Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview V.M. Sawh, whose novella The Hunted Rose had its debut on October 31.
Your latest release, The Hunted Rose, the Good Tales For Bad Dreams version of Little Red Riding Hood, was published on October 31. Who is Rose, the protagonist, and what inspired this retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story?
Rose Harcourt is a survivor. A Jewish teenager at the time of this story, Rose has been in hiding since just before the start of the second World War, due to her father’s paranoia. She has had a rather sheltered upbringing and thus is only close to her father and her grandmother. When she loses both of them due to circumstances beyond her control she is forced to undertake a perilous journey toward freedom and salvation.
This reimagining of Red Riding Hood came to me as I was reading through other retellings of the classic fairy tale. So many of these stories revolve around boys and love triangles. While I understand the reasoning behind these tropes, I wanted to do something that was a little closer to the reality of war; that could demonstrate just dangerous it is for us to allow similar kinds of rhetoric and antisemitism to resurge as the last of the WW2 veterans pass away. We must not tolerate renaming and reshaping of dangerous ideals so that they get their own news networks. The end result will be the same as before.
And at time of going to press, The Hunted Rose 🌹 was #1 on Amazon in the U.S. and Canada and #6 in the UK!
Why is the question of trauma, physical and psychological, crucial to the story - and to you?
Trauma has unfortunately been a big player in my life and as we continue to learn, in the lives of many, many women. The impacts of these various experiences are now coming to light. We have become so numb to the modern impacts of dangerous ideologies that we tend to brush off the lives they are taking and the waves of trauma they are creating as a result. Think of the last shooting or hate-crime you heard about. Wasn’t that long ago was it? Literally yesterday I read about more hate-related graffiti going up around a nearby school. And I live in Canada!
Whether it’s physical, psychological, or social, we are living in the age of trauma. Certain parts of the internet and ‘manosphere’ want to decry the recognition of this. They urge men to practice ‘stoicism’ as a means of coping and demonstrating strength (to women) when in fact, what this is doing is obfuscating the damage this trauma is causing. Being upset about an injustice doesn’t mean you’re weak, it means your eyes are open.
As it relates to Rose, I want you to think of how many pictures you’ve seen of people posing for Instagram and Tik Tok at Holocaust memorials. We’ve forgotten what our history really means and how it should influence our modern behaviour. We’re better than this. For Rose, our history is her reality. I hope that by experiencing what she goes through it reminds us that if we’re not careful, this could very well happen again.
For me personally, my life has been irrevocably altered by physical and mental trauma. I was involved in a major car accident that derailed my life, marriage, and writing career about five years ago. I am attempting to live with the new normal. So, I incorporate trauma into my stories because I’ve an intimate understanding of the subject.
You have been a writer since high school, when you received an offer of publication for your first trilogy. What made you hesitate to accept the offer?
As far as that goes, I was totally burnt out. I had fast-tracked my way through gifted programs since I was 9 years old and had just gotten my black belt after 10 years of various practices. I had written a novel trilogy, but still had no clue how to get a date, much less publish a book. The offer I received was alluring, no doubt, but I had my doubts. This was in the early days of independent publishing houses touting themselves as the alternative to the mainstream. There was no vetting to the process or the companies. The risk was huge. I had no idea if the offer was real. So I had a choice, I could either try it out (but had to commit funds I’d saved) or I could go out and get a job to pay for my car insurance. I chose to try and be practical. Paid for my own car and insurance and saved up for university. Graduated with zero debt because I worked nights to pay for it myself. I don’t regret passing up the opportunity for publication because it turned out that publishing house was scummy.
A chance encounter with a famous film-director - Guillermo del Toro - a piece of pure serendipity - encouraged you to publish the first in your Good Tales For Bad Dreams series, Cinders. Tell us about the meeting and why it was so important to you.
Good Tales For Bad Dreams started out as a writing exercise to take a mental break from working on my novel trilogy (a cosmic horror epic for which I am seeking representation). I’d found an open call for short stories around fairy tale themes for an anthology. The deadline was a few weeks away and I was considering submitting something but had never written a fairy tale before.
I was driving my then-fiancee (now wife) Kristin in the car one night to a family function and we were talking it over when a really cool piece of trip-hop music came over the speakers. Kristin challenged me in the moment, asking me what the music made me see. Then over the course of that 15-minute drive I’d painted an opening scene, plot, and conclusion for what eventually became Cinders. When I double-checked the entry requirements for the anthology, I realized Cinders needed its sharper edges smoothed out, so I censored myself and re-submitted. As it turns out, I’d made it into the second round for consideration but received a rejection due to those same sharper edges.
Dejected, I resolved that I’d never be published and kicked myself for rejecting the offer of publication I’d received in high school. My sister and Kristin took me out to the Toronto Antique Market to lift my spirits. I amused myself trying to find a vintage 1966 Batmobile (still can’t find it!) and looking at decrepit collections of fairy tales when I heard a familiar voice. This was a voice I’d heard on many a commentary track for some of my favourite movies. Lo and behold, like a magical Mexican Santa Claus, there was my idol, Academy-Award winning director Guillermo del Toro, standing not two feet away from me. He was perusing a book of Spanish fairy tales with his daughter. I had an out of body experience. There was no way this was him. Mustering up courage and discretion in equal measure as not to embarrass myself/point him out since he was there incognito, I asked him if he was indeed, GdT and his eyes lit up. “Yes! I am! And you are?”
I introduced myself and had the most surreal conversation with him, during which he confessed to being done with film-making (this was after Hellboy 2 wasn’t picked up for a sequel). I basically begged him not to give up because he was giving me and everyone like me hope. He was my hero, after all. His daughter nudged him and said, “See? I told you so.”
By the time I returned to my sister and my wife, I was walking on cloud nine. Kristin told me it was a sign. I went home and published Cinders, the first entry into the world of Good Tales For Bad Dreams--a short fiction series that reimagines fairy tales into different genres and time periods—and it hit #1 on Amazon! A month or two later I was profiled in the Toronto Sun newspaper. The following year I released my second story, Hontas, which hit #1, and I won the Ontario Writers Conference Story Starters competition.
I released two more novellas to acclaim and then just as I was gaining momentum, it all came crashing down. Just as I was gearing up to go to Japan to research my samurai Snow White tale, I had a car accident that gave me a major concussion and badly injured my neck. Five years of hell followed during which I lost the ability to read, write, walk, and talk in addition to my memory, and my job as a Content Specialist. I had to fight to save my dignity, my marriage, and my life. Setsuko (the aforementioned Snow White) was released but I could do nothing to promote it. The accident had permanently disabled me. Computer work hurt. I was blacking out up to nine times a day. It took a long, long, time to find myself again and adjust to what my body, mind, and personality could handle now. I incorporated this lived experience of disability into Setsuko and now, The Hunted Rose. My perspective is a unique one. Not many people can say that they became a totally different person after losing nearly everything. But writing brings me back to my core. Something deep inside me refuses to die. I’m a survivor. So is Rose.
What is the significance of the Good Tales For Bad Dreams series, and what can you tell us about the previous stories in the series?
Good Tales for Bad Dreams came about as kind of a joke. Originally it was supposed to be Good Tales For Bad Children, then I realized there was no way in hell I could let a child read what I had written. The dreams part comes from my tendency toward nightmares. Good dreams are great, don’t get me wrong, but man, they’re dull. Yay, you won the lottery! Yay, your crush likes you! Yay, everything you’ve ever wanted is right at your fingertips! But it’s the bad dreams that really shake you, really make you think. Those are the dreams that make you call your mom or your best friend and ask ‘WTF was that about?’
As a child I used to suffer from pretty horrific nightmares, to the point where I couldn’t sleep. Then, believe it or not, I taught myself how to lucid dream in order to combat my night terrors. I learned how to return to my bad dreams and take control of the monsters. And so, the monsters became my friends, like big guard dogs. As I grew older and became a lover of all things horror/supernatural, I would look forward to adding whichever monster to my little menagerie. So my nightmares became opportunities to visit them. Now whenever I see a scary movie or read a scary book, I think of them as a Good Tale For A Bad Dream😉
Since your devastating accident, how have you managed your recovery, and how has writing become part of the recovery process?
Writing saved my life. When I didn’t know who I was or what parts of my personality survived, one thing I didn’t lose was my need to create. I struggled with reading after the accident for a long time. Words would blend together or lose meaning. And yet, I retained concepts, turns of phrase, and feelings. This is what I used to communicate with my wife. Thank god she’s known me since we went to high school together. She could interpret a look or a grunt or a couple of words and translate what I wanted. Reading took lots of practice, as did watching movies or listening to music. What was fun was watching old movies again and getting to experience them as though they were new.
Writing was a bigger challenge, but I credit one of my sisters – Kitty – for putting me back on the path. I was watching some show or movie or something and when it was over, I was visibly annoyed. My sister encouraged me to articulate what was bothering me and kept trying to antagonize me. Finally when I was full blown mad, she said ‘How would you fix it?’ This cued me to rant for a solid 20 minutes about how I could make it work. This brought tears to her eyes. “For those 20 minutes, when you were mad, you were sharp again. You were you.”
My wife, Kristin, upon hearing this experience, encouraged me to return to Setsuko and try to publish it. Problem was, what was there read like a stranger had written it. I published it but was unable to promote it due to my injuries. The Hunted Rose is the first story I’ve written from beginning to end post-accident.
The Hunted Rose brings together themes of persecution, flight, and survival, featuring a fairy-tale setting against the horrors of World War II. How do these themes meld together and why did you choose the theme of the Holocaust to evoke this character’s struggle?
The Holocaust happened – the fact that this could be considered a controversial statement in some circles today is why I had to write this story. Ask any person of colour what persecution, flight, and survival means to them. It means trying to fit your personality into society in ways that minimize the harm done to your soul. Imagine not seeing yourself on TV unless you’re the butt of some joke. Imagine only having criminals share your skin colour in every popular show you ever watched as a child. And persecution isn’t just about skin. Ask the Irish immigrants what they endured in America when they came over.
Rose Harcourt is all of us. Like Rose, everyone has lost someone they love. Everyone has faced some form of discrimination. Thing is, instead of getting better, we seem to be backsliding. Fear over a changing planet and economic instability have resulted in fingers being pointed yet again. And instead of looking at the ideologies and systems of power, we blame our neighbours. Antisemitism is on the rise again. That is unacceptable. I wanted to shine a light on what the end result of that looks like and perhaps put readers under the metaphorical jackboot. Sometimes empathy can only be learned through experience.
According to your bio, you grew up in the jungles of South America, and moved to Canada (with its very different wildernesses) at the age of nine. How much has that change affected you, as a person and a writer?
It was literally life-changing for a number of reasons. I came here on my ninth birthday. Now Guyana, where I’m from, is a lush tropical paradise with a not-great infrastructure that’s similar to other third-world nations in the Caribbean and the tropics. I was fortunate to live in the capital, Georgetown, and come from a relatively upper-middle class background. However, social, economic, and political upheaval made my family move to Toronto Canada. We arrived in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms of the decade. I had never seen snow before, other than as shavings in the freezer. I’d never seen a white person either. Everywhere smelled like the air conditioning was left on too high and too long. It was a bewildering adventure. Until every member of my family had to go to work and I was left as a latchkey kid. We lived in my aunt’s basement and I survived on cans of alphagetti.
Going from relative wealth to poverty changed me as a person because it made me realize that the paradise that was Canada was one that had to be earned and it wasn’t easy in the slightest. I wore mismatched clothes that we were lucky to get from the Salvation Army, and shivered on bare mattresses at night. I spent a lot of time alone.
Since I had been writing in my school notebooks in Guyana, I decided to pick up the habit here, to keep myself from losing my mind alone in the basement. Comic books were a great escape for me. I would ‘borrow’ them from the drugstore where my mom worked, and always return them. Those stories – read and written – kept loneliness at bay.
Forests play a major part in the story of Little Red Riding Hood and many other folk and fairy-tales. Why are primordial forests still so meaningful to us today? What do they mean to you?
There’s a disconnect with nature that those of us who grew up in cities have to reckon with. Environmental destruction is as much an existential threat as nuclear war. But we’re sheltered in our little concrete & metal cubes at school, at work, and at home. Forests are one the last places we can go to with just our two feet and see what Mother Nature built. I think we as a species would be a lot less selfish if we just sat down and listened to the forest talk. If we knew what message the forests had for us, then we would be better at saving them. Because saving them is saving ourselves.
Your stories have met with considerable success since the publication of Cinders. Talk us through your experience and how it has helped you reach your readers.
I found a great network of independent authors and artists on Goodreads called Support Indie Authors, or SIA. Bonding with my fellow writers and sharing tips really helped me understand what I was putting out there and allowed me to research what types of stories my readers liked. Making the Sunday Sun newspaper for my success creating advertising helped. Making Amazon’s #1 ranking helps more. Since returning to social media post-accident, Instagram has been my platform of choice. I post pretty much every day and love chatting with everyone. I invite you to find me @v.m.sawh and say hi. Bonus points if you’ve got cool music or movies to share😊
What is VERYMUCH, and where can readers find it? What inspired you to set it up?
VERYMUCH is the brand for Good Tales For Bad Dreams special projects. I wanted to offer up something to fans that they couldn’t get anywhere else. I’m an unabashed geek at heart, and the things I like, I like very much – so I wanted to share that love with my audience. VERYMUCH sprung out of wanting to share really cool movies, music, & unique merch. VERYMUCH MOVIES are reviews I do on Instagram. VERYMUCH MUSIC are songs and music by independent artists that I want to share with the world. I take no money for the endorsements and only share the things I really love. All the designs for VERYMUCH merch are done by indie artists or myself. VERYMUCH is the only place you can find Good Tales For Bad Dreams designs and is available on Redbubble.
What are you working on now? Will there be further instalments of Good Tales For Bad Dreams?
Wait till you get your hands on my cosmic horror trilogy, DESCENT. All it needs is an agent to put it on bookstore shelves. It’s going to Blow. Your. Mind.
Re: Good Tales - That depends entirely on the audience. The Hunted Rose is the second-to-last entry in this first collection. I’m working on the final instalment now and will be releasing Good Tales For Bad Dreams – The Collection – Vol 1 in print with all the stories that have been told so far. There will be a Cinders sequel included called Anastasia that was previously only on Wattpad. I’m working with an indie artist to provide custom artwork for Cinders, Anastasia, Hontas, GR3T3L-1, Setsuko & the Seven Samurai, & The Hunted Rose. Best of all, there will be a horror story serving as the conclusion to volume 1 and only available in the collection. I’m so excited to share it with you all!
If enough readers dig it, then brace yourselves I have another six fairytales plotted out for Volume 2! These include favourites like the Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and Jasmine!
Apart from the retelling of traditional fairy tales, what is the main connecting theme of Good Tales for Bad Dreams?
Female empowerment. I wanted to create a series that focused on the strengths of women and girls that didn’t require them becoming like men. In a course-correction to deal with systemic sexism society has devalued femininity. The idea behind a ‘strong female lead’ was turning female characters into cookie-cutter moulds of each other. I wanted to show the infinite diversity of strength women have. I am also eternally grateful for the mental and emotional fortitude displayed by the women in my life. I grew up in a house full of women and now am married to an incredible woman. Without them, and the emotional & psychological labour of every social worker and doctor who helped me in my recovery, I wouldn’t be here today.
What writers and books have you enjoyed, and what are you reading now?
I’m always on the lookout for new independent fiction, because I love supporting small business and content creators, be they artist, musician, or writer. I’ve recently enjoyed books by Halo Scot (The Heartbeat of a Million Dreams), David Sodergren (The Haar and The Forgotten Island), and Tobin Elliott (Bad Blood series).
If you were to meet Guillermo del Toro again, what would you say to him?
Thank you for never giving up. You’re still my hero. Oh and btw, would you like to make a cosmic horror trilogy? Because Descent is going to rock your beard off😉
Amazon
About V.M. Sawh:
V.M. Sawh didn't always know he was going to be a writer, but from the age of six he's been putting pen to paper, creating serialised fiction. Hailing from the humid jungles of South America, Sawh crossed oceans to arrive on Canada's snow-covered shores at age nine. He continued writing, creating serialised fiction year after year until he challenged himself to write a novel. His first trilogy of novels was completed by age sixteen. He continued writing poetry and fiction for the next decade and a half until a chance meeting with Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro changed everything and led to the release of Cinders, which landed at #1 on Amazon.
V.M. Sawh is a proud supporter of independent artists and authors. His Good Tales For Bad Dreams series of dark fairy tales is currently available on Amazon.
V.M. Sawh resides in Toronto, with his beloved wife and three cats. He continues to spin fairy tales that will haunt your dreams.
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