Author Spotlight: Arden Powell
Arden Powell (they/them) is a queer indie author and illustrator whose books include The Faerie Hounds of York, the Flos Magicae series, and their short story collection, The Carnelian King and Other Stories. A nebulous entity, they live with a senior rescue hound and an exorbitant number of houseplants, and enjoy the company of both.
Author Links:
Bluesky: @ardenpowell.bsky.social
Website: ardenpowell.mailerpage.io
Itch Shop: ardenpowell.itch.io
Patreon: patreon.com/ArdenPowell
Chapter 1 of The Black Knight Saga Webserial (free public post): patreon.com/posts/ch-1-sir-black-112293087
Get it on Itch Let’s talk about your latest release, Flesh and Bone. This one is a short, standalone mm horror-romance novella set in the Canadian Wild West of 1889. What inspired you to write this story in this setting & time period?
I haven’t written a western before, and I’m always drawn to new settings. Westerns are so evocative in their sense of time and place, and they lend themselves to horror and romanticism equally well. I wanted to set it before the 1900s to keep it from feeling too reachable.
After introducing the real-life Canadian outlaw Sam Kelly, that narrowed the period to before his career took off in the 1890s.
The Canadian setting wasn’t originally planned. I had written the beginning and some of the climax, then set it aside for a few years. Returning to it at the end of 2024 in the mood to work on a horror story (for some mysterious reason), I decided to set it in Canada as a result of an unprecedented flare of patriotism (again, for some mysterious reason).
There was no reason not to set it in Canada when our prairie provinces are part of the historical Wild West. Going forward, I plan to set more of my stories in Canada unless I have a compelling reason to believe that the story would work better elsewhere.
Tell us about your MCs – introduce us to Everett and Marshall, and let us know what to expect from their dynamic!
Everett and Marshall are childhood best friends who grew up together. As a teenager, Everett came to work on Marshall’s daddy’s cattle ranch, and now as adults, they spend their days together on the range. Everett is reserved, fond of Whitman and Shakespeare, while Marshall is more outgoing and sure of himself. They are both gay, though Everett is keeping that a very closely guarded secret.
Marshall is discreet about his own liaisons, but he is infinitely more comfortable in his own skin, while Everett is afraid of his own desires.
The events of Flesh and Bone commence following a moonlit tryst, which they each regret for vastly different reasons; Marshall is quietly pining for more, while Everett is convinced their encounter woke a devil that is now stalking them for their sins.
Despite their differing attitudes towards their own sexuality and each other’s expression of it, they would absolutely die for each other. And that commitment is being put to the test.
What can you tell us about Canadian werewolf lore, and the wider lore you drew on for this story?
As far as Canadian werewolf lore goes, I think we (and I mean the white settlers) mostly just carried the European traditions over rather than originate our own. I avoided any deliberate allusions to Native American mythology, as I don’t feel that’s my place to explore.
One could draw parallels between the monster in Flesh and Bone and the w*nd*go; that’s not intentional, but maybe unavoidable when talking about hungry supernatural beings of North America.
The werewolf in my story was actually inspired by a horror movie called The Curse (2021), in which the monster is cut open to reveal the cursed human trapped inside. The movie itself was neither good nor bad enough to recommend, but that specific image stayed with me.
I wanted to use my werewolf not just as a metaphor—werewolves traditionally make great metaphors for lots of things, like puberty or violence or sexual urges—but as a very literal manifestation of shame: specifically, internalized homophobia.
Flesh and Bone is less an exploration of any specific folklore than it is a character study, and what the werewolf represents to this one particular man.
How did you use Gothic tropes and create a Gothic space from the Canadian landscape for this novella?
There are three Gothic settings that I love most: haunted houses, the Deep South, and desolate wilderness.
Flesh and Bone falls into the latter camp, and Canada has so much wilderness.
The isolation of the 19th-century Prairies, far removed from any settlement, lends itself beautifully to both horror and to the sublime.
Travelling with nothing but their cattle and horses for company, in the middle of the night with no light but the campfire and the moon overhead, cowboys could spend days or weeks on the range without any human contact except each other.
Adding the survival-horror element of the monster and a grievous injury, on top of already watching for wild animals, outlaws, or a bad turn in the weather, immediately makes the setting claustrophobic and deadly.
The story could have done away with the supernatural elements altogether and felt much the same.
My monster isn’t any deadlier than a grizzly bear attack in the Alberta foothills, and Everett’s paranoia about its nature being that of the devil could be attributed to his fever combined with his internalized homophobia. The landscape felt really effortlessly Gothic, as if it was just waiting for me to set my story there.
What are the main themes in Flesh and Bone, and how did these come about – were they planned or organic as you drafted?
Flesh and Bone’s theme is one of guilt, shame, and self-loathing. Writing an historical gay romance leaves an obvious open door for the exploration of homophobia, either culturally or internalized, which I’ve touched on in my other Gothic books as well. I knew going in that, no matter the horror, the romance required a happy ending, though Marshall and Everett have to go through hell to earn it.
If Everett was to get his romance, he had to overcome his shame surrounding his sexuality first. He also had to overcome a werewolf. Because it’s such a short novella—a novelette, technically, though no one really uses that term—I combined his internal struggle and his external antagonist, resulting in this ragged, relentless beast born of his own body and worst impulses. It felt very organic, though I hope it looks meticulously planned. The shorter the story, the less likely I am to outline it beforehand, and the more organically it comes together in early drafting.
What are your favourite reader responses to this novella so far?
I’m touched by the readers who have commented on the tenderness of the romance, which I was worried would get buried under the body horror and content warnings. I’m very glad people are connecting to the romance, and that it’s not being overpowered by the horror aspects. It ends in hope and healing, and I want readers, especially queer readers, to have that right now.
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