Household Agony!

Sometimes when worlds collide beautiful things happen, like tortoiseshell cats or deep-fried Mars bars. Other times it’s just me, tip tapping on my computer and thinking, I might just be able to get away with this…  

Welcome to Household Agony, a mash up of Household Lore and Folklore Agony! 

To celebrate my new book Household Lore publishing on 11 November (available to pre-order, don’t you know), the Folklore Agony Aunt has decided to dedicate her time to shining a folkloric light into the darkest crevices of your homes. 

Are the demons that dance on your roof at night keeping you awake? Have you noticed the foxes in your garden acting suspiciously? Looking for love but confused as to which herb you should sprinkle on your carpet to lure it homewards? Worried you’ve invited twelve guests for dinner with you making the thirteenth? Is your silverware looking a little dull? Do you have a tickly cough? No problem too small, no dilemma too mundane, no setback too supernatural, the Folklore Agony Aunt has your back.

A problem shared is a problem halved and also an excellent way for me to exploit your pain for marketing purposes. Some problems will be published as blogs leading up to publication, others will be saved for a Q&A on publication day. To engage the services of the Folklore Agony Aunt, just fill out this form and submit (it’s all completely anonymous). And if you’re not particularly worried about your creaking staircase or the strange goth with the super long tongue living behind your shower curtain, do please share this post with friends and family who might not be so insouciant.

If you’ve not already subscribed to my blog, now is the time as I’ll soon be sharing information on the book such as how to get your hands on exclusive bonus material, the audiobook(!) and appearances in other media. You can also follow me on Bluesky and Instagram. To subscribe, just keep scrolling.

In the meantime, while you’re thinking about what problems you may need help with, here are a couple of older posts that relate to house and home for some inspiration:

After all, who doesn’t want to learn how parsley can delay a hangover or how hummus can make sexy time surprisingly less beige…?

Household Lore is available to pre-order from all good bookshops and online here: https://watkinspublishinglinks.com/householdlore. Please support your local independent bookseller if possible!