Dear friends,

I have been quiet because all of my writing energy has been going into writing a horror novel. It's a loose retelling of 'Sleeping Beauty'; one of the darkest fairy tales to ever exist.

The poem 'Briar Rose' by Anne Sexton doesn't shy away from what the story is about – rape culture.

You can stick a needle
through my kneecap and I won't flinch.
I'm all shot up with Novocain.
This trance girl
is yours to do with.

n.b. I would highly recommend reading the whole poem, but with the note that it is about incestuous abuse.

My story is also inspired by older, more unsanitised, versions of the tale like 'The Moon and Sun and Talia' which is a cannibal story; the children that Briar Rose bears in her sleep are later eaten.

Fairy tales tend to make good material for horror stories because they have so much in common.

I have always been a ravenous fan of horror because of its capacity for empathy, morality, and the recognition of the darkest impulses that run through us all.

Horror stories are in the zeitgeist, for obvious reasons! Hell is all around us. But they never really go out of fashion.

These are stories that recognise racism, misogyny, queerphobia, transphobia, poverty, sexual violence and so many other systemic and interpersonal harms.

They are stories that literalise the idea of returning the shame back to the perpetrator.

They also offer the deep pleasures of transgressive and erotic abandonment. Characters who bite back. Who devour the devourer.

I don't know about you but that feels like a good time to me.

🜁🜃🜂🜄

🪞Infinity Mirrors

• If you have ever considered taking a leap in the dark with your own creative practice, May Ngo has just begun to offer individual mentoring for writers at Writer’s Compass. You could not wish for a more thoughtful, supportive, and intuitive guide.

• Emily C. Hughes has long been doing the lord’s work of making a consistent, coherent round-up of every horror novel released each month. I defy you not to find something appealing in her exhaustive Jump Scares lists.

Until next time,

Lux ✨