Monstrous Beauty (4 page)

“Shadows' Bride” was the fourth of these stories to be written. An abbreviated version was originally published in
Shadow Box
, ed. Shayne Jiraiya Cummings and Angela Challis, in 2005; this was a charity ebook anthology consisting of extremely short flash fiction—I believe the limit was 120 words. (I've written
sentences
longer than 120 words.) The original version, which is the one included here, was and is a leisurely 200 words.

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As I said in the Afterword, when I wrote the first of these stories, I thought it was a one-off thing. Like conspiracy theory and fanfiction, however, this mode of writing turned out to be a set of lenses through which I could look at familiar things and see them in a new light. That first story spawned “Tower in Moonlight,” which then spawned more in turn.

This one was partially inspired by personal experience. I've had long hair since high school—“long” being “mid-back or lower,” and often down to my hips. In the winter, the dry air means my hair becomes infested with static electricity. You know those plastic desk-chair combos you find in schools? During class I would pull my ponytail or braid forward over my shoulder and find the tail end of it reaching for my face of its own accord. I joked that it was a starting premise for a horror movie . . . or, as it turns out, a horror short story.

“Tower in Moonlight” was originally published in issue #6 of
Shroud Magazine
, in 2009.

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This was the first story of the set to be written, and its starting concept was simple: what if the thing Little Red Riding Hood encountered was far worse than a wolf?

As questions go, it isn't very complicated, and I'm not the first author to ask it. But it opened a door in my head I hadn't even known was there: a door to a much darker kind of story than I'd written before, and a different style of writing. I found myself structuring my sentences differently, incorporating more description, reaching for more ornate language. I was (and am) a fantasy writer, but I started selling stories to horror magazines.

It didn't change my writing forever in the sense of causing me to leave behind what I'd previously done. I still wrote all the same kinds of stories as before, in the same kinds of prose. Thanks to this story, though, I also started writing
new
kinds of things. It added another dimension to my craft.

And so, though I cannot remember who I was talking to when this idea came into being, I would like to thank that person—whoever and wherever they are.

“The Wood, the Bridge, the House” was originally published in issue #9 of
Dark Wisdom
, in 2006. Prior to that, it won an Honorable Mention in the 2004
Chiaroscuro
Short Story Contest.

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By the time I wrote this story (the third in the sequence), I knew I
was
writing a sequence. I had done horrific things to “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rapunzel;” I started casting my eye about to see what else I could put through that particular grinder. It didn't take me long to come up with this one: according to my records, I finished it in the same month as “Tower in Moonlight.”

It is, of course, inspired by vampire movies and every story with an eldritch abomination that should not under any circumstances be woken. It's also influenced by my folklore studies, and the knowledge that fairy tales exist in many variant forms—some nicer than others.

“Kiss of Life” was originally published in
Beneath the Surface
, ed. Tim Deal, in 2008.

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My first stab at writing a “Beauty and the Beast” story for this set didn't work. It was called “Games in the Dark,” and I don't think I even bothered to revise it; certainly I never submitted it anywhere. I knew before I was even done that I'd taken a wrong turn somewhere.

The problem was that I had made the Beast a monster. While there's no reason this can't work in general (and it's more or less the way the original story goes), on this occasion I had resoundingly failed to
make
it work—and it didn't fit with the set regardless. As I said in the Afterword, I finally realized that the previous five stories had all been about the monstrous feminine. “Games in the Dark” wasn't. So I set it aside, asked myself “how can I make Beauty monstrous?,” and tried again.

The result is my favorite of these stories, and also probably the least awful one of the set. (What that says about me is left as an exercise for the reader.) Compared with the rest, Beauty here isn't so terribly monstrous; she isn't a flesh golem or pregnant with eldritch abominations or sucking the life out innocent princes. She's just dead. Arguably the Beast himself is still the monster here, because of his refusal to accept the truth—but in the end, I feel pity for him, which is not generally true of me and monsters.

“Waiting for Beauty” was originally published in issue #39 of
Apex Magazine
, in 2012; it was also included in
The Book of Apex: Volume 4
, ed. Lynne M. Thomas, in 2013.

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Marie Brennan is an anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for material. She most recently misapplied her professors' hard work to the Onyx Court historical fantasy series (
Midnight Never Come
,
In Ashes Lie
,
A Star Shall Fall
, and
With Fate Conspire
). She is also the author of the doppelanger duology of
Warrior
and
Witch
, the adventure
A Natural History of Dragons
, and more than forty short stories.

When she's not obsessing over historical details too minute for anybody but her to care about, she practices shorin-ryu karate and pretends to be other people in role-playing games (which sometimes find their way into her writing).

    

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