Weathering Youth: “Family Tree” and “A Trail of Apples”
Because Weathering Youth is my biggest collection to date, I’m grouping the short stories and flash fiction stories in pairs for my posts, based on the way they fall in the collection. This lets me look at the connections between the stories and how I decided to arrange specific stories in the collection!
“Family Tree” and “A Trail of Apples” are both traditional fantasy stories with darker themes, which are intrinsically connected to the main character of each story’s family.
In “Family Tree,” the main character has lost both her parents and lives with an uncle and aunt who often treat her as more of a nuisance than a loved one. After she spends the night sleeping beneath the tree that was planted in her father’s honor, she realizes her uncle and aunt can’t see her anymore and takes it upon herself to become the nuisance they treated her as.
Meanwhile, in “A Trail of Apples,” Rosie and her sister Snow are as different as night and day, quite literally. Inspired by the characters of the Grimm Brothers’ “Snow White and Rose Red,” this story diverges from the original fairy tale dramatically, having a bit more in common with dark retellings of “Snow White.” In my version, Rosie struggles with what her sister has become and how to protect her entire family, including Snow, as best she can.
“Family Tree” originally appeared in Wyldblood Magazine, while “A Trail of Apples” is exclusive to Weathering Youth. You can read them both, along with other stories featuring young protagonists in a variety of settings, in print and ebook formats!
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