I have been going back and forth, trying to decide which of my out-of-print novels to reissue after Hannah's Garden. The stand-alone novels seem easier, cleaner, less complicated, and at least well-edited. But how wondrous and strange it is that the Oran Trilogy, a barely edited three-volume sprawling series, continues to be the most asked […]
Reorganizing Priorities: What to Publish After Hannah’s Garden Read More »
My notes on re-reading Harold Scheub's work on oral narrative structures and performance. They have shaped the way I think of the fantastic in narrative and how it functions, and by extension, how those "electric moments" when the real and the fantastic are combined in narrative. Notes from Harold Scheub's Story: an evident
The Shaping of Story: Working Through Ideas Read More »
There are moments in writing that feel so spontaneous that it is hard to believe they have come from oneself but instead are descended in the form of a writerly-grace. When Jane Yolen and I wrote Except the Queen, we began by separately creating characters, each with their voice and chapters, intuitively stitching them together
One Does Not Say No to Baba Yaga Read More »
One of the greatest pleasures is reading Sicilian folktales midday while drunk on a dense-full-bodied beer (16.2 percent) produced locally in Boulder. Like the beer, the stories are rowdy, naughty, mythic, and full of gullible and wise fools who make donkeys appear to shit gold, drive menial men to do self-destructive things and conspire to
Plank’d and Research Read More »
It seems the right day to reread this story. I am writing in the near dark, just the illumination of candles and a friendly pair of glowing pumpkins looking over my shoulder. Jack Straw was one of those rare stories that appear instantly and somehow hardwired in my brain. I wrote it all at once,
On this All Saints and All Souls Read More »
Many years ago in a moment of inspiration, I wrote a little short story called "King of Crows." It is still one of my personal favorites as it has threaded throughout a song or a tune humming beneath the narrative. I am almost never without a song running in my head, singing to the dishes,
Johnny Fahey and The King of Crows Read More »
How wonderful is this — and frankly, a wee bit strange to see my name in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. This is the Russian translation of The Greenman Anthology, and I had to count the stories based on the US edition in the ToC inborder to be certain which one was mine! And what a
“The strangest of all the phantasms described is, perhaps, the Youaltepoztli, literally, “the night hatchet or axe.” It manifested itself by causing loud intermittent sounds resembling those produced by the blows of an axe in splitting wood. These ominous sounds were audible at dead of night in the mountains, and inspired terror, for they were
Youaltepoztli: The Night Hatchet Read More »
I am swooning over these gorgeous illustrations from the Czech children's book The Forest Story," written in 1929 by Josef Kozisek and handsomely illustrated by Rudolf Mates. I would so have loved as a child to receive such a gem of of a book. (Via Will Schoenfeld's amazing 50 Watts, a website dedicated to sharing
A Forest Story And The Lush Illustrations of Rudolf Mates Read More »
Well…this is nice! I just learned earlier this week when a check arrived that Jane and I had sold our novel Except the Queen in Turkey. I knew the Italian deal was in the works, so it was awesome finding this cover of the Italian edition on the internet with its new title that translates
New Editions of Except the Queen in Italy and Turkey Read More »
