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Tossing and turning? Unable to get comfortable? Do your sheets cling to your body? Do they feel crispy or damp? Are they cool or hot? Cinderella surely never thought of such things while sleeping in the ashes, although she may have once she hit the palace. Yet, for the rest of us, the answers to my questions are important for good sleep. Sheets are a key factor for a restful night. The truth is, most people don’t wash them enough and have fallen for the myth that high thread count always means better sleep. But cool, crisp percale sheets may be the answer for you. They’re the only kind I sleep on, and a lot of other people with sleep issues have found comfort in percale. Percale is a 200-400 thread count cotton (never buy a cotton/polyester blend) fabric that admittedly, is a bit on the rough side, but is also very cool. These are the kind of sheets you may remember from childhood. And maybe your mom, like mine, was a firm believer in percale sheets hung out to dry in the sunshine. The resulting super clean, cool, fresh, rough sheets were like a sleeping pill. Sadly, many people consider hanging sheets out to dry to be tacky, but wealthy people do it all the time, and it’s much better for the environment than your dryer. My mother developed a clearing among the trees on our huge lot, and no one complained. (Also, you should know that many states have “right to dry” laws on the books, so no one can complain, legally speaking, in those states.) So, percale is the answer. I get mine from Vermont Country Store . I admit that they aren’t cheap, but they do give hot sleepers like me a cool, crisp night—and heat and stuffiness are the enemies of good sleep. Many people swear by high thread count sheets, saying they love the softness of that fancy Egyptian cotton thread, and if you have them and are enjoying blissful nights of sleep, then I’m both happy for you and envious of you. But if you are tossing and turning, if the ultra-soft sheets cling unpleasantly to your skin, if they feel a little dirty, even when they are clean, because they are too soft, then please do get percale! And now that I’ve mentioned sheets feeling dirty, please know that sheets should be washed at least once a week for insomniacs, while normal sleepers can go two weeks. After than, the collection of body soils makes the sheets much worse to sleep on. I keep a fresh set of sheets handy and will change them in the middle of the night if I can’t sleep. So please, wash the sheets! ( Here’s a detailed discussion on frequent sheet washing that should convince you if you’re skeptical.) That’s all for now. I’m actually laying in bed on my sheets as I type this. I put a fresh set on yesterday, and yes, I did sleep very well last night. Next time, I’ll focus on how cold your bedroom should be for good sleep. Until then, may your nights be cool and sleepy. 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.

No fairy tale symbol is more iconic than Cinderella’s glass slipper. One glint of a glass heel clicking across a ballroom floor plunges us directly into a Cinderella  story, so it may be a surprise for some readers to learn that in most variants of Cinderella , the shoe that acts as an identifier of the true bride is not made of glass. In Rhodopis , an Egyptian story often cited as an early variant of the fairy tale, the famous footwear is a leather sandal, and in Yeh-Shen , an early Chinese version of Cinderella , the slippers are “woven of gold threads, in a pattern like the scales of a fish.” Even the Brothers Grimm give Cinderella slippers made of silver and gold, but while all of these precious materials are no doubt beautiful, they fail to capture our imagination like the sparkling slippers crafted of cold, hard glass.  Charles Perrault’s Cinderella (which inspired the classic Disney film), may be the only traditional fairy tale heroine to don glass slippers, but she isn’t the only one associated with the beauty of glass. Snow White spends her enchanted sleep in a glass casket, and it is a looking glass that serves as a magic mirror to her step-mother, allowing the queen to see who is ‘the fairest one of all.” The Beast gives Beauty a magic looking glass so she can peer across the miles that separate them, and many of Beauty’s folkloric cousins must search for their own lost husbands at the tops of glass mountains. Even Cinderella’s step-sisters have “looking glasses so large that they could see themselves at their full length from head to foot” (Perrault). Glass items echo through fairy tales because we are naturally drawn to their aesthetic qualities. We delight in the dancing light which glints off glass surfaces and wonder at its reflective properties. Sea Glass , Pixabay Like the protagonists of fairy tales, I have long been drawn to sparkling things, and, in the summertime, I spend hours combing the shoreline looking for pieces of sea glass with miraculous stories to tell. Glass is first created when sand, soda ash, and limestone are heated to a liquid and shaped by human breath. Discarded bottles and drinkware then find their way to the sea where they are tumbled by the ocean waves until their edges are smoothed and their surfaces frosted. When a piece of sea glass finally reaches the beach, its jade, aqua, teal, blue, or white color shimmers in the salty sea foam, a rare jewel among the shells and stones. I collect each piece of sea glass I find, marveling at its transformative journey as I place it in a crystal jar on my windowsill. When the jar is touched by the sun’s rays, my sea glass sends prisms of color across my ceiling and walls, bringing me memories of summer and recollections of the sea. The beauty of Cinderella’s glass slipper has no doubt anchored it in our minds as a symbol of her fairy tale, but the glass slipper may also be synonymous with Cinderella because it shares her transformative qualities. Created from humble substances and shaped by human artistry into something beautiful, glass slippers are sturdy, but fragile, like Cinderella herself. And, although Charles Perrault never mentions sea glass in his fairy tale, I think sea glass is especially evocative of the girl who rises from the ashes to become a royal princess. Sea glass, which is created from discarded materials, proves that even when we shatter, our sharp pieces can be softened by the endless the swirl and tumble of time. Like Cinderella , sea glass shows us that broken things can be beautiful if we transform them with a touch of nature’s magic. 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/

Ebony, Blood, and Snow  is a stunning collection of short stories inspired by traditional fairy tales. Writing in the tradition of artists like Angela Carter, Emma Donoghue, and Anne Sexton, Tish Black presents readers with feminist retellings designed to empower women and smash the patriarchy. Black grounds her retellings in a keen understanding of the female writers and scholars who have studied and worked with fairy tales before her, effectively penning a new group of intriguing stories from folkloric material. The stories in Ebony, Blood, and Snow  are told from both third person and first person perspectives, but each narrative is a clear and concise exploration of a character or tale. “Ebony” provides the back story of Snow White’s mother, “Amethyst” reworks “The Goose Girl,” and “Pine” presents a group of sisters who sneak out of their father’s house not to dance, but to earn their own money. Readers will find a Little Red Riding Hood who hunts wolves and a Rapunzel who escapes from her tower on her own. While the men in Black’s tales rarely act as saviors, women and witches are rewritten as powerful entities who navigate difficult circumstances with a combination of intelligence, cunning, and female rage. Two of my favorites include a Swan Maiden tale that opens with the fabulous phrase “Once upon a time, a king pissed off a witch,” and a nod to the frame tale of 1001 Nights  that showcases the incredible power of storytelling. The thirteen tales in Black’s collection are enticing enough to be read in one sitting, or they can be savored slowly by those looking to contemplate how fairy tale narratives have shaped and can continue to shape our cultural understanding of gendered expectations. Although many of the narratives contain alarming adult themes, the stories beautifully explore the roles of mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, and the text offer new ideas for empowering women in both domestic and social spaces. If you enjoyed The Bloody Chamber  or Kissing the Witch , you will find much to love in Ebony, Blood, and Snow . You can find the book here , and you watch The Fairy Tale Magazine's interview with Tish Black on our YouTube Channel here . Like and follow to watch Fairy Tale Voices , a series of conversations with writers, poets, scholars, and artists who use fairy tale and folklore in their work. Thank you to the author 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/

Silvatiicus Riddle, Rhysling shortlisted poet Today's interviewee for our Enchanted Creators series is the exceptional poet and writer Silvatiicus Riddle (He/They). He is a Rhysling-Nominated Dark Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Writer who lives on the borderlands of New York City. Riddle's work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Dreams & Nightmares, Enchanted Living, Eternal Haunted Summer, Spectral Realms, and, of course, The Fairy Tale Magazine . In fact, his poem, “Medicine for the Ailing Mortal, as Told in Seven Stories” published by us May 1, 2024, has been nominated and shortlisted for a Rhysling Award. First of all, Silvatiicus, thank you for agreeing to chat with The Fairy Tale Magazine. We are excited to learn more about you and your incredible work! In your Rhysling nominated, shortlisted poem, “Medicine for the Ailing Mortal, as Told in Seven Stories” you chose iconic fairy tales, shaping each section with advice specific to each tale and its particular challenge. Tell us about how you were able to delve into each tale and create such specific yet profound statements for each?    With this particular poem, which examines seven popular and familiar fairy tales, I wanted to explore, through the lens of poetry, what it would look like to distill the essence of each story in a way that the reader, whom may come to the poem with a certain heaviness upon them, as many of us have in these turbulent times, would carry something away to consider or meditate upon. It was my hope that my words may be a balm that they did not know that they needed or were looking for.   When discussing fairy tales, these stories are often intricately woven with the memories we have of our childhoods. We might see these tales on film as children, or read the stories, and be captivated by the adventure, the wonder, the possibility. Often times, they were foundations for our understanding of morality, or the ability to overcome the varied and difficult trials we might yet face in our lives. Too often, many people leave these stories behind in their formative years, moving away toward adulthood with a sense that they’ve been set adrift in a place that looks nothing like the enchanted or dark forests of the stories they were raised upon, and as such, it can feel like there is no guidance. I certainly know that I have felt that way, as have many of the people that I have spoken to. Countless turn to religion or spirituality for the answers, for some light to illuminate the path forward. Historically, ancestrally, we were led from birth to grave by the bard, or the storyteller by the fire. Their stories were not just for the entertainment of children, however, but to steward those that needed guidance on their passage through the world, for the understanding of their inner and outer landscapes. Every story is ensouled with the purpose of holding dialogue with the parts of us that cannot speak. With this poem, I sought to pay reverence to this ancestral practice, a means of calling home the child within each of us, whom may feel a bit lost or misguided, and to remind each grown person that, through some of their favorite stories, which are universal, cross-cultural, and borderless, that they’ve been given the very tools that they need to take on the challenging and varied story that we all have found ourselves in.   Tell us about the Rhysling, and about what being shortlisted means to you.    So, the how the Rhysling Award works is that during a specific window of time, any active member of the SFPA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association) may nominate any speculative fiction poem published the year before, to be considered for the Rhysling Award. All of those initial nominations become the Rhysling “Long List”. Then, from there, the Rhysling Jury considers each poem, and whittles down the list to 50 short poems and 25 long poems. That final list is the Short List, and that goes on to be published in the Rhysling Anthology for the year, and the members then read each poem and vote for their favorite pieces. The pieces that have the most votes win the award.   Being nominated at all is wonderful, and to be shortlisted is incredibly exciting, and not at all an easy feat. This is my fourth nomination, and my second time being shortlisted. I am always grateful for my writing to be seen; and to be acknowledged by a community of brilliant poets that recognize my work is a deep honor.   Within the poem, your repetition of key words such as “should,” “let,” and “remember” serve perhaps as invocations while also serving as prescriptions. Were those ideas present right from the first draft, or did they emerge over time as you crafted the poem? Can you pull back the curtain on your creative process?    Invocations, as well as prescriptions, yes. With each poem or story that I write, it is my hope that the tales that I spin may function as spellwork to the witch, meditations to the student, and medicine for the wounded heart – another common thread, for to live is to be wounded -- and we all have wounded hearts. My work is as much a balm to myself, as it is for anyone that seeks it out or stumbles upon it by chance. But, wounds are fertile soil, aren’t they? What forests can the right words grow, then, planted where there are cracks, where the pained parts of us hunger for greening, for light?   While I try not to be too intentional with my words (as I believe having too many intentions can actually impede the flow of creativity with too much thought), I knew the bones of the poem for sure: that I wanted the reader to feel an immediate sense that the seven stories are not about other  people, from some dusty century, long-dead, but that each of the stories are their story—it is their life written out upon the page; a private message of hope and resilience, penned just for them. The use of certain words, then, brings in that sense of familiarity and ease, saying: there is comfort to be found here, this is your poem . Please come in . My only other intention that I wanted for each story’s distilled “medicine”, was that I wanted it to be a potent, but gentle reminder that each reader, regardless of circumstance, still very much has their own agency and power.   Is there a specific tale that you return to time and again? What do you think it is that draws you back to it?   One tale that I return to time and again, that I also did not mention here, and perhaps it is a bit more modern than the others, is that of Peter Pan. Some people don’t consider that to be a fairy tale due to its length and the intended age of its readers, but still others do. I certainly believe it to be, as fairy tale is not simply the story that is told, it is also a spirit , which is why literary fiction can be fairy tale, song lyrics and musical orchestrations, epic tales, as well as poetry. With Peter Pan, I was never so seen as when I encountered that story for the first time, and have revisited Neverland many times since. A boy whom could speak to the fairies, and could fly, living inside the solid and very-much-real land of make believe? It was like J.M. Barrie knew me personally. Growing up as a queer boy/person with undiagnosed neurodivergence can certainly feel a lot like being something other-than-human, with all of the intended connotations that such a word might invoke. It’s a magical, horrible, treacherous, adventure between worlds that often, desired or not, leads you toward a life of solitude, wonder, high-strangeness, and a certain loneliness. Such a thing might, if ever, only be remedied by aligning yourself with other “lost boys” that, perchance, may understand the peculiarities of the world in a similar way as you do. As I’ve gotten older, time has only solidified this for me. The world has a way of changing grown-ups into pirates. Well, long ago, I’d made up my mind that I never want to be a pirate. I always want to fly, I always want to hear the fairies speak. Even if it means being disinvited from a society that wasn’t designed for someone like me. So, that story, for me, is my personal, designated fairy tale. It is comfort, it is resilience, it is hope and reassurance. For me, it is home.   Are there particular poets, artists, or stories that influence your work?   Yeats has my heart. Patricia McKillip speaks to my soul. Angela Carter, the madness and beauty in her words, carries me onward, even when I feel that I can go no further. I’m forever indebted to Jim Henson. Brian and Wendy Froud’s work on Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal set me on a path of understanding the breadth of magic, its limitless world of possibilities, and that there were people out there, in this very strange land that I find myself, that could help birth such things into being. Ray Bradbury rewired my brain when first I found “The Halloween Tree”, when I was seven, and the illustrations that accompanied his many works, most often drawn by his long-time friend and artistic collaborator, Joseph Mugnaini. I’m also deeply influenced by writings on witchcraft, occultism, esoteric practice, folklore, and the modern and historical documentation of real-life faerie encounters. Writers like Tolkien, Charles de Lint, Terri Windling, Alan Moore, Octavia Butler have all encouraged me to carve the magic from the marble of my own work. Of course, I can’t fail to mention my contemporaries in Speculative and Fantasy poetry today, and I honor each of them that work tirelessly creating magic, mystery, and beauty within the industry. Some of the modern poets that, for me, are really keeping the art form alive and interesting: Angel Leal, Pedro Iniguez, Angela Acosta, Lauren Scharhag, Theodora Goss, Dr. Sara Cleto, and Dr. Brittany Warman, to name a few. Artists whose work lives inside me, stoking the fires of my imagination: Jana Heidersdorf, Charles Vess, Andy Kehoe, Omar Rayyan, Seb McKinnon, Cory Godbey. Good art means everything to me. Good writing means everything to me. When you see a painting that transports you, when you read a sentence that takes your breath away? It’s a feeling like no other. You are, undoubtedly, encountering the sacred, and what it means to be alive.   What draws you to speculative or fairy tale-inspired poetry?    I am a punk boy that envisions a better world. Creativity is resistance. I am deeply interested in the re-enchantment of the world, and exploring, through writing, the continuation of awe, wonder, and magic that is intrinsic to humanity from childhood, or for some, may be sought and acquired later on. Speculative poetry and fiction are founded on the premise of possibility –– what is possible if only the laws, rules, and sociological elements of our world were the same or similar, but somehow bridged with the Other . Fairy Tales are a tradition stretching far back into human consciousness, a golden thread that runs through the heart and deep into pre-recorded history. But, what is it anchored to? Why are we so enamored of the fairy tale? It follows us through the centuries in the same way that spiritual traditions do. While the speculative gives us possibility, fairy tales give us the numinous. At any given moment, we are surrounded by a thousand forgotten gods ready to bless our step, or perhaps to curse us for our arrogance; they lean outward from the world that we, egotistically, built atop their own, rebuffing them of their needs of things like prayer and offering, whilst we go about worshipping ephemeral things like money and time. Their mythologies once lived inside of the oral traditions, which, crafted and hewn by the years, have become what we know as fairy tales. Fairy Tales connect us to that sacred place beneath our feet, to our very roots, to our healing, and to alchemy. We can begin to find self-alchemy in the study and understanding of fairy tales. Then, if we allow ourselves that transmutation that only fairy stories can provide, well, I think that begins to appease the gods and spirits that have been waiting so terribly long for the respect of acknowledgment. Who we are, where we come from, what we are capable of, is very much alive inside of fairy tales. They give us the understanding of our world, and the speculative expands upon it. As someone that seeks to live his life in awe, magic, wonder, and possibility, it’s a natural draw toward these genres and traditions, and through them, I am holding a vision of the world in renaissance.   There is a quality of warmth in so much of your writing that exudes a soothing embrace, a feeling of being held and comforted even in the darkest dark. Can you speak to that as a focus of your creativity? Is it a conscious choice you make, or does it flow naturally from your mind/pen?    It’s interesting, because often times when I set out to write a poem or story, I don’t begin with the intention of crafting something warm, inviting, or comforting. There are many pieces of mine, still, where such things are not explicitly found in the end, but, perhaps, they offer the glimmer that there might be something to hold on to, something left to be told, to hope for, or settling into a new paradigm to be found yet. I can think of a few poems or stories of mine where the protagonist goes through a terrible transformation, where such a thing might be the apex of a horror or suspense story to the avid reader, where one might find themselves in an abusive or desperate situation, but ultimately find comfort in their transformation or transportation to another realm; whether they’ve sacrificed their humanness to become a spirit of Halloween, for example, exploited their lycanthropy to take on tyrannical kings, or have run away from a broken home to join the faeries in their Bealtaine revelries.   I’ve been through a lion’s share of my own troubles, finding myself in abusive situations more than once, battling chronic illnesses, facing internal struggles with mental health, and outer struggles that are often worsened by living inside of a socio-political landscape that sees people like me as second class, or burdensome, and that is all putting it delicately. It is worth noting, always, that I am still in a place of privilege because of where I live, the color of my skin, and my presenting gender. To have such a privilege has given me certain advantages in life that are not afforded to everyone equally or equitably, regardless of my struggles. We also live in a time when there is unprecedented access to information, where the stories of people an ocean away, or even from the cities we live in, can be imbibed and understood while waiting for the coffee to brew ––  stories of people that we are encouraged to view as enemies can be instantly humanized and heard, when they are given a platform to speak without censure ––  people in need of help, and understanding, reassurance, hope, and love. Being raised on the likes of great individuals such as Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, Paul Reubens, Steve Irwin is not something I would soon forget. It lives in my marrow. In this lifetime, it is my calling to write. When I sit at my desk, when the words come, even if they are terrifically dark, the question is a voiceless one that is always on my heart: how can I help?   That is why I started my Substack newsletter, The Goblin’s Reliquary . Social media is a fickle thing, at the whim and detriment of its billionaire owners and shareholders. I figured that if I can reach people directly, sans algorithms, I can share my writings with the people that have decided that they need my words or my presence, and through the lens of my own life and perspective, with the aid of folklore, poetry, fairy tale, the mythopoeic, the great writers and thinkers that have come before, I can potentially help someone by sharing my own cultivated fire, and perhaps, they may even help me. That’s the legacy that I want, that is something we should all strive for –– if some of us can learn to thrive in the land of dragons, we must lift someone else up onto the backs of the great beasts, so that, beyond the oppressive smoke and ash, they may know that we still live in the land of the sun. And, through our stories, we can show others that they, too, might learn to fly, and that every darkness, even that which we hold inside, is a doorway into hidden beauty. Be sure to find Silvatiicus Riddle's Substack newsletter , and don't forget to read the nominated poem. You may find Silvatiicus at Facebook.com/SilvatiicusRiddleAuthor  or Instagram @Silvatiicus Kristen Baum is Editor in Chief of The Fairy Tale Magazine . She is also a writer and composer blending fairy tales, film music, and fantasy into poems and songs and film scores.

In this captivating new fantasy story from professor and scholar Dr. Jack Zipes, two young witches named Anja and Zack set out to save the world from the technological power of an evil dictator named Nexus. Zack and Anja are sixteen-year-old twins with the power to shapeshift into the form of birds and bees as they descend upon an island restoring joy with their dancing. Separated from their parents after the rise of Nexus and guided by a benevolent witch, the twins must locate the Wellikans, the indigenous beings who dwell under the ground and resist Nexus’ tyrannical control. Young readers will be delighted by the engaging characters of Anja and Zack who maintain positive mindsets as they meet adversity, and they will also be sensitized to the dangers of spreading false news and the importance of maintaining resistance against unlawful power. Zipes’ background as a scholar of fairy tale and a political activist permeate the story, but the rich plot and well-rounded characters will keep children reading. Although the adventure narrative is exciting and the moral is poignant, my favorite part of the book is its deep understanding of story itself. The narrator speaks directly to readers, claiming what follows is true and penetrating the action to explain details and assure readers that he does not lie. The book contains brilliant layers of narration, and even as it reaches its conclusion, it tells readers that “this ending is only the beginning.” Young readers looking for a compelling adventure and adult readers interested in contemplating how stories interact with perceptions of power will find much to love in Zipes’ excellent prose. The Wrath of Peace or How the Wellikans Saved the World is a hopeful tale that will inspire readers to stand up to oppression while they recognize the beauty still to be found in nature and humanity. I truly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Anja and Zack’s adventures! You can find it here , and you can see The Fairy Tale Magazine's interview with Dr. Jack Zipes on our YouTube Channel here . Like and follow to watch Fairy Tale Voices , a series of conversations with writers, scholars, poets, and artists who use fairy tale and folklore in their work. Kelly Jarvis works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine . Her work has also appeared in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen , Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers, The Chamber Magazine,  and The Magic of Us . Her debut novella, Selkie Moon , publishes in June, 2025. You can find her at Kellyjarviswriter.com .

It would have been sensible and coherent if I had done a sleep series during the many months FTM’s focus was on “Sleeping Beauty,” this year. Sadly, I’m occasionally neither sensible nor coherent, so I’m doing it now. Note: It’s not too late to enjoy our fantastic “Sleeping Beauty” issue, “Briar and Thorn.” To be fair, the fact that I’m focusing on sleep in June is relevant to me personally: My sleep is much worse during the summer, and I’m not alone. Research  supports the theory that the extensive light we receive on these long, sunny days really does make us more wakeful in bed. In my case, the light I receive in my extremely sunny house during these months means that I have a lot of trouble sleeping when it finally does grow dark. That may be happening to you as well, so this week I’m focusing on how to control sunniness during your waking hours to help you sleep when it’s dark. More importantly, I’m giving you one of my best sleep tips, period. Here it is: You have to purchase room darkening shades if you are having trouble sleeping. I’ve tried many different types over the years, so I know that the shades have to completely cover the window, all over, to prevent light leaking in. Alas, most shades and curtains, at every price point, are ineffective at controlling light leaks, and believe it or not, the light leaks can be more destructive to sleep than full-on sunny windows because those leaks are so piercing and concentrated. My life-saving answer has been these blackout curtains that I wrote about  in March during a righteous rant about the evils of Daylight Savings Time. They are really a shade rather than a curtain have a metal frame that you insert inside your window’s frame. The actual UBlockout roller shades go inside the frame you’ve inserted. Absolutely no sunlight leaks through. Your bedroom will be totally midnight-dark all day and night. I’m revisiting these shades to help you maximize your experience with them, should you decide to buy them. Here’s what you need to know: First, UBlockout shades are not cheap, although the price varies according to your number of windows as well as their size. To be transparent, we have three large windows in our master bedroom, and they cost us about $1,500 all together. Fortunately, UBlockout frequently has sales—plus most people with chronic insomnia are not foolish enough to build a house with three massive windows in their master bedroom, like I did. If you have smaller and fewer windows, you’ll pay much less. Nonetheless, I would have paid triple to have shades that work this well. Second, careful measuring with all blackout shades is essential to success. UBlockout shades will not do their job if the measurements are off, and they need to be within a 1/16th of an inch to work well. Fortunately, UBlockout has excellent instructions and videos to help you measure properly, but it’s likely to take two people to do the job. I promise it wasn’t hard for Todd and me to do the measuring, so you can do it too. Third, installation is not difficult, but it is time consuming as there are many screws to put in. Once again, if you read the instructions and watch the videos, you’ll be in good shape. Being very, very careful in measuring and installing will change your sleepless life! I am not being paid in any way by UBlockout, but I’m telling you that if you buy these shades, you’ll sleep better and longer. They’ve added an average of 45 minutes additional sleep time for me in the last six months, bringing my nightly average up to 7.25 hours per night. I haven’t slept this well in 35 years. They make the room totally dark at night, and prevent waking too early due to morning sunlight, a real problem when the sun wants to creep in at 5:30 AM. Before I leave you, let me cycle back to how to reduce your overall sun intake during the summer. I’ve found that if I go into my bedroom in the afternoon and read or meditate (or even work) for an hour, with the blinds completely closed, my body clock resets well for the evening, so when I go to bed later, it’s easier to fall asleep. The “dose of darkness” in the afternoon really helps. If an hour is too much time for you, even 15 minutes or so in a thoroughly darkened room will help you reset and decrease the sleep-deficit effects of all this sunlight. Any darkness will help . I promise. Next time, I’m going to discuss sheets and why they are so very important to successful sleep. People take them for granted, but sheets absolutely affect sleep quality. As for Cinderella, I suspect that if you work as hard physically as she did before moving to the castle, sleep is probably easy. In 2025, most of us aren’t doing that much physical labor, so we need some help. Until next time, hope you have long, sweet dreams! Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother. Unsplash image by Jp Valery.

“This is a story about a man who thought he was a bird and the woman who helped him find his humanity again.” With this stunning opening, Jane Rosenberg Laforge plunges readers into a heartwarming and heartbreaking story that weaves fairy tale with historical romance. The Hawkman: A Fairy Tale of the Great War  explores the relationship of two people who have faced illness, bloodshed, and poverty. Eva Williams, an American schoolteacher and writer working at a small college in Bridgetonne, England, initiates contact with Michael Sheehan, an Irish veteran of World War I who is suffering from the memory of his harrowing experiences in the trenches. Michael is disheveled in his appearance. His long, matted hair and coat that billows like feathers have led the townspeople to paint him as The Hawkman, a hybrid creature who scavenges like an animal and preys upon unsuspecting children. When Eva offers Michael her hand, taking him back to her cottage to feed and bathe him, the two begin a relationship steeped in wonder and truth. Rosenberg’s prose is lyrical and her narrative is layered. Readers are given flashbacks into Eva’s childhood experience and Michael’s war days, and at several points throughout the novel, the characters engage in storytelling which adds meaning and poignancy to their growing relationship. Although Rosenberg is primarily reworking “The Bearskin” by The Brothers Grimm, a fairy tale which explores animal-human hybridity and metamorphosis, the text is filled with other fairy tale and folkloric references as well. Readers who enjoy magical realism tales like David Almond’s Skellig  or Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings  are sure to enjoy Rosenberg’s exquisite prose and exploration of humanity. The Hawkman  is a fairy tale set in a real world environment, and its beautiful ending will leave readers dreaming about the power of compassion and love. This is a book I will remember always. You can find it here . 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/

I don’t know about where you are, but as usual, summer has arrived far too early in Northern Indiana, and the ever-hotter weather has made me a summer Grinch. From this point on, I’m hunkering down until October, when I come alive again. I always think of Cinderella living somewhere in Western or Central Europe in the 17th century, with summers far cooler than what we now experience in the Midwest. But of course, Cinderella is a point of view as much as anything, and her story can be told in subtropical or Arctic conditions and still ring true. In any case, here in real life, I get through the summer by pretending it’s not happening as much as possible. I tend the garden early in the morning, and then spend every minute I can indoors. The AC is kept at 67 degrees during the day and 66 at night. The shades are closed. I’m like a heat avoidant, senior citizen version of Sleeping Beauty. I “sleep” in the AC until my senior citizen Prince Charming comes home from work each day. Then we huddle with the dog in the fake cool air until we repeat I all again the next morning. Does this seem grim to you? It is. Summer is a burden to many people in the USA because of the brutal heat, and I have no way of sugar coating that. To those of you who still love summer, I have to ask, why? I’d really like to know. Do you rub ice cubes on your wrists? Do you wear elaborate sun hats? Do you binge Lifetime holiday movies full of fake smiles and even faker snow? Is there a place you visit in your head where it’s always 65 degrees during the day and 40 degrees at night (my dream temperatures)? I’d love some answers! Let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be melting and reading here in Indiana. 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.

Spells for Success: 40 Spells to Set Intentions and Manifest Everyday Wins  is a box filled with beautifully illustrated and laminated spell cards that will enrich your life and well-being. Created by Lauren Parker, a longtime folk witch and magical practitioner, this deck is perfect for those who practice the craft or for those simply looking to infuse magic into their lives. The author of the collection believes that spells come from a place of need and want, and she has divided her spells into four categories: Money and Career , Health , Love and Romance , and Personal Growth . Some spells are designed to produce immediate results while others may take years to manifest results, but all of the spells are designed to foster personal growth and community peace. In addition to receiving spells, those who purchase Spells for Success  receive an overview on how to set an intention, tips on meditation, information on the Law of Attraction, and instructions for building a magical toolbox, making oils, and using sigils. Best of all is the author’s reassurance that spell work is a craft meant to help us bring about desirable outcomes. Parker teaches us that we are our own magic; our voices, bodies, and creativity are the tools that bring about positive change. She equates spells to the wishes we make on birthday candles and the pinky swears we vow to our childhood friends. Parker’s spells are everyday magic that will fill your life with enchantment. The deck of cards is pleasing to flip through, and the spells ask you to use dance, light, mirrors, oils, herbs, and candles to set the tone for manifesting your desires. You will find a Spell for Hope and a Healthy Family Spell , a Spell to Quit a Bad Habit  and a Better Communication Love Spell . My favorites spells include the Emotional Portal Spell , the Love Yourself Moon Spell , and the Choose Your Own Adventure Spell . Parker has inspired me to embrace the magic of the everyday, and I will keep these spells close to me as I learn to enchant my life. If you are interested in rituals which can stimulate your creativity and move you toward your own vision of success, Lauren Parker’s Spells for Success  is a must. The beautiful box makes a perfect gift for yourself or for someone you love. You can find it here . 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/

With Mother’s Day coming this week, I thought sharing this brunch casserole recipe might help some readers find the perfect dish for next Sunday.  This is the point in my posts where I try to connect the topic with Cinderella, but I must admit I’m struggling. After all, she wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate it with her stepfamily. And I don’t remain hopeful that her mother-in-law was much better, but I hope her kids gave her a good one! Now, on to the recipe. We are a brunch family. In fact, it’s what we usually enjoy when we all get together. This means that we have a breakfast casserole when we celebrate Mother’s Day, and this year will be no different. We plan to have the hammiest egg casserole ever. It’s simple to make, but remember, the quality of the ham is very important, because the dish takes on the flavor of the meat. I do think you could probably make this with cooked sausage or bacon—make a pound if you substitute one or the other of them for ham.       We will use very high-quality ham, and it will be worth it, because the ham taste will be so predominant. We also will use high-quality dinner rolls for the bread, and (this is very important), we will pull the bread the night before and put the pieces on paper towels to get stale before making the casserole Sunday morning. The casserole would be too mushy had we not dried out the bread.       With those tips in mind, here’s the recipe, adapted from the website, The Happy Brown House . The Hammiest Casserole 2 cups of best diced ham (a little more is      fine) 6-7 good quality dinner rolls, pulled      small pieces 6 large eggs, beaten 2 cups of milk 2 cups of shredded cheese, your choice Salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon ground mustard (powder      form) Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 13-by-9-inch casserole dish (contents will be shallow in the pan after baking). By the way, I haven’t tried it yet, but I think this could be quite good in a smaller dish.  Mix the meat, dried bread and cheese together thoroughly. Put mixture in the bottom of the greased casserole dish, and spread it around evenly.        Mix all of the other ingredients together thoroughly. Pour the wet mixture over the dry, and tip the dish around so the egg mixture is spread evenly. This mixture will not look super wet before you cook it, but it comes out just fine. Bake for 40 minutes, but you may need to do more, depending on your oven.       Let rest for 10-15 minutes, then serve. This is great with fruit salad and three bean salad.   I hope you enjoy this as much as we do. And to those who will be celebrating, Happy Mother’s Day! (This post was adapted from one I wrote years ago for a weekly newspaper. Kate Wolford was the publisher and editor of The Fairy Tale Magazine  for many years. She’s now enjoying being Resident Fairy Godmother

The Thorn Key: Fairy Tales in Verse , is a stunning collection of poetic fairy tale retellings and examinations. Jeana Jorgensen invites her readers through a series of doors ( Door of Red and White Roses , Door of Swan and Raven Feathers , Door of Gold and Silver Crowns , Door of Bone and Ice Needles ), admonishing them to be careful with the key because “it bites.” The journey is well worth the risk of danger, however, because behind each door is a collection of poems which deftly weave folklore into contemporary life, leaving readers breathless. Jorgensen, who has written academic books including Fairy Tale 101  and Folklore 101 , brings her insightful and scholarly background to each poem while using accessible and alluring language. The fairy tale imagery in this book seeps into the modern world as the poet equates selkies with ghosting and sets classic narratives like The Twelve Dancing Princesses in a post-World War II society. The collection contains an illuminating afterward and an appendix of tale types which provide valuable background information on the tales and the history of retellings, but it is the poetry itself which continues to sing long after the book has been closed. Readers will contemplate how folklore and fairy tale can be used to reflect and inform human experiences, but they will also relish the pure emotion embedded in the joyful and heartbreaking words that dance across the page. Jorgensen forces readers to interrogate the interpretations of old tales in poems like Snow White Goes Gray  and Bluebeard , and she juxtaposes folkloric monsters and maidens with real life trauma and human experience in poems like The Ogre’s Heart  and Snow White and Rose Red in Orlando . She provides several treatments of ATU 510B ( The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and of Stars ) and ATU 451 ( The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers ), highlighting the fluidity of meaning embedded in each tale. My favorite poems include Walking on Knives , a Little Mermaid retelling that sees the protagonist strike a deal with a sea witch to earn a tenure track position at a university, and Selkies which speaks of “Sleek swimmers who carved through water, / Carved a place inside a heart and home, / Then re-skinned themselves, glinting away from shore.”Jorgensen’s poetry combines thoughtful ideas with gorgeous language, and I found myself equally compelled to linger in the verses and hurry to turn the pages so I could discover what literary magic awaited me behind the next door. The Thorn Key: Fairy Tales in Verse  is a collection that belongs on every fairy tale lover’s shelf, and its combination of pain, trauma, transformation, and beauty will beckon readers to swim in its poignant metaphor and imagery. It is a volume I will return to often. I love it! You can find it here , and you can watch The Fairy Tale Magazine's interview with Dr. Jeana Jorgensen on Author Talks here . Kelly Jarvis works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine . Her work has also appeared in A Moon of One’s Own,   Baseball Bard , Blue Heron Review , Corvid Queen , Eternal Haunted Summer,   Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly , Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers, The Chamber Magazine,  and The Magic of Us . Her debut novella, Selkie Moon , publishes in June, 2025. You can find her at Kellyjarviswriter.com .

Poor Cinderella. You know those filthy ashes and all the kitchen scraps she had to deal with made her miserable. She probably had to slop hogs and feed chickens too.  And think of the health issues she must have dealt with. If anyone in the awful stepfamily of hers got sick, you know she had to do the nursing. She may have even dealt with plague, which had a way of recurring over five centuries, until medical experts began to get control of it about 100 years ago or so. This Cinderella introduction brings me to the real focus of this post: DIY Four Thieves cleaning solution, which I’ve been making and cleaning with for at least 15 years. I’ve written about it in the past as well. In fact, this post is partly an old column I wrote for a little newspaper during the pandemic. Some of you may be aware of an essential oil blend that shares a similar name to the formula I’m posting today. I’m not promoting it because it’s part of an MLM company, but I promise that my formula is relatively inexpensive and very effective.  Here’s the legend and my favorite formula. In the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, in Marseille, four thieves (or bandits) robbed the sick and the dead very successfully during an outbreak of plague. Eventually, they were caught, and, as the story goes, they were offered lighter sentences if they shared their secret for staying alive so long among the plague victims.       It was a combination of herbs, including rosemary, lavender, sage and camphor, steeped in vinegar, that they applied to the exposed areas of their bodies, like their hands and faces. Considering that those aromatic herbs have insect repellent qualities, and fleas carried plague, it’s no wonder the thieves survived their misdeeds.  Great story, right? There are many versions of it, as there are many versions of the actual thieves recipe. Heck, all of it may be completely made up. But there are good cleaning qualities to many essential oils, and those that I use for my own thieves recipe are great for everyday cleaning. Clove oil is an antimicrobial and will kill bacteria, as well as some fungus. It’s also dandy for a toothache.       Thyme oil is extremely potent as room freshener. I mean, it will eradicate any form of stink. As for cleaning, it’s thought to have antifungal and  antibacterial qualities and may possibly kill salmonella and E. coli. Rosemary oil is also thought to have antimicrobial properties, as does lovely sweet orange oil. In fact, the latter is thought to have antifungal and antiseptic effects. (Always add more orange oil than the others, because they have really pungent, medicinal odors and the orange can cut them. However, orange oil can stain fabric, so keep that in mind. ) Do you notice that I hedged a bit in my descriptions, as in “thought to”? That’s because a lot isn’t known about the health benefits or cleaning possibilities of essential oils, and essential oil companies oversell what the oils can do. I’m a serious lover of essential oils, and I think they can be really useful for cleaning when you don’t have serious sickness in the house or when you haven’t been dealing with raw chicken or beef. But if you add rubbing alcohol to thieves or other cleaning oils, you’ll have a cleaner that will kill coronavirus and other bad stuff, provided that the solution you use is at least 70 percent rubbing alcohol and you leave it on the surface you are cleaning for 30 seconds, then wipe off. So here’s my Four Thieves recipe, to be used with alcohol and water if you are trying to murder any potential killers. The recipe is based on eight ounces of cleaner.       Kate’s Four Thieves Blend       5 drops of clove essential oil      5 drops of rosemary essential oil      5 drops thyme essential oil      10 drops orange essential oil First, put all of the oils into the spray bottle you want to use. Then add the rubbing alcohol—about a quarter cup. Not only will the alcohol kill lots of bad stuff, it’ll help emulsify the oils so they are less oily. Then add the water until full. Shake before each use, and wipe off after 30 seconds. Do check to see if the oils stain on an inconspicuous spot before using. There you go, a Four Thieves formula that won’t quite steal away with the worst of the yuck in the house on its own, but does give you a good story. I bet Cinderella would like it. 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