New publications: Carnival Ever After, Notes on the Seventh Battle of the Queen of the Ruby Mists, and Green Leaves Against the Wind

So 2023 has started out with a bit of a publishing bang, with not one but two new stories, plus a poem:

Carnival Ever After, in Apex, is a fairy tale about what happened after the end of Charles Perrault’s “Diamonds and Toads,” both to the beautiful sister who married a prince, and the ugly sister who did not.

Notes on the Seventh Battle of the Queen of the Ruby Mists, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, collects the footnotes of a detailed research study on this fabulous battle. Still kinda sad that the footnote citing an article from First in Fae had to be eliminated, but sacrifices must be made in the name of scholarship.

This story is closely related to my earlier story in Reckoning, Footnotes on Phosphates, Nitrates and the Lake A Incident: a Review.

And speaking of Reckoning, I also have a new poem there this month: Green Leaves Against the Wind.

Enjoy!

Messenger

A new tiny fairy tale from me, Messenger, out from Daily Science Fiction today.

Enjoy!

Good People

What fascinates me about fairy tales is what’s left out. Often, this includes the thoughts of the servants and the courtiers, the ones who observed what was happening, but did not speak up, who appear in the corners of the tales, but silent.

My latest poem, Good People, loosely based on the fairy tale, “The Six Swans,” explores just a little of this. It can be read for free now at Fireside Fiction.

(And as always, if you enjoy this or any of my other stories/poems, consider purchasing an issue of the zine, or subscribing to a Patreon, or subscribing to the zine. Every bit helps these zines shine on for just a little while longer.)

Dancing in Silver Lands

I’m thrilled to note that my tiny collection of tiny fairy tales, Dancing in Silver Lands, has just won the 2021 Outwrite Chapbook Competition in the Fiction category.

Dancing in Silver Lands contains ten flash fairy tales, including reader favorite “The Ceremony,” which landed on the Nebula Recommended List, and some pieces original to this collection.

I’ll definitely have more about this later once the chapbook has been published by Neon Hemlock Press. In the meantime, I’m very grateful to the three publications – Fireside, Daily Science Fiction and Goldfish Grimm – that gave some these pieces a home in the first place, encouraging me to put this tiny collection together.

Stepsister

In many versions of the Cinderella story, including the retelling by Charles Perrault, Cinderella finds husbands for her stepsisters. As Perrault puts it:

Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two great lords of the court.

Uh huh. Now, sure, these sisters were wellborn enough to be invited to the prince’s ball in the first place – something that the film Ever After makes a point of noting – but Perrault’s tale makes their status absolutely clear: they are the daughters of gentlemen, not the daughters of nobles. The same exact status held by Cinderella at birth. A status that failed to protect her from becoming a servant – a highly abused servant.

Charles Perrault witnessed several relationships, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, between those of unequal birth at the Court of Louis XIV at Versailles. He may even have known about Louis XIV’s secret, second marriage to a woman considerably beneath him in birth. (She was of noble birth on her father’s side, and quasi-noble birth on her mother’s side, but hardly of high rank, and came from an impoverished background.) He also was a direct witness to several arranged marriages that ended up as disasters for both parties.

His intent here is pretty clear, as it is in other stories: an argument that social climbing was absolutely possible in the court of Louis XIV (something his fellow French salon fairy tale writers often disputed). Not just possible – something to be applauded and encouraged, even as in another tale, Little Red Riding Hood, he warned young women away from predatory men. The same sorts of young women who were – presumably – hoping to follow the example of Cinderella and her sisters.

So, yeah, this all fits with Charles Perrault’s worldview. But does it fit with the rest of the story that he told? I would argue not. Sure, Perrault also tells us that the younger stepsister was less rude and uncivil than the older one – but that’s only a matter of degree.

And, of course, what of the great lords suddenly matched to women of lower birth?

I couldn’t explore all of this. But I explored some of it in my latest little fairy tale, Stepsister, out from Daily Science Fiction.

Enjoy!

Resistance and Transformation: On Fairy Tales

It’s finally out – my collection of fourteen essays about the French salon fairy tale writers, from Aqueduct Press!

The book can be purchased directly from Aqueduct Press, or from Amazon and other booksellers. From a financial perspective, it doesn’t matter to me who you buy it from or which format you buy. But buying directly from Aqueduct is a bit better for them, so if you can buy directly from Aqueduct, I’d recommend buying from them.

The Chambermaid

Some fairy tales leave me cheering for the wrong side. Particularly “The Goose Girl.” I mean, think about it. We’re supposed to be totally on the side of the princess, and totally against the maid. But who in this fairy tale, exactly, is walking around talking to drops of blood? The princess. Who in this fairy tale, exactly, is constantly calling up a wind to blow away the hat of her mostly innocent coworker? The princess. Who in this fairy tale, exactly, is talking to the head of a dead horse? Again, the princess.

And who, exactly, ends up dead in the end?

Not the princess.

My little poem about it, The Chambermaid, just went up on Kaleidotrope today.

Enjoy!

 

Gretel’s Bones and Transformation, Afterwards

I love the happy endings of fairy tales. But they always leave me wondering: what happened after this? Oh, sure, the story says they lived happily ever after, but is that true? Were they really able to forget everything – and laugh? Or did that laughter – that joy – that happiness – have a bitter edge?

Coincidentally, two of my small works inspired by those endings just went up over the last couple of days:  Gretel’s Bones, about – wait for it – Gretel and bones, and Transformation, Afterwards, about what happens after the princess kisses the frog.

Enjoy!

 

 

The Wolf

Little Red Riding Hood has never been one of my favorite fairy tales. When I was a small kid, I much preferred the stories of the princesses with the beautiful dresses (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty) or the tales of the girls who went out on adventures and rescued their brothers or princes (East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon, The Seven Swans, though calling “weaving together nettle shirts” an adventure of any sort is probably a bit much). Little Red Riding Hood had a bright red hood, but that was about it for the clothing, and then a wolf ate her, and then someone else shot the wolf. Not really my sort of story.

As a grownup, I could appreciate the warning in the tale from Perrault and the Grimms. But appreciating the warning didn’t necessarily make me value the tale all that much.

Still, something about the story nagged at me – enough that I’ve ended up using it as inspiration for a poem or short story or two. This is the latest, The Wolf, up at Daily Science Fiction today. Enjoy!

Feather Ties

Another small fairy tale from me up at Daily Science Fiction today, where I ask the all important question:

What happened to everyone attached to the Golden Goose after its owner married the princess?

Read it here.