I am proud to announce my short story, ‘All Quiet on the Northern Front’ is in the now published Gothic Blue Book VI: A Krampus Carol.
The editors at Burial Day Books assemble a collection of stories celebrating the darker side of the myths and folklore of the winter holidays, especially the figure that acts as Jolly Old Saint Nick’s opposite – the Krampus.
When I originally saw the call for submissions, I thought of what was possibly one of the worst Christmas’s ever, 1914, as the world was suddenly confronted with the dark side of progress and technology as World War One turned beautiful countryside into scenes from hell.
Since the Krampus has strong associations with hell, this struck me as a great setting, wondering what the Krampus would think of humans attempting to outdo demons at their own game of pain and destruction. Some of the legends state that if the Krampus finds an especially naughty child, he will stuff him or her in a bag and drag them down to hell as a present for his mother – often cited as the Nordic goddess Hela, queen of the dead.
Looking into research on December of 1914 and the legends of the Krampus, I found a great many scholarly works devoted to both subjects, and ended up with an overabundance of material to work with after just a short time. However, as I began to write, I discovered that was able to relate to the characters much more than I had anticipated.
The difference between December 1913 and December 1914 boggles the mind, and yet, as I sat in my apartment in the middle of a global pandemic, I discovered I could understand completely what it meant to be able to celebrate a holiday with your family at a restaurant and theater one year, and have it be complete impossible the next. It was startling to realize I had anything in common with a time we try to consign to the long-long-ago, certain it could never happen again, but I resolutely kept going and poured all my feelings into the characters.
The winter holidays are filled with flickering candles and cheery fires, as we humans attempt to bring a little light to the darkest season. Previous generations knew that times could be bad, but you had to be hopeful that they would get better. Traditions that both acknowledge the creeping cold night and all its dangers, but also optimistically look towards a (literally) brighter tomorrow are something we should remember, now more than ever. Acknowledge pain, cold, death, suffering – and also embrace the idea that things can get better.
Kara Race-Moore Writes More 