Tag Archives: amy morgan

Two awesome things at once

Thing the first: Gypsy Thornton over at Once Upon a Blog: Fairy Tale News just published a long, juicy interview with Yours Truly!

Excerpt:

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

AMY: …I…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.

Read the whole thing.

Thing the second:

Fairy tale fan Lisa Cote sent me a link to the animated version of Oscar Wilde’s story, “The Happy Prince.” Beautiful stuff. Thanks, Lisa!

Snow White Meets…the HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS!

I generally try not to succumb to the wild, desperate advances of all the fairy tale kitsch that’s lurking out there in the forest, but I just can’t resist this one. It was the phrase, “Uh oh, somehow that wicked queen OD’d Snow White!” that got me:

You’re welcome.

Get published

This month is blessings and bonanzas month at the Fairy Tale Factory. Not only have we been interviewed and featured, but folks are writing to me to solicit stories for publication. So nice!

Here is the latest call for submissions:

I just wanted to let you know about New Fairy Tales, the online magazine I run, as some of your participants might be interested in submitting their original fairy tales to us. We’re an illustrated magazine with an audio collection as well and we only publish new and original tales rather than retellings.

It’s all run on a voluntary basis, so unfortunately we can’t pay, but we do ask readers to consider making a small donation to my local children’s hospice. It’s a good showcase for the writers’ and illustrators’ work and it helps raise money for a good cause. We’ve published three issues so far and the deadline for submissions to Issue 4 is the 20th October.

There’s lots of info on the site but if you’d like to know anything else feel free to get in touch.

So nice of you to notice!

Once Upon a Blog just featured us. Which is delightful. Even more delightful were the awesome interview questions that Gypsy sent. S.M.R.T. (That means ‘smart.’) They, and their answers, will be published at a later date – stay tuned.

Check it out. (She even published a photograph of me looking toothy and windswept!)

Favorite Student Tales: Urashima the Fisherman

My friend Arlene picked this story as her favorite fairy tale:

LONG, long ago in the province of Tango there lived on the shore of Japan in the little fishing village of Mizu-no-ye a young fisherman named Urashima Taro. His father had been a fisherman before him, and his skill had more than doubly descended to his son, for Urashima was the most skillful fisher in all that country side, and could catch more Bonito and Tai in a day than his comrades could in a week.

But in the little fishing village, more than for being a clever fisher of the sea was he known for his kind heart. In his whole life he had never hurt anything, either great or small, and when a boy, his companions had always laughed at him, for he would never join with them in teasing animals, but always tried to keep them from this cruel sport.

Read more

I have writer’s block

So I’ve been trying to write this one story for over three years. It’s short. It uses classic motifs. It should be easy. I’ve outlined it from beginning to end at least three times, which is usually my most difficult step. Once the outline is done, I bang out the story in one quick sitting, spend a week or two on revisions, and huzzah – on to the next thing.

So what’s the big deal with this one tale?

I have fallen into a common trap: I can’t separate my inspiration from my creation. There comes a time in the life of every story when the author must start doing what’s right for the tale, even if that means cutting out the things that initially inspired her. It’s like being a good parent: You had your heart set on your kid being a librarian or professional skateboarder; but as she grows up, it becomes clear that she is built for dentistry. If you ignore her gift for orthodontics and instead force her to spend her days at the skate park, you are doing her a disservice. As her parent, your job is to help her realize her best potential, even if it looks different than you thought it would at first. Same thing with authors and stories.

My story, initially, was about my grandparents. I loved my grandparents deeply, and I want to write a fairy tale about them and for them. This is a lot of emotional responsibility for my fledgling story. As I started my first drafts, I then got tangled up in a torturous, crazymaking love affair – and the story started being about that, too! So right out of the gate I am forcing my poor little story to carry a couple of massive suitcases around, like an 8-year-old bellhop at a third-rate hotel. And because I have all this STUFF that I want my story to do, I can’t just let go and have fun with it. Every time I start writing, I am so aware of my need to write a Great Love Story about Fidelity, Integrity, Home, Family, Femininity, Masculinity (can’t leave anyone out!), Creativity, and Identity. Oh, yeah – and it has to have cool imagery, great plot twists, and Zen-master control of language.

Phew! That’s a lot! My story slowly became a stinky chore. I now feel the same way about writing my story that I do about cleaning out the basement.

How can I make my story fun again? I have to release my terrible expectations. I have to accept that my story may never be a professional skateboarder. Then I have to commit to exploring what my story actually is instead of what I think it should be. Maybe dentists aren’t so bad…

All it takes is letting go. That’s not so hard, is it? [ahem]