Legendary Spotlight: Favorite Urban Legend?

by | May 19, 2017 | 1 - Legendary, Interview, Uncategorised | 0 comments

 

To celebrate the expanded distribution of Legendary we have shone a spotlight on the anthology this week by asking out some of our contributors questions. Today’s our final question to contributors. We hope you’ve enjoyed following along with us and giving this anthology some well-deserved attention.

 

Today we asked the contributors:

What is your favorite urban legend?

 

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know that many urban legends so I would have to say the legend I picked, the story about Pinky-Pinky. I guess I enjoyed that one and decided to use it because it’s so unusual and not as well known as legends like the Hook and Bloody Mary, I’ve always liked stories that are obscure and rarely retold.
Aisling Phillips

"La Vie En Rose"

I don’t know if “favorite” is the right word, but the one that’s affected me the most is the one about the stranger flashing his headlights. You know, because there’s a psycho murderer in the girl’s back seat? Yeah, that one. Every time I get in a car—any car—I check the back seat. I’m thirty-four years old, and when I’m sixty, I’ll still be checking the back seat because that one time I don’t, the psycho murderer will be back there with his ax.
Sara Dobie Bauer

"Not Again"

While I love Bloody Mary, I always also really liked the urban legend about the girl who wore a red ribbon around her neck. She told her husband-to-be that he couldn’t remove the ribbon. On their wedding night, after she fell asleep, he untied it to discover that she’d been decapitated. The ribbon was red from her blood and the only thing keeping it on. Gruesome, but I love it.
Wendy Sparrow

She Wore White

My favorite urban legend is probably the hook story. It is effectively simple (teen A likes teen B, they go to lover’s lane, they are attacked by maniac, natch). I remember it really scaring me as a kid, because it must have been true…right? That, and it speaks to
the fact that seclusion is both romantic and terrifying. That is why, at its heart of heart, something like Friday the 13th works. That
rumination that there is nothing quite so enchanting as being alone in the woods at night with someone you love. But better to be alone with a romantic partner than a violent killer. Unfortunately, the hapless heroes of every hook story don’t get the former without the latter. Which is honest, because quiet dark means either is possible. Who knows if tonight’s darkness will bring you a dream or a nightmare?

Michael Leonberger

"The Hook"

It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I think my all-time favorite urban legend is probably the original escaped-inmate hook-man stalking lover’s lane. It’s prima facie nonsense, but everybody’s heard or watched a version of the story with no added twists, explanations, or embroideries at least a half-dozen times by the end of high school. Everybody knows it’s beyond ridiculous to think that a deranged murderer would be allowed to wander around with a deadly weapon attached to the end of their arm in any sort of institutional setting, and nobody’s ever heard the ’50s-movie style radio bulletins that always alert the near-miss victims, but the legend shows no sign whatsoever of slowing down regardless. The story itself has the sort of plucky against-all-odds bravado of a final girl, and it’s hard not to love it just for that.
T. R. North

Vanishing Point

If you’d like to learn more about the Legendary contributors, check out their individual interviews here.

Urban legends. We’ve all heard them, we’ve all told them. They fill the role that fairy tales once held—morality tales meant to frighten us into sticking with the herd, obeying society’s rules, and not taking any chances. In most urban legends, once someone transgresses, we know things won’t end well for them.

But what if the bright spark of romance also common to these stories refuses to be snuffed out? What if it bursts into a love that fights for its chance to burn? Can love triumph over evil? Forgive any trespass? Heal any wound?

Set off into a dark wood with a young love that won’t go quietly into the night. Bait a vengeful ghost to find family, and love. Ride along with a hitchhiker who won’t vanish for long. Learn to love a touch that is not human. Find passion beneath the scars. Dive into five tales that speak to the heart of myth and find love that is nothing short of legend.

Featuring new stories by Sara Dobie Bauer, Wendy Sparrow, T. R. North, Aisling Phillips, and Michael Leonberger.

 

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