Author Interview - Sidney Blaylock (Fae)

“FAE”
EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH
Alpena, MI (July 22, 2014)– World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced FAE, a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, is available in trade paperback and ebook today, Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you've never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. FAE is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies to modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. FAE bridges traditional and modern styles, from the familiar feeling of a good old- fashioned fairy tale to urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist. This anthology covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters.
With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories
from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz
Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek. 

FAE is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.
Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.
World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling.

 

Sidney Blaylock author of “Faerie Knyght”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

Surprisingly enough, Faerie Knight started with an idea of gaining mystical powers from the names of full moons and using that power for the greater good.  There are names for each of the full moons that vary depending on the source, but there were two constants: Hunter’s Moon and Harvest Moon.  I wanted a character that received his power during the Hunter’s Moon and then lost it once the Hunter’s Moon was over.  Tide played a huge role in the magical system, but I dialed that back in later drafters.

There was always a faerie element to the story—the original antagonist was a Redcap (a malevolent fae who dye their caps in their victim’s blood) along with two trolls.  They had stolen a changeling for the Queen of the Fae.  That story evolved after I rediscovered Spencer’s The Faerie Queene (which I had read excerpts from in a college class).  Using Spencer’s work as inspiration, the story started to fall into place and it morphed into the story that is in Fae the moment I reimagined the Faerie Queen as a force for good in the world.

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories?

No, I’ve written other things dealing with fairies.  I’ve written another short-story about an elven gunslinger called Knight of the Wylde West (tentatively coming out in November of this year).  I’ve also written the script for the first issue of a (projected) four issue comic book series entitled, Faerie Fire, which I liken to The Lord of the Rings meets Roger Zelanzny’s Amber series featuring warring factions of Elves for the throne of the Faerielands.  I’m hoping to find an artist for this project in the sometime soon, so I safely say that I don’t think the Fae are done with me yet.

I like the element of magic and it is the mystical nature of faeriekind that appeals to me.  I’ve always been interested in the fantastical and this has translated into a love of science fiction and fantasy.  Writing about the faerie allows me to create characters, plots, and settings that are far from ordinary, or like in Faerie Knight, have the mystical and fantastical hidden in our mundane world.  It’s that potential that makes faerie stories (or speculative fiction, for that matter) so appealing for me to write.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story?

So, my story is a little different in that my protagonist is essentially a “changeling.”  He was abandoned by his birth parents due to his disability and taken in to the Seelie Court by the Queen.  The antagonist (which I call a Samhain) is not technically a faerie either, but the idea of Halloween.  I’ve made it a faerie and not a very pleasant one at that.  His description (a pumpkin-head and a scythe) recalls the idea of the Halloween which was a harvest festival.  However, I tried very hard to ground my characters in a setting using traditional faerie tropes: the Seelie Court, trolls, a magical system based on Glamour (illusion vs reality), and elements of the good/bad elements of being a “changeling..”

My favorite type of fae would be elves. I was lucky enough to find Dungeons and Dragons early in its life-cycle (when TSR still published the system).  I loved the way that they portrayed elves: lithe, quick, preternaturally gifted and able to master whatever they set their mind to do.  Slight in build, but strong in heart and character, the elves in the D&D universe (which I later discovered was an evolution of Tolkien’s elves from his works) were the model to which I aspired.

Sara Puls author of “Ten Ways to Self-Sabotage, Only Some of Which Relate to Fairies”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

My inspiration for writing this story was something pretty mundane--I had a bit of an ant problem at my house. Somehow, that got me thinking about a fairy infestation...

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories?

I have written one other fairy story of sorts--about a lady that works as a "matchmaker" for the fairy creatures, where fairies are loosely defined as "creatures that exist because we believe in them. Because we talk about them and write about them and dream about them." That story is available here.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story?

Well, my story actually contains about eleven types of fairies, including pixies! selkies! dryads! and trolls! The most prominently-featured fairy, however, is a “mermaid fairy,” who contributes to a bit of friction between the two main characters.

Shannon Phillips author of “The Fairy Midwife”

What was the inspiration for your Fae story?

Mine is actually a modern spin on a traditional Celtic fairy tale. In its original form, "The Fairy Midwife" centers on a woman who is (at first unwittingly) hired to serve as a midwife to a fairy mother. She gradually realizes that all is not as it seems, and the story can take several turns from there: in some versions she is dutiful and circumspect, and is paid with an apron-full of coal dust that turns to gold when she reaches her home. In other versions, she's more curious and takes a dab of fairy ointment for herself. When the father realizes that she can now see through glamors, he plucks out her eyes as punishment!

Anyway, I was inspired by that old folktale, but I wanted to bring it forward into the modern world. When I started to think about how modern technology would change the fairies and their world, I started to picture the Greenbud birthing center, and Madon, and Tara. The story almost told itself from that point.

Was this your first foray into writing fairy stories? If no,  why do you write fairy stories? What is it about them that appeals to you?

No, it's definitely not my first fairy story. The first story I ever published was a fairy tale, and I've just kept writing them since. My novel, The Millennial Sword, is all about fairies in San Francisco. I love folklore and mythology--I grew up on it, especially Celtic literature. From Lady Wilde, George MacDonald, and Lloyd Alexander all the way back to the Táin Bó Cúailnge and the Mabinogion...I love it all. It's what I read, so it's what I write.

Can you tell us a bit about the specific type of fairy creature in your story? Is that your favourite type of fae?

They're pretty much your basic Sidhe--human-looking, mostly, but immortal and removed from human morality. I do write that kind of fairy pretty often, but I also love kelpies, selkies, brownies, tomte, pookas...even your little flower-skirted faires with butterfly wings. Love 'em all.