I have always loved the story of Hades and Persephone. It shares a great deal of its shape with the ballad of Tam Lin, which was the subject of my thesis in school. I wanted to sort of prod at the places where those stories aligned, and where they fell away from each other. My favorite part of the story has always been that Hades, in Greek myth, is really the nerd of gods. So why would he steal this one perfect flower? What sort of situation would need to arise for him to even consider taking such a step? And the carnival, of course, is always a perfect place to interrogate a myth, because it’s a liminal space we create ourselves, out of canvas and paint and anticipation; we can unravel any story we want there. I was raised on carnival ground. I never intend to stop picking it to pieces.
SEANAN McGUIRE