A reflection about becoming a storyteller and the story that cracked open my heart during 2023. Yexian is a story that gives more depth and symbolism to the French Cinderella by Charles Perrault we are mostly familiar with. This tale deserves a place in our consciousness.

In 2023, I published my research about first fully documented variant of Cinderella, Yexian (yeh-shen). It was the result of spending nine months with the story as a part of a mentorship with the Federation of Asian Storytellers. At the time, I hoped it would be the first in a series, but then Substack arrived and I became distracted. It would be nice to do another sometime soon.

The Lindworm, or Prince Lindworm, has a fascinating history, potentially originating in India. This scene by Henry Justice Ford appears in Andrew Lang’s The Pink Fairy book from 1897. It shows the climax of the story where the serpent asks the girl to shed a skin, and she asks him to do the same, thus helping to break the spell and turning him back into a man.

In this post from June 2023, I introduce you to my creative project to research, revive and reimagine the fairy tales of 17th century French author Charlotte-Rose de la Force.

At least two of Charlotte-Rose de la Force’s fairy tales contain silver; Fairer than a Fairy and Persinette. This short article explores the significance of silver in myth and fairy tale.

When most people think of fairy tales, they think of the Grimms, but there were many others who contributed to fairy tales. This article first appeared on April 1, 2023. I will return to the Grimms at a later time, but my interest is primarily about pre-Grimms fairy tales.

After blogging on Substack for a couple of years, I’m starting to migrate my content over to my website. You’ll find all of my fairy tale-related blogs here and the research I find in my explorations of the origins of, symbolism in, the writers of and the significance of fairy tales. May you find the same joy in them that I do.