The Emo Bunny that Should, A Story for Demented Children

What's up with the emo bunnies?!

People stare at me as though I'm odd when I start talking about emo bunnies.  Those who know me well just sigh and nod.  So where did the emo bunnies come from?

Well, it started with Guitar Hero III.  That's probably not what you expected, but it's true.  There's a song by AFI on there called Miss Murder.  I loved playing that song, so I went on youtube and checked out their music.  I now own 3 of their CDs. :)

Anyway; near the end of the video a woman, who I'm guessing is Miss Murder, is carrying a rabbit and puts it in the middle of a bunch of other rabbits.  I turned to my teenage daughter Jessica and asked, "What's up with all the rabbits?"

She responded in a very cute emo voice, "They're emo bunnies!"

Soooooo . . . I started talking about emo bunnies.  They accepted me as their imaginary friend.  I probably don't exist in reality, but they like pretending I'm there.

Emo bunnies tend to be depressed.  They don't talk much and when they do, it's usually about gloomy days or what color of hair dye to use.  They need lots of hugs and cuddles.  I know this for certain because my wife and kids bought me a bunny for father's day last year.  I named it Emo, of course.  I have a picture of her on the cover of the story.

How the story came to be

I write short stories and give them away for free as a promotion for the novels that I sale.  It's been extremely effective and has led to about 80% of the books I've sold.  Before this story, I had written three others that were doing pretty well and wanted to come up with something different.

The idea to write about an emo bunny came to me so I sat at my computer trying to think of what to put down.  My stuffed emo bunny came in a coffin, so I decided that Emo's home would be a coffin. :D

My stuffed Emo bunny, complete with coffin. :)

So I took Emo into the forest and wondered what would happen next.  Sometimes ideas come easily, other times not so much.  At the time, I was listening to Emilie Autumn, who is my favorite musician.  I will warn you now that her music is a bit . . . discordant, insane, disturbing . . .  Umm . . . She describes her own music this way: "Sounds like the best cup of English Breakfast spiked with cyanide and smashed on your antique wallpaper..."

You have been warned.

So I decided to add Emilie Autumn as a guest character, not really thinking much of it.  I asked her permission on twitter at the time, but never received a response.  I decided to leave the mention in.  If she ever reads it and asks me to take it out, I'll do so.

Then I sent Emo into the forest to mope in misery, but that doesn't make a very interesting story.  So, I decided to add a twisted little plot where the Easter Bunny is kidnapping forest creatures to do his labor.  And this is why I've never read the story to my 7 yr old who still believes the Easter Bunny is good. :D  My other two are demented and wise to the ways of fuzzy woodland creatures pushing candy to unsuspecting children.

Then I was stuck as to where to go from there.  An Emo Bunny would never risk life and limb to save anyone.  They would let the victims suffer and lament about how terrible it all was.  That's when I added the Plague Rats, which is what fans of Emilie Autumn call themselves.  It really fit with the . . . insane theme of the story, so I went with it.

I've had a lot of reviews telling me that my short stories end too abruptly and this is one of those stories.  I freely admit that I suck at endings, but I've looked at it numerous times and still like how I ended that one with Emo going back to the coffin and hiding.  It seemed appropriate to me.  I am working on endings in general though to improve.

As far as whether or not there will be any more stories like this, I plan on writing more Stories for Demented Children, but I don't know if I'll write anything else about Emo.  We'll see if inspiration hits me. :)

Another picture of Emo: