Showing posts with label Jane Yolen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Yolen. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Jane Yolen's Anticipated Baba Yaga "Verse Novel" and How Taisia's 'Ask Baba Yaga' Advice Column Helped Make it Happen

Yolen’s Finding Baba Yaga is a story in verse
about a teenage runaway who finds herself drawn
into the world of the mythical Slavic witch,
as she sets out to make her own fate,
“a theme that has never been more timely than it is now.”
It's Ms. Yolen's first ever "verse novel" (see below for details on its inspiration) and to say it's highly anticipated by the fairy tale community and Baba Yaga aficionados, might be understating things a tad. Best of all, it's nearly here...
    • There is a title. (Finding Baba Yaga)
    • There is a book. (It's in the "pre-release" promotion phase)
    • There is a release date. (October 30, 2018 - that's this year!)
    • There is a cover. (See above)
    • And there is an excerpt! (Click HERE, and scroll down, to read it)
    • There is also SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT we need to clear up... (read on - you can take a shortcut to the words in bold if you're in a rush)

    Little Ivan and Baba Yaga by Julie Rouviére
    We're talking about Jane Yolen's long-anticipated book in verse, Finding Baba Yaga. The Mary Sue got the exclusive cover reveal and interview so we're pointing the way, in case you missed the announcement.

    There's a little bit of information we wanted to set straight, however. We were very surprised to find Once Upon A Blog/InkGypsy credited with posting the Ask Baba Yaga advice and for being the catalyst that got the book going. In Jane Yolen's introduction, she adds this PS:
    PS: In July 2013, I discovered the very strange website http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.co.uk which has an ongoing set of weekly posts by Baba Yaga as a Lonely Hearts columnist. The site is written by someone known anonymously as InkGypsy, reputed to be a Russian poet who grew up in the UK.Whoever she is, she’s hilarious and provocative. These poems would not exist without her posts.
    While we did post the Ask Baba Yaga columns, weekly as could be managed at the time, Gypsy (aka InkGypsy) did not write them. She only included a personal commentary, added a picture and formatted the posts. The main content, the advice - questions and answers - were, and have always been, the brilliant work of Russian-American writer and poet, aka the "hilarious and provocative"  Taisia Kitaiskaia, and Taisia very kindly gave us permission to reblog these brilliant nuggets of advice at Once Upon A Blog in an ongoing manner.

    (Note: We were not even the original publishing 'home' of these letters of advice. That honor - and credit of discovery - belongs to The Hairpin. We have always acknowledged Taisia as the writer and Oracle "speaking on our behalf to Baba Yaga", as well as the original source of The Hairpin, and have linked to her, and The Hairpin, on every Ask Baba Yaga post, but we're also aware that in this age of social media, end matter is easy to skim over and can easily be missed.)

    We are so very happy we've helped Taisia's work be seen by more people. Hopefully, even more folks will seek out Taisia's writing and her other wonderfully unique book Literary Witches (created in collaboration with Katy Horan), now her column has been credited in Jane Yolen's newest book. We just want to be very clear that all credit for any creative inspiration lies with our friend Taisia Kitaiskaia and we're very grateful she allowed Once Upon A Blog to be a part of the journey to publication because.. that's right, Taisia's columns have been expanded and made into a book! It's appropriately titled: Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles 

    Check it out! >>>>>>>

    (Psst! Expect a giveaway of that awesome collection in the near future...)

    Here is a sneak peek of one of the nuggets of advice included in Ask Baba Yaga (the lovely illustrations and design motifs are by Brenna Thummler:

    Returning to Finding Baba Yaga, we will admit, knowing now that Taisia's columns kick-started Jane Yolen's writing of her newest book - written entirely in verse! - that makes it a guaranteed sell for us! While we wish we could own every copy of Jane Yolen's books, she is so wonderfully prolific we have to sadly admit we haven't quite completed our (ongoing) collection of her works. This one, however, is moving not only to our shopping basket but will be put firmly on top of our must-read pile as soon as it appears. Poetry is something that's not always easy to read but Yolen's verse often changes minds about that. It's just a different pace for her wonderful storytelling.
    Here's what Ms. Yolen had to say to The Mary Sue about creating the work: 
    Artist unknown
    (pls comment if you know so
    we can correct the credit)
    Baba Yaga is my culture hero—the strongest and greatest witch in the world. She makes her own way, is both anarchic and eternal, has transportation that runs on pure energy which has the added value of not destroying the earth, and she always says what she thinks. How could you not admire her? 
    I first learned about Baba Yaga as a ballet kid in the 1940s, one of those New York City girls studying at Balanchine’s school of ballet. Maria Tallchief was my ballerina crush and she once hung her practice tutu on my locker! She was the world’s greatest dancer at the time, and her most iconic role was Firebird. 
    Being a bookish kid, from a Russian Jewish background, I wanted to find out more about Firebird—and there she was, on the pages of some long-forgotten book in my parents’ library, along with the other two famous Russian folklore characters—Koschei the Deathless, and Baba Yaga. 
    So from the time I was about eight years old, I wanted to be Baba Yaga, gnashing my iron teeth. Riding in a mortar steered by a pestle. Living in a little house that walked about on chicken feet. Well, since I couldn’t, I wrote about her when I got older—in a picture book called “The Flying Witch,” in a short story called “Boris Chernevsky’s Hands,” in a graphic novel called “Curses, Foiled Again,” and in a novel written with Midori Snyder, Except the Queen. Except. . . Midori claimed the Baba as her character before I could do so, so I invented three black witch sisters living in Harlem to make up for my loss. 
    All the while, I was writing poetry about Baba Yaga and one day I realized I had almost enough for a possible collection, but there was a story beating inside me that pulled all the poems together, and insisted on being told. And so my first ever verse novel was born. It took possibly four years in the writing, and four more in the selling, but when my editor at Tor, Susan Chang said: “I don’t actually like poetry and I couldn’t stop reading this mss.” I thought: maybe this will actually become a book some day! 
    And as if I were the Baba herself, my prophecy has come true!
    And we couldn't be more thrilled! 

    While the sneak peek gives us the introduction and the first verse, introducing the idea of Baba Yaga to the reader, knowing the Lonely Hearts advice column sparked the idea of a teenage runaway finding her way into the realm of our favorite witch, makes us mightily intrigued. 

    Here's the official description of Finding Baba Yaga by legendary writer, and "America's Hans Christian Andersen" Jane Yolen:

    Baba Yaga by Rima Staines
    A young woman discovers the power to speak upand take control of her fate―a theme that has never been more timely than it is now… 
    You think you know this story. 
    You do not. 
    A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself.... 
    A mythic yet timely novel-in-verse by the beloved and prolific author and poet Jane Yolen, “the Hans Christian Andersen of America.”

    You can pre-order Finding Baba Yaga HERE.

    Wednesday, July 5, 2017

    Timeless Tales Magazine: Arthurian Legends LIVE!




    Greetings, fairy tale fans! This is Tahlia, editor of Timeless Tales Magazine, letting you know that our latest issue is ready for your eyeballs' gentle caress 😉. It is chock full of surprising and inspiring retellings of Arthurian Legends. 

    We've really tried to capture both the drama and the absurdities of life in King Arthur's court. We promise that you've never seen Camelot like this before! 

    • What if the Sword in the Stone took place among the Aztecs?
    • What if Lancelot met Guinevere in a Starbucks?
    • What if Sir Galahad was actually a woman?
    • What if Merlin was an outlaw in the Wild West? 
    • What if Morgan Le Fay never died, but was reborn over the centuries?

    Plus, this issue has two poignant poems written by award-winning author Jane Yolen. You do not want to miss them! Read the entire collection here: www.timelesstalesmagazine.com/arthurian-legends 


    Here's an excerpt from "Galahad & the Trickster" by Andy Scott:



    “Hail,” Galahad called. “P-pardon me, good sir. Pray, tell me, is this still the North Road?”

    “This?” the man crooned. He turned and stretched like a cat, his lithe body lounging perilously on the old rickety post. The sign's letters danced and transformed into letters, but were still gibberish.


    Galahad gasped. “Demon! B-Be gone, wr-wretch of the infernal abyss.” His voice echoed into the empty forest.

    The man leaned back and closed his eyes. “Wuddifahcud, pup … buddahcan’t. All-Father, in his one-eyed wisdom told me I couldn’t leave this hole until the prophecy was fulfilled.”

    “Wh-what prophecy, demon? And speak true!” Galahad almost believed his own courage.

    The man sighed.

    “Odin’s prophecy, dolt. Can’t get around that.” Swinging his legs he sang, “Never shall you see Asgard again, Loki, until a virgin ploughs Yggdrasil’s key from his consummated bed.”

    Loki? Galahad’s insides squirmed. He had heard of the ‘gods’ of the North Men. Cruel, pagan demons with brutal rites. He whispered a prayer under his breath, sword still trembling towards at Loki’s neck.

    “Y-you said ‘consummated’” Galahad croaked, “but if the bed was consummated the giver couldn’t be a virgin?” 

    “You said it, kid.”

    “That’s nonsense.”

    “That’s gods, for you.”...


    READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT TIMELESSTALESMAGAZINE.COM


    Tuesday, February 7, 2012

    The Last Selchie Child by Jane Yolen

    Coming soon! OK - soon-ish, in May. (I'm always excited about Jane Yolen releases. :) And it has selkies - or in this case selchies.

    Magical transformations, enchanted mirrors, talking animals, familiar tales in unfamiliar guises, all these and more are found in the pages of The Last Selchie Child. 
    Retellings of archetypal myths and fairy tales and the nature of storytelling itself are explored in this new collection of poems by Jane Yolen.
    If you're not really a poetry fan but love fairy tales I suggest you at least give Ms. Yolen's poetry a try.
    Here's an excerpt from one of the works in the book title The Storyteller:
    He unpacks his bag of taleswith fingers quickas a weaver's            picking the weft threads,            threading the warp.Watch his fingers.Watch his lipsspeaking the old familiar words:

    And HERE's another, older one which has stayed with me ever since I read it on the Endicott Studio website. It's titled Beauty and the Beast: An Anniversary.

    Another I love is Undine which you can read HERE and you can check the Endicott Studio poetry archive for even more fairy tale poetry, including quite a few by Ms. Yolen. 


    As far as I can tell, Ms. Yolen's fairy tale poetry is scattered across publications and various books, so I'm thankful Endicott Studio has been able to post some of her works so we can read them there. There's a good chance they otherwise might be lost (at least to most of us) in out of print/unavailable publications. I'd snap up a fairy tale poetry volume containing all these gems by Ms. Yolen in a second if it were available. For now we are to be treated with new fairy tale works instead. (Selkies!) That's a very good and happy thing.

    And if the idea of reading about selchies/selkies appeals but you'd rather a novel, she has one of those too. It's titled Greyling and I most definitely recommend it. Though it's out of print you can still find copies without too much difficulty.

    The Last Selchie Child will be available on May 15 and is available now for pre-order HERE and HERE.

    Thursday, December 31, 2009

    Stories for the Season: More To Explore - Story Roundup

    This is my last "Stories for the Season" post but it's by no means a complete collection of fairy tales, and stories for fairy tale people that can be enjoyed during this end of year/beginning of a new year holiday time.

    Here is an additional short list of stories I ran out of time to profile individually and why they can be included on your Christmas fairy tales list:

    The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real
    by Margery Williams
    It's the classic Christmas toy story

    The Wild Hunt
    by Jane Yolen
    Winter arrives and The Wild Hunt rides (excellent book!)

    The Wooden Shoes of Little Wolff
    adapted by Francois Coppee
    A boy with a good heart unknowingly helps the Christ Child and is rewarded

    Miracle of 34th Street
    Novella written by Valentine Davies and made into the Oscar winning film from 1947 about a department store Santa insisting he's the real thing.
    NOTE: Watch the black and white 1947 version - it's MUCH better than any of the remakes and has a gentle and special touch

    Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?
    by Jan Brett
    A children's version of the Norwegian folktale The Cat on the Dovrefell (see below)

    The Snow Princess
    by Ruth Sanderson
    Based on Tchaikovsky's Russian opera/ballet The Snow Maiden

    The Cat on the Dovrefell
    by Asbjornsen & Moe
    A great white bear (yes, a bear - not a cat, but don't tell the trolls...) helps counteract an annual Christmas invasion by trolls - I love this one!

    Why the Sea is Salt
    by Asbjornsen & Moe
    A poor boy goes begging on Christmas Eve and has a big adventure

    Tatterhood
    by Asbjornsen & Moe
    An invasion by trolls on Christmas Eve sets things in motion

    The Christmas Cuckoo
    adapted by Frances Browne
    Poor brothers become rich due to their good treatment of a cuckoo found on Christmas Day

    The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg
    A German folktale about the origins of the Christmas tree

    The Golden Cobwebs
    A folktale about the origins of tinsel/tree trimmings. (It's still good luck to have a spider ornament on your Christmas tree in the Ukraine.)

    The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
    by L. Frank Baum
    Mentioned in my post on Jack Frost

    The Mail Coach Passengers
    by Hans Christian Andersen
    A New Years story in which the Twelve Months take a ride
    (I couldn't find a correlating image for the story sorry - so you're being reminded of Gennady Spirin's work. :)

    Again, there are many more, especially if you look at all the little folktales, but I thought these ones would interest my readers most (that I'm aware of anyway). Of course, if you have others to add please feel free to add a comment.

    I hope you've enjoyed this series of posts. If you want to find them all, just click on the 'Xmas tales' tag in the sidebar.

    If you're interested in finding more make sure you visit The Fairy Tale Channel HERE - they have an excellent collection of fairy tales and often post appropriate to the seasons throughout the year too (an excellent resource!).

    Merry storytelling!
    May fairy tales fill and enrich your holidays and the coming year.
    :)

    Christmas Bell Babies Grow in Australia
    (They sing you joy)
    by May Gibbs


    Individual illustration credits (book covers show illustrators:
    1. An engraving of "The Cat on the Dovrefell" from TALES FROM THE NORSE by George W. Dasent
    2. Princess of Wands (Tatterhood) from THE FAIRY TALE TAROT by Lisa Hunt
    3. The Christmas Cuckoo from GRANNY'S WONDERFUL CHAIR AND THE TALES IT TOLD by Frances Browne with illustrations by Florence White Williams
    4. The Christmas Tree Fairy by Cicely Mary Baker
    5. A Christmas spider ornament from the Ukraine (photographer unknown)
    6. From THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS by Lyman Frank Baum, illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark

    Saturday, August 29, 2009

    Interview with Amy Morgan of The Fairy Tale Factory

    Today we are talking to Amy Morgan, creator of the Fairy Tale Factory. You can find out more about the factory and the exciting workshops Amy has going in our previous post HERE.

    This is a long interview post - but it's an interesting one, I promise!

    Fairy Tale News Hound: Hi Amy! Welcome to Once Upon A Blog... and thank you agreeing to this interview.


    Why do you love fairy tales? (You're in good company here on Once Upon A Blog!)

    AMY: Oh, gosh. I love fairy tales because they speak equally powerfully to my conscious and my subconscious. They remind me that the world is far more fluid than I generally suppose, and that people are more powerful than we generally allow ourselves to be. Fairy tales remind me to trust myself. And they're beautiful. I love them for that, too.

    FTNH: How have they influenced you personally?

    AMY: On a personal level, fairy tales have kept me going through many a dark and dreary time. Something about reading fairy tales and stories inspired by fairy tales gives me a tremendous sense of hope and comfort.

    On a professional level and as an artist, fairy tales have inspired some of my best work. That bit about trusting myself applies double-strength here - reading fairy tales has helped me trust my intuitions and inspirations.

    FTNH: What was/were your favorite fairy tale/s when you were younger?

    AMY: When I was a child I loved Rumplestiltskin. I had a collection illustrated by Tasha Tudor, and I was so fascinated by the fact that Rumplestiltskin [spoiler alert!] tore himself in two at the end. I would get my friends to act the story out with me - we'd use mustard-yellow yarn for the gold (this was the 70s - mustard-yellow yarn was plentiful) and we'd act out the whole thing.

    FTNH: What is/are your favorite tale/s (or types of tales) now and where are they from?

    AMY: My favorite tales now are the really long, weird ones from Italy and Germany. I've only recently started exploring the Russian tales, and then plan to move on to Chinese and Japanese.

    There's a Grimm story The Two Brothers in which two brothers get separated, and one of them ends up traveling with a menagerie. At some point in the story, the brother with the animals gets his head cut off, and the animals have to put it back on again. Okay, here comes my favorite part: they accidentally put his head on backwards! He notices pretty quickly - as one might, so they rip his head off again and stick back on the right way.

    Seriously. That is solid gold right there. The mishap with the head doesn't further the action of the plot in any discernible way. You don't learn anything about anyone's character from this little episode. It's just ... extra. A little gratuitous surrealism to help you on your way. Marie-Louise von Franz has actually written about this story and explains it in deep, meaningful, fascinating ways, but my enjoyment is more shallow than that. I just love how weird it is.

    I also love The Juniper Tree - another violent, macabre Grimm tale.

    FTNH: Why do you think this changed?

    AMY: First reason: exposure. I only had that one collection of Tasha Tudor's Fairy Tales when I was a kid. I was so shocked and delighted when I discovered this whole other world of stories out there.

    Second reason: I'm a grown-up now. The little Amy and the grown-up Amy need different stories - we're dealing with different life challenges.

    FTNH: Why did you start the Fairy Tale Factory? What prompted the idea?

    AMY: I was taking a sabbatical from work (aka - unemployed) and decided I was sick of the job market telling me what I could do for a living. I looked long and hard at the places where my passions intersected with my abilities, and decided that teaching a class about two of my favorite things (writing and fairy tales) could be a cool way to make money, meet interesting people, and justify my book allowance all at the same time.

    I also hope, in my more optimistic moments, that this class will give people some new tools to cope with hard times. I hope to inspire people, to encourage them to trust their own voices, and to help them connect with beauty in the world and in themselves. I especially want to help people find beauty in the parts of themselves that seem dark and scary. Like that Rilke quote about all our dragons really being princesses just waiting for us to be brave.

    FTNH: Who is the Fairy Tale Factory for? What sorts of people have expressed interest so far? What types of people do you think will benefit from attending the workshop/s?

    AMY: The Fairy Tale Factory is for anyone who needs it. All ages, all experience levels, all cultural backgrounds. If someone feels inspired to come to my class, I will do my best to help them express whatever it is they came to say.

    So far my students have been grown-ups with day jobs who still feel a connection to that playful, curious, magic part of themselves. They're intelligent, articulate, funny (so funny), clever, and stoked about the material. I really like my students.

    I think anyone who likes this kind of thing will benefit from the workshops. Professional writers get a great workout - you wouldn't believe what this format does for your writing. Novice writers get to stretch their wings and explore in a safe, supportive environment. And the subject matter is great for working through creative blocks, regardless of your experience level or even your preferred medium. I keep the classes small so that it's easier for me to meet students on whatever level is right for them.

    FTNH: So what was it about fairy tales that prompted you to use them as a teaching tool for writers?

    AMY: My own experience. Some friends and I were playing with the format and I was shocked at what a great workout it was. Plot, language, tone, structure - it's all there. It's easy for modern writers to be soft when it comes to structure - modernism and post-modernism, while awesome, make it hard to resist the temptation to write 500-page novels in which nothing happens but a lot of Clever Words. Fairy tales don't mess around. You know almost immediately whether your story succeeds, and there's no bluffing. It's kind of like reading your work to kids: You find out real quick whether those jokes are as funny as you thought they were.

    FTNH: I love the illustration for the Fairy Tale Factory homepage, complete with little iconic fairy tale symbols woven into the climbing rose border. Can you tell me about the illustration? How did it come about? Why did you choose two crows for the center?

    AMY: The homepage showcases the work of everyone on my insanely talented design team. The crest is based on one that my designer (Angie Jernejcic) found in a book of heraldry. She designed the logo and it seemed like the best idea in the world to put it into that shield, flanked by those two crows. The crows chose themselves - all I did was say 'YES!' The climbing roses are from an illustration that Jeremy Eaton did for the site (he did all the illos). He drew each of the elements first (pumpkin coach, etc.), then wove them into the border of roses. My web designer (Kelly Davis) turned it into a recurring motif - she took one little section and turned it into those gorgeous climbing ribbons as a sort of wallpaper.

    FTNH: There are quite a few retellings of fairy tales available and more being published all the time but not many original fairy tales. Putting aside the purist idea that true fairy tales are oral and collective in nature and can't be 'created' by one author, why is it that you're focused on creating new tales as opposed to retelling? Can you define the difference between retellings and creating new ones?

    AMY: I am so much more interested in what's going on inside people now than what's already been written. I think fairy tales are kissing cousins with dreams. It's an interesting an exercise to say, "Write Snow White, but in modern times in a Chicago housing project." (FTNH: eg. Donald Barthelme's "Snow White") But it's so much more compelling and personal to ask, "What image has been tickling the edges of your consciousness lately? What story is waiting for you to tell it?"

    Retelling is a good intellectual exercise. But it's easy to hide behind cleverness there. Ideally, writing your own personal tales will engage your emotions first, then your intellect. I think the stories have more juice that way.

    FTNH: Would you mind explaining how that's different from writing normal fantasy?

    AMY:
    What's different (and this is the technical workout part) is that you have to hold to the traditional fairy tale forms and conventions AND write a new story. This means that you are (a) groping around for the truest, most powerful and resonant images you can muster, and (b) coaxing those images into a form that is intensely limited. So you're engaging your subconscious and your conscious mind at the same time, like trying to stand on two boats at once.

    Modern fantasy is quite different, technically, from the traditional fairy tale. In the traditional form, there is very little character development, dialogue, or description. It's little more than a fleshed-out outline. So bare-bones word choice, sentence structure, and plot become your essential tools - that's all you have.

    Elmore Leonard has this great quote in his essay:
    WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation points and Especially Hooptedoodle:

    There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's "Sweet Thursday", ... He says: "I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's tlaking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks... figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that... Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle... Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story."
    My students laugh at me because I am obsessed with this concept: hooptedoodle. In my classes, I feel I have a holy mission to wean them off of hooptedoodle. At the last reading party I overhead some of my students shouting, "Hooptedoodle!" then laughing their heads off. I couldn't have been more proud.

    So that's the big difference between modern fiction and the fairy tale form that I teach: 85% less hooptedoodle!

    FTNH: How do the skills differ for each type of writing? How are they the same?

    AMY: For me as a writer, I'm doing something very different when I'm retelling a well-known story than I am when bringing out something new. In retelling, I'm in dialogue with my culture. For instance - Wicked uses our knowledge of the Wizard of Oz tale to explore cultural perspective. It's still a good story if you never read or saw Oz, but if you're saturated with Oz then you are a witness to the author riffing on all the ideas that Baum initially advanced and on all the things our culture has done with them between inception and present day.

    As an author, you can't help but do that when you are riffing on a classic. You start playing with feminist perspectives, like Jane Yolen's Snow White. Or any other perspectives, depending on who and where you are. The point is that you are using the warp and woof of the story's cultural context to further your storytelling aims.

    When you are writing an original, it's a much more internal, personal process. You're groping around and wrestling with images that are more slippery because they're unique to you. You can't build on the framework of what's already been done. You are making new characters and new plot devices, even if you're using the same old hero's journey structure that Homer and George Lucas and the ancient Sumerians did. You have to feel your way, asking at every juncture, "Is this it? Is this the best possible answer to the question, 'What happened next?' "

    FTNH: Who are some of your favorite modern fairy tale writers? (either those who write retellings, originals or use fairy tales as a base for their stories) Any favorite fairy tale books you recommend (fiction or non-fiction)?

    AMY: Hm. I feel woefully Behind the Times - there are so many authors out there in this genre whose works I haven't read yet. That said, some of my favorites are Diana Wynne Jones, Charles DeLint, Patricia McKillip, and Neil Gaiman. I love young adult novels for some reason. Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series is amazing. Garth Nix does some cool stuff in his Abhorsen books.

    Non-fiction: I encourage everyone who's interested in fairy tales to read everything by Marie-Louise von Franz, who was one of Carl Jung's primary disciples. She's written scads of books about fairy tales and they are all great. Women Who Run with the Wolves is a great read, too - more Jungian perspective. I love the psychoanalytical treatments of fairy tales - am a total sucker for them.

    FTNH: You mention on the website that in the workshops you study fairy tales from around the world as well as the classic cannon.

    AMY: I'm not as inclusive as I'd like to be. I need more Latin American and more African tales. I am starting to get into Hawaiian stories, but only just. The main bulk of the stories I read in class are obscure European tales. I try to dig out the truly bizarre and exciting ones so my students can broaden their understanding of what fairy tales are and do.

    FTNH: You have a few original fairy tales available for us to read online. I personally love The Owl and the Maiden. Can we look forward to more? Do you have any plans for a collection/anthology and having them published?

    AMY: Thank you, that's so nice! I'm working on a new one right now, and will hopefully have it up on the site in the next month or so.

    I'm planning an anthology of all my students' stories from this past year and I might throw my own in there, too. I'm not hot and bothered to get published in any big way. If someone comes a-courting and wants to publish some of my stories, I'll definitely think about it. But I'm not chasing the dream of Making It Big Time as an author.

    FTNH: I'm hearing rumors of a 'reading party' for the workshop you held in June - can you tell me more about that?

    AMY: We do a reading after each class. It gives the students something real to write for. Nothing like the fear of reading your story out loud to a room full of strangers to sharpen your authorial edge! The readings are really fun. We drink a lot of wine and eat good food beforehand, so it ends up feeling more like a party than a reading. Students from different workshops show up to cheer each other on, friends and family come out. It's a nice way to wrap up the class.

    FTNH: It sounds like many people would enjoy and benefit from the workshops. Has anything about starting the Factory surprised you? Do you have any stories/anecdotes you'd like to share from your experiences in running the workshops so far?

    AMY: The thing that's surprised me the most is how fun it's been. (Knock on wood.) I love my students, I love the material, and I love teaching - surprise! My crazy idea worked! That's the big shocker, the thing I'm still digesting: This wacky idea I had while sitting around in my back yard one summer is actually HAPPENING. And it's cool! That just blows my mind. I'm so grateful.

    The best stories, for me, are the actual stories that the students write. Those stories are way more interesting than any personal anecdotes.

    FTNH: What other plans do you have for the future of the Fairy Tale Factory? Anything online for those of us who can't travel to Seattle?

    AMY: If I could figure out a way to give online students the same depth of experience I can give them in person, I would do an online class. Sadly, I haven't worked it out yet. My classes are really interactive - I work hard to build strong group relationships, which seems to be an important part of the Factory's success. When I figure out how to do it online, I definitely will.

    I might build another module in which people can play with retellings and other, more modern tropes. Students would have to go through the Intro and the Intensive before they could do it, just to make sure we're all on the same page. But that's just an idea. A twinkle in my eye, as it were.

    I'm also scheming to get involved with the illustration community and have a heavy art component to the Factory. I'd love to have one illustrator assigned to each story in the annual anthology, then to have a group show to coincide with the book's release. My dream is to work with artists like Jay Ryan, Milk, Julie West, Ray Caesar - pop surrealists, people coming from the graffiti world and the poster art world.

    FTNH: Thank you again for agreeing to this interview! The Fairy Tale Factory sounds like a wonderful combination of education and fun and we look forward to seeing what you and your students do in the future.You can find out more about Amy, her Fairy Tale Factory and the workshops HERE.