Fairy Tales

My fairy tale collection began with a “what happened after the happily ever after” contest. I wrote and entered “A Touch of Beast.” I was getting a divorce at the time and, I didn’t just identify with, I was the woman who longed for the passionate, nearly animalistic beast of a man while having settled for someone else. The story didn’t win the contest, but the experience of writing it had me hooked, so I turned my mind’s eye to the other tales I remembered. If I could find the woman who wanted one thing, but did another in “Beauty and the Beast;” who knew what other people waited for someone to notice them in the other tales?

As I thought about the stories, I realized no one ever talks of what became of “The Huntsman” in “Snow White.” After all, the evil Queen has sent him to kill Snow White and he hasn’t done it; surely he would receive some sort of punishment? I worried that I would have problems identifying with a big burly huntsman, but I found a man who made bad choices for the wrong reasons and must suffer the consequences. I found a man for whom mercy was punishment.

I find that I will think about a fairy tale many months before I write. I’ll discover things that make me question and I’ll rub the rough questions in my mind over and over again like a worry stone until finally, and sometimes suddenly, an answer appears. How could Hansel and Gretel be happy reunited with a father who conspired against them? Why would Cinderella’s father marry an evil stepmother when his first wife was so admired? Why would a woman want to keep the baby Rapunzel in a tower; just to punish her parents? When I realize what it is that I need to say, the stories almost flow out of me uncontrollably. They almost write themselves.

So far, the stories have all been Brothers Grimm fairy tales, but soon I will have some Hans Christian Anderson tales represented as well as some stories whose origin may be more folk or nursery tale.