Red Introduction

This may be my oldest idea. I'm going to honest, the kernel of this idea came when I watched the movie The Cabin in the Woods in 2012. Please don't hate me when I say this but I thought that I could do better. The film's goofy, slapstick tone I felt was an affront to horror fans and an affront to its own lead; the film's tone it was like "what a stupid idea". They wasted their own potential. The idea of people managing stories, administering the lives and deaths of others; what a great idea! That idea should be handled as serious as cancer.

At the time I was very into J-Horror and Japanese culture, and the idea of doing this book as a Japanese story of Japanese admins managing monsters in their own culture was initially how I started the book. I got cold feet. While I don't consider myself to have much in common with the "gate-keeping" community or the "#ownvoices" movement, just because I feel like they would automatically see me as the enemy, I do think they have a point when it comes to a story about Japanese admins not being mine to tell. So I decided to make this a western story with them administering western fairytales.

Or rather one fairytale, Red Riding Hood.

Red Riding Hood does have roots deep into my life. The first pantomime I ever saw, was Red Hiding Hood. That was my first time at the theatre, and I had no idea what the theatre was, and the idea of it being three-dimensional, the audience interacting with the play, really mystified me rather than terrified. I was so excited.

In my own grandma's house, while describing the village for the first time, I noticed my late grandpa's miniature house collection. All those houses grouped together was like a village, and that's what I based Fairyvale on.