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I see you reading the headline and thinking: "Oh no. What is going to happen to Once Upon A Blog? It's barely been functioning the last few years and now it's going to change?!"
Don't worry. Unlike most social media "rebranding", I'm doing this the fairy tale way, and transforming the blog to be more of what I intended when I began it.
That means I'm staying "on mission" with the Once Upon A Blog content you've followed me for, for years, while allowing myself a little more flexibility to explore other avenues of Wonder.
You might be wondering, isn't Gypsy Thornton all about fairy tales? That's still true, but it's always been more accurate to say I am Wonder-tale-focused. I see Wonder in many places and the influence of fairy tales everywhere. If I can then share that insight and connection, and bring that Wonder into peoples' lives, it feels like I'm making a positive difference in the world. And I've found a way to have both a fairy tale hub and a way to reach out beyond that hub from time to time to spread a little Wonder wherever I go. It's the reason I've renamed the blog The Wondering.
Here is the new description:
Gathering the curious uses and influence of fairy tales and folklore, from pop culture, current events, and the woods beyond to bring Wonder to your doorstep.
It's been 14 years since I created Once Upon A Blog: fairy tale news and it's high time it transforms into something I had always hoped to create, as well as be a little more reflective of this post-pandemic and AI-emergent era.
It also needs to be in a form in which I, with all that I have been through the last few years, can manage and keep active. After a good year of researching options I think I have finally found a way to do this.
The biggest differences are:
Title:
Once Upon A Blog: Fairy Tale News is now called The Wondering
The header will include a reminder that this is an updated version of Once Upon A Blog: Fairy Tale News.
Online location for new posts:
The main new content will be published at https://medium.com/the-wondering
While this blog, here, will remain live and available as long as technology allows, the above is the new main address. There will be occasional posts published here too, but they will most likely be quick updates, letting you know what you might have missed on the main platform.
Blog to publication:
The blog is now officially a publication and I will be welcoming submissions from writers to be published in The Wondering, free of charge.
This also means it will function in many ways as a magazine, with the main page for The Wondering laid out as such. Each article is kept very clean, ad-free, and easy to read by Medium's uniform standards, which should make for a better reading experience, both for desktop reading and on your mobile device.
Being a publication also means other folks, who join and write on Medium - which you can do for FREE - can submit articles, reviews, and even art, short fiction, or reflective pieces to The Wondering, if they are interested. Current fairy tale news, events, and influences will be remain the priority. I remain Editor and will review all submissions (there will be guidelines to follow under the header in the coming weeks).
I would love to build a stable of fairy tale writers and voices, to have a diverse, and regularly publishing fairy tale newsroom!
Writers will also have the opportunity, should they sign up for the Medium Partner Program, keep any benefits ($) that they may earn as a result.
Subscribe to be sent just the free fairy tale news, or more - your choice:
Your choices are just fairy tale news, articles and stories from The Wondering, by me and other writers whose work I publish, or to be sent everything I personally publish in any publication on Medium, as I aim to spread a little Wonder and magic around in different places, by "following my little chicken-legged mug" and subscribing to me, or subscribe to both!
Subscribing to either or both is completely free.
Some articles in The Wondering will have a paywall but not all:
I am still working on seeing how many pieces I can publish each week across Medium, but there will be free content every couple of weeks on The Wondering. You are welcome to just read the free stuff, or upgrade to being a Medium member for everything.
The $5 Medium membership gives readers 100% access to ALL STORIES ACROSS THE PLATFORM - not just what you're joining for and to read the workd of whomever you join through. Medium reader memberships support every writer you read. Put very simply, if you have a membership, every writer whose articles or stories you read, benefits by you just reading through their stories. Your membership fee is distributed between the people you read.
There is a LOT of free content across Medium by individual writers and via publications of all types. From science, to film, to history, to AI, education and more, the focus of different publications range widely, and include many professional journalists. The Wondering is the only publication I am aware of that has fairy tales and fairy tale news as its focus, but there are a lot of facsinating articles and publications. Like all other publications, The Wondering will have a mix of free and subscription-access content.
What's Available To Read Right Now?
The Wondering already has four "stories" available, with more added all the time:
- Cravings - a short story based on Rapunzel
- What If Your Dad Is the Animal "Bride".. and More Beastly Than The Beast? - a spoiler-free book review of "The Crane Husband" by Kelly Barnhill
- The Black Folklorist Who Accurately Predicted the Science in Voodoo & Unearthed Tales We All Need To Hear - an expanded and updated profile and tribute to Zora Neale Hurston
- Fairy Tales vs fAIry Tales (I) - the first installment of a multi-part article and experiment using AI and fairy tales. (I asked ChatGPT to write me an original fairy tale, analyze it, then adapt it per the Great Fairy Tale Tradition... oof!)
And that's the news!
I hope you follow my wandering, chicken-legged coffee mug to the new site.
We'd love to see you there.
All fairy tale readers and writers are welcome.
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Small disclaimer: I am getting this up and running as quickly as possible so expect some refining of the site over the first few months to make it clearer and easier to navigate, to subscribe to the newsletter, and for potential writers to submit to, but the publication is live and active!
