Thursday, June 1, 2023

May '23 Madhouse Recap: Green Witchcraft, Creative Pursuits, and Kitchen Magic

 Hello friends and fiends–

Did you all remember to blow cinnamon into your homes for abundance on the first of the month? I ask because it’s something I try really hard to remember, and Dennis actually did it for us this time around!

May was and always is a weird month for me. It’s very yin-yang because there is this mad rush to finish up classes, so I’m swamped with grading, meetings, evaluations, etc., and then it all gets very quiet, which makes me feel a bit untethered if I’m being completely honest. I took a lot of time to sleep and relax and kind of wind down from all the stress; I even treated myself to a massage, which is something I try to do before and after the semester since my body is also so tense from reading, writing, and well, living on my computer. I made a bunch of doctor’s appointments to keep up with my wellness journey, am going in to get treated for TMJ at the Dentist this month (thank god), and I’m planning on doing some other bodily self-care stuff, especially for my hair since I’ve been struggling with postpartum thinning and hair loss for a while now. 


Last month also brought about my dad’s birthday, which we all celebrated with a sushi feast, and then Mother’s Day, where we hosted a crab boil for our families. It was pretty tasty, I won’t lie, and it inspired me to keep cooking, so I made my first batch of spaghetti and meatballs completely from scratch and invited my parents over for that, too. Evie completely stuffed her face and was beaming, which made me smile, but nothing will compare to my cousin’s BBQ skills. He made brisket, pork shoulder, and ribs, and then his wife (who is seriously the BEST baker ever) made a ton of side dishes and baked goods for us, too; my other cousin brought her famous Brussels sprouts and we all stuffed our faces with that, too (Evie included). 

On that note, I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship with food. I love food: making it, serving it, and enjoying it with friends and family, but I’ve always had a really horrible relationship with it for reasons we definitely won’t get into here. That said, I’ve been trying to be a lot more intentional with how and what I eat lately. For instance, I got a bunch of lemons on sale so I made a batch of lemon/ginger/turmeric/cayenne health shots for me and Dennis, which we’ve been enjoying all month. I froze them individually so we could wake up in the morning, pop one into our teacup, and then pour hot water and local honey over it.  It’s been a great way to start our day, and there are so many health benefits to it: reduction of joint pain, reduced blood pressure, tons of antioxidants, increase immune system, and more! I’ve also been working with dandelion a bunch this spring and I messed with a recipe that I’m looking forward to making again for dandelion fritters (which were delicious!) and then I’ve been using dandelion leaves in our salads, too, to help with lowering our blood sugar and cholesterol, and giving us a boost of a ton of vitamins, iron, and potassium as well. 

That aside, I’ve been reading and writing a lot, working with my Anatomize Oracle Deck, getting back into building puzzles, doing word searches, and playing with collage again. Fun Fact: when I was a teenager, I collaged my entire room from top to bottom. I loved it and it felt like such an intense expression of myself—but I did totally ruin the walls and my parents were not happy. It was fun while it lasted though, ha.

Something else we did this month was carve out some time to work on some outside projects for the house. I’ve been enjoying spending time with the birds in the morning, so I’m forever feeding them, refilling up our bird feeders, and making sure they’re taken care of (Apollo helps, too). We started to do a bit of landscaping, which we’re planning on continuing this month, and then we got our garden situated for the summer. I bought some flowers and a ton of herbs, and then Dennis is focusing on tomatoes and a variety of peppers. He even bought a mulberry bush, so we’ll see how that goes. Things look beautiful though and my roses are blooming and doing wonderful already. 

Nature will just forever make me smile. 

On the writing/teaching front:

  • I finished teaching three graduate classes this month and had a blast with my mentees this semester. I ended up doing a couple assignments with them and am gearing up for summer residency, where I’ll be lecturing, doing a reading, and participating in lots of r&r and writing sessions with old friends and new. I truly can’t wait to see everyone. I’m looking forward to this so very much.
  • Book Deal Announcement, RDSP: I am so incredibly excited to share my collection On the Subject of Blackberries with you. It's found poetry, bibliomancy, witchcraft, and words inspired by my adoration for Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, a book I held close and reread while I felt I was going mad--and maybe I was.
  • I'm honored and so excited that my poem "Dinner Plans with Baba Yaga" is a 2023 Rhysling Award Finalist. Congrats to everyone nominated and everyone who wrote a poem last year. Let's keep poetry weird!
  • My reading experience of Travis Bladree’s Legends and Lattees is live on LitReactor. This book introduced me to cozy fantasy, which lead me to pick up a cozy mystery, so it’s pretty much responsible for all the coziness in my life right now. If you haven’t picked it up yet, it’s a perfect relaxed summer read. Plus, the prequel Bookshops and Bonedust is out later this year.
  • I put myself through a reading challenge these past two months, which was inspired by my Psychology of Sexuality course. I read a ton of queer graphic novels and had an absolute blast, so I wanted to write about my journey for LitReactor. Celebrate Pride with me and check out these wonderful reads!
  • I had such a wonderful time chatting with Tiffany Morris on her podcast, Verses from the Void. I read some pieces from my collection The Apolcayptic Mannequin but then I also snuck in a few poems I wrote from Black Telephone Magazine, Southwest Review, and the Under Her Skin anthology. We also discussed witchcraft and talked about how writing is its own form of magic. I hope you'll take some time to listen to it and that you'll also check out Tiffany's work, too. Her collection Elegies of Rotting Stars is truly incredible.
  • My StokerCon Schedule (6/24-6/18) so far:
    • Monstrous Metaphors: Horror Movies and Cultural Commentary (Virtual), Panelist
    • You Can’t Get There From Here: Tales of Weird Pittsburgh, Panelist, Thursday 4-4:50
    • Raw Dog Screaming Press Party, Thursday 4-5:30
    • Author Reading, Friday 12-12:50
    • Quoth the Raven: The Rise of Dark Poetry, Panelist, Friday 1-1:50
    • Monstrous Mothers and the Women Who Write Them, Panelist, Friday 3-3:50
    • Pitch Session Panel, Panelist, Saturday 11-11:50
    • Pitch Session, Saturday 12-2:00
    • StokerCon Cocktail Reception + Banquet, Saturday 7-9:45

This month, I read:

  • Spite House by Johnny Compton
  • The Secret, Book, & Scone Society by Ellery Adams
  • Out There by Kate Folk
  • Animal Wife by Lara Ehrlich
  • The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
  • This is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau
  • The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
  • In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet
    • I’ve been putting myself through a feminist reading list I made up this summer, and I noticed on Audible that they had some Gloria Steinem essays, so I listened to “In Praise of Women’s Bodies,” which I greatly enjoyed. If you subscribe to Audible, it’s free with your membership so definitely give it a read!
  • Please Make Me Pretty, I Don’t Want to Die: Poems by Tawanda Mulalu
  • Foreverhaus by Kailey Tedesco
  • Sylvia Plath: Drawings, edited by Frieda Hughes
  • Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure by Lewis Hanxoc, a graphic memoir
  • The Times I Knew I Was Gay by Eleanor Crewes, a graphic memoir
  • The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
  • When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll
  • “9 Lies You Tell Yourself About Ghosthunting” by Aimee Picchi, Nightmare Magazine, Flash Fiction
  • “Alternate Rooms” by Nwuguru Chidiebere Sullivan, Nightmare Magazine, Poetry
  • “We Are Always Walking on Dead Things” by Emily Ruth Verona, Nightmare Magazine, Poetry
  • “Three Symptoms of a Disaster” by Angela Liu, Nightmare Magazine, Poetry
  • “Ritual” by Okwudili Nebeolisa, Nightmare Magazine, Poetry
  • “Bitch Moon” by Sarah Grey, Nightmare Magazine, Poetry
    • There opening of this poem left me breathless: “Here’s a secret we small-town girls/don’t spill: we’ve all been gutted/once. We’ve bled out in backwater/soil, our bodies bare as teeth. We’ve/worn our entrails like halos.”


On the media front: 

  • Clinical (2017), Soft and Quiet (2022), Clueless (1995–yep, I had never watched it until now!), and Dungeons and Dragons (2023)

  • I wanted to start watching The Dark, but I accidentally started playing In the Dark instead (it was also on my list) so I rolled with it and I’ve been enjoying the journey. I’m currently on episode 7 and I’ve cried a bunch so far and am just in love with Murphy’s character. It has a very Jessica Jones feel to it (I love unlikeable, sassy women), so I’m excited to see where this goes. 

  • Not Dead Yet: I was nervous there for a second in the last episode, but things turned out the way I hoped they would, and I’m still rooting for that friends-to-lover scenario with Nell and Edward. Again, this was a super cute, laid-back show and I ended up really enjoying it. As of writing this, it hasn’t been canceled or renewed for season 2, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

  • Beef: Dennis watched this show first and then told me it was a must-see, and because I’m always down for anything A24 puts out, it was an easy sell for me. I thought this show was smart and entertaining and I love a project that is just filled with unlikeable characters that you somehow still find yourself rooting for in odd ways? But the way it tackled happiness and mental health was just spot on. I love that we’re having these types of hard, uncomfortable conversations in our art now. More of that, please!

  • The Haunting of Hill House (rewatch): I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen this series now, but it never stops connecting with me and I always find myself crying at the end. I even had a dream that I was walking through Hill House shortly after watching it, and it made me realize how deep this story is in my bones. What a beautiful, tragic, mad place. I wonder how many times I’ve seen it in my dreams without realizing it. 

  • Z: The Beginning of Everything (rewatch): It’s been a while since I’ve seen this and so I decided to jump back in when I was having an especially rough day. Zelda is a beautiful type of madness and rebellion to me. I keep telling myself that I need to make time for her novel Save Me the Waltz and I really need to make that a priority here soon. I also have the book that the show is based on that I’d love to get around to as well. So many books to read, such little time!

  • The Twilight Zone: This month sent me into a rather intense depressive spiral. I really struggled, so I needed a comfort show, which meant that it was time to pay a visit to the twilight zone. I checked out the following episodes, some I’d seen before, others I hadn’t. 

    • “The Hitch-Hiker,” “Mirror Image,” “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” “Nightmare as a Child,” and “Eye of the Beholder.”

Podcasts:

Also as a reminder, if you enjoy and appreciate the work we do here in The Madhouse, you can show your support for the blog by "buying a coffee" (or two!) for our madwoman in residence: me! As always, I thank you for your time and support and I look forward to serving you another dose of all things unsettling and horrifying soon.

Best,

Stephanie


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