The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest is the closing anthology in Nosetouch Press’ award-winning, three-book folk horror series started in 2018. To celebrate this milestone and its release, I want to talk a bit about my featured story, Radegast.
My first Mistake
I first dreamed up the idea of two brothers trying to survive in the forest while being pinned under a large tree some three or four years ago, when I first started taking short stories seriously. It was more in the vein of 127 Hours staring James Franco than the most famous of folk horror films, The Whicker Man – the irony being I haven’t seen the former, but I’ve seen the latter many times.
So, what changed? Rather than just creating something I was passionate about, I sought out a publisher first. Most of the magazines I found had tight word limits and stipulated that stories needed a speculative element. My story, which was probably called something like “The Tree” at that time, was survival horror without any supernatural.
The plot was simple: two brothers at odds with one another are pinned by the legs under a fallen tree, one face up and one face down. One would have access to a knife and some clothes, the other would have food and water. One could somewhat defend himself and see around, the other had resources. From there, they needed to cooperate to survive the elements and whatever else the forest threw at them.
Now, I still think that’s a good story – though I’m glad how Radegast turned out. So, what was my mistake? My unwillingness to write a story that might get rejected caused me not to write it for years. My passion for the story ended at the prospect of rejection. I should have just written a great story and let a publisher judge it on its own merits. Thankfully, I’ve since moved on from this mindset. I embrace and learn from rejection. Nothing gets written, otherwise.
Problems solved
I don’t know what came first, the folk horror submission call or my hike up Mount Radhošť. But I can tell you I was incredibly excited to reach the summit, just as Honza and Vilém are in the story. At the top stands a ten-foot statue of an ancient Slavic god, Radegast. If you’ve visited the Czech Republic, maybe you’ve drank the beer that goes by the same name and uses Radegast as its mascot. You can’t get more metal than having an ancient, Slavic pagan god as your mascot.
What I do know is that, after hiking up the Czech mountain and seeing that statue, the speculative element clicked into place in time for Nosetouch Press’ submission call. Old gods and a focus on landscape fit in with the folk horror theme, so I gave it a shot – a day or two before the submission window closed, too!
Thankfully, Dave T. Neal and Christine M. Scott accepted it. Apart from joining an already successful series, this publication helped me to reach a major milestone: earning a pro rate per word as defined by the Horror Writer Association (HWA).
A couple of bonus facts:
- Radegast is one of the only short stories I plotted before I completed writing it.
- A large part of the second half was drafted on my phone, all while driving to collect wood with a part-time park ranger near Mount Milešovka.
- I read Young Goodman Brown and The Great God Pan to get me into the mood while not writing.
The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest
As I write, my hardcover copy is winging its way from Amazon Germany. The anthology is full of recognisable names, some award-winners, and plenty more who rose to the challenge. It’s a hefty tome of nineteen stories. You’ll be hard-pressed to unearth another publication with so many fiendishly fresh takes on folk horror.
Want to learn more about folk horror? Check out The Harvest Maid’s Revenge. Don’t forget to read their insightful review of Fiends III. Last but not least, you can purchase The Fiends in the Furrows III: Final Harvest here.
J. M.