ALISON MCBAIN
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Once Upon a Scream Blog Tour

5/13/2016

2 Comments

 
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When I started writing for publication again after a ten-year hiatus, the first story I wrote was a retold fairy tale - it was a novel, in fact, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast where the roles were gender-inverted.  Since then, I have written over fifteen stories and poems that incorporate fairy tale elements (about half of which are published).  Some of them are influenced by Western fairy tales, some by my Japanese background or other cultures, but the one thing they all have in common is to take something familiar and try to see it in a new light.  And, often, that light is dark.

A short while ago, I heard about the open call for submissions by HorrorAddicts.net for a new anthology of dark fairy tales, Once Upon a Scream, and I creatively salivated.  Or salivated creatively.  One or the other - basically, I jumped for joy.  Figuratively, that is.

Although I do enjoy the more obscure fairy tales, what I wanted to do was take something well-known by its Disney, sanitized version and find a way to really twist it.  The one thing I felt about the Disney version of fairy tales is that they all center around an innocent - someone pure, someone who has a heart of gold.

But what if the main character DIDN'T have a heart of gold?  Where would the story lead then?

That's when "The Godmother's Bargain" was created.  When I mixed this:

via GIPHY



with this:

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via GIPHY

​There are a lot of fabulous, dark stories in this collection, so I hope you pick up a copy and enjoy it.  Happy reading!
2 Comments
[email protected]
6/13/2016 12:50:12 pm

I enjoyed "The Godmothers Bargain" - a macabre take on Cinderella. Well done!! Especially "...the figure was simply a darker hue against the black. There was something wrong about its outline, something that sucked at what light might have exposed it, that trapped the moon's gentle glow in a miser's fist and released only more darkness." Nice writing!

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Alison McBain link
6/20/2016 01:31:42 pm

Thanks, Jacque! I had a ton of fun writing it. :)

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    Who the heck is Alison McBain?

    I am a freelance writer and poet with over two hundred short pieces published in magazines and anthologies. Check out my 2024 writing challenge to write a book a week at Author Versus AI. For more info, please check out my "About Me" page.

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