Exclusive Interview: “The Butcher Of The Forest” Author Premee Mohamed

 

For the Chinese, 2024 is the year of the wood dragon.

For the people of India, it is the year of Saturn.

But for bookshelves, it’s going to be the year of Premee Mohamed, who has at least three, and possible as many as five, books coming out this year, starting with the dark fairytale fantasy novella The Butcher Of The Forest (paperback, Kindle).

In the following email interview, Mohamed explains what inspired and influenced this tale, while also discussing the two others that have been scheduled for release: The Siege Of Burning Grass (out March 12) and We Speak Through The Mountain (out June 18).

To start, what is The Butcher Of The Forest about, and when and where does it take place?

It’s basically about a rescue mission. Veris Thorn lives in a conquered land, but is sent into the dangerous local woods to rescue the missing children of the conqueror.

Because it’s a fantasy story I leapt at the option to not have it set anywhere or anywhen in particular; I suppose somewhere Europe-like and somewhere in the 1500s-ish would not be too far off.

Where did you get the idea for The Butcher Of The Forest? What inspired it?

Actually, this one was inspired by a dream. I dreamt of the throne room with all the skulls on the stone wall, and then someone saying something about how the children were innocent of the sins of their father. I woke up thinking, “Oh, nice setup, I wonder what it leads into.” And then as I began writing I kind of back-calculated from that: a stone castle, local nobility, an idea of newness, danger, and wilderness.

In The Butcher Of The Forest, Veris goes back into the forbidden forest to rescue a tyrant’s kids. Is there a reason why she’s trying to save a bad guy’s kids as opposed to a good guy’s kids or her own kids or someone else’s kids?

You probably noticed in the book that she doesn’t have much of a choice. She’s threatened by the children’s father — the tyrant that conquered her people and began the war that killed both her parents. Now, if she doesn’t do as she’s told, he’ll kill her remaining family, and probably the rest of her village for good measure. She’s very motivated, let’s just say.

Your publisher calls The Butcher Of The Forest a dark fairytale…

I like dark fairytale. I was certainly thinking of fairytales when I wrote it. A world where a certain type of magic is accepted and commonplace is important for fairytales, as are certain kinds of heroes. The best kind of hero, I think, is like Veris — competent but beset by difficulties, relying on luck as much as agency, and quick to see the pattern in what she’s been asked to do (three and then three, three times). I also wanted the reader to kind of fall easily into a world where anything can happen, and to see through Veris’ eyes that she’s prepared for anything to happen — she’s startled by several things in the book but not shocked till the very end — but that’s no reason not to prepare for it.

The Butcher Of The Forest is not your first published work. Are there any writers who had a big influence on Butcher but not on any of your other books?

I’m not 100% sure, but in this one I felt very aware of the visible, present influence of John Crowley’s Little, Big and Ka: Dar Oakley In The Ruin Of Ymr, and some of the folk horror I had been reading at the time, like the Fiend In The Furrowsanthologies in terms of tone and atmosphere. And Arthur Machen’s story “The Great God Pan” [available in his collection of the same name], which I’m pretty sure I had just re-read a few months before and was just percolating through my brain. Like that one, there’s a whole batch of cosmic horror whose premise is “FYI: there’s also a bunch of ancient horrors hiding in the trees,” like Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows and suchlike, and I’m sure I was thinking of those.

What about non-literary influences; was The Butcher Of The Forest influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?

Absolutely definitely I had a mental image of the illustrations in my old copy of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows. The text was an influence too I’m sure but specifically the illustrations, which were watercolor and kind of naturalistic and threatening, not twee or childish at all.

For movies, I’m sure I also had my mental image of the forest in Princess Mononoke, where it’s full of mysterious beings that cannot be controlled or captured. There’s magic there, but it’s hardly nice magic, and it’s certainly not meant for humans to use. You know, imagine the audacity of a human daring to access that magic.

And movies like Labyrinth and Legend, where you know you’re outmatched by the denizens of this magical place, but you still have to do your best to get what you went in for and get out.

And what about your cat? How did he influence this story? Also, what is his name?

I am saddened to report that the novella was written and acquired before I owned the said cat. He is attempting to influence the publicity for the book though, mostly by shoving his way in front of my webcam while I do virtual events. His name is Fiasco, because he is a disaster (but just a little one).

Now, along with The Butcher Of The Forest, you have four other books coming out this year: The Siege Of Burning Grass (out March 12) and We Speak Through The Mountain (out June 18), and two others that have not been scheduled yet, right?

Pub dates are not fixed yet but also The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife with Absinthe Press, and One Message Remains with Psychopomp Press.

So, let’s start with The Siege Of Burning Grass. What is that book about?

Siege is about Alefret, a wounded pacifist who’s kind of both coerced and bribed to accompany a young soldier, Qhudur, to complete a secret mission to end the apparently endless war that his nation is embroiled in.

I’m not really sure what kind of story The Siege Of Burning Grass is; it sounds like it mixes steampunk science fiction and fantasy…

Oh boy, you’re not wrong there…the level of technology in the story is kind of vague, because it seems to be a world in which magic exists, but also a world in which there’s flying clockwork beetle drones and enough technology to genetically modify things in the lab or perhaps by selective breeding (the shot-lizards who make ammunition, for example). I was really going for a world that just felt weird in some ways and familiar in other ways, because I don’t write a ton of secondary world stuff and I just thought “Why not.” I also think it’s the case that some people believe things are magic that are actually technology, because they don’t understand it. It’s the same as war in a lot of ways…the soldiers fighting the war, the leaders causing the war, and the civilians trying to survive the war all have very different perspectives on what’s happening and how they can process and comprehend their lives now. I think genre-wise I would be happy enough to call it a military sci-fantasy.

You also, as I mentioned, have another novella coming out, We Speak Through The Mountain, which a sequel to The Annual Migration Of Clouds. We did an earlier interview about Clouds, but for people who didn’t read that book or that Q&A, what is that novella about, and what kind of a world is it set in?

Clouds is set about 80-90 years from now, in a world where climate disasters and a novel epidemic of a disabling fungus have basically caused the end of industrialized society. All efforts at recreating that have tapered off, and now there’s a rebuilding toward something simpler and more sustainable in the kind of “shell” of the old world. Reid, our main character, lives in the University of Alberta (which is no longer a university) and is offered a spot to study at a far-away university in the Rocky Mountains; but she has this disease, and she feels uncertain about leaving because of that and because it would mean leaving her sick mother, not to mention the rest of her community, which needs everyone’s help to rebuild and keep people alive.

And then what is We Speak Through The Mountain about, and when does it take place in relation to The Annual Migration Of Clouds?

Mountain begins a couple of weeks after the end of Clouds; without too many spoilers, it’s about Reid’s journey to Howse University in the mountains, and her surprise at what the place she hoped sent her the invitation is really like.

The Annual Migration Of Clouds was a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story. Is it safe to assume We Speak Through The Mountain is as well?

Kind of! I think it’s also a utopia story — with the clear understanding that Clouds is not a dystopia, because that requires the intent of some part of the population to control and repress the rest of it for ideological reasons. But Mountain is a utopia, or something striving to be one, and that lets us see how very far away from perfect any utopia is for every single person living in it.

So, did you write The Butcher Of The Forest, The Siege Of Burning Grass, and We Speak Through The Mountain at the same time, or concurrently? I ask because I’m curious how they may have influenced each other.

Nope! They were all written and handed in fairly far apart in time.

But I do think Butcher and Siege influenced each other significantly. I was evidently thinking about how the reward for doing anything competently is that people keep asking you to do it — and if they find that you’ll say no even if they offer you money, then what they’ll do is offer you violence instead. There’s a strong undercurrent of “Why are people so coercive” in both books, and in both cases, it’s not a very savory answer.

I wish I could write about people doing terrible things in the name of love or honor or something like that but the truth is it’s much more likely to be money or power.

Going back to The Butcher Of The Forest, earlier I asked if it had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Butcher could work as a movie, or a TV show, or a game?

I think Butcher would be quite cool as a movie. I hesitate to say game, particularly because it plays so fast and loose with the lives of young children; I don’t really think that would gamify well, or anyway I’d worry about players who wanted to gamify it. But I almost think a weird stop-motion or 2D animated movie like the cover (by Andrew Davis), that would be really amazing and unsettling, particularly the creatures. It wouldn’t even have to be full-length; I think it would work very well as a short film, like 25 minutes.

And if someone wanted to make that happen, who would you want them to cast as the voices of Veris, the kids, and their dad?

Oh boy, I am terrible at these. How does this keep happening? If this were a live-action, no idea for the kids, I literally cannot think of a single child actor. I didn’t have a super clear vision of Veris either, but I love [Doctor Sleep‘s] Rebecca Ferguson’s intensity and vibes, so her or someone like her? Maybe a little older. I think she can play tough, weary, and compassionate all at the same time.

And for the Tyrant, I’m not sure… If Liam Neeson can bring back his “furious father” act from the Taken movies, we can put a black wig on him and put him on the throne.

So, is there anything else people need to know about The Butcher Of The Forest?

I guess that I use it as an example in my nonlinear fiction class because of the deliberate placement of the “climax” of the story. I know I’ve seen some people saying the pacing didn’t work for them…that was deliberate, and I wanted the story to be shaped quite differently than the “standard” adventure story. It’s more fairytale this way.

Finally, if someone enjoys The Butcher Of The Forest, which of your other novellas would you suggest they check out while waiting for The Siege Of Burning Grass and We Speak Through The Mountain, and why that one?

I think it depends on which one they’re planning to read. Certainly, if people are interested in Siege, they should read These Lifeless Things over all the other ones; and if they’re on tenterhooks for Mountain, I assume they’ve read Clouds so they might enjoy Beneath The Rising, which isn’t a novella but does start off in Edmonton as well.