Ever After Variations
by Seanan McGuire
This is the cost of once upon a time: The story starts, and choice is swept away. Someday we'll learn that hope is not a crime. The princes come and go and never stay; The brambles grow to hide the castle walls. The story starts, and choice is swept away. Magic sets the stage, the curtain falls; The rules are made by other hands than these. The brambles grow to hide the castle walls. Starlight chains, they say, what moonlight frees; Sunlight burns, and lamplight gives no aid. The rules are made by other hands than these. Within these woods, we're each of us betrayed. The wolf will wear the red hood, in his turn. Sunlight burns, and lamplight gives no aid. We run and run, and never really learn; This is the cost of once upon a time. The wolf will wear the red hood, in his turn. Someday we'll learn that hope is not a crime.
Seanan McGuire is a native Californian, born and raised in the green hills of Northern California. This has left her with an abiding fear of weather, and a rather laid-back attitude toward venomous snakes. She began writing poetry at the age of six, when a sonnet written for a Kindergarten class assignment resulted in her being sent to the Principle's office. This did not dissuade her.
Seanan's first novel, Rosemary and Rue, was published by DAW Books in 2009. She promptly wrote four more, just in case people were worried that she might develop a dangerous amount of spare time. In the spare time she does have, she likes to take long walks (often in the habitats of venomous snakes), watch horror movies, study folklore, and write disturbing quantities of structured poetry.
Currently, Seanan lives in a crumbling farmhouse near a large mountain filled with venomous snakes. She shares her home with two blue cats too smart for her own good, enough books to qualify her as a private library, and an ever-expanding comic book collection.
Seanan's favorite summer fruit is the blackberry, thorns and all, and her favorite winter fruit is the pomegranate, which she believes proves that Persephone wanted to marry Hades — no one eats one of those by accident.
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