T. Kingfisher is the adult fiction pseudonym of Ursula Vernon, the multi-award-winning author of Digger and Dragonbreath. She is an author and illustrator based in North Carolina who has been nominated for the Ursa Major Award, the Eisner Awards, and has won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for “Jackalope Wives” in 2015 and the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “The Tomato Thief” in 2017. Her debut adult horror novel, The Twisted Ones, won the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel, and was followed by the critically acclaimed The Hollow Places.

Welcome to the Hive, T. Kingfisher!

Your latest novel Thornhedge is due for release this August from Titan Books. What can you tell us about it?

It’s a retelling of Sleeping Beauty…sort of…from the point of the view of the fairy godmother, who is trying desperately to keep the princess locked in the tower for very good reasons. Also the fairy is a were-toad. It’s sweet! There are only a few dead bodies!

Give us an insight into your characters, who can we expect to meet? Do you have a favourite child?

I love Toadling, the main character, very much. She is anxious and just trying to do the right thing, and I relate to that pretty hard. Halim the knight is also trying to do the right thing, and is just a generally sweet guy. And of course there are child-eating monsters, child-shaped monsters, a mortal king and queen…

You’re known for weaving threads of fairy-tales through your stories, and Thornhedge is no exception – where did your interest in fairy-tales originate?

I don’t know quite where it originated, but long ago, just after college, I was working at a streetlight outage hotline in St. Paul, Minnesota, manning the phones where people call if their streetlights have gone out. It was just as exciting as it sounds. But we had internet, so I would spend downtime browsing through the D.L. Ashliman fairy-tale and folktale archive, reading tons of different fairy-tales. That sort of cemented my love, I think.

What is it about fairy-tales that keep drawing people, writers and readers alike, back to them?

I think some of it may be a sort of survivorship bias, honestly–at this point, most of these stories are so old that if we’re still telling them, there’s something there that resonates! I’ve read some very obscure old fairy tales that…well…you can see why they are not prominent in the popular imagination. But I also think that we get exposed to them in childhood and so as adults, they resonate with us because we remember them from way back when our world was new and weird and exciting. They’re familiar. 

If you were transported into any fairy-tale, which would it be and how do you think you’d fare?

Oh god, that would probably be a terrible fate! Fairy-tales are traditionally very hard on middle-aged women. Maybe I could get a role as an advice-giver who then vanishes from the narrative and thus is not eaten by wolves or made to dance in hot iron shoes or something.

I could probably survive Bluebeard, though. I believe firmly in respecting other people’s privacy, so I’d never have any idea he was a mass murderer. 

We always appreciate a beautiful book cover! How involved in the process were you? Was there a particular aesthetic you hoped the artist would portray?

The cover was sent to me pretty much as you see it, and I went “Yay!” Some covers I’m very, very involved in, but having been an illustrator, I actually prefer NOT to be involved much, odd as that sounds. I never liked having the writer breathing over my shoulder when I did it, so I’m happy not to do it to other people. For the most part, it’s worked out well! Titan has gotten some really great cover artists involved!

Just for fun, how would you pitch Thornhedge as a 1-star review?

“Not the Disney version at all. Obviously some woke narrative about toads.”

Can you tell us anything about any upcoming projects? Or can you tell us a few teasers for any possible sequels? 

No sequels to this one, I don’t think, but we’ve been finishing up the edits on another novel, “A Sorceress Comes To Call” which is a retelling of the Goose Girl. That’s already a pretty dark fairy tale, full of talking horse skulls and whatnot, but I made it a bit weirder. And more Regency. 

Who are the most significant women in SFF who have shaped and influenced your work? 

Oh, gosh. I grew up on Robin McKinley’s fairy tale retellings, and Diane Duane’s books. Probably those two!

Who is a great woman in SFF who we should be reading? Any hidden gems?

If you haven’t read Diane Duane’s books, you are absolutely missing out. The Young Wizards books are great, and “Book of Night with Moon” is one of those amazing books where if you try to explain the plot, you start to sound unhinged, but it’s SO good. 

Are you planning anything fun to celebrate your upcoming release? Do you have any events our readers may be interested in?

Alas, no events for this one–I’m in the US, so it’s hard to get over that way!–but I’m thrilled to have Thornhedge out in the world!

Finally, what is the one thing you hope readers take away from your writing? 

If they go away feeling better or stronger or comforted or a little more able to cope with the world, I have done well! I am a big fan of comfort reads to help get people through the hard work of reality. 

Thank you so much for joining us for Women in SFF!

Thornhedge is due for release from Titan Books on 15th August

You can pre-order your copy on Bookshop.org