Once Upon a Scream Blog Tour

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:

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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!