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We are delighted to present The Sleeping Beauty Issue! Scroll down for a list of featured authors, and first lines for each piece in Briar and Thorn, The Sleeping Beauty Issue. Click on the PDF to download and read the issue for free. Click on the box to download and read our Spring/Summer 2025 issue! What's inside: TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO DREAM: THE ENDURING APPEAL OF  SLEEPING BEAUTY   (nonfiction) – 5 By contemporary standards, Sleeping Beauty is the most old-fashioned of princesses. She is a wished-for child who falls into a death-like slumber as soon as she comes of age. Kelly Jarvis  works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine . Her work has also appeared in Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen , Eternal Haunted Summer, Mermaids Monthly, Mothers of Enchantment , and The Magic of Us . Her debut novella, Selkie Moon , publishes in 2025. You can find her at Kellyjarviswriter.com .   BRIAR-ROSE REFLECTS ON HER LIFE (poetry) – 9 Who is to say that I did not live during those Hundred years of slumber? Deborah Sage  is a native of Kentucky, USA. She has been most recently published in  Eternal Haunted Summer, Fairy Tale Magazine, the 2022 Dwarf Stars Anthology ,  Amethyst Press  All Shall Be Well  anthology for Julian of Norwich,  Eye to the Telescope and Lothlorien Poetry Journal.    ASH IN YOUR EYES (prose) – 10 Once upon a time, a fearful king ordered that all the spinning wheels in his kingdom be destroyed. Jo Niederhoff  has loved storytelling since she asked her kindergarten teacher to move out of her forest. Learning to write just helped her put down her stories on paper instead of having to act them out, which she still does on stage. She can be found at @ eliza-writing.bsky.social .   ENCHANTED CREATOR: THE WRITING MAGIC OF JANE YOLEN (interview) – 13 . . . in the real world, if you fall asleep for a week or a month or a year, you’re likely dead. Kelly Jarvis  (bio above) interviews prolific writer Jane Yolen   IN LISBETH ZWERGER’S ‘BRIAR ROSE’  (poetry) – 17 I was in that picture once. It feels like a hundred years ago. Rachel Ferriman  was born and raised in Johannesburg and has a Fine Arts degree from Wits University (2001). Like many people, she has experienced significant loss over her lifetime but believes that even the slightest sliver of light cuts through the deepest darkness, and creativity is light.   LET ME SLEEP   (poetry) – 18 ‘Picturesque’ is the word they use for my home, and ‘beautiful’ the word for me – R. Haven  has been mentored by Yvonne Blomer, poet-in-residence with Arc Poetry. He hails from Toronto, Canada. His debut horror novel, The Other Face of Sympathy, comes out September 2025, and he is represented by Kaitlyn Katsoupis of Belcastro Literary Agency. His website is  theirritablequeer.com .   UPON A DREAM (prose) – 19 They found her by the  ceiba  tree, in a slant of afternoon light. Rosa had been missing for twenty years, and yet there she was, asleep in the grove like she’d never left.  Jon Negroni  is a Puerto Rican author of fantasy and Caribbean folkore based in the San Francisco Bay Area.   GIFTS FOR GIRLS   (poetry) – 23 They were never Practical, My sisters, Dr. Sara Cleto and Dr. Brittany Warman  are award-winning folklorists, teachers, and writers. Together, they founded The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic, where they teach creative souls how to re-enchant their lives through folklore and fairy tales. Their fiction and poetry can be found in  Enchanted Living, Uncanny Magazine, Star*Line , and others.   HEIRLOOM ALCHEMY   (prose) – 24 A knock woke the old man from his comfortable doze. Amy Trent  is a storyteller, mother, cookie-lover, and award-winning novelist. She delights in writing novels and short stories that explore identity, whimsy, and love through the lens of fairy tales and folklore. To learn more about Amy, or to find the recipe that inspired this story, please visit  amytrent.com .   FAIRY TALE DREAMS   (poetry) – 29 The Valiant One slept restlessly on a hard bed Sword kept near, for his dreams were haunted Emily Kramer  is a romantic in pursuit of wonder. She is the creator and host of The Modern Romantic Podcast, a photographer, glass artist, and occasional poet. With a background in fashion and costume design and a love for romanticism, Emily explores themes of beauty, stillness, and storytelling through art.   AWAKEN (prose) – 30 Brambles and blackberries. Thistle and thorn.    Angela Rega  is a writer and teacher based in Canberra. Her short stories have been published in Australia, Canada, United States, United Kingdom and Norway. Her publications include  The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror ,  PS Publishing  and  South of the Sun: Australian Fairy Tales for the 21st Century.   THE TRUTH THAT SLEEPS   (poetry) – 33 They never told you this never mentioned the real story.  Kim Whysall-Hammond  is a Londoner who now lives elsewhere. Her poetry has appeared in  Fantasy Magazine, Eternal Haunted Summer, Dreams and Nightmares  and others. She won Third prize in the 2023 Dwarf Star Speculative Poetry Award. Her debut chapbook,  Messages from the Road , is published by Palewell Press.   HOBO QUEEN   (prose) – 34 Once upon a time, below towering cedars deep in a town park, a royal couple ruled a sprawling encampment. KT Wagner  writes speculative fiction, loves to knit and collects strange plants, weird trivia and obscure tomes. Her work is published and podcast with  Pulp Literature, On Spec, Flash Fiction Online, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Toasted Cake  and more. KT organizes writer events and works to create literary community.  www.ktwagner.com    https://bsky.app/profile/ktwagner.bsky.social   OUR MOTHER AS SLEEPING BEAUTY   (poetry) – 37 In the morning, we gathered around her bed and marveled at her beauty. Robin Michel’s  poetry and prose appears in many journals. She is the author of the prize-winning chapbook  Things Will Be Better in Bountiful  (Comstock Review 2024) and one full-length poetry collection,  Beneath a Strawberry Night Sky  (Raven & Wren Press, 2023). Born in Utah, she now lives in San Francisco.   THE TAPESTRY   (prose) – 38 She had started weaving to pass the time. Hours spread around her, each one as potent and as terrifying as a winter’s night, and she had needed something to occupy her mind while the rest of the kingdom slept.   Kelly Jarvis  (bio above)   SLEEPING BEAUTY RETURNS THE GODDESS TO THE WORLD   (poetry) – 42 sleeping, I was magnificent Caitlin Gemmell  is a poet who dreams of becoming a fairy godmother and relocating to the seaside. Her poems have been widely published, including by  Bella Grace ,  Green Ink Poetry Press,  and in  Elizabeth Royal Patton Poetry Prize Anthology.   STEADFASTLY WAITING (prose) – 43 The prince slept at Maricia’s house. Sergej Pavlovi ć is a young writer from Montenegro, Balkans. Though he is twenty four years old, he remains in love with fairy tales and considers them an endless source of inspiration and captivating material for study.   CENTURY’S REST   (poetry) – 46 A hundred years gives ample scope for dreams. Ice floes drift from end Thomas R. Keith  currently resides in his hometown of Austin, TX. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in various journals and anthologies.   SLEEPING GIRL (prose) – 47 The Queen’s daughter drifted to sleep. She gripped her mother’s hands in hers. . . Laura Matney  is a fiction writer, ghostwriter, and Author Accelerator certified book coach. She writes fantasy that uses folklore and mythology to shine a light on modern day issues. She is a captain of chaos, managing one small child, two giant dogs, and, occasionally, her husband.    I WOKE UP ONE DAY AND FOUND ME   (poetry) – 50 Like a fazed deer, I found myself—little by little, in a bed; Yukti Narang  (she/her/hers) is an emerging Indian creative writer, screenwriter, and dramatist. Her work has been featured in renowned literary magazines and anthologies, and forthcoming with several others. Her debut poetry collection is 'There Is A Home In All Of Us' (2023). Yukti is currently working on her literary and film titles.   A WAY THROUGH THE BRIARS   (prose) – 51 My anger’s fresh; theirs is old and weary, barely alive now a winter’s passed since the spell was cast. Lynden Wade  neglects her family to spend time in the worlds of folklore and magic. She’s had stories published in a range of publications, including  BFS Horizons , the journal of the British Fantasy Society. She is still hoping for a house elf. Find her on Instagram @lwadewrites. Poetry for Briar and Thorn was curated by our Guest Poetry Editor, Sally Rosen Kindred. The Fairy Tale Magazine is made possible by the generosity of our Fairy Godparents Club members and many of our authors. Our staff members volunteer their time. If you enjoy this issue and giving feels good, we welcome your donation, small or large. You may give via PayPal to The Fairy Tale Magazine ( thefairytalemagazine@gmail.com ).

Cinderella lends herself to so many situations, it’s no wonder that her story shows up all over the world and is much older than you may realize. Today, as I idly glanced over a horoscope, I asked myself, would Cinderella have consulted astrologers? Obviously, she would have been too broke to pay for a service like that before marrying the prince, but maybe her fairy godmother had a natal chart drawn up for our heroine and saw the whole story coming. Almost certainly Cinderella would have had a court astrologer after marrying the prince. Anyway, these stray thoughts got me thinking about my own belief/ambivalence about astrology. The thing is, I’ve never been able to truly get an accurate horoscope cast, because the time of my birth is unknown. I’ve tried every avenue, including trying to buy a long-form birth certificate with no luck. (I never tried to find answers until my parents were gone, so no one knows!) As you probably know, if you follow astrology, the only way to get a really accurate reading is by knowing the day and time of your birth. I do know that there are people who will do a chart rectification for you, but I don’t fancy giving a stranger the information needed to do that. So that brings me to belief. I suppose part of my skepticism lies in the fact that I can never know if my horoscope could really be useful to me, because of the birth time conundrum. Also, I must admit that over my 63 years, I’ve seen an awful the lot of predictions based on astrology be dead wrong. And yet … I love the stars, the Milky Way, the universe. I’m a sucker for the moon and understanding its pull on our planet. (I even make moon water !) So I’ve often asked myself, Why wouldn’t skies have an effect on events on Earth? We know so little about the universe and our place in it, that people who subscribe to astrology may be on to something. I also think that if our fairy tale protagonists had had someone telling them “Today is not a propitious day to walk in the forest in a red cloak,” or “Today is a great day to catch a magic fish that grants you wishes you’re going to regret,” they might have avoided a lot of trouble. But then, of course, we wouldn’t have these fantastic stories. I wonder what you think about astrology. Are you a hardened skeptic? Unsure, like me? A true believer? What’s your sign? I’m an Aquarian, which may account for the unrelenting flow of ideas I have every day not to mention my many eccentricities. Let me know what you think @ fairytalecrone.bsky.social , and keep watching the heavens. They may not influence events, but they still seem as magical as any fairy godmother. Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother. Image from Pixabay

If you love books, plants, folklore, and magic, Enchanted Plants , by Varla A. Ventura, is for you! I fell in love with the book’s gorgeous cover and gilded pages the moment I laid eyes on it, and what awaited me when I opened the cover was anything but a disappointment. Varla A. Ventura begins by revealing that she has always been able to hear the voices of plants. She describes her conversations with foliage as “suspended somewhere between audible and inaudible,” situating them in the same liminal spaces where we find fairy tales and folklore. She then begins her exploration of botanicals, beginning with the much loved apple and progressing all the way through to the melancholy willow. Each entry in the book features a stunning portrait of the fruit or flower, a quotation drawn from literary study, an encyclopedia reference of medicinal and magical properties, and a collection of lore combining the author’s personal experiences with her knowledge about myth, legend, and fairy tale. Enchanted Plants  is divided into enticing chapters including The Apple Doesn’t Fall Too Far  (A Queen’s Garden of Cultivars and Edible Delights), The Cottage Garden of Earthly Delights  (Humble Foods in Story and Legend), The Witch’s Garden  (What Doesn’t Kill You Makes Your Heart Grow Stronger), Among the Fields and Valleys (Wildflowers, Meadowlands, and Other Things to Gather), The Woods Are Lovely, Dark, and Deep  (Trees, Shrubs, and Woodland Dwellers), and The Marsh King’s Daughter  (Plants that Grow Near Streams, Bogs, Lakes, and the Sea). Following the chapters is an Index of Botanicals  and a list of Recommended Resources  for those hoping to learn more. This beautiful book makes a wonderful reference text, but I found myself falling into its pages and reading for hours. Although I have never had a green thumb, I was delighted by the illustrations of plants, fruits, and flowers, and thoroughly enjoyed learning about their folklore. Ventura’s riveting prose walked me through familiar tales and introduced me to stories I had never known. I especially loved her thoughtful selection and presentation of quotations taken from literature, poetry, and nursery rhyme. Each lyric perfectly complimented the plant it accompanied, using its linguistic magic to evoke the beauty of the botanical being explored. “This is a book you need to see in person,” I was told by the publicity director of Red Wheel/Weiser, and nothing could be further from the truth . Enchanted Plants  is a jewel that will grace any home library, and I plan to revisit the book often for my own writing, teaching, and research. If you are interested in learning more about the botanical world and the lore it has inspired, purchase a copy of this book today! It would be a wonderful gift for yourself or for someone you love.  You can find it here . Thank you to Eryn Carter Eaton for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , The Chamber Magazine , The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . Her first novella, Selkie Moon , comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

Spring is in the air in the Northern Hemisphere, and The Fairy Tale Magazine  has a roundup of garden and fairy inspired novels to plant the seeds of new life of your book shelf. Read on for book recommendations that will bring light and color to your early spring days! No spring reading list is complete without The Secret Garden , the classic novel about three children who restore a garden and heal a family. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s heartwarming tale has been turned into a movie and a musical, and it remains a centerpiece of Children’s Literature. Garden Spells ,  by Sarah Addison Allen, tells the story of the Waverly family, a group of women with a luscious garden famous for its apple tree which bears prophetic fruit. This is the perfect book to read while you sit in the sun and watch your own garden grow. Hawthorn trees are at the center of Melissa Harrison’s novel At Hawthorn Time , a heartbreaking exploration of love and loss. Set during a spring month when the Hawthorn trees in rural England bloom, this novel explores the way that modern people try to find belonging in the natural landscape. Something in the Woods Loves You  is a poetic memoir by Jarod K. Anderson, a poet who uses the comforts of nature to heal his own depression. This book is a love letter to the natural world sure to be enjoyed by readers of books like Braiding Sweetgrass . If you would like to learn more about the healing properties of springtime flowers and plants give The Sacred Herbs of Spring: Magical, Healing, and Edible Plants to Celebrate Beltane  a try. Ellen Evert Hopman explores how to identify, harvest, and use earth’s bounty to commemorate the coming of spring and summer. House of Roots and Ruin  by Erin A. Craig continues the story of the Thaumas sisters (from House of Salt and Sorrows ) with an emphasis on the beautiful and poisonous plants that grow in a lush fairy tale landscape. This beautifully written book is a unique retelling of Bluebeard with gorgeous spring vibes, and is sure to enchant those who love gardening and fairy tales. You can read my review here . Faeries are synonymous with springtime, and Hazel Gaynor’s The Cottingley Secret  explores what happens when a young girl becomes fascinated with Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, the children who claimed to photograph fairies in 1917. This is a beautifully written and researched book that will help you see the fairy world in a whole new light. If you want to delve even deeper into faerie lore, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries  by Heather Fawcett is the perfect way to invite the fair folk to your reading corner. This novel about a Cambridge professor finding love while compiling an encyclopaedia of faerie lore will enchant you!   Heather Fawcett also breathes new life into the classic spring story Anne of Green Gables  in her novel The Grace of Wild Things . A witch living in the middle of the woods takes the protagonist on as an apprentice, teaching her to find the beauty in nature, magic, and poetry. Review coming soon to The Fairy Tale Magazine ! Finally, no spring reading list is complete without Sarah J. Maas’ best selling novel A Court of Thorns and Roses , the Beauty and the Beast retelling that launches a series of five books about the world of the Fae. The novel takes place largely in The Spring Court, a fairy land filled with beautiful flowers and unseen dangers. Happy Spring! Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , The Chamber Magazine , The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . Her first novella, Selkie Moon , comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/ Cover Image from Pixabay

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Aschenputtel , Cinderella’s father asks his daughter and step-daughters what kind of gift they would like from the fair. The step-sisters request “beautiful dresses,” “pearls,” and “jewels,” but Cinderella asks for “the first twig” that brushes against her father’s hat on his way home. Her father returns with a hazel twig which she plants on her mother’s grave, watering it with her tears until it grows into a tree. The birds that build their nests in the tree help Cinderella with her chores, and eventually, they gift her the dresses and shoes she needs to attend the Prince’s ball. A twig may seem like a strange request, but it turns out to be the very thing that rescues Cinderella from a life of drudgery, and the fact that the Grimms specify the twig comes from a hazel tree may help their readers unlock the deeper meanings of the fairy tale. Hazel trees have long been associated with wisdom. Their pliancy makes them excellent walking sticks, and forked hazel twigs are cherished by diviners who use them to locate water. The nuts produced by the tree can be sweetened with chocolate to create delicacies, and even the leaves, which are the first to appear in spring and the last to fall in autumn, hold sacred meaning. Several communities across Europe have planted hazel trees at their borders as a form of protection, using the trees’ magical properties to ward off evil spirits. Hazel Tree , Pixabay Cinderella’s hazel twig digs its roots deep into the dark earth, and, when the girl is ready to stop mourning her mother and return to a world beyond the hearth, it spreads its green leaves across the sky to throw silver and gold down on her. Cinderella knows that a simple hazel twig is far more valuable than jewels or dresses because a twig holds the transformative magic of spring deep within it. In my area of the world, March is a month of impending transformation. The landscape is still dull and leafless and the clouds are still gray and cold, but the scent of warm, bright days to come is in the air. March is a month when we should all take a cue from Cinderella, letting the tears of our compassion water the world while we wait for spring’s arrival. Soon the barren twigs which scratch the skies will burst into beautiful bloom, their buds and berries outshining the most precious pearls in the kingdom’s coffers, their trailing leaves more beautiful than gowns of green and gold. Cinderella Praying to her Mother's Spirit , Children's Book Illustration The Brothers Grimm find the happily-ever-after of their Cinderella  story in the protagonist’s humble request for a hazel twig. In reminding us that we are all a part of nature’s cycles, and in teaching us to remain patient and compassionate, Cinderella and her hazel twig promise us that the grief and loneliness of winter will always transform into the joys of spring. Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , The Chamber Magazine , The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . Her first novella, Selkie Moon , comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

Shveta Thakrar returns readers to the Night Market in her luscious new Young Adult release Divining the Leaves . The novel follows Ridhi Kapadia, a young girl struggling to find her place in the contemporary world. Ridhi would rather spend time hugging trees and wandering the forests than auditioning for the dance team and making friends. She has always yearned to become a Yakshini, and she delights in crafting perfumes based on her interaction with the natural world. Ridhi tells stories with her scents, but her teenage peers find her behaviors strange. When her family agrees to give shelter to a popular but troubled teen struggling with his own family's breakdown, Ridhi’s home becomes yet another place of conflict and isolation, driving her further into the magical forest realm. The boy who comes to live with the Kapadias, Nilesh, finds his way into the forest as well, following a beautiful but potentially deadly being through the portal that divides the worlds. Nilesh becomes fascinated with the Night Market, the haunting fair where Ridhi hopes to sell her perfumes. Ridhi and Nilesh are at odds with one another throughout most of the book, but when Nilesh winds up trapped in the realm of the Yakshini, Ridhi must devise safe passage to help him find his way back to the human world. Divining the Leaves  is full of cultural stories and mythological enchantment, and readers interested in learning about Indian fairy tale and folklore will adore the book. The plot oscillates between real-world teen troubles and the dangers posed by magical places. Young love, family fractures, and the struggle to fit in with friends all sit side by side with enchanted transformations and the political turmoil of a faerie world. Each section of Divining the Leaves is prefaced by a story from The Tales that Trees Tell , and readers will enjoy the skill with which Thakrar weaves Indian mythology into contemporary teen life. Divining the Leaves  lifts the veil between our world and the world of magic, inviting readers to taste spring, smell stories, and listen to the meaningful rustle of forest trees. Like phyllomancy, the divining skill that Ridhi strives to perfect in the novel, Thakrar’s haunting prose and heartwarming story must be experienced firsthand, and readers will come away from the book transformed. Divining the Leaves  is a beautifully written stand-alone novel that is the third installment (following Star Daughter and The Dream Runners ) in Thakrar's Night Market Triptych, and it will leave you searching the tree line to find the mystical world beyond our own. I loved it! You can find Divining the Leaves   here , and you can watch my “Author Talk” with Shveta Thakrar on The Fairy Tale Magazine ’s new YouTube channel here . Subscribe today! Thank you to HarperCollins for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , The Chamber Magazine , The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . Her first novella, Selkie Moon , comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

Can you imagine how profoundly dark the night must have been for Cinderella? There probably was almost no light pollution. For Cinderella, sleeping in ashes and mucking around the kitchen at night with nothing but a rush light was likely scary, but total darkness when I’m trying to sleep is my idea of actual heaven. More relevant to this post is that Cinderella didn’t have to contend with the radiant, silent killer: Daylight Savings Time (DST). How do I loathe it? Let me count the ways. First, it steals an hour of everyone’s life, as it did yesterday. It’s so disorienting. Back when I was teaching, inevitably, some students would miss a Monday class because they forgot to “spring forward.” They’d also forget assignments, and they were always groggy, but I never penalized them for that, because I was too. Next, DST makes me irritable. This is partially my fault, because we built a house absolutely littered with windows, and there are no trees right by the house. (I had an aesthetic vision that would not be denied.) The accumulation of light in the house makes me wakeful well into the night. Yes, the amount of light you face all day and into the evening can make you extra wakeful. Seeing all that light all makes me worry about how my night will be, which makes me petty and grumpy.  DST is bad for everyone’s health. Yes, really. Reader, I give you a post  from Johns Hopkins University on the evils of DST. Do your further googling; it’s genuinely unhealthy to have DST. Finally, from March to November, my already wrecked sleep gets so much worse. Over the years, doctors have treated me to extended rants on how much they hate Daylight Savings Time, because chronic insomnia is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Not gonna lie, the angry doctors give me a sense of justice: medicine is on my side. But this year, I’ve turned the tables on the DST, for I have found the holy grail of blackout curtains. I’ve tried other kinds by the dozens over the years, but always, always, ended up letting a lot of light in. (Those slivers of light around the edges of bad blackout curtains are especially annoying.) Enter, UBlockout . I swear to you, these roller shades will make your bedroom as dark as a cave even when it’s high noon on a sunny July day. They come with a frame, so no sunny edges peek out. Yesterday morning, when I woke up and went into the bathroom, which does not have UBlockout shades, it was like Dorothy opening the door to Munchkin Land. So searingly bright! The shades work, so, so well. Sadly, I cannot use the UBlockout shades on all of my windows, because I have so many, it would ruin the appeal of the house. It would also look like meth cooks or serial killers live here—too many blank windows are unsettling and suspicious. Despite all the evidence that DST is terrible, I know we’re stuck with it because people who love that extra hour are more vociferous than those who don’t. But my shades give me a bit more sleep, and like Cinderella, I know how to appreciate an opportunity to improve my life. 💤🤩💤 Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother. Image from Pixabay

Image by Ghinzo on Pixabay Dear Enchanted Friends:  We received many outstanding submissions for the Sleeping Beauty issue. There were well over one hundred submissions and the competition at the very top was fierce. Many of the chosen pieces reside in the liminal, magic world of fairy tale, with a couple of pieces cleverly weaving Sleeping Beauty motifs into contemporary thematic ideas.  Mark your calendars for our April 15 launch and sign up for our newsletter to be among the first to know when it’s available.  Guest Poetry Editor Sally Rosen Kindred, and all of us at  The Fairy Tale Magazine  are proud to list the following as the chosen authors: Jo Niederhoff Lynden Wade Jon Negroni Amy Trent Angela Regala KT Wagner Laura Matney Sergej Pavlović Deborah Sage  Rachel Ferriman  R. Haven  Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman Emily Kramer Kim Whysall-Hammond   Caitlin Gemmell  Robin Michel  Thomas R. Keith  Yukti Narang  They join our Contributing Writer Kelly Jarvis for our Sleeping Beauty issue who is bringing us an Enchanted Creator article about Jane Yolen, and a brief overview of the tales within this story realm in addition to contributing her own enchanting tale. If you are on this list and haven’t responded to my email, please do ASAP! Our next submission opportunity is the Fairy Tale Prose & Poetry Contest (fee based) May 15 - May 31 (midnight to midnight EST) . No theme requirements. For the contest: you may submit multiple works; each work must be accompanied by a $5 payment via PayPal.

If you are looking for a heart-pounding thrill of a novel, look no further than Ava Morgyn’s The Bane Witch ! Pitched as a Practical Magic  meets Gone Girl  narrative, Morgyn’s book will keep readers on the edge of their seats as they follow Piers Corbin, a young woman with a mysterious past, who fakes her own death and discovers a family she has never known. Piers rebrands herself as Acacia Lee to hide from her abusive husband. She then flees to a long-lost great-aunt living deep in the Adirondack Mountains. It is here that Piers learns she is from a long line of Bane Witches who possess magical powers. Bane Witches have curious cravings for poisonous plants, and although they have a natural resistance to the toxicity in the foliage, they can pass its harm along to others. Because of this, the Bane Witches are compelled to act as avengers and protectors, using their powers to prevent violent men from committing crimes and making them pay for their evil deeds. Although Piers first resists the call of her blood, she soon learns that the burden of being a Bane Witch also carries incredible power, and in the arms of her new family, she finds the strength and love that eluded her in her isolated childhood. “I planned my death the way I design a room,” Piers reveals in the novel’s opening line, explaining that a well-designed room and a well-designed death both feel accidental but never hapless. In The Bane Witch , Ava Morgyn proves that a well-designed book is the same, bringing her readers on an exciting and unpredictable journey while masterfully weaving the organic threads of her plot together. In addition to Piers’ discovery of her true nature and a hometown police officer’s hunt to investigate her mysterious disappearance, there is a serial killer on the loose, a found family to embrace, and a steamy romance with a mountain sheriff who is investigating a string of just poisonings caused by Piers and her aunt. Beneath the thrill of the plot and the lush descriptions of the settings and the poisonous plants that grow within them is an empowering tale of feminine revenge against the crimes of the past, present, and future. The Bane Witch  is the perfect read for those looking for an exciting but thought-provoking commentary on life, love, and the dark magic that provides justice. I couldn’t put it down! You can pre-order The Bane Witch   here . Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , The Chamber Magazine , The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers . Her first novella, Selkie Moon , comes out in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/

Has it been hard for you to be upbeat lately? It seems that many of my friends and family members are struggling to stay positive. I, too, have found it difficult to be hopeful. The whirlwind of constant news is very hard to escape, and I have ongoing health problems that are plaguing me. Nothing too serious individually, just a whole lot of chronic things that make life harder.  I think we’re all in for a long-haul anxiety experience worldwide, and I’ve come up with some tricks to battle bad vibes and sad feelings. (Can you imagine how many stratagems and hacks Cinderella had to come up with just to get through any given day? The cooking, the cleaning, the bowing, the scraping—she must have had constant turmoil.) My favorite trick is one I started in mid-2016, when it dawned on me that life in the US was about to be unpredictable, so I started meditating. I’ve done so every single day since then, except the day my grandson Ben was born. Here’s my advice to every single person out there who is feeling overwhelmed: Do something meditative every day.  Meditative activities include knitting, crocheting, hand sewing, chopping vegetables, walking or running while focusing on your body, kneading bread dough, staring at a lit candle, and doing yoga. Just 10 minutes a day of any of these activities will clear your mind. Next, if you are consuming more than 60 minutes of news a day, please stop—unless you are one of those magically protected, chill people who isn’t filled with anxiety when awash in current events. You will not be a bad citizen if you don’t know every single thing that happens the moment it happens.  Just. Stop. Consuming. So. Much. News. Here’s my nicest trick: Every morning before I get out of bed, I think of three things to look forward to during the day. Mine usually include things like a great book I plan to read that day, some tasty treats I can enjoy, and an episode of great TV I’m looking forward to. Really simple stuff. When I’m very down and can’t think of a single thing special about the day before me, I think of three things that are good in my life in general, like how lucky we are not to have a mortgage or how happy my husband I are to watch TV with the dog at night or how much I love our grandchildren. Simple stuff, but it’s a powerful exercise. If you are overwhelmed these days (and who isn’t?) I hope you’ll find some enchanted rest in my suggestions. Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother. Image from Pixabay

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli has been the newest book in my reading lineup of fairy tale inspired romantasy. The folklore history of witch hunters and witches is long and fraught and I absolutely feel as though this book represented those tales perfectly. Following a revolution that turned the witches of her kingdom from rulers into hunted, Rune Winters works as a vigilante “Crimson Moth” saving the witches of her kingdom from execution. When Gideon Sharpe, the best witch hunter in the kingdom is sent to kill the Crimson Moth, Rune seeks him out to discover just how much he knows. In their pursuits, the lives of Rune and Gideon are inexplicably intertwined and they find themselves falling for one another even as Rune is keeping a deadly secret.  Rune and Gideon’s relationship is tension-filled and will tug at the heartstrings of any reader. We only want the best for them, but the structure of their society and the hatred between witches and civilians comes between them time and time again. Fans of Uprooted, Red Queen, and Six of Crows will devour this book. The world building is slow and precise, but not excessive and really adds to the tension of the novel. Now is a better time than ever to read this book, as the second book, Rebel Witch, will be released in February to continue the story! You can find Heartless Hunter here . Madeline Mertz is a graduate student at Truman State University in English and Education, having received her BA in Creative Writing. She works as a teacher, managing editor, and literary agent intern. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, reading, writing, and eating anything with copious amounts of sugar in it. Her work has appeared in journals such  Three Elements Literary Journal, Tomahawk Review,  and  The Fairy Tale Magazine.

I hope Cinderella had plenty of chickens to feed and keep her company. Chickens do have personalities; friends who raise them have sworn to me that they do, and Google concurs. Plus, eggs would have enriched Cinderella’s diet, cholesterol be damned. I was always skeptical of the decades-long campaign of “just say no” to eggs. Remember that idiotic ad about drugs where they cracked an egg in a hot, oily frying pan, and said it was your brain on drugs? I still see that as just another attempt to demonize the truly noble chicken egg. I blame you, Big Cholesterol. Thank goodness that the science began to change again on eggs about 10 years ago—not that I ever followed it anyway. Eggs are nutritious and delicious! I hope Cinderella scrambled them with abandon to keep up her strength. Sadly, as you no doubt know if you live in the US, we have an egg shortage, largely due to avian flu and transportation issues. You may also be aware that there are people who, in 2024, based the entire future of the United States of America on the price of eggs, so they are indeed important. They have become America’s caviar of the chicken coop, as prices have continued to rise. To me, the $5.47 we paid yesterday for 12 eggs was still a pretty good deal. I figure Todd and I can use them as the basis of two hearty dinners. One will be brinner (breakfast for dinner). The other will be a frittata filled with whatever vegetables I have lying around. Both of these meals will cost less than $5 each for both of us to eat, which is still very, very cheap.  You may be thinking that Todd and I are only two people, what about the cost of a family of four—two adults and two kids? Todd proudly eats the equivalent of an adult and two children, I assure you. My math stays the same. Eggs are not leaving our diet, even if the price doubles, and I imagine I’m not alone. I do, however, recognize that the higher cost of eggs may remove a very important and nutritious element from the tables of low-income families, so those of us who can afford an extra dozen should donate them to a food bank. Most food banks will accept clean eggs in good condition. Eggs are a foundational part of good eating the world over, they contain protein and vitamins and should I ever decide to become a vegetarian (a real possibility), they’ll be an even bigger part of my diet. If I have cheese, eggs and milk along with beans, vegetables, pasta and rice, I can eat as well as Cinderella’s mother-in-law, presumably a real queen. Crack ‘em open and fry ‘em up, and you too, can live a fairy tale at the dinner table. Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother. Image from Pixabay