Thursday, March 13, 2014

Little Daughter and the Wolf

Rather than talk about my [wicked/hella/super....Is there a qualifier specific to the Midwest?] long hiatus, I'm going to talk about this other thing:



I'm extremely excited to have a story appearing in Fox Spirit's anthology The Girl at the End of the World!

Here is a blurb about the antho:

"It’s the end of days. The sky is falling, the seas are burning and your neighbour is a zombie. It’s brutal out there. It’s every man for himself and these heels are going to have to go; you simply can’t run in them!
Across two volumes, The Girl at the End of the World offers forty-one striking visions of the apocalypse and the women and girls dealing with it. From gods to zombies, from epic to deeply personal, from the moment of impact to a future where life is long forgotten; bestselling authors and exciting new writers deliver tales you’ll still remember when holed up in a fallout shelter with one remaining bullet and a best friend with a suspicious bite mark on their neck."

While my story, "Little Daughter," is not post-apocalyptic, this collection still seemed like a perfect fit as my main character is a girl whose own world, at least, has exploded (much at her own hand). The good people at Fox Spirit thought it fit too, so here we are!

Here is a blurb about "Little Daughter": 

" 'Little Daughter' is a 6,500 word dark fairytale that is more than simply the story of a fugitive princess, cursed with the Midas touch, and the crafty witch who ensnares her. It is a story about story itself, about how carelessly a singular life can be spun into a bedtime yarn, a fable, a cautionary tale. When the most influential phrase in a young girl's life is "Once upon a time," and her only role model is the myth she's made out to be, what hope can she have of blissful, anonymous normality? And to what lengths will she go to achieve it? Gather close, and allow Little Daughter to weave her word-song spell."

I'm especially proud of "Little Daughter" for two reasons: 1)  it's based on a fairytale my dad told me as a kid (and continues to tell to children in his capacity as a professional storyteller - perhaps the greatest job title ever!), which originates, I believe, from Russia, and I've always wanted to tell my own version. The nature of fairytales is purposefully amorphous; as an oral tradition, they are meant to be passed around, added to and subtracted from, to fit the moral agenda of the storyteller. This appeals to me and my terrible goldfish memory.  2) I'm currently working on expanding "Little Daughter" into a full length novel. Once I started in on the nature of story itself I just couldn't stop. Story's story never ends! Now I'm at 33,000 words and have at least that much to go. Wish me luck!

FUN FACT: When editing for the antho, most of my edits consisted of European-izing my work by adding a "u" to tons of words!

The Girl at the End of the World releases either later this month or sometime in April! I believe it will be available in ebook for those who don't want to deal with international shipping! I will keep you posted. In the meantime, you can find a list of stories here, and the contributors' bio page here (mine mentions pirates and was originally accompanied by the following photo to give it some context!).







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