“Weird Horror,” “Fairy Tales,” and “Folklore”
Night Time Logic is the part of a story that is felt but not consciously processed. It is also the name of this interview series here at Cemetery Dance and over on my YouTube channel.
Through in-depth conversation with authors this column explores the night time part of stories, the strange and uncanny in horror and dark fiction, and more.
My short story collections with Cemetery Dance are full of the kind of stories that operate with Night Time Logic. My latest is called Phantom Constellations and is coming in Autumn 2025.
I spoke to Erica Ruppert, author of Seven Stars: Collected Stories about her work, about fairy tales and folklore, including her favorite stories by Tanith Lee and Angela Carter.
We began our conversation with why a mix of genres operates well with horror fiction.
DANIEL BRAUM: The stories in Seven Stars, Collected Stories, are a mix of horror, myth, folklore, and fairytales. What are some of the commonalities in these genres? And even with their unique distinctions why do they work so well with (and adjacent to) horror?
ERICA RUPPERT: I think these genres are all variations on a theme, and often the dividing line is more in the telling than the content. Each one relies on some sort of unusual circumstance or ability, and each one relies on the violation of some social norm. There is magic inherent in each of them, as well, be it divine, fey, folk, or supernatural. And magic, as we all know, can go sideways very easily, with the potential of something horrific as a result.
Please tell us about the first story in the book, “Green Girl,” and the mix of genres in play in it.
“Green Girl” was (pretty obviously) inspired by the folklore of the Green Man and the ancient religious cycle of a god’s death and rebirth. While it is generally a fantasy, there are definitely some elements of weird, erotic, and body horror in it — what starts as a seduction becomes something else entirely, and we never do know for sure what happens to the male protagonist.
The story “Alba” has many of the overt and familiar hallmarks of a classic fairy tale. A mirror. A dead mother. A stepmother. A princess. An apple. A walk in the woods. Tell us about some of the horror elements alongside these things, such as the shadow creatures in the forest. How do these elements subvert and interact with the fairytale genre and the story?
Fairy tales tend to be simplistic. The good person is good and the bad person is bad, and everyone gets what they deserve. But the conflict in “Alba” between the princess and her stepmother is not based on simple jealousy as in the original fairytale. It is about survival. The stepmother knows she is trapped by her marriage, and to save herself finds a way to blame her husband’s daughter for all her troubles.
I used the horror elements in “Alba” — monstrous creatures, murderous plots, the almost vampiric state of lying undead in a coffin — to add moral complexities to what is usually a straightforward story. The monsters are both threatening and protective. The sacrifice is willing. Undeath means that life is not over.
But perhaps the greatest horror element is the way the women in the fairytale have been reduced to functions, not people, because of their places in society. This still stands in my version. But Alba, at least, sees another way out.
“Alba” weighs the possibilities contained in Irina’s plot. She can choose a quick death here in the cool green forest, or a slow one in service to her husband-to-be.
The above excerpt from “Alba” echoes how things rarely end well for the princesses and the female protagonists in the classic fairytales. Do you have favorite classic fairy tale?
My favorite fairy tale has to be Snow White, to the point that I retell it in both “Alba” and “The Queen in Red” from different points of view. For a modern reader, there is a lot to unpack — the social and gender roles, blended families, female competition and power struggles. Royal girls and women are usually passive creatures in the classic tales, offered as prizes or held as captives, waiting for some man’s actions to change the course of their lives. However, female peasants are given much more agency — they make decisions, they take action, they confront threats.
Master story tellers such as Tanith Lee and Angela Carter have written many fairy tales and many fairy tale retellings. Do you have any favorites or standouts from these authors? If so, why?
There is such a richness to their storytelling, and a keen sense of human nature. Of course I have favorites!
From Tanith Lee my favorites are “Winter White,” the first story of hers I ever read, which begins with a magic flute and the mysterious woman it summons and ends with no answers as to who she is and how her magic works; “Nunc Dimittis,” a heartbreaking story of an ancient vampire and her aged servant that examines the intimacies of their relationship; and “Bite-Me-Not, or Fleur de Feu,” which twists the beauty and beast dynamic into a tragic but still right love story.
From Angela Carter, my favorites are “The Company of Wolves” for its dreamy, meandering, almost stream-of-consciousness vision of Red Riding Hood’s coming of age; and “Wolf-Alice” which gives considerable power to a girl who is determining if she is wolf, human, or both, with references to multiple other fairy tales and legends sprinkled through the narrative without disturbing the flow.
“Close Her Lips with Wax” is a story original to the collection. There are several hallmark horror elements in it. Ritual dark magic. Animating a corpse. An otherworldly monster — and an agreement to bring it newborns. Tell us about these elements and the magic in the story.
“Close Her Lips with Wax” contains plenty of familiar horror element, yes, but in this story I tried to give them dual purposes. The magic ritual is both the looming threat to the characters and their protection from it. The animated corpse is both a dangerous monster and a means of salvation. The human sacrifices both appease the otherworldly creature’s hungers and, depending on their preparations, manipulate its powers in unexpected ways. But the key to any of the magic in this story is willing sacrifice. Without giving up something, nothing can be gained.
“For the Night is Long” appeared in Vastarien Magazine, in June 2022. Like “Close Her Lips with Wax” it is also a story with ritual magic. Horror stories and films such as Rosemary’s Baby have the trope of bringing an entity into our world through childbirth. Tell us about this trope and how it is in play in the story.
Pregnancy and childbirth have long been dangerous and mysterious events in the real world, and that has of course shaped the trope in fiction. Whatever is growing in a woman’s womb is hidden from sight — the very definition of occult. And while we always know who the mother is, the father could be anyone. Or any thing.
The pregnancy in “For the Night is Long” is meant to produce a god, but it is so secret, so unseen except in nightmares, that it may not even be. The women who performed the ritual and the woman chosen to carry the god have only their best guess that their magic was successful. They all have to wait to see what might be born.
Please tell us about the three sections the book is divided into: Dreams. Faith. And What Comes After.
There is a lot of overlap, but I tried to group the stories by their main themes: Dreams are what we want. Faith is what we believe we want. And what comes after is what we end up with, when we get what we thought we wanted or believed in.
“Older Things” is another story original to the volume. The protagonist Vanda is a widow who finds ancient nail spikes in the leaf litter in her rural property.
She wanted something extraordinary to end the emptiness that had curled itself around her.
Tell us about Vanda and the fox-creatures she encounters in the story.
I often look out my back window while I’m working at the kitchen sink, and although my house is in the middle of a closely-packed neighborhood, I do sometimes see foxes in the yard. That mundanity was the original inspiration for Vanda and her strange companions.
Vanda is like a lot of us, in a comfortable and safe rut. When her status quo changes she can see the possibility of a different life, but doesn’t know if or how she should pursue it. The fox creatures are like her situation, something familiar that suddenly is not. They are her chance to make the leap into the unknown.
Sometimes the chance you get is not anything like what you thought you wanted.
How do the stories in your debut short story collection Imago and Other Transformations differ from the stories in Seven Stars. How does Seven Stars build on and continue some of the themes you write about?
The stories collected in Imago and Other Transformations focus more on body horror and the weird, only really incorporating mythical horrors in its last section. I’ve begun to tend more toward the mythic since Imago came out — gods and monsters, if you will, and the conflict between what you believe and how that belief affects how you are able to live in the world. With Seven Stars I leaned into dark fantasy and stories based largely on folklore and mythology. There is so much to explore, there.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ERICA RUPPERT (HWA, SFWA,) lives in northern New Jersey with her husband and too many cats. She is the author of two novellas, Sisters in Arms and To the Shore, to the Sea, two collections, Imago and Other Transformations and Seven Stars: Collected Stories, and over sixty short stories. When she is not writing, she runs, bakes, and gardens with more enthusiasm than skill. She can be found online on Facebook, Bluesky, and at Erica Ruppert’s NerdGoblin.
DANIEL BRAUM writes “strange tales” in the tradition of Robert Aickman. His stories, set in locations around the globe, explore the tension between the psychological and supernatural.
An illustrated volume of his work titled Creatures of Liminal Space, featuring illustration and design by Dan Sauer, is available at Jackanapes Press.
His all-new short story collection Phantom Constellations is coming in Autumn 2025 from Cemetery Dance Publications.
More about his books and events can be found here.
