Take the Wilds as They Are: A Guest Post by Molly O’Neill
A witch is thrown into Jenny Greenteeth’s lake — and both of their lives are forever changed. Molly O’Neill introduces us to a beguiling bog being with an appetite for justice in this charming tale with teeth. Read on for an exclusive essay from Molly on writing Greenteeth.
Paperback
$15.99
$18.99
Greenteeth
Greenteeth
In Stock Online
Paperback
$15.99
$18.99
From an outstanding new voice in cozy fantasy comes Greenteeth, “a joyful, warm-hearted” (H. G. Parry) tale of fae, folklore, and found family, narrated by a charismatic lake-dwelling monster with a voice unlike any other, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher.
From an outstanding new voice in cozy fantasy comes Greenteeth, “a joyful, warm-hearted” (H. G. Parry) tale of fae, folklore, and found family, narrated by a charismatic lake-dwelling monster with a voice unlike any other, perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher.
In a little corner of England, right up against the Welsh border, there’s a spine of rolling limestone hills called the Cotswolds. Thickly wooded, criss-crossed by ancient paths and tiny stone villages, it’s the place that I was born and, a few decades later, the place I set Greenteeth.
I moved to Australia in 2019 and began writing a few years later. At first I wanted to invent sparkling new worlds and byzantine magic systems, but when I sat down in early 2022 to start something new, all I could think of was home. I moved Jenny down from her traditional Northern England and placed her into the woods of my childhood.
Writing Jenny’s Britain required less new imagining and more of a remembering. I thought back to tramping through bluebell woods, Jurassic hills and muddy puddles (there’s no mud like English mud!). I’d spent a great deal of my youth walking the dogs whilst daydreaming and I pulled those memories back out of me and peopled them with new characters.
I tried to go deep into the toughness of the countryside. Jenny is a creature who eats kittens, who works hard to maintain her lake. Temperance is a farmer and a farmer’s wife, hands rough from labor. Even the extravagant Brackus lives outdoors and sleeps under trees. Nature is a vividly present part of their lives and the choices they make and its loveliness does not eclipse its harshness.
This duality is reflected in many of the older and original myths of Britain, especially the ones I dug into for the story. I reread the Mabinogion and the Arthurian legends as well as several local stories. Although there are definite nods to the headliners of British folklore throughout Greenteeth, I wanted the main cast to be the smaller creatures. I have always loved complex characters, unsung heroes and so I found Jenny.
Jenny Greenteeth turns up in only a handful of stories, and most often as a minor monster to be quickly dispatched. I reimagined her as the protagonist of a quest, on a hero’s journey fit for a villain. I wanted to keep her monstrous appearance whilst mixing in less traditional attributes. Jenny is a mother, a houseproud hag, who hides a soft heart behind sharp teeth and claws. She’s a solitary being and with good reason, the immediate reaction of every human to meeting her is fear and disgust.
My aim was to keep the reader reminded of that throughout the book. I wanted Jenny’s voice to be engaging and energetic, but for the world to be filtered through that wariness of rejection. There is an Arthurian tale about a knight who marries an old woman, she eventually turns into a beautiful maiden. That doesn’t happen to Jenny, she is who she is, and she’s not going to change to make it easier for you to love her. You have to meet her on her own terms, just as you have to take the wilds as they are. But I hope you find she’s worth the risk.
