Mint Juleps, Mud Pie and MacBeth

by Bronwen Forbes

Everyone who has ever acted onstage or worked behind the scenes of a play knows that Shakespeare's shortest, bloodiest play, MacBeth, is cursed. Actors and audience members have died during performances, storms have destroyed theaters where it was playing, and even quoting famous lines from the play can bring about show-stopping disaster. So when the tackiest, most tasteless dinner theater in the Midwest launches its own musical version of MacBeth, complete with dancing witches, an unruly dog, a Wiccan assistant stage manager and the Curse, things are bound to get interesting.

218 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 2009

About the author

Bronwen Forbes died April 10th, 2011 from a heart attack. She was undergoing chemotherapy for inflammatory breast cancer and it is believed that the chemo drugs were a major contributing factor in her death. She was only 48 and left behind her husband Alex and their kindergarten-aged daughter Rose.

Forbes wrote articles for Circle Magazine and WitchVox that were warm and witty; she blogged on LiveJournal and Facebook; she made and sold witchy crafts on Etsy; she co-founded Free Spirit Alliance; she wrote a lovely book about mummers’ plays and seasonal songs and dances; and most recently, she surveyed or interviewed scores of Pagans to compile her latest book about Pagans living in small towns.

Reviews

[Verity Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

if HANDBOOK FOR MORTALS sounded like an interesting premise, but you were appalled at how badly it was handled, read this instead. It's got magic and romance in a theatre, but it also has likeable characters, believeable conflicts, plot development, and an ending that made the read worthwhile.