CHRISTINA HENRY is the author of the CHRONICLES OF ALICE series – ALICE, RED QUEEN, and LOOKING GLASS – a dark and twisted take on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as well as THE GIRL IN RED, a post-apocalyptic Red Riding Hood novel, and LOST BOY: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN HOOK, an origin story of Captain Hook from Peter Pan.
She is also the author of the national bestselling BLACK WINGS series (BLACK WINGS, BLACK NIGHT, BLACK HOWL, BLACK LAMENT, BLACK CITY, BLACK HEART and BLACK SPRING) featuring Agent of Death Madeline Black and her popcorn-loving gargoyle Beezle.
She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son. - from Christina Henry's website.
I was fortunate enough to ask Christina a couple of fairy tale themed questions as part of her Aussie blog tour, you can read the responses to those below, but firstly, if you're not familiar with her books, here's a couple of links to whet your appetite:
ALICE - book #1 in the Chronicles of Alice series
THE GIRL IN RED - a dark modern take on Little Red Riding Hood
What are you literary influences in horror and fantasy, and why does the combination of fairy-tale and fright work so well?
"J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, and The Door in the Hedge, Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and The October Country, Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman, Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me...there are almost too many to list. I think every book I've ever read has influenced my writing in some way.
I think fairy tales and fright are a natural pairing. So many traditional fairy tales rely on terror - the wolf waiting for Red Riding Hood, the witch luring Hansel and Gretel. Fairy tales are, in many ways, extensions of our childhood fantasies and fears. When we are children we believe in magic and wonder and we also believe that there is a boogeyman under the bed. Finding horror in those stories seems natural. "
What are the top 5 fairy-tales you’re yet to give the horror treatment?
“I never approach stories from the outside in that way. I never think, ‘Oh, I’d like to write a Sleeping Beauty story’ or something like that. My stories always come from a question I have or an image in my head, and sometimes they naturally link to an existing story and sometimes they don’t. After LOOKING GLASS my next two books will be horror novels with no link to existing stories.”
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Many thanks to Christina for taking time out of her schedule to answer these questions and to New South Books for arranging the Q&A.
I highly recommend checking out the blogs on the tour:
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