The Proust Questionnaire is one of the most famous series of questions asked in interviews and used for self-reflection. According to Vanity Fair, “The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised)
by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.”  Proust Your Protagonist is a series that interviews authors writing from the POV of their lead characters to answer the Proust Questionnaire.

Here is the basic Proust Questionnaire told from the point of view of Gretchen Marigold, the lead character in Sabrina Marley’s romantic sapphic fantasy A Witch’s Entanglement. It’s currently available as an eBook and on Kindle Unlimited; in paperback; and with an audiobook releasing December 20!

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What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Laying in the grass at The Abbey, sun shining on my face, and a beautiful witch next to me. We’re both naked.

 What is your greatest fear?

That my past won’t stay there, in the past, where it belongs.

 What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Deplore? That’s a strong word. I suppose I could stop sleeping with women who are otherwise attached, and maybe I should be a little nicer to my mom, but what’s a young witch to do? Life is meant to be lived… Right?

 What is the trait you most deplore in others?

People who can’t just be themselves.

 Which living person do you most admire?

Is it bad if I say Squeaky Fromme…?

 What is your greatest extravagance?

Technically they aren’t mine, but I stole a pair of buttery and delicious leather boots from my mom. Don’t tell her though, because she’ll kill me. Even though they fit me better.

 What is your current state of mind?

Lustful.

 What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Chastity.

 On what occasion do you lie?

I rarely lie unless cornered, meaning it only happens when I’m either being hit on by a guy at the bar, or when someone is about to find out I’m a witch.

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

My hair. No wait—my legs. Yeah. My legs. Oh, or my eyes? Maybe my style?

 Which living person do you most despise?

My cousin RJ. He was evil incarnate when we were kids and I can’t imagine he’s grown up to be any better. Not that I would know—I cut him out of my life a long, long time ago.

 What is the quality you most like in a man?

That’s a tough one. I suppose I like when a man likes other men.

 What is the quality you most like in a woman?

I love honest, unapologetic women who know what they want. I also like shy women. I like women who laugh at bad puns and women who have such a good poker face you can never really tell what they are thinking.

Oh god, and don’t even get me started on a woman in tights.

 Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

I definitely try to fit ABBA lyrics into conversation way too often. For instance, I recently met a beautiful woman with a face sculpted by the gods themselves, and I’ve been having to remind myself to not ‘look too deep into those angel eyes.”

Not because I think she’s going to hurt me—honestly, I’d be honored if she did hurt me… just a little—but because I’ve never felt this way before and it’s making me crazy.

 What or who is the greatest love of your life?

… Is it weird to say that I think I just met her a few days ago?

 When and where were you happiest?

When my mom and I moved to the Abbey. Finally, we were surrounded by women like us, and I was allowed to actually start honing my magic. Realizing that we were safe, supported, and had free reign to spellcast was like being released from a straightjacket.

 Which talent would you most like to have?

I’d love to be able to do a one-handed cartwheel. Tabby, another witch in the coven, can do them, and it just looks like so much fun.

 If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I suppose I could use a little more self discipline…

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My list of Bad-Man-Ban hexes. I’ve been working on crafting this list for a while, so that I always have something in my back pocket when I’m at the bar and I see a man doing something obnoxious—like bothering a woman who obviously doesn’t want to talk to him. Some of the hexes are pretty clever, if I do say so myself.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

I’d come back as one of the stop signs that gets stolen every year by Wellesley freshmen women, that way I would finally find out where they’ve been hiding all the stolen signs for decades!

Or, I’d come back as a rich British woman’s beagle.

 Where would you most like to live?

I’m already living there – with the rest of my coven in The Abbey. It’s no longer an operational abbey, although if any lost nuns stumbled onto the grounds looking for community, we would welcome her with open arms. We’d just have to hide some of the pentagrams…

 What is your most treasured possession?

My record player. The second is my vinyl of Joni Mitchell’s Blue.

 What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

The misery that comes from fearing, and therefore denying, your true self.

 What is your favorite occupation?

Spellcasting.

What is your most marked characteristic?

My gall.

What do you most value in your friends?

A sense of humor.

 Who are your favorite writers?

Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, and Radclyffe Hall

 Who is your hero of fiction?

Umm… Barbarella maybe?

 Which historical figure do you most identify with?

I know I shouldn’t say Squeaky Fromme again, so… Let’s go with Gloria Steinem.

 Who are your heroes in real life?

My mother.

What are your favorite names?

Hmm. I like unique names. Ones you don’t hear every day… The name Jace has been rattling around my head for a few days, and I think it’s one of the prettiest sounds I’ve ever heard.

 What is it that you most dislike?

The patriarchy.

 What is your greatest regret?

That I didn’t show those who hurt me in the past what I’m actually capable of. Maybe one day I’ll get the chance.

How would you like to die?

An old lady, laying in bed next to the love of my life. Or by the hand of a gorgeous, vengeful femme fatal type.

 What is your motto?

If you’re having a bad day, there are three ways to turn it around — a good song, a good spell, or some good sex.

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ABOUT A WITCH’S ENTANGLEMENT

It’s early fall, 1975. The war is over, ABBA recently released their spectacular third studio album, and Gretchen Marigold is having the time of her life.

Making her way lovingly through the wanna-be witches who live alongside real magic users in her coven, Gretch is leaving a trail of broken hearts but satisfied lovers in her wake. Her life in the small town of Starbridge, Massachusetts is fun, carefree, and enchantingly delicious.

Across town, rushing to a lecture on the Religions of Precolonial Mexico, Jace’s life is the opposite of carefree. Though she too is a witch, and a far more powerful one at that, she’s less than two semesters away from finishing her PhD at Wellesley College, and her schedule is jam-packed. As a black woman in academia, she has to work twice as hard for half the credit. As an ambitious woman with goals of helping others like her gain access to a quality education, Jace works three times as hard.

When these two very different witches meet, their opposing viewpoints and attitudes towards magic proves eruptive. In more ways than one.

But just as their unrelenting attraction towards each other begins to blossom into something deeper, a charismatic and thoughtful visitor comes to town and everything changes.

Is the passion between Jace and Gretchen enough to supersede their differences, or will they be torn apart by the opinions of others and the shadows of their past?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sabrina Marley is an author, dog lover, and collector of nature-inspired tattoos. She writes witchy romances with tons of heat, humor, and magic. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading, hiking, or rewatching any number of paranormal television classics. When taking an online quiz for which Buffy the Vampire Slayer character she is, Sabrina desperately wishes that she’d get Buffy, but deep down she knows she’s really more of a Willow with a little bit of Drusilla mixed in.

Website: http://sabrinamarley.com/
Instagram: sabrinamarley14

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