of a sub relation so he will make her pregnant.

She can also note which wives are refusing to please their husbands and put something in their food to make them crave sex enough to dress up for hubby, let him eat her, let him take her out to dinner and dancing, and to make her pregnant.

Maybe as a finale, she meets a handsom young cheif and lets him make her pregnant.

 

[zephrbabe]

Into the whole pregnant thing, huh? (I usually think along those lines, too- a lot of the contemporary stuff I work on has a pregnant woman in it at some point, I just never finish any of my stories.)

Actually, those are good ideas, but I was thinking of something a little less... Avon lady. That was the whole idea of a restoraunt, only, owning and/or working in a restoraunt can be really stressful.

My ultimate image for her was actually something like the aunts in "Practical Magic": relaxed, smart, indulgent; maybe with the snappy imagination of Amelie (you know- that rather popular French movie).

-Kathryn

 

[J.Q. Hack]

Perhaps you could make the witch one who adds potions to the food of people she'd like to see hook up. Or perhaps the potion would make the people crave a particular type of sex act. This I'm thinking would all be done solely for the witch's pleasure, meaning she'd watch all the people having sex or she make the potion so that they would want to include her. I think giving her a restaurant in an out of the way spot in a big city or perhaps even in a small town so what goes on there would be everybody's secret would both be good settings.

 

[nushu2]

She could be spiking the food of customers she wants but other women keep getting in the way. As a result, her potions get stronger and stronger. Eventually, just the smell of the place has customers sneaking under tables and in the bathroom.

 

[sirhugs]

I love the sneaking underthe tables image, but would eventually want some on top of the tables, or counters

 

[fogbank]

I love the story concept -- anything that combine food and erotica is good in my opinion.

As far as where you want to set it, I'd say you need to determine what sort of witchcraft you want to explore. New Orleans, of course, implies voodoo, while San Fransisco would be a better setting for east-asian mysticism. Any good witch in a contemporary setting is probably going to want to go beyond the boundaries of their own witchcraft and explore other witchcraft traditions. Personally, I'd probably opt for San Fransisco, because of it's heavy multiculturalism.

I'd imagine she'd have witch friends (nothing so structured as a coven, just others in the business), some of whom would be creole or asian or slavic, which would give you a chance to play around with other witch traditions (I was just recently reading a novel where Polish witchcraft and folklore played a significant role. I had never really thought about the Poles as having witchcraft, but I think when you start doing research, it exists everywhere). Maybe these friends could be using their witchcraft mischeviously to try to set each other up... get each other involved with the most unlikely person at the most inopportune time.