Author's Note

A quick note about Shorn Star and what I'm trying to accomplish with it. Sometimes a story begins with a carefully planned outline. Sometimes it begins with a single image that refuses to leave your head. Shorn Star is very much the second kind.

The entire story started when I read an erotic story involving a woman's head being shaved. Something about the imagery stuck with me. I started thinking about how a character like Bells, who relies heavily on her appearance, confidence, charisma, and larger-than-life personality, would react if those things were systematically stripped away.

One image became another. Then another. Before long I had an entire story. Despite featuring monsters, curses, and supernatural shenanigans, Shorn Star is not really a horror story in the traditional sense. It isn't a mystery, either. If I had to describe it, I'd probably call it a supernatural dark comedy, or perhaps a Mean Girls Monster Mash.

At its core, the story is about seven rivals deciding that the best way to get revenge on Bells is not to kill her, but to dismantle everything she takes pride in. The goal isn't physical destruction, but deconstruction. Over the course of the story, Bells is forced to confront what remains when beauty, dignity, and self-image are peeled away.

That sounds much heavier than the story actually is, because make no mistake, this is also a story about monster women being incredibly petty. Half the fun comes from watching these powerful creatures engage in increasingly elaborate acts of magical mean-girl sabotage.

More than anything, Shorn Star is an excuse to take Bells completely out of her comfort zone, laugh at her misfortune, and then watch her stubbornly claw her way back to her feet no matter what gets thrown at her. Because if there's one thing I've learned writing Jezebel James stories, it's that Bells is at her most entertaining when everything is going wrong.

As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and following along with these strange little adventures.

— Savannah Harrow