We need to talk about the darkness in the room
Oct 27, 2023 4:15 pm
Sometimes I'm not in the mood for torture
I love Halloween and enjoy the decorations people put up around their houses, but my tastes run more toward the autumn leaves and pumpkins than to grisly corpses. Horror seemed much easier to handle when I was a teenager, before I learned about the real horrors happening every day in the world and didn't see a need to wallow in a facsimilie of it. But horror and fantasy are close cousins, and tension comes most naturally when the stakes include, well, literal deadly stakes.
Shapeshifter's Turf is my darkest book, followed closely by Hawthorn's Hex. I kind of surprised myself with how dark I went in those books. I try to pull back on how much kids are hurt, but when plausibility and sensibility come into conflict, I can't pull punches. Bad stuff happens to Tessali because to do otherwise wouldn't make much sense.
But in my work in progress, there's a scene in which someone needs to get brutally murdered, and I just didn't want to show it on screen. So I kept the victim literally faceless, not mentioning their gender or any details except a dropped hint that they probably deserved it. Guess I'm just not in a dark enough place in my life right now to handle that.
Tessali has been abducted to care for kidnapped children. Even if the ransom is paid, what will happen to her? (Wide)
Did you enjoy this book? I'd love your ratings and reviews.
What makes Shapeshifter's Turf darker than my work in progress is that when the children and Tessali are kidnapped, I bring their suffering and anxiety to life. They are truly innocent victims, and there's some sexual violence as well (not glorified, because ew.) To me, those scenes are darker than when a character is literally eviscerated, especially if the gutting happens off screen. But don't worry, as dark as this book is, at least no animals are killed. Well, a few werewolves die, but those bastards got it coming.
PS. I'm up for an award. Visit here to see.
P.P.S. Dryad's Blade is now available on audio. It should be on audible now and extended distribution within a few weeks. Witch's Jewel is already available.
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