'Ask Baba Yaga' Is Getting Published! (And She Needs Your Help)

Vasilissa the Wise by Arantzazu Martinez

No - we're not asking for money, or anything similar. What Baba Yaga needs is your questions. Now.

It has been confirmed that oracle Taisia Kitaiskaia, has been offered a publishing deal for a published collection of Ask Baba Yaga. Here's the notice to Taisia from her agent:

And the official Publishers Marketplace announcement:

"Author of the forthcoming LITERARY WITCHES Taisia Kitaiskaia's ASK BABA YAGA, a collection of her surreal advice column of the same name for The Hairpin as well as all-new material, featuring write-in queries with responses from the perspective of a mythical Russian witch, to Allison Adler at Andrews McMeel, by Adriann Ranta Zurhellen at Foundry Literary + Media (NA)."

CONGRATULATIONS TAISIA!

Taisia has specifically asked for Once Upon A Blog readers to help out our favorite advisor by providing a wide variety of questions Baba Yaga can consider answering, to include in the new book. (!) Although she can't guarantee that every question will be answered and published, she is very keen to answer as many as she can in the time given her.

Mikhail Petrov

She's looking for 15 new questions in particular, and, as we know, first letters in, get the hungriest Baba!

Ask Baba Yaga, the book, has yet to have a confirmed release date, but we have our fingers crossed for 2017.

We'll make you a deal - if we hear via oracle-post that Once Upon A Blog readers have been eagerly sending Baba Yaga questions, we will host a giveaway contest of the volume when it is released.

Deal?

Good.

Go write up your message, send it, and we'll wait here, because we have more news to share.

Go on.

We're not going anywhere...

*whistling*

Back? OK then.

As we mentioned, that's not the only project our favorite oracle is working on. She's collaborating with friend and artist Katy Horan on a volume titled, Literary Witches, in which they've imagined canonized writers (such as Emily Bronte and Virginia Woolf) as witches. It works so well, you wonder if perhaps they might not have uncovered a long-hidden truth...

Take a look at some examples:

Amazing, no? You can see a few more examples HERE.

As far as the Ask Baba Yaga column goes, Kitaiskaia is still serving as oracle when she can, though a little less frequently at present and does hope to continue with it after publishing as well, though that all depends on how the wind, and Baba Yaga, blows at that point in time.

Mikhail Petrov

In the meantime, let's do all we can to get that collectible volume published, er, support Taisia with her expanding publishing career and help inspire her communication with Baba Yaga, by providing lots of brief, searching and heartfelt emails. And don't worry - your darkest secret questions will not have your name attached. (We should note, we would happily have Baba Yaga give us a nickname if she so preferred, as unflattering as it's likely to be.)

So, dear readers, email your questions directly to Baba Yaga herself - as soon as possible - using the address below:

AskBabaYaga AT gmail DOT com

Taisia awaits your requests and assistance in approaching Baba Yaga, for the benefit of us all.

It doesn't have to be fancy, flattering or formal - just a single sentence question is fine. Baba Yaga doesn't have much patience for more than that anyway.

Now, if you haven't already, go write your burning question - make it a good one - and hit that 'send' button ASAP. You may get your answer in permanent print!

You may be wondering: but where's our Thursday dose of advice? It's coming. Later today, this time. We wanted to be sure you saw this, and acted on it, first.

Stay tuned!

Note: we promise to provide updates on the Ask Baba Yaga volume as we get them. In the meantime, we will keep our column going for as long as Baba Yaga makes it possible.