Unbelonging, vanishing folklore and the monstrosity of love
An interview with Knicky L. Abbott, author of Tanglewood
Welcoming my wonderful friend Knicky Abbott to the Shadows on Water page to talk all things Tanglewood, folklore that is fading from memory, and the publishing experience. Last week Knicky allowed me to share an exclusive extract of her upcoming debut novella & I hope the glimpse into its lush, shadowy world tempted a few of you to check it out. Now though, let’s meet the author behind the story…
First, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hey, my name is Knicky Abbott. I’m from the island of Barbados, where I live with my daughter and our doggo, and I work as an educator at the primary level. I’m also a Literatures in English graduate and writer of speculative fiction. My interests range from fitness and nature spirituality to books, bibelots, de ja vu, faeries, fine art, animal rights, telling stories, and of course, dark, dreamy things.
How are you finding the publishing experience so far? What have been the challenges and high points?
This is my first traditional one, so of course it doesn’t feel quite real. No real challenges as Francesca Barbini of Luna Press Publishing has taken wonderful care of me and my wee story from the first. I’ve also had such lovely humans as my dearest, dearest Lorraine Wilson, Karen Ginnane, and Angela Slatter, supporting me each step of the way, whether it was regarding a template for a query letter, reading my ARC, or just the softest forms of support and encouragement I could ask for so as not to feel overwhelmed, or worse still like an imposter. Though really that feeling can’t be helped, even on the best, most hopeful days. Nothing but highs like these, however, which I honestly needed, so much more than I could ever say. I am grateful.
Tanglewood is a beautiful, dark, and dreamy book exploring some less widely known bits of folklore and history, what would you like readers to take away from reading it?
The major theme of Tanglewood is that of Isolation and Unbelonging, not fitting anywhere, with anyone, not even with your own. This story is as filled with lost things and lost people as the world it is set in. There is pitiful little about the Steel Donkey legend that can be researched deeply; most sources all just tend to repeat the same information. The same with Belloko; I find most Afrocentric and Caribbean folk stories seem to be in peril of just being forgotten, simply lost to the mists of time and sociocultural indifference.
I actually found more info when researching the Irish myth of the Pouq or Pooka, and the Irish Indentured, their presence and plight on the island, from the time of slavery to this day. Just the way they’re held apart in the cultural mind, the discordant strand that they’ve become in the cultural tapestry. And I tried my best to remain true to all of that.
But when I reread the stories that I wanted to draw inspiration and elements from as I went about weaving this story of my own: particularly Beauty and the Beast - the original story by Madame Villeneuve and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - the theme of Isolation and Unbelonging is pervasive. The isolation and unbelonging of both the Beast in his castle, and Beauty in her society; the isolation and unbelonging of Antoinette Mason nee Cosway, whose is such an aching, enduring, and desolate story of the madness that can come from such isolation, that I’m reduced to tears every time I read it and I’ve read it more times than I can recall.
If I have done half as well as those who preceded me in conveying the depths of the hopelessness that can come from feeling utterly cut off from the world around you, without an understanding of how to find purchase in that world, more connected to the world inside you than to anything or anyone else out there, then that understanding and real empathy for that plight is what I’d want my readers to take away from this story.
The Steel Donkey is unique to Barbados, I believe? Do you have another favourite Bajan folkloric creature or legend?
Yes, the Steel Donkey is wholly ours, though there are equivalencies that exist between it and the Jamaican Rolling Calf. I am about to fall into consummate and absolute darkness with the Bajan folkloric legend of the Heartman, the moment my Masters in Educational Leadership is complete. I will see you on the other side of the blackest-hearted love I’ll ever know.
Questions of monstrousness and female power run through this story, what was it that first drew you to this theme?
The monster in me. I’m certainly not all sweetness and light, haha. That was the first answer that came to mind anyway. But for me, it's more a question of the monstrousness of love, and the power it has to warp and twist the soul beyond anything even recognisably human. No one ever thinks of love as anything other than healing and restorative. They are all too quick to say “That isn’t love” when the emotion isn’t all gentle, and good, when it’s not underwritten or sustained by peace. But love is elemental. Like water, or earth. It is a tempest and a force, with the potential for chaos like any other. It is a triumphant flag raised in the midst of a war within yourself when you couldn’t say which side of you won. And it can be a weapon, the same as a gun, or the truth. I suppose if one had to speak to the principle of it then, in this sense, love could be a woman.
Are you working on something now, if so, can you tell us a little about it?
I want to be. So bad, you’ve no idea. But at present, I’m working on my research project for my Masters in Ed. Leadership. I have a new story inside me, that I’ve been ignoring so hard I’m afraid that by the time I look, it will have wandered away, thoroughly convinced of my disinterest. But of what I can tell you about that story, it’s a Tanglewood twin; a sibling story of sorts.
It is a new imagining of the aforementioned legend of the Heartman, and its working title is Beyond Recall, derived from a line in my country’s national anthem that goes, “These fields and hills beyond recall, are now our very own”.
It’s going to be set in 1950s Barbados, which is an entire century after Tanglewood, and mostly inside a great estate house. It will be filled with big, spectral dark emotions and a lush, dreamy gothic atmosphere, very similar to its influences. I am very excited for it.
What are you reading at the moment, and what’s next on your tbr?
Qualitative Research Methods in Education *dry, heaving sobs* But what I would really love to be reading is Book 1 of Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series, A Deadly Education, and also The Briar Book of the Dead by Angela Slatter. My kingdom for some free time.
I too am hugely anticipating The Briar Book Of The Dead, and all the small things Knicky has let slip about her Heartman retelling has me absolutely wild with anticipation so I hope the universe sends her some free time asap! In the meantime please do pre-order Knicky’s book (Luna Press or Amazon) or add it to your Goodreads, thank you.
I am so moved and saddened at Knicky’s mention of her country’s folklore fading from the world. It’s not something unique to Barbados, I think. Even here in Scotland, land of a million more or less culturally accurate myth retellings, the less popular myths are barely known beyond the small circle of folklore-obsessed weirdos (me, I’m the weirdo). I do think these fading stories deserve to be brought back to life, retolded, reshaped, reimagined, reinvigorated. Which is just one part of why I love Tanglewood so much! I’d love to hear your fav obscure local myth.
There’s going to be a We Are All Ghosts In The Forest diary update soon for paying subscribers, and I’ll be posting something to celebrate the publication of The Last To Drown and Tanglewood!) on the 19th Feb.
Thank you for reading!