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The story behind The Bleeding Woods’s title is actually very special to me. Its very first incarnation was simply called The Woods, since I like to give all of my stories codenames as they lounge in the “dreaming phase.” Later, my beloved antagonist, Jasper, insisted he take center stage, and so the title switched to Jasperwood. His suggestion reigned supreme until the final stages of editing, when my publishing team suggested we try out some alternatives.
After weeks of brainstorming, I asked one of my closest friends if she had any ideas. She followed my question with a question, “What are some things the book wouldn’t be the same without?” I started rambling through a handful of disjointed elements ranging from thematic to aesthetic. “Blood”, “woods”, and Jasper’s unrelenting desire to make his sinister mark on the world kept returning. The Bleeding Woods flowed from her lips as intuitively and effortlessly as a stream. We paused in stunned silence, then in unison, muttered, “It’s perfect.”
I immediately sent an email back to my publisher, and we all fell in love. I think The Bleeding Woods harnesses the essence of the story from both a direct, visceral perspective and from a more symbolic one.
To me, the inclusion of a The channels Jasper’s inflated sense of self-importance. It could have just been Bleeding Woods, but Jasper simply wouldn’t have it. He relies so heavily on the idea that he is above humanity, and that his presence is one of borderline divine retribution. There’s a lot of power in labelling something a The, and he feeds off of that power.
The Bleeding Woods portion of the title is where our intent to express gory intrigue meets layers of symbolic undergrowth, pun intended. Of course, a lot of blood spills in Blackstone Forest. At this point, the soil is more cadaver than earth. The trees themselves are victims of Jasper’s, twisted and mutated to decorate his domain. However, the mere existence of the forest is due to the monstrous blood that coats human hands. That is to say, it takes a monster to make a monster, and Jasper and Clara are very much made-monsters. This forest doesn’t just blossom from blood; it was...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: The Bleeding Woods.
Writers Read: Brittany Amara.
The Page 69 Test: The Bleeding Woods.
Q&A with Brittany Amara.
--Marshal Zeringue
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