Review: Fairy Tale Review!

My review of The Violet Issue of the Fairy Tale Review is up today at Green Man Review.

The Fairy Tale Review is an awesome venue for the contemporary literary fairy tale. Of The Violet Issue, I say:

"The fairy tale is not dead.

This has been proven by many authors across several genres, especially the mythic art movement until lately spearheaded by the Endicott Studio. And here, once more, the fairy tale is shown to be still a vital and formative part of many people's lives, thanks to Kate Bernheimer (well-known for Mirror Mirror on the Wall, wherein women writers explore their favorite fairy tales in essay form).

Bernheimer, with the assistance of the University of Alabama (where she currently resides, professionally), has initiated a new venue for the exploration of fairy tales old and new. She has founded The Fairy Tale Review, an annual journal currently in its third revolution, forging the way for a new crop of literary fairy tale writers.

Each edition of the Review is named for a color, evoking the Andrew Lang Fairy Books of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the third edition is The Violet Issue, the cover is understandably a violet shade. Each edition also sports the same illustration of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother standing upon the gutted body of the wolf, an image entitled "Born," by Kiki Smith." [Read the rest of the review at this link.]

As always, this review is archived at my website (or soon will be).

Hold that page!

Today's installment of Tales from the Wishing Well will be posted either this afternoon or this evening. Watch out for it!

Tales from the Wishing Well: The Brotherhood of Applied Sciences

First a note: I apologize that this installment has appeared so late in the day. Also, I went over my self-imposed word limit again. This story came in at approximately 1150 words, when I keep meaning to cap these at 750. I swear, this is an experiment in getting me to write under word limitations as well as deadlines. 0_o

Today's prompt was given to me by my oldest little brother and I'm quite sure this isn't anything like he was expecting.

Read, enjoy, tip if you're moved, and comments are welcome!

(Psst, if you're completely confused as to what this Tales from the Wishing Well project is, click here to read an explanation.)

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The Brotherhood of Applied Sciences
A Tale from the Wishing Well
by Deborah J. Brannon

Douglas tossed a coin into the well, and upon this coin was inscribed: Brothers.

The men were brilliant, marvels and masters of modern science. All the papers would say so, would hail them as the conquerors of death and enhancers of life. Or would have done, if they'd ever heard of Dr. Henry Sexton and Dr. Adam Valincourt. The papers never would hear a whisper, though, and death would continue unchecked, blithely harvesting each life in its time.

Each life, that is, except for two.

Thanks to selling off some less advanced technology, Sexton and Valincourt had extensive financial holdings, a fully automated scientific facility, and a highly paid, tightly controlled security force. They returned to this facility every 60 years (a most sensibly-devised half life, given the times), downloading themselves into carefully engineered 25-year-old bodies which aged but slowly and bore faces of fictional descendants.

Each 60 years, their ritual was the same:

Once they finished with the less flattering conventions of their regular resurrections-- coughing up fluid, staggering about, eventually attending to hygiene and dress-- they met in a small, blue-painted room featuring a single mahogany table and two wing-backed chairs. On the table waited a tray bearing a decanter of aged brandy and two crystal glasses, carefully prepared by a discreet servant with financially-controlled muteness.

They greeted each other, sat, and talked about life.

( Read the rest of the story... )