I seem to be revisiting a lot of older works recently.

Assuredly there are some larger trends at play here — it seems like all creative industries are struggling right now (a ‘survive until 25’ mentality) and only taking risks on existing IPs and guaranteed successes — which has a dual effect of putting less new material into the market, and also requiring knowledge of past work in order to engage with present offerings.

I think there’s a bit of a compounding effect here which is a bit more personal in that my past blog offerings are starting to thin in comparison to my current output. I’m finding more and more that when talking about something new (or newish), I desire to reference something old (or oldish) for context, but cannot link to anything useful in my own work, and so I must (in some ways) go back to the beginning.

Jackalope Wives is not the beginning — Ursula Vernon (T. Kingfisher) had already debuted in 2008 and was winning awards by 2012 — but as they say in WoT, it was a beginning.

When Jackalope Wives was published in January of 2014, I would have been almost two years out of school and from what I can piece together from old emails, still attempting to put together some kind of life in publishing. My posts from that time are thin, but it seems to stem from being very active in other areas like writing articles at Amazing Stories, and work on some of my few freelance editing gigs.

In the larger world around me, the Sad & Rabid Puppies were again causing controversy with intolerant rhetoric and slate voting which seems to have bumped Jackalope Wives off the list of Hugo finalists for 2015.

I assume it was this controversy which brought the story to my attention way back when, but I can’t tell you when I got around to reading it or why I read that one as opposed to any of the other finalists (whether on the slate or off the slate). Apex Magazine loomed large in my literary diet at that time so perhaps it was simply convenience.

In any case, JW was my first Ursula Vernon story, and for no particular reason, my only Ursula Vernon story for quite some time. I remember thinking the story quite powerful, with an important theme and a clever use of metaphor with which to express its message.

Rereading the piece today, I would say those things are still true, and unfortunately still very relevant.

Some other features of the story which stood out to me upon this reread include its protagonist, Grandma Harken, and the sort of mythic feel of the prose.

Harken is blunt, intelligent, and quite energetic despite her advanced age. In an interview with the Los Angeles Public library (as T. Kingfisher) Vernon sites Terry Pratchett as a huge influence on her work (consider Kingfisher’s A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and Pratchett’s Battle Bread), and Harken definitely has a bit of a Granny Weatherwax vibe, though Jackalope Wives is by no means a comedy.

Finally, Vernon’s prose are just a kind of satisfaction in themselves. Though it isn’t hard to put together what a Jackalope might be (portmanteau of jackrabbit and antelope), I’m sure very few are familiar with this creature plucked from the myths and legends of rural Wyoming (before reading this story at least). And yet we’re made to care deeply about the fate of these creatures in a relatively short span of words.

This is Vernon’s skill as a storyteller at work. We’re instantly engaged as if we’ve just leaned closer to better listen over the crackle of the campfire. Or, if we’re to lean fully into JW’s allusion to Rite of Spring in the opening, a bon fire.

Give Jackalope Wives a read?

Certainly! Vernon’s prose are compelling, thematic, and relevant even ten years after their original publication, elevating the sort of kitschy Wyoming myth of the Jackalope into a powerful (and empowering) impeachment.

Also, if you’re just getting into Vernon’s work, or their more recent offerings as T. Kingfisher, Jackalope Wives seems as great a starting place as any, already displaying much of the style and skill which has made them a household name in more recent years.

That’s all I have for us this week. Has anyone read this story? Anyone do a re-read recently? What’s a portmanteau of two animals you’d like to read a story about? I once did a speculative science project in middle school for which I combined a bird and a shark . . .

Anywho, leave your thoughts in the comments! Can’t wait to discuss this one with all of you!