Forget the Prince, Give Me the Beast!

A ghoul flies by at sunset in Santa Fe

Cindy and I share a love of Halloween decorations.

In fact, I might have to steal some of the ideas she posted over the weekend. Brainz cupcakes for the win!

Halloween is a special time for all of us who are drawn to the dark and seductive. We're harvesting the fruits of the summer, storing up and settling in for the winter. The winds change, bringing a chill with them. Sometimes we think we hear the wild yelps of The Great Hunt riding on the currents. The veil between worlds thins and we catch glimpses of things poking their heads in to look around.

It's an unsettling time of delicious thrills.

Petals and Thorns - a naughty retelling of Beauty and the Beast

So many of our images of Halloween, of All Hallows, of All Saints or Day of the Dead, come from old stories. As a kid I reveled in the most gruesome fairy tales I could find. I loved the old version of The Goose Girl, with the severed horse's head giving advice. Somehow the Disney versions of the stories just never worked for me after I found out how dark and seductive the old versions were. But I always wanted to know what happened when those massive castle doors boomed closed. After Cinderella married the Prince, what then? As I grew older, I began to spin fantasies about it. Not always about Prince, either. Sure, he's a great date for the ball and charming goes a long way.

It was the monsters that grabbed my attention.

Like in Beauty and the Beast, with his ferocity and passion. What did he do to his young bride during those long nights, I wondered? Finally I had to write the story for myself. It turns out he was quite beastly – and she loved every moment of it.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who wanted to see past the closed doors. What fairy tales got you spinning fantasies?

Best fantasy gets a free copy of Petals & Thorns! (ebook only)