“The Fox Maiden” by Priya Sharma will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Gina Guadagnino interviews Sharma on the story.

Fox hunting is a vexed subject for many people, given the history of the sport and the allegations of cruelty that led to its being banned in many countries. What kind of research did you do on fox hunting for this piece?

I once visited a stately home with a hunting room, which horrible and fascinating. It was a window into a world that’s utterly foreign to me. There was a photo of a young girl who’d been bloodied (it was her first hunt and her face had been daubed with fox blood).

I did some reading on fox hunting but I did more reading on foxes. I think they’re gorgeous. I can assure you that no foxes were harmed during the writing of this story.

MORE: Read the whole story here!