"Something Old and Strange" — C.N. Vair on Fawn, Appalachian Folk Horror and the Jezebel Spirit

"I've always had too much sympathy for the devil, because he really just feels so human to me."C.N. Vair wrote her debut novel Fawn around a single image she couldn't shake: a romance between a witch and the devil. What grew around it is a folk horror novel about Tess, a small town, an old religion, and a question the book asks without ever answering — can you live alongside people whose values you don't share?In this episode she and Marlene talk about place as a character, and why the Appalachia of Fawn is the southern tier of New York rather than the West Virginia most people picture. About stumbling sideways into horror from a childhood of Tolkien, Narnia and Redwall. About finding your people when you're not sure how many horror readers live in your village.And about being told, at sixteen, that she had a Jezebel spirit — which was not intended as a compliment, and which she has worn as a badge of honour ever since.Plus: what actually changes when your book goes out into the world (less than you'd think, and more than you'd hope), why the villain had to be a pastor rather than a data centre, and a first look at book two — The Walking Tree, out autumn 2027, about a six-foot-one arborist and a tree haunted by the girl sacrificed to it a thousand years ago.Chapters00:00 – How to say the name (and why it's not on the cover)01:00 – Reading Fawn in Kenya, and writing place as a character03:05 – The Appalachia people don't picture04:40 – Why Appalachian horror is having a moment07:17 – Folklore, deep time, and the comfort of the very old08:13 – "Who are our neighbours?" — the question at the heart of Fawn09:56 – Finding your tribe in the horror community12:18 – Stumbling into horror from a fantasy childhood15:33 – Why Fawn sits comfortably in folk horror17:10 – "You have a Jezebel spirit"20:35 – Tess, the witch and the devil23:07 – The drafts that didn't survive24:21 – Why the villain had to be religion, not a data centre26:18 – Letting the book go29:19 – What actually changed after publication33:36 – The Walking Tree, coming autumn 202738:40 – The earworm: can we coexist?43:21 – What she's reading next45:42 – Reading systems, TBRs and tandem reads