The Witchy One | Community Engagement | Interviews
Witchy Interviews Sally Prag on Bagpipes, Homicidal Chickens, and Deeply Disturbing Entertainment 😳
Plus some other fascinating stuff…

Note from Liberty: In case you missed previous news on this topic, this is part of a series of interviews of writers for Hope, Healing and Humour, and Shorties But Goodies. Last week, Witchy asked if she could do an interview and in the end, we decided she could do all of them!
Therefore…this interview is conducted by Witchy, who doesn’t have her own Medium account so she’s borrowing mine. I have no idea what’s about to happen…😳
Hello, Everyone!
Oh, dear, I am scared! And excited. I have never done an interview before but I saw the one Liberty did last week and will try to follow what she did. Hmm. I just heard her mumble, “Uh-oh.” She looks nervous. Maybe she got bad news.
Anyway, I borrowed a few of the questions she asked Vidya last week and I did my best to think of more good ones to ask Sally Prag. I hope you like them.
Are you ready? I hope so. I’m not sure I am, but here we go!
1. What do you love most about writing?
I was originally drawn to writing because I used to be very shy and unsure of myself. Speaking was a problem — I would get lost for words often and words didn’t come to me easily when speaking with others. I was the worst at holding an argument or standing up for myself because I never had words to say.
Writing was my only way of processing what was in my head, and so I wrote a lot. I have kept a journal for many years because of this. Some years back, when I started trying to create an income online, I found that I really loved expressing myself to others with the written word — in blogs, social media, whatever — and started to really develop a knack for writing in an engaging and entertaining way.
Writing is still by far the best way for me to purge everything that is in my head. I feel as if I am talking with my best friends when I write, and we are having a laugh about the unexpected flow of words that comes forth. It’s really fun!
And, by writing from the heart, it’s such a powerful way to impact others.
Witchy: Wow. You used to be shy, too? I am very shy. But sh-h-h-h! Don’t tell anyone! It will ruin my image of being a mysterious witch!
You have been doing a lot of writing for a long time! It is obvious because you write so well and your stories are so good!
Liberty and I both love to read your work but oh, no! It could be dangerous for her! After all those divorces (17? 62? I can’t remember. It’s a lot), she should probably not go near anything that might lead to engagement.
Note from Liberty: 🤦🏻♀️
2. Is there anything unusual about you or your life that you would like to share?
I love to do things a little bit different from the conventional way.
Living in London during my university years made me realise how detached people are from basic survival skills and I decided that I wanted to live the opposite to a modern, city existence. So, I explored the country through the organisation, WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), and ended up moving more permanently to a farm in Cornwall where things like permaculture and veganism were practised and taught.
While I was at the farm, I built my own yurt from scratch. The wood came from the neighbouring Dutchy land (owned by Prince Charles — ssshhh don’t tell him). They were baby ash trees that would have been cut anyway from their horrible monocropping conifer wood. I stripped the bark by hand and steam-bent the wood over an old oil drum with water boiling on an outdoor fire.
I even stitched the original cover on a treadle sewing machine I had bought in India!
Other unusual things — I play the bagpipes, although I am very rusty on them, so I play recorder instead (Kristen Stark) to keep up practice of the music. Just until I have the chance to have my pipes overhauled and more time to get them out. I do have neighbours to consider!
Actually, I do really love playing the recorder…Kristen! I play the flute as well but that’s not so weird!
Witchy: Oh, my goodness! You have done scary and amazing things! I am completely impressed! I had to ask Liberty what a yurt was (and I won’t tell Prince Charles what you did!).
I would love to live on a farm. I think it would be a lot like when I lived in the Transylvania Forest. Except without trees. Or pinhead ex-boyfriend vampires. And I didn’t blow up anything. Well, mostly. 🙄
Oh, boy! I love the flute. It sounds so pretty!
You play with a bag of rusty pipes? That is…um…unusual. No wonder you worry about your neighbours. All that clanging must be very loud.
3. What options would you make for right-clicking on people?
I assume that you mean if I was to right click on walking, talking humans?
In which case, I would definitely right-click on my kids to do more tidying up and washing dishes. Perhaps the odd shoulder and back massage would be nice too!
When we go to the beach in the summer, it would be nice to right-click on people who can’t reverse down Devon lanes so that they suddenly find they can. Or maybe just right-click them to a part of the country that doesn’t involve a lot of narrow lanes — I mean, why drive down narrow lanes if you can’t work out how to get past cars coming in the opposite direction.
There you go…now you know my biggest pet hate too!
Witchy: Yes! That is what I meant. Right-clicking on walking, talking humans.
What a good idea to right-click to make someone wash dishes! My cauldron, Enchantra, washes ours. I kept breaking them. Ever since my magic was broken, I am not so good in the kitchen. The Fire Department isn’t too happy with me. 🙄
4. How many chickens would it take to kill an elephant, and how would they do it?
I can’t bear to think about anyone killing elephants, let alone chickens.
Big meanies! I don’t care how many it takes, just get a life, you mean chickens!
Witchy: That’s a good answer! Those dumb chickens are homicidal maniacs. Have you ever been chased by them? I have! It’s terrifying! And they peck, peck, peck your little blue legs off. Well, okay, not your little blue legs. Mine.
Ouchie.
5. What set of items could you buy that would make the cashier the most uncomfortable?
A couple of pairs of thongs, some leather dog collars, webbing straps, a couple of lengths of chain, a horse whip, a feather duster and some squirty cream.
I would then say to her/him, “The TV is broken so I am making my own alternative evening entertainment. Do you have any good suggestions for a fun evening activity?”
Witchy: 😳
6. What would be the worst possible name for a dental office?
Plaque Busters? The Floss Fairy? The Denture Bench? The Extractor Factor? Do any of those sound tempting?
Witchy: I just learned about dentists recently. We didn’t have those in the Transylvania Forest.
When I heard about them, I wasn’t sure if I would like them. But now I am very sure I would not! The Extractor Factor?? Oh, dear!
7. You are a piece of cutlery. You’re lying in a dark drawer all day with all the other cutlery. What goes on in there?
Well, for starters, there is a bit of animosity between the forks and the knives. They clash quite a lot, and the knives can be really sharp with the forks.
There’s a lot of forks and sometimes one of them falls into the knife compartment. There’s nothing they can do until our owner opens the drawer, sees the fallen fork, and moves it. I have had to listen to a fork weeping for hours at a time while it’s being bullied by the knives.
Mind you, we’re all a bit afraid of the forks. They do feel quite threatening. And, like I said, there are a lot of them.
I am only a teaspoon. I do have a pretty engraving of a clown on me, though. I think some of the other cutlery can get a bit jealous about that, but none of the spoons. We actually have a lot of fun; we play ourselves and make music for hours, harmonising with the big spoons and trying to drown out the squabbling of the knives and forks.
Witchy: Oh, my. I am glad I am not a spoon! Forks and knives are too pointy and scary for me, even without all the yelling. I would not want to be around them if they were fighting.
And I had no idea knives could be so mean. Pinheads!
But you must have an awful lot of fun because I hear many people talking about spooning, or saying they want to be the big spoon or the little spoon. Maybe they don’t know about all the yelling.
8. What’s the dumbest way you’ve ever hurt yourself?
I was once squatting on the floor and put my hand up to grab the edge of a table to pull myself up. I didn’t notice that there was an empty wooden bowl right where I grabbed and, as I went to pull my body weight up, I actually pulled the side of the bowl down. It flipped over and hit me so hard on the head that I had a proper egg shaped lump for several days.
Witchy: Oh, dear. That is definitely a dumb way to get hurt. I think you should have got a prize.
9. If your life had theme music like on TV, what would it be?
Ooh… Recently, this tune came up in some random “radio” I had playing on Spotify and it’s definitely my tune of the moment.
It sums up my life, and me — a bouncy, quirky mix of different styles and cultures; swing, klezmer, Parisian café-style, and a circus clown-theme all seem to come out of this piece of music: