Just in time for Halloween, we chat with Issue 043 author Alexandra Grunberg about her witchy, magical, and slightly ominous story “The Family Recipe.”
LSQ: This story has less of a plot and more of an ambling-through-time arc. What do you like about stories with no overt conflict? What can we get out of them?

LSQ: The idea of a family cookbook being passed down, enjoyed, and added to through generations is so wonderful. Where did you get the idea for this story? What made you add in a dash of deviousness?
Alexandra: I got the idea for the story while cooking with my flatmate. We have very different approaches to recipes – I follow guidelines exactly (I’ve even googled how much a ‘pinch of salt’ actually is) while my flatmate ‘lets the ancestors guide her’ when it comes to measurements and cooking times. It made me think of how personal cooking is and how much it is tied to the methods our families pass down to us, while also reflecting our own personalities through our approach to recipes. I liked to think that there could be that same casual, familial, and fun relationship to magic recipes. The ‘dash of deviousness’ surprised me – I thought I was writing a feel-good family piece. But in exploring the history of the family in relation to the cookbook, I remembered that magic books have their own histories and legends as well.
LSQ: What was the most enjoyable part about writing this story and why? The most difficult?
LSQ: What was the most enjoyable part about writing this story and why? The most difficult?
Alexandra: The most enjoyable part about writing this story was reaching the end, discovering for
myself the true ties that connected the family to this book and each other, and how that realization colored all the memories and moments that came before. The most difficult was going back and justifying the ending without (hopefully) making it too obvious and maintaining the dark surprise.
LSQ: Are there any other projects you’re currently working on? If so, could you tell us a bit about them?

LSQ: Are there any other projects you’re currently working on? If so, could you tell us a bit about them?
Alexandra: I am currently a postgraduate student in the DFA in Creative Writing program at the University of Glasgow. I am working on my dissertation, a novel that is a post apocalyptic retelling of The Merchant of Venice.