FAE - Interviews with Kari Castor, Christine Morgan and Kristina Wojtaszek

FAE”

Publication Date: July 22, 2014 • Fantasy / Horror Anthology

Trade paperback, 250 pages • ebook

ISBN: 978-0692207918

Edited BY RHONDA PARRISH

World Weaver Press

Alpena, MI (May 8, 2014) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced Fae, a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, July 22, 2014. 

Synopsis: Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. Fae covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist. With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

Kristina Wojtaszek author of “Solomon’s Friend”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

Solomon's Friend is actually my own very personal story of raising a son with Asperger's.  All of Kadie's doubts about herself as a mother are mine; all of Solly's unique views of the world around him are my son's (although not everything Solly does or says in the story are true to life).  Hobby, the cantankerous, brash old hob that narrates much of the story, came from an often-ignored voice of my own-- a well of common sense and courage that sparkles every now and again on a quiet, moonlit night, reminding me that I am making some of the right connections with my child, that I am loving him every moment of every day, and that there is still a bit of magic left in the world, especially in the curious and cautious mind of my child.  And maybe even in me.

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories?

That depends on how you define fairy or fae.  There is a great variety of fairy-types across cultures, and many of those overlap easily with creatures that we might classify as something else altogether.  I have a hard time deciphering the difference between fae and elves, myself, so if you consider the human-sized elfin spirits as creatures of fae, then yes, I've written of them, and even named them fae in my novella, Opal, and in the sequel to come.  What intrigues me most about any type of fae is the idea that they can see and interact with elements of nature that we blatantly miss out on.  Is it truly they that are strange, or are we humans even more bizarre in the way we have segregated ourselves so completely from the natural world we were born a part of?  I like taking on a viewpoint that makes the world of nature more meaningful, more magical, than what we humans deem it to be.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story?

The narrator of my story is a hob, which is a type of Brownie, or household spirit.  There are many species of household spirits, some more menacing than others (like the hobgoblin or the boggart).  According to myth, these household spirits are often quite involved in domestic upkeep, and prefer to go unseen and unacknowledged except for an occasional gift left out of a bit of food or milk.  But if you try to seek them out and give them payment for their work, especially in the form of clothing, they take great offense and will disappear from the home forever. 

They are also offended by laziness.  My own hob takes great delight in licking dust from every surface and finding a multitude of crumbs in couch crevices and underneath car seats.  I'd say he's a bit more tolerant of accumulated filth than most house spirits, but his rules about gifts of clothing still stand.

Kari Castor author of “The Price”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

I was reading some Grimm's fairy tales, and I ran across this very short tale the Grimm brothers had collected and called "The Rose."  It was such an interesting snippet, and I'd never heard it before, and I really wanted to take the idea and expand it into a fuller story.

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories?

No, I actually have another short story that deals with fairies that I started working on before "The Price" ever sprang into my mind, but that earlier story is still in the revision stages right now.

If no,  why do you write fairy stories? What is it about them that appeals to you?

When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by magical creatures, including fairies, so as I got older I went seeking out a lot of the legends and folklore behind the pretty stories.  I think the discovery that the original stories often weren't so pretty -- that there was actually a lot of darkness in those tales -- made me love them even more.  There's something very compelling to me about the way the old stories intermingle beauty and danger.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story?

"The Price" definitely hearkens back to the old legends, particularly those that come out of the British Isles (like Sir Orfeo and "Thomas the Rhymer"), where the fairies are prone to kidnapping young men and women and whisking them away to the realm of Faerie.  These, of course, are not the small fluttering creatures we so often conjure up today in response to the word "fairy" - like John William Waterhouse's La Belle Dame sans Merci, they are more or less human in size and appearance.  They're not necessarily good or evil, but they tend to have their own agendas and desires and don't care much for what suffering they might cause others in the pursuit of them.

Christine Morgan author of “Rosie Red-Jacket”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

It was one of those articles about toy marketing for girls vs. boys, the dreaded "pink aisle" and special girly LEGO and that kind of thing. It led me into thinking about the whole history of toys and "traditional" gender-based play, which then led to all that stuff about snips and snails and puppy dog tails, boys are active and rambunctious, sugar and spice and everything nice for little girls all clean and polite ... and it annoys the heck out of me. Then I started thinking about Peter Pan, and how here's this wonderful world of excitement and adventure for the boys, but Wendy's expected to be the nice mommy, and wanted to write something where ... what if it went kind of a different way around? Why should the boys get to have all the fun? Why not make them pay for it, in a kind of malicious way?

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories?

Not at all. Always been very into them, going back to when I must've checked out a couple of those Andrew Lang color collections (the Green Fairy Book, the Red Fairy Book, etc.) every week. As I got older, I realized how much of a powerful female perspective they had ... as they should. Sure, it was the Brothers Grimm who collected them and got the credit, but it was the mothers, the big sisters, the grandmothers, who were making up and telling these stories. For me, as a writer, the real fun is in taking the classics and giving them a new twist or fun quirk, to play with the old tropes. And, sometimes, to do weird mash-ups or re-imaginings just to see what happens. I've recently, for example, sold one called "The Arkham-Town Musicians" to an anthology of Lovecraftian fairy tales, and I've got a heist version of Cinderella, "Cinder's Twelve," in another upcoming book.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story? Is that your favourite type of fae?

I think of Rosie as being of the Fair Folk / Puck-ish variety, sprite-like, but a little mean. Puck's depicted as a trickster, but generally benign, seeking to make amends and all that. Rosie's more the kind who would grow up to steal babies and replace them with changelings, or do real harm. That kind, for me, is the most fun to write about because they might look human enough, but their attitude is completely inhuman, not bound by or even understanding human morality. I also like the little winged pixie-types; more Disney's Fantasia with the nature magic and the flowers and the snowflakes ... which mostly didn't interact with humans but just flitted about and did their thing.

Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling.