NOTE: I AM VERY HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE STORY, "AMERICAN APPETITES", HAS BEEN PUBLISHED IN ISSUE 12 OF BROADSWORDS AND BLASTERS -- A GREAT PULP FICTION MAGAZINE --- SO YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO READ IT ON THIS SITE. YOU CAN FIND THE LINK FOR ORDERING THE BOOK ON THE "AMERICAN APPETITES" HOMEPAGE. PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING THE MAGAZINE BY PURCHASING THE ISSUE ON AMAZON!
As this is an author’s analysis, THERE WILL BE ***SPOILERS*** OF THE STORY, OF COURSE, so if you are reading this BEFORE you read the actual short story, I have two things to say:
1. Please don't and
2. This is a post to strictly discuss characters, the ending, and my crazy mind that created this story, like a director's cut with commentary, if you will, so all will be revealed and you will know everything about it before you even had the chance to read the story.
So, with that being said, let’s get started on this disturbing tale of hunger!!
>> SIDE NOTE <<
“American Appetites”... cannibalism, scary deer and goat skull wearing creepers, a faint lantern in a dark storm, and a bucket of severed arms... it’s quite a nice and soothing read, is it not? One to be read to your children or even by a warm fire with a cozy blanket to relax with.
No... it is anything but that, I’m afraid. It’s pretty gross and violent.
I will apologize now for killing the horse... I really hate animals dying in stories, ESPECIALLY in horror stories, because we all know that any audience worth anything roots for the humans to die instead of sweet little Rufus. But, I had to kill the horse, and I am very sorry for that, because she tried her best to tell Wescott, “hey, buddy, this is a bad idea following this random man in the middle of a crazy storm to a deserted forest in the dark. Did you not just see his waxy, melted face?” But, of course, as no one listens to the animal in horror movies that is causing an alarming fuss, she had to go along with Wescott’s naive stupidity and thus lost her life because of his poor choices.
I did not enjoy killing off Limos... I was sad about it, but what do us horror writers care for in emotional stability and delicacy?
Nothing. We don’t care. It is why we write horror... to shock and dig at your heart with fear and sadness. Well, I suppose, that’s any writing. I write horror because it's fun, and because it's the one genre that I think is a perfect conduit for psychological study and satire on themes worth discussing, which is why this piece is so wonderful to me.
“American Appetites” was a doozy to write... but I say that in the most endearing and passionate tone. Out of all the many horror stories that have graced my mind and thus been typed out into reality, this story is by far my favorite and one that I feel is all encompassing of me as a writer and is a testament to how much I have grown over the years.
Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE studying the Civil War. I took a course in college just to delve into it again for pure enjoyment. I knew when I started writing this story that I was going to do a period piece in the 19th century. What? I didn’t really know.
I started writing the first two paragraphs of the story freely without an outline or any singular thought of what was going to happen or what was even beginning to take shape. I simply let my mind wander, and, with it, ta da!
Out came horror in its wake.
I always start a piece with the intention of doing something different from horror, maybe even something light and cheerful for a change, but I have never been able to stick to it without adding in a ghost or two or maybe a death here and there.
You can take Kristen Reid out of the horror genre, but you can’t take the horror genre out of Kristen Reid.
So, the period piece became a HORROR period piece, and because of that, it also became, what I consider, my masterpiece as of now.
Connor Wescott, the main character in "American Appetites", was very vivid in my mind once I realized that I was going to focus on the Civil War, specifically. I wanted a hard, gruff man who had little regard for life ( think of some large, mountain man, like Rooster Cogburn in True Grit ). After reading Cold Mountain (a perfect book, start to finish, that takes place during the Civil War which is also one of my favorite movies), I wanted to incorporate the home guard into it, being that “American Appetites” is a story of prey versus predator in the midst of a war that was essentially itself prey versus predator among brothers and friends.
For those that do not know, the home guard was a volunteer militia under the authority of the Confederacy during the Civil War tasked with protecting the home front and tracking down deserters, most prominently so after the Conscription Act in 1862 had been implemented. This was essentially an order that every man within the designated age range stated were to be drafted into the army to serve and deserters were to be punished for fleeing duty. In some instances, deserters would be captured by the home guard and returned to their ranks. In others, deserters were executed directly by the home guard.
When I imagined Wescott, I knew that I wanted a character who could be read as a villain, or at least, an antagonistic person in one light and a victim of circumstance in another, so that the reader could perceive that all the characters in this story, at their roots, are the “bad guy”.
The Irish name “Connor” means “hound” or “lover of hounds” while the name “Todd” -- who is the frightening and intensely talkative Confederate soldier that leads Wescott to his death -- means “fox”. Wescott represents the hound chasing viciously after the fox, but at the turn of the story, Wescott becomes the fox and Todd becomes the hungry hound. I wanted to portray this imagery even up to the names of the characters to reflect on the Civil War soldiers being either hounds or foxes in whichever light they saw themselves in. Both sides killed. Both sides were ruthless. Both sides could be seen as the “bad guy”, and at the same time, the “good guy” in their own self-perception.
Macon, the singing old man masquerading as a young boy, and Augusta, the rabid, slovenly, bearded “bear of a man”, are named such after the towns of which they came from. Of course, that is Macon, Georgia and Augusta, Georgia. I wanted to further distance these characters from being perceived as “human” even with their lack of human-like names. Over time, they have changed bodies so much up to this point that they have either no longer remembered their names or they do not feel that they even own their names anymore... much like:
1. how soldiers perceived themselves during the war: known to the world without names, as men only fighting for their states, and
2. how they perceived others: not knowing the name of the man they killed or were killed by. They knew only that they represented a particular region of America clearly stated by their uniforms, either Union or Confederate.
Limos, Wescott’s filly, is named after the Greek goddess of starvation. While given a name of power, the poor horse is a victim of the starvation of the haphazard runaway soldiers. Each name being turned on its head was an important key in this story, and with such, I wanted to turn Limos’s as well.
When creating these “monsters”, I was inspired by skin walker folklore (Navajo creatures of similar make -- look it up, it is really interesting and unsettling! I love Native American folklore!). I didn’t want flat out skin walkers, because I wanted my own creature creation. Instead of my monsters taking the form of an animal like a shapeshifter as the skin walkers do, I wanted mine to literally exist as only blood, guts, and bone hidden up underneath sagging, leftover skins, be that human or animal.
Let the imagery and symbolism there in context with the Civil War explain itself.
“Polly’s Love”, the ballad that Macon sings absentmindedly throughout the story, is a murder ballad that has been around since the late 18th century/early 19th century. It was most notable in the Appalachian regions of America but was sung all around the country as well. It was first performed/written in Europe, probably England much earlier than the 18th century, where it was originally known as “The Gosport Tragedy”. The song changed titles and lyrics overtime, obviously, but has stuck to its dark themes of death and its tale of deception in cold blood in which a person is lured into the forest where they are killed and buried in a shallow grave. Today, the song is most commonly known as “Pretty Polly", however, around the time of the Civil War, the song was known as "Polly's Love." I wanted a murder ballad to be sung, indicating to the reader (one that knew of the song as a murder ballad or even looked it up while reading the story) that death was coming at the very end of the song, whether that death be by Wescott’s hand, the monstrous soldiers’ hands, or even in the destruction of humanity for years to come until inevitable demise. Here is a link below to the song that inspired me with its tune, and, of course, its lyrics (You can also find a really great southern gothic rendition performed by Vandaveer that is *chef's kiss* on Spotify):
As I was closing in on the middle mark of the story, I realized that what I was writing was very clear satire for our current state in America. We all are a part of one side, essentially: our morals, values, and viewpoints. No one agrees on these things, as that is naturally a human thing to do, but it seems to be more so than ever right now, further distancing fellow Americans in the midst of violence and hate, something that reflects the roots of the Civil War which occurred over a century ago and is still relevant. I felt that a Civil War story was applicable to today in commenting on humanity’s way of feeding off one another for its own gain, like the half-soldier/half-monsters in “American Appetites”. Today, it feels like everyone can be seen as the “bad guy” in a certain angle, which creates monsters of its own when nothing exists there except hate and cruelty. Bringing in the last sentence of the story and titling the story the way I did was a means to connect it with modern times, so that you, the reader, can make connections between our current situations and the fictional situations/real situations of the Civil War and the “monsters” thus created. So, make connections between the Confederacy and the monsters. Make connections between war and the monsters. Find symbolism in false identities in connection with war. There are so many themes and ideas that I've layered on top of one another in this story, so anything you read between the lines that makes you feel or anything that you connect is the right answer for YOU as the reader!
For those that don’t know me, I am an unapologetically HUGE Red Dead Redemption series fan. If you don’t know what it is, shame on you, and please read about it, or, better yet, play it. That game is more so a movie than anything else, and it is BEAUTIFUL.
Anyway, back to reality.
When I was trying to figure out a title for this story, a title of an obscure side mission in the game (RDR1) kept coming into my mind... “American Appetites.” The mission is about the protagonist of the game going up into the hills of the desert to track down a missing person, only to find out within three more missions that the person had been eaten by cannibals. Immediately, the entire thing clicked! It was perfect, considering the background of the video game’s mission, but also for the meaning behind my entire story: America eating itself to sate its appetite, and the minds of the American soldiers that were hungry for either the war to end or for the death of their fellow man.
It took a lot out of me when writing this story, all blood, sweat, and tears along with it. It was a lot of research and deep thinking to place hidden meanings, symbols, and clues for the reader to pick up on and run with in their own ideas and theories. There is plenty more hidden in this story as these things go, but I’m not going to spell all of it out... part of the process of fiction is for you, the reader, to make it your own with your own ideas, and I hope you have done so and enjoyed my madness! I know that I did writing it all down.