Words
This story is the result of a mash-up of ideas (so nothing new there). I love Anne Sexton’s poem Words, and it had me thinking about the power of words―and this idea/concept/notion was percolating in the back brain. I re-read The Pied Piper and that was in the mental blender too. I seem to recall a period of despair about my writing and the elements in my head combined to create this little tale. Perhaps I was just trying to make myself feel better. My house and the house next door are very close together, but I swear that’s as far as things go. I do not own a green robe. This story was first published in issue #5 of an awesome little Australian journal called The Lifted Brow and was shortlisted for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story 2009.
The Little Match Girl
This is the first fairytale I remember my mother reading to me, most probably because it all ended in tears. Andersen’s The Little Match Girl is so much about first fears: loss, abandonment, being loveless and unloved, needs left unmet, a fate not of one’s own choosing. When I rewrote the story, I turned it ever so slightly on its axis: my Little Match Girl remained someone stripped of any helpers or carers, a woman who was abandoned. I wanted my version to give her agency and choice―that she choose her own end. So, I started to think about who she might have been (rather than a defenceless child), and that’s how my girl became someone who stands outside of society and refuses to bend to what others think she should do. I like to think her final words are a declaration of independence. This story was first published in ,Spring 2006 issue, and gained an in the 2007 (ed. Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant).
The Juniper Tree
This was also a story written for my Masters. At first I thought I was writing about the victimised child, but the more I read Marina Warner’s work in From the Beast to the Blonde, the more I realised it was about Second Wife and the plight of second wives in households where their security and economic stability could be threatened by the presence of children from a previous marriage. Historically, security was the key to survival and a woman had to fight to ensure the safety of her own. The idea of a universal female love for all children is entirely misplaced―the family home was the location of a turf war, of which husbands often seemed oblivious. I did, however, like the idea of there being a genuine affection between the step-siblings―who are most often cast in the roles of opponents in traditional fairytales. This story was first published in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet , July 2006.
Skin
I wanted a story that reversed the selkie myth and I wanted a tale of revenge and redemption. I’m quite fascinated by the consequences acts of carelessness and anger can have on love, how revenge can be regretted and I really liked the idea of a strangely happy end. This story was first published in , February 2008 issue.
The Bone Mother
I always thought Baba Yaga got a bad rap. I wanted to show her in a different light as someone whose power doesn’t lessen as she ages or become malign in her loss of youth and beauty. Here she’s a counter-balance to the crone in Bluebeard. I wanted my Baba Yaga to be more than a husk; she must be wise, strong, determined, she must stand alone proudly. I also wanted her to be tall and unbowed, for her face to be the map of her life that Vasilissa contemplates. This is the first time this story has been published.
The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You
I wrote this for Clarion South in Trent Jamieson’s week. It has been considerably reworked: from a smarmy short it has evolved into something much darker. It sprang out of my vague annoyance with people (generally women) who are so desperate for relationships that they’ll put up with anything in order to keep a partner. I then married this initial concept with the tradition of the zombie as a slave (not a Romero-supercharged-brain-eating monster). I wanted to hark back to proper zombie lore, with the creatures as compliant servants who’ll return to their graves if fed salt. This is the first time this story has been published.
Light as Mist, Heavy as Hope
This story sprang from one of my stranger ideas. I’d been thinking about how to rework Rumplestiltzskin while watching a crime thriller one night, in which a character observed that paedophiles don’t wear big signs or the mark of the beast to distinguish them from everyone else. The idea was that it was so damned hard to know who was safe and who wasn’t. I’d always wondered about the little fairytale man’s motivation―and since Rumplestiltzskin has always creeped me out I just made him a bit creepier. This story was fDrollerie Press’ anthology in June 2009.
Dresses, Three
This story was commissioned by Shimmer for their Art issue in Spring 2008. I was given a piece of art by the amazingly talented Chrissy Ellsworth for inspiration. The piece, “My Life as a Fashion Designer”, had a woman with a dress of birds, feathers and words, and I thought about the tale of Donkeyskin. The princess in that story demands three dresses of her father, one like the stars, one like the moon, the other like the sun. I knew I wanted one of peacock feathers, one of butterfly wings, but needed to chat with my sister about the form the third dress. Shell helped me get the idea to crystallise. The story was s for the Best Fantasy Short Story in 2008, and won an 2008 edited by Ellen Datlow, 2009.
The Girl with No Hands
This story was also written for my Masters and found a home with Gavin and Kelly at #23 in 2008. It’s a remix of the original German tale with elements of Welsh folklore and other ‘bits’ from my messy brain thrown in. Again, I wanted to rehabilitate a character who always got a bad rap, the King’s mother, and I also wanted the main character Madchen to be a bit more active in what she did instead of just having things happen to her. Plus, I kind of wanted to include a king with a pear fetish.
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The publisher would like to thank
Elizabeth Grzyb, Angela Slatter, Lisa L Hannett, Jack Dann, Kim Wilkins, Simon Brown, Jonathan Strahan, Peter McNamara, Ellen Datlow, Grant Stone, Jeremy G Byrne, Sean Williams, Garth Nix, David Cake, Simon Oxwell, Grant Watson, Sue Manning, Steven Utley, Bill Congreve, Lisa Bennett, Terry Dowling, Stephen Dedman, the Mt Lawley Mafia, the Nedlands Yakuza, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Angela Challis, Donna Maree Hanson, Kate Williams, Kathryn Linge, Melissa Donald, Andrew Williams, Al Chan, Alisa Krasnostein, everyone I’ve missed ...
... and you.
Table of Contents
The Living Book
The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales Page 15