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Whispers of wind stirred echoes of the past and scattered thoughts of a different time and place through her mind... ~ A. Bergloff In nature, it is the wind that brings in storms, and it is also the wind that clears them away. Wind brings change, and there is beauty in the idea that through the worst storm, the wind will come and usher in the clear blue skies afterwards. This month, The Fairy Tale Magazine is presenting four stories and four poems in the third issue in our series of "weather-works" for 2022 that explore some element of weather - from rain to wind to snow and beyond. So, please enjoy, and as always dear readers... Stay enchanted! - Kate, Amanda, and Kelly "The East Wind listens for the ghosts of last year's sadness..." Windy Season Eve Morton Hear your heart stop in an ocean of silence... The Queen's Temple Alexander Etheridge She could speak with the spirits of the dead during heavy rains... The Stone Sister Betty Stanton All forest adventures should respect nature... Lost and Found in the Rain Alicia Hilton "I am a weather witch, and I would reward each of you with a boon..." Seasonal Affliction Robert Allen Lupton Elf tears do not suffice... Climate Change TS S. Fulk "Who is with you in your storm..." The Shadow Prince Susan K. H. Newman We fly together, up into the light... Light Bird, Shadow Bird Jason P. Burnham MUSIC Sharing an enchanting favorite to accompany this issue: ALL COPYRIGHT to the written works in this issue belong to the individual authors. The Fairy Tale Magazine Editor-in-Chief ~ Kate Wolford Art Director ~ Amanda Bergloff Special Projects Writer ~ Kelly Jarvis Cover Illustration ~ Frank Dicksee Graphics ~ Amanda Bergloff

The Golden Age of Illustration is a term applied to a time period (1880s - 1920s) of unprecedented excellence in book and magazine illustrations by artists in Europe and America. Advances in technology at the time allowed for accurate and inexpensive reproductions of their art, which allowed quality books to be available to the voracious public demand for new graphic art. When many people think of the Golden Age of Illustration, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and other male artists come to mind, but there were also female artists that excelled during this time. Margaret Evans Price was one such artist that produced magical work, so learn a bit more about her and her art below... Margaret Evans Price (1888 - 1973) was an American children's book illustrator and author, but did you know that she was a co-founder of Fisher Price, one of the world's most popular toy manufacturers? Margaret was interested in art from a young age and when she was twelve, she sold her first illustrated story to the Boston Journal. She received a formal art education in Boston at the Boston Academy of Fine Arts, then moved to New York City for freelance illustration work. There, she worked for publications like Harper & Brothers, Rand McNally, and Stecher Lithography creating illustrations for children's books of fairy tales and myths. But illustration work was not her only career path as in 1930, along with her husband, Irving L. Price, Helen Schelle, and Herman J. Fisher, Margaret co-founded the Fisher-Price toy company that still exists today. She was the first Art Director of Fisher-Price where she designed push-pull toys based on characters from her children's books. Margaret continued to exhibit her art in national galleries in the U.S. after the formation of Fisher-Price. Her art was not only published in children's books, but also in Nature Magazine, The Women's Home Companion, and Pictorial Review. A permanent collection of her works are housed at the New York Historical Society. Margaret's simple, graphic style, combined with her beautiful compositions, makes her art enchanting for children and adults. Check out her work below: From Once Upon a Time - A Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921 From Enchantment Tales for Children, 1926 From A Child's Book of Myths, 1929 From Once Upon a Time - A Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921 From Off to Bed, 1920 Cinderella & Her Godmother, 1939 From Once Upon a Time - A Book of Old-Time Fairy Tales, 1921 The Land of Nod, 1916 The Old Woman & Her Pig, 1928 From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926 On the Road to Storyland, 1926 From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926 Beauty & The Beast, 1921 Little Red Riding Hood & The Wolf, 1921 From A Child's Book of Myths, 1926 And if you'd like to read a full children's book that Price illustrated, you can find The Troubles of Biddy HERE Enchanted Conversation's contributing editor, Amanda Bergloff, writes modern fairy tales and speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in various anthologies, including Frozen Fairy Tales, After the Happily Ever After, and Uncommon Pet Tales. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaBergloff Join her every Tuesday on Twitter for #FairyTaleTuesday to share what you love about fairy tales, folktales, and myths. Also, if you like sharing your #vss fairy tales on Twitter, follow @fairytaleflash and use #FairyTaleFlash so we can retweet! Cover: Amanda Bergloff

Editor's Note: Today's Poetry Showcase is a summer jewel of a poem originally published in 2016. Enjoy! The Summer Fairy wears a sea-green bikini under a diaphanous yellow tunic and shiny flit-flops on her feet. Her wings look like bright, intricately patterned Japanese paper lanterns. She has a small fan at the back of her neck that magically whirs to life when it gets very hot. The Summer Fairy’s eyes are the blue of a chlorinated swimming pool in August; her voice sounds like the boom and rushing spatter of a July thunder storm. The Summer Fairy can sometimes be glimpsed in the floating dark spots you see after staring at the sun too long. Because she is the best swimmer of all the fairies, you might also catch sight of her through the glaze of sunlit water on your face as you break the surface from diving. The Summer Fairy enchants adults into taking extra vacation days and makes children forget everything they learned in school that year. In the city, she goes to picnics in parks and parties on apartment rooftops where she clings to swizzle sticks and the little paper umbrellas in drinks and snacks on dips with baby carrots, buzzing over them like a firefly. Afterward, the hostess will wonder why she ran out of appetizers when she made sure to buy extra. Often the Summer Fairy is drawn by the scents from street fair booths that sell magical oils and incense. Then she’ll help the Tarot card readers by whispering secrets to them about their clients. She’ll make vegans want to eat greasy sausage and peppers and corn dogs. Her hair becomes woven with blue and pink wisps of spun sugar as she whirls around for a fun ride in the cotton candy machine. If you win at the street fair toss games or wheels of fortune, it’s because she likes you, and wants you to have a large sparkly stuffed unicorn. If you always lose, try leaving her some funnel cake and a vanilla milkshake on your kitchen floor by moonlight. The Summer Fairy answers those anonymous ads on Craigslist posted by people who have fallen in love with an attractive stranger glimpsed once while commuting. Usually, it's her they’ve seen, and when they meet again, she whisks the unsuspecting, besotted humans off to Fairyland, never to be seen till many seasons later. She’ll deposit them, spent but happy, like empty soda cans on the nearest cold beach in the fall. Lorraine Schein is a New York writer. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Mad Scientist Journal, Gigantic Worlds, Aphrodite Terra, and the anthologies Drawn to Marvel, Phantom Drift, and Alice Redux. Detail from Alphonse Mucha painting.

Hello Enchanted Friends: I’m busy picking stories and poems for the next issue, and with that in mind, I want to let you know that the August issue will be a small one. We will then go on hiatus in terms of buying and publishing new work through the end of the current year. That means submission windows will not be open again for publication in 2022. We are doing this to allow us to save money and time for the new publication we are launching in 2023! This is a long post, but please read the whole thing. I hope you’ll like what I’m saying here. Here are some of the big changes: We have a gorgeous new site thanks to Amanda Bergloff, Art Director and all-around-site genius. Our theme for 2023 is LOVE, with a special emphasis on romance. There will be two reading periods for next year’s submissions. I haven’t nailed down the dates exactly, yet, but I’m thinking that the first will be from early December of this year through mid-January, 2023. The second will probably be from the beginning of next May through mid-June. I’ll announce them formally in the next couple of months. We are publishing four issues next year. We will still be paying $50 per work (and probably buy around 30 total works next year), but I am going to allow a wider range for length, because some writers would rather be paid less per word and tell a longer story. That has been a consistent concern for many writers for years when they submit to us. The four issues next year will be available in a splendid digital magazine form from the platform ISSUU. The issues will be filled with art, poetry, short stories and “The Best of” from years past. (Best of writers will be contacted and have a new contract when we do that, and can refuse to participate.) At the end of the year, we will publish a print yearbook for 2023. That means that stories and poems (including “The Best of”) published digitally from 2023 will be on actual paper! At last! We will formally be doing business as “The Enchanted Press,” starting Jan. 1, 2023. We will also be a nonprofit. That means that what we earn has to significantly go to the health and welfare of the business, and that’s how I’d like to run things. Our financial statements will have to be filed with the state of Indiana starting in January, because we will have to be transparent. The other reason why we are going nonprofit is that we are going behind a paywall starting in January, and I hope that knowing the magazine is run as a nonprofit will encourage people to pay the low subscription rate per year. I haven’t decided how much the subscriptions will be, but they will not be high cost, I promise. Yes, you will be able to buy single digital issues, but the value of a yearly subscription will be higher. The yearbook will be sold separately. We are going behind the paywall so the magazine can continue. It’s that simple. With the stock market in a mess, inflation on the rise, and my husband and I approaching our retirement years, I have to find a way to keep the magazine going and at least have it break even. But we hope to do so much more. If enough people subscribe and become patrons, we can become a small-time book publisher of anthologies and poetry chapbooks. We dream of making The Enchanted Press a small but very real player in the fairy-tale/magic realism segment of the book market. To that end, in addition to subscriptions, we’ll be offering memberships at different levels to help support the site, and we’ll be selling merchandise on the site. We will not be using Patreon—and that campaign was suspended at the beginning and of this month—but will have our own pledge system that cuts the cost of Patreon out. We hope the added value we offer next year will encourage people to subscribe and buy memberships that will allow The Enchanted Press to expand. Next to last: There will be a spectacular serialized novel for subscribers in 2023, and I couldn’t be prouder! I’ll be dropping more hints in the future, but it’s by Lissa Sloan, one of my favorite writers. (That’s in addition to all the great work the very talented Kelly Jarvis, Contributing Editor, will be doing for the magazine.) Finally, Enchanted Conversation has officially become The Fairy Tale Magazine. To be honest, I got tired of having to write out Enchanted Conversation a long time ago, and I want the publication to reflect fairytalemagazine.com. The new site will reflect the name change. That’s all! Feel free to comment below or email me at katewolford1@gmail.com. Yours in Enchantment, Kate Wolford

Check out Kate's fabulous fairy tale finds that you can enjoy, too! This week's pick: AN OUTRAGEOUS TREAT! I try to keep my picks affordable, but every once in a while, I find something so ridiculously fun, I go for it. Today, that’s “The Grand Chateau” gift box. Yep, it’s a box that holds a gift box and it’ll set you back about $125. I know, $125 is just too much, but this confection of card stock, glitter, crystals, and a chandelier—and that’s only part of the list—is so in your face frou-frou Marie Antoinette, that I simply have to share it. This beautiful confection opens the doors of the paper chateau (the exterior is beautifully line drawn) complete with a paper doll queen and gold medallions giving a lot of the decor. It’s too much, but it is delightfully rendered. It would be perfect for a little person who wants tosee where Cinderella lives after the happily ever after or for tucking a special gift like jewelry or concert tickets inside for a grownup who likes things on the fancy side. Unfortunately, because of Etsy shareability rules, I can’t do more than give you the link to the chateau, but the picture today is of a terrific Cinderella’s Pumpkin Coach box, which our heroine can ride in to and from the chateau. Kind of a twofer. Both are from Gilda’s Curated Designs. Stay enchanted! Kate See you next week!

Welcome to EC's October Witch Issue! Wild and perfect, they belonged to the night with their hair flowing around them and their song of moonlight and magic that turned the midnight hour into something new and strange. ~ A. Bergloff They are shadow and light. Dust and fire. Earth mothers and formidable foes. Reflections of the past and mysterious visions of the future. They are the ones who live at the edge of our vision and beckon us to follow them into their arcane world of earth and bone. They are witches, and EC is featuring them with some enchanting tales for the month of October. So please enjoy our Halloween contest winning story, the honorable mention tale and a poem, along with some other witchy treats from EC's archives below, and as always, dear readers... Stay enchanted! - Kate, Amanda, Molly, and Kelly First Place Mike Neis Honorable Mention Judy Lunsford A Wishing Spell Kelly Jarvis MUSIC Sharing one of our magical favorites to accompany this issue: ALL COPYRIGHT to the written works in this issue belong to the individual authors. The Fairy Tale Magazine Editor-in-Chief ~ Kate Wolford Art Director ~ Amanda Bergloff Special Projects Writer ~ Kelly Jarvis Graphics ~ Amanda Bergloff

Editor’s note: It’s not often that EC gets a submission that includes the work of a professional artist and writer like Lauren Mills. That’s right. The adorable image, “Berry Harvest,” that goes with this delightful and unexpected poem is also by Lauren. You’re going to love this! A fever led the witch to bed, Too weak to find a cure. Her ragged breath, her aching head, No more could she endure. A healer she had been to all Who dared to seek the crone; But none would heed a witch’s call She’d face her end alone. At dusk she spied a little light Float by her garden wall. She fancied that a fairy might Be tucked inside, quite small. She rose and stumbled out her door To see what might be there, Then crawled across the leafy floor With no one there to care. Then, one by one, she watched them come From out of mist and dew. Her heart like rapid wings did hum To glimpse them as they flew. Their hair like tufts of milkweed down Was lifted by the breeze. Each gossamer and silky gown As sheer as wings of bees. They sang and played a lively reel. Those dainty feet did dance Upon the tufted chamomile, A golden-fairy prance. With fragrance as a sweet caress Into a dream serene, Her eyes half closed in drowsy bliss; She saw the strangest scene. A tiny, wounded mouse was laid Across the blossomed-bed. A mossy pillow, fairy-made, Was set beneath his head. One wrapped him in a petal shawl. One kissed his tiny cheek. With thorn removed, he stood up tall, And thanked them with a squeak. The next to come was old brown toad. They set his broken toe. His gratitude he shyly showed By croaking rather low. At last there came a chickadee, Her feathers not quite right. The fairies worked so carefully To sew them back, snug tight. And just when she began to think Of taking slumber there The fairies turned and with a wink Wove flowers in her hair. What happened next, she could not say; The tunes began to fade. By dawn’s first light they flew away. She hobbled from the glade. When she awoke upon her bed, The dew upon the lawn, With fragrant herbs around her head- Her fever? It was gone! *** Bio: Lauren A. Mills has been a visiting art professor at the University of Hartford in Connecticut and Hollins University in Virginia. She is the author and illustrator of several books for children including, The Rag Coat, The Dog Prince, Tatterhood and the Hobgoblins, and Fairy Wings which she co-illustrated with her husband, Dennis Nolan, and which won the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) Golden Kite Award. She and her husband have a grown daughter. They live with their Italian Greyhound, Ollie, in Western Massachusetts at their homestead called Faun Hollow. Lauren, a self-proclaimed Hedge Witch, grows herbs that go into her Faerie Botanica of healing teas and body care products that she makes for her family and friends.

The wind and the waves echoed her heart- constant and pure. The storm was her soul- wild and untamed... ~ A. Bergloff There is a music to storms. They are compositions that sweep over us and surprise us with their uncontrolled beauty. The wild unpredictability of storms teach us to respect the fury of nature while understanding that we are not always in control of our fates, yet we can face the storm and defy it. In this issue, we have collected four stories and four poems that explore some element of weather, from rain to wind to snow and beyond. So, please enjoy this first in our series of "weather-works" for 2022, and as always, dear readers... Stay enchanted! - Kate, Amanda and Kelly Heavy rain is dragon rain... The Water Dragons Lorraine Schein "Remember, your wits are your true magic.." The Wolf & The Wind James Dodds Wings of spun sugar, wrapped up in paper: a gift from the god.. Wings Jordan Hirsch Once a girl was born with a heart made of diamond - her skin was frosted glass.. A Heart of Diamond Rachel Nussbaum Impressive clouds race toward me sweeping up my senses... The Wizard & The Wiser Ryan E. Holman "If you wish to heal your maiden's heart, you must prove yourself its match in devotion..." The Bird From Faraway Megan Baffoe You flew beyond the borders of the World, guided only by the compass of your Heart... Too Late or Never Stephanie Parent The old tale told that the first 8 drops of water of the New Year, captured in a vial, could save them .. That Rains May Come Helen Liptak MUSIC Sharing an enchanting and atmospheric rain-inspired favorite to accompany this issue ALL COPYRIGHT to the written works in this issue belong to the individual authors. The Fairy Tale Magazine Editor-in-Chief ~ Kate Wolford Art Director ~ Amanda Bergloff Special Projects Writer ~ Kelly Jarvis Cover Illustration ~ Arthur Rackham Graphics ~ Amanda Bergloff

There once was a time when birds talked as well as sang, wells granted wishes, and rainbows spied out pots of elven gold. In that time, magic, both great and small, was commonplace among mortals adept enough to believe, understand and use it. One such person, a woman named Phaedra, dwelt at the edge of the woods, just past the tilled fields of the village, in a cozy cottage nestled under a grove of ancient trees. The villagers sought Phaedra out for cures, love potions, warding charms and her mastery of “the sight.” Phaedra’s mother was ailing. Phaedra packed a basket of food and remedies, some magical, some simple herbs. Turning to her child, she said, “Daughter, take this to your grandmother as quick as ever you can.” Her daughter, Morgan, wise beyond her ten years, snatched her scarlet cloak and hood from the hook. “Yes, mama.” As she turned to go, Phaedra pressed a small whistle into her hand. “In case of trouble, use this,” she commanded. “But remember, your wits are your true magic.” Her daughter nodded. She stepped out onto the stoop, surveyed the woods surrounding the path and set out at a trot. Her mother watched the forest shadows reach after the girl, dark forms that melted back into the woods as the girl hastened past. Morgan paused for breath where the path forked three ways. As she pondered her choice, a big wolf sauntered up. “Lost, are you?” he asked. Grinning, he padded around the girl in an ever-shrinking circle. Morgan fumbled about in her basket. The wolf stopped directly in front of her, his hungry yellow eyes all a-glow. The girl held up a morsel of meat long enough for the wolf to get a sniff, then tossed it into the air. The wolf leapt up and snap! went his jaws. Morgan pulled another tidbit out of the basket, flinging it even higher. The wolf eagerly devoured this one too. But the clever girl had fed him one of her mother’s poultice ingredients: a bundle of shredded horseradish root! The bad wolf’s eyes and nose gushed rivers. He howled in pain and dashed away, desperately seeking water. Morgan raced up the middle path. As she scampered, her hood flew back, revealing golden curls that sparkled in the sunlight. Presently she came across a little house with a thatched roof. The door stood wide open. Morgan slipped inside, quickly bolting the door after her. She whirled around to find… an empty room. No one was home. Three chairs huddled around the fireplace. Three beds stood under the back window. And three bowls of warm porridge rested on the table, issuing steam that shimmered in the air. As Morgan leaned over to sniff the porridge, the door rattled violently against the bolt. Outside, the wolf snarled, “Little girl, little girl, let me in, let me in!” Morgan’s sudden fright turned to anger. She marched to the door and firmly said, “No! You are a bad wolf! Not a tooth, not a whisker, not even a hair of yours shall enter this house.” The wolf gnashed his large teeth in rage. “Little girl,” he growled. “I can blow the leaves off the trees. I can blow the tufts off dandelions from a mile away. I will blow this door down and then gobble you up in three big bites!” He marched ten paces back from the door and began to huff and to puff. As the wolf raged outside, Morgan put her mother’s whistle to her lips. She waited until a high, keening wind buffeted the door. It shook against its hinges and the bolt quivered sharply in the bolt-hole. Taking a deep breath, Morgan blew gently on the whistle. Out of nowhere, a counter-wind smothered the wolf’s effort. She heard him grunt with surprise. Here’s a surprise, she thought. She tooted on the whistle and a sharp gust knocked the wolf head over heels. He yelped as his head struck a rock. Twice more the wolf attacked and twice more the girl beat him back. The third time, she spun in a circle, blowing the whistle as hard as she could. A whirlwind descended on the wolf, picking him up and flinging him against a tree. Morgan opened the door and peered out. The big wolf lay face down, groaning and gasping for breath. “Oh, Mr. Wolf!” she called. “You won’t be dining on me today, but there is some nice porridge here you might enjoy.” She skipped on up the path until she was out of sight. Wanting to see what the wolf did next, she ducked into the forest and crept back to the little house. Not feeling at all big or bad, the wolf crawled into the cabin. Famished, he gulped down the porridge, licking the bowls clean. Exhausted, with a full stomach, he curled up on the biggest bed and fell fast asleep. The girl was about to continue on to Grandmother’s house when three enormous shadows loomed across the path. She shrank back and fearfully watched a family of grouchy bears lumber past. Papa Bear grumbled about how hungry he was. Baby Bear couldn’t stop whining. Mama Bear cuffed Baby Bear and gritted her teeth at Papa Bear. Snarling at each other, the bears shoved through the door. Silence fell as they gazed around their home. Crouched outside the window, Morgan felt their anger spiral up until Mama Bear saw the muddy wolf on her clean bedsheets and shrieked, “You filthy beast!” The hungry bears fell on the wolf and gobbled him up. Shortly thereafter, Morgan let herself into her grandmother’s house. There, on the loom, was a half-finished love blanket, with the letters M O R already woven in. Grandmother sat up in bed and grinned at her daughter’s daughter. “Oh Grandmother, what a big smile you have!” said Morgan. James Dodds has been published in 2100: A Health Odyssey and The Avenue magazine. He bides his time on a quiet plot of land just west of Spokane, Washington. He collects original Oz books and never wavers in his search for the perfect fried chicken recipe. Cover Image: John Everett Millais Cover Design: Amanda Bergloff Twitter @AmandaBergloff Instagram: amandabergloff

(I-Ching, Hexagram 1, Yang--Immersed Dragon) "Heavy rain is dragon rain," the Chinese say. It’s not pouring cats and dogs—it’s pouring dragons today. Gripping the clouds with their black claws, their tails lash and rumble against the gray sky, releasing silver-scaled streams. When I click open my umbrella, their fiery breath pours lightning down, burning a ragged hole where the glistening rain pours through. My hair streams with rivulets like the dragons’ manes as they race above me, a fleet of pelting beasts. O to be a rain dragon, exultant in my power! Under the cleansing torrents of this wild maelstrom, I forget being human and its sorrows, I forget everything but my dragon power-- the power to heal, burst and flood away rigid paradigms. Heaven is my ocean. I growl, beat my wings, swerve up past the moon and join my clan snaking through the heavens. An aerial flotilla immersed in waves of lizard-green, glint-gold sunlight, polyp-red coral, lagoon-turquoise, all glorious in the aquatic sky, my thunder of dragons! Lorraine Schein is a New York writer. Her work has appeared in VICE Terraform, Strange Horizons, and Mermaids Monthly, and in the anthology, Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana del Rey & Sylvia Plath.The Futurist’s Mistress, her poetry book, is available from Mayapple Press:www.mayapplepress.com Cover Image: Hokusai Cover Design: Amanda Bergloff Twitter @AmandaBergloff - Instagram: amandabergloff

Check out Kate's fabulous fairy tale finds that you can enjoy, too! This week's pick: THE BLACK FORAGER Here’s the first of what I hope will be many of “Kate’s Picks.” I was raised to shop and to consume with care and intuition (thanks Mom!), and I greatly enjoy sharing my finds. In fact, picking stories and poems and publishing them is a lot like shopping for an important meal. All of the ingredients must be chosen to work both individually and as a whole. As for food, my first official pick is the “Black Forager,” a.k.a., Alexis Nikole. This 2022 James Beard Award winner for social media influence has TikTok, Instagram and Twitter accounts—and are they ever fun and informative. Inspired by her African and indigenous roots, the Black Forager, using incredibly peppy and charmingly informative videos, teaches fans how to forage for edible foods wherever they find themselves. I’ve seen her forage, cook and eat something improbable in a one minute video. And I’ve laughed while watching her do it. For instance, look up her “daylily pickles.” She teaches you how to find the “ditch lily” buds, and how to pickle them, and of course, eat them. As a pickle fiend, they look scrumptious to me. But there are other little videos on issues like the various zoning laws that might affect the forager. As NPR reports, “For those not familiar with the term, Nelson says foraging is essentially ‘a very fun way to say, I eat plants that do not belong to me and I teach other people how to do the same thing.’” Even with all the fun, the serious issues get addressed. If you’re wondering what foraging has to do with a fairy tale site, I’ll tell you: Just how do you think all of those fairy tale protagonists sustain themselves over the long, long journeys they often have to take? Do you think they never forage for blackberries like my sisters and I did back in the ‘60s and ‘70s? Or scarfed up onion grass like my grandson does? Even Hansel and Gretel were able to find a few berries. “Foraging,” “folklore,” and “fairy tales” all start with “F” and that’s just one connection. As for Black and indigenous Americans, of course they would have supplemented their regular diet with foraging. So did white people. Foraging is a thing humans do, period. All over the world. We always have and we always will, and it’s especially beautiful to see Alexis Nikole tapping into her own roots. Nowadays, fancy restaurants take city people on foraging tours, and it’s a hot food trend. But I can’t imagine anyone delivering foraging lessons with more zeal and humor than Alexis Nikole. With her fabulous glasses, hair accessories and perfect lip color, she’s a bright spirit, delivering what you need to know with laughs, bouncy filming, and many closeups. There’s also a whole lot of wisdom and science and safety warnings delivered painlessly. Indeed, the Black Forager’s frequent video signoff is perhaps the funniest, most folkloric thing she could say: “Happy snacking. Don’t die!” I’ve linked a YouTube video on dandelions HERE, but the Black Forager is easiest to find on: TikTok @alexisnikole And Instagram @blackforager You can also find her on Twitter @blackforager Join the millions of fans who already love the Black Forager. Some bandwagons are worth jumping on and this is one of them. See you next week!

Editor's Note: Today's essay, by Priya Sridhar, takes Hans Christian Andersen's tale of "The Little Match Girl," and looks at it through a modern literary interpretation. Enjoy! Modern takes on classic fairy tales can prove fascinating when they subvert the original narrative. Whether it's differing values, updated understanding of gender and economics, and plain wanting to add a new message, you can always find a new spin on older tales. Hans Christian-Andersen (HCA) earned fame in Denmark for his fairy tales. While a few had happy endings, the more infamous ones went to the downer conclusions. HCA believed that true love was hard to find and that sometimes death is the only happiness someone can find in their quest for dignity, or for a warm bed at night. Then modern writers like Terry Pratchett would lovingly mock this, and affirm that everyone may live, getting some comfort. Matches In The Snow "The Little Match Girl" is one of the most depressing HCA tales, and that is saying something. Even the first line warns us about the depression to come: "It was so freezing." We see the title character attempt to sell matches during a cold wintry night. She has a few coverings, and while she left the house with oversized slippers, a boy stole one of them and a horse carriage accidentally knocked off the other. If she doesn't sell any matches, then her father will beat her for bringing no coins home. Rather than go home after no customer comes to help, the girl crouches between two sumptuous houses and starts lighting matches to keep warm. They show her visions of loveliness to help her cope with the cold. People ignore her while going about their commute to work, or doing the shopping. As the night gets cold, the matches show different scenes: warmth from a stove, a good Christmas meal, and a shooting star. When she sees her grandmother in heaven, the girl asks for her grandmother to take her there. HCA was not in a happy state of mind when he wrote this. You can tell that he knew how to get into the mindset of someone facing a bitter cold in winter. Hogfather Says No To This Ending In Discworld, the fantasy parody series by the late Terry Pratchett, the little match girl story plays out during a segment in both the novel and television special Hogfather. Albert and Death encounter her still body in the snow, while Death is filling in for the world's Santa Claus, the Hogfather. Death says that a little girl should not freeze in the night. He says that it is not fair, and this is a chance to right a wrong. Albert, a retired wizard, and overall cynic, tells Death that it's how the winter stories go. Going against the status quo should find disruption. Everyone romanticizes a girl freezing to death in the snow while thanking their stars that it wasn't them. Normal folks have enough food and coal to get through the night and if they don't, then at least they aren't a child freezing in the snow. They can tell stories to make up for the drafty holes in the wall. If Death weren't the Hogfather, and if not for events in previous books, he would have accepted this state of affairs. Death is not fair, and he comes for everyone. An earlier book had him chide an apprentice for saving a princess from a pre-appointed assassination, complete with smacking him on the face for insubordination. But here, Death says no. He gives life, rather than reaps it. The match girl is not a fictional character, but an actual child that he can carry in the snow. You may not see this in the film because it would have broken the budget, but the "affronted" angels show up to collect the match girl's soul and take her to heaven. Albert responds by tossing snowballs at them so they will go away. Even though Albert tells Death to let the story play out as is, he listens to his master. Unlike the original fairy tale, we see the angels attempt to complete the tale. Death asked why didn’t they come earlier, to give the child a hot drink and a blanket. He has a point and shows that he puts his money where his mouth is by picking up the child and asking several constables to give her a place to sleep for the night, and a meal. Angels are supposed to be protectors. Yet they did not protect an innocent kid. Why is it important that Albert toss snowballs at the angels? He shows them how humans feel about the cold, and how an object traditionally used for child's play can prove annoying and disruptive to a formal occasion. This is not a time to be civil, but to show anger. Add A Level Of Disruption Sometimes we cannot accept children freezing in the snow. We can't tell a crying kid, "There are starving children in Somalia, cheer up." You can't let the little match girl serve as your cautionary tale against parental abuse and thieves that steal slippers from the vulnerable. Pick up that child if you can, and change the story. Show that happiness is possible, even if difficult to reach. Instead of waiting for the angels, shoo them away, and use your powers for a new ending. Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years, and counting. Capstone published the Powered series, and Alban Lake published her works, Carousel and Neo-Mecha Mayhem. Priya lives in Miami, Florida with her family. Illustration: The Little Match Girl by Arthur Rackham