Hey folks! This week, my new novella comes out in the collection A SINISTER QUARTET. I couldn’t be more excited to share this horror story with you. But how did I get here, to horror? Well, it started with a fairytale.
If you’ve read older iterations of fairytales, you’ll probably realize that a lot of them have more in common with campfire stories than with Disney’s upbeat animated sagas.
“Fairytales are horror stories at heart,” says Karina Wilson. She goes on to add:
“[Fairytales are] part warning, part reassurance. You’re not lost in the woods right now, but one day you might be. Here’s a story about what happens to a child who strays from the path and doesn’t go straight to Grandmother’s cottage, or tries to pick a fruit from a forbidden tree or gain the affection of a stepmother. This is what happens when things get really bad, but with a little luck, some quick thinking, and some outside help, everything will turn out fine. Just listen.”
Karina Wilson, “LURID: Grimly Fiendish – The Horror in Fairytales”
Fairytales are horror at their heart — and reflecting on that is what made me write “Viridian” at all. See, when I was a kid, my parents gave me and my brother two recordings of fairytales on tape, and we played them over and over. One of those stories was “Bluebeard” and that tale was the inspiration for this story. I wanted to take this story and bring it into our world and our time, and I hope I’ve managed.
So, if you’re at all into fairytale retellings, if you like stories of ghosts and haunted houses and rich men with secrets, let me invite you now to join me on a roadtrip to a very special place. It’s a beautiful house by a lake, and its name is Evergreen…
Please don’t forget that when you purchase this book, you’ll also be getting three other stories, stories about a city of salt ruled by hungry angels, about murderous fairy balls, stories about monsters that quilt themselves together out of the ones you love. Four stories for $7.99 if you get the ebook, which I think is a pretty excellent price. If you’re still on the fence about it, you can check out a preview of the book via our online reading, now up on Youtube.
I do hope you love each and every word.
Regular posts resume next week. Want to support this blog? Buy books, make a Paypal donation, or subscribe to my Patreon.
Amanda J. McGee, Author 
Leave a Reply