Making Sense of the Classics

We are getting closer to the release of Gaslight & Grimm (out May 29th) !!!!

Featured author James Chambers stopped by to share a little something with us 🙂

Making Sense of the Classics

By James Chambers

Next to “Hansel and Gretel,” the fairy tale that most impressed me as a child is “Little Red Riding Hood.” While “Hansel and Gretel” ends with the kids turning the tables on their would-be devourer and serving her up an awful demise, “Red Riding Hood” took things to an even more absurd degree. First, the wolf talks it up all through the woods instead of simply snatching Red off the trail and chowing down in his natural habitat. Even as a naïve kid I scratched my head at that but I figured the wolf had his reasons. When he dons Grandma’s nightgown and tries to pretend he’s her, it ratchets the weird up to another level. But the peak of the story for me, the absurd image that has stuck in my mind for decades, is the final moment when the kindly woodsman kills the wolf, cuts her open, and Grandma emerges unharmed. I vividly imagined the wolf splitting open, his organs squashed against the insides of his body, and Red’s aged and naked grandmother stepping out drenched with gore (EDITOR’S NOTE: And so is it is any surprise with visualizations like this at even a young age, James Chambers has grown up to write intense and visceral horror).

Since then, I’ve often seen this fairy tale eroticized and sensualized in stories and movies, a disturbing juxtaposition for me. I understand how it can be interpreted in that way or at the very least being about the perversion of innocence, but I’ve always been more fascinated with the metaphors of transformation and consumption. When I wrote “In Wolf’s Clothing” for Gaslight and Grimm, I attempted to make sense of all these odd notions about what on the surface is meant to be a simple entertainment for children but is in fact much more.

James Chambers’ tales of horror, crime, fantasy, and science fiction have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. Publisher’s Weekly described his collection of four Lovecraftian novellas, The Engines of Sacrifice, as “chillingly evocative.” His other books include the novellas Three Chords of Chaos, as well as The Dead Bear Witness and Tears of Blood (the first two volumes in the Corpse Fauna series), and the story collections Resurrection House and The Midnight Hour: Saint Lawn Hill and Other Tales with illustrator Jason Whitley. His stories have appeared in the award-winning Bad-Ass Faeries and Defending the Future anthology series as well as Allen K’s Inhuman, Bare Bone, Chiral Mad 2, Clockwork Chaos, Deep Cuts, Fantastic Futures 13, The Green Hornet Chronicles, Hardboiled Cthulhu, In an Iron Cage, Mermaids 13, Shadows Over Main Street, The Spider: Extreme Prejudice, To Hell in a Fast Car, Qualia Nous, Walrus Tales, With Great Power, and many other publications. He has edited and written numerous comic books including Leonard Nimoy’s Primortals and the critically acclaimed “The Revenant” in Shadow House. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the recipient of the HWA’s 2012 Richard Laymon Award. He is online at http://www.jameschambersonline.com.

Links to Gaslight & Grimm

Blog – https://especbooks.wordpress.com/
Website – http://www.especbooks.com/Projects/GaslightAndGrimm.htm
Kickstarter – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/e-specbooks/gaslight-and-grimm-steampunk-faerie-tales
Kindle – http://www.amazon.com/Gaslight-Grimm-Steampunk-Faerie-Tales-ebook/dp/B01E6C03OA/
Print – http://www.amazon.com/Gaslight-Grimm-Steampunk-Faerie-Tales/dp/1942990316/
NOOK – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gaslight-grimm-jody-lynn-nye/1123660280?ean=9781942990321
GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28522644-gaslight-and-grimm
GoodReads Giveaway – https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/183549-gaslight-and-grimm

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Little Red Riding Hood…yet another classic I will have to revisit before I dive into G&G…

Is anyone else getting as excited as I am to read these tales?