I Hate Writing to Prompts, But Just This One Time….

By Patricia Stoltey

I hate writing to prompts.

And I’ve been writing short stories for years without much luck getting published.

So when I had an opportunity to submit to an anthology of retold folk tales, in a genre I never write, I almost passed up the chance.

Then my sense of adventure kicked in…not to mention the lure of ignoring my To Do List for a few days.

I chose the old Norwegian tale of Three Billy Goats Gruff. You know the one I mean? The goats want to get over the bridge but must outsmart the troll who lives underneath?

What if the goats had been humans? And the humans were young ladies, sisters in fact? And they lived on an island with their parents, a rich although minor Norwegian king and his queen. If the demanding parents kept their daughters away from the outside world by letting that old troll guard the only road to the mainland, what would happen when the sisters made up their minds to escape? Could the three work together to develop a plan as the billy goats did? Or, being humans, would something go terribly wrong?

And that’s how I came to write “Three Sisters of Ring Island,” published in Tales of Firelight and Shadow from Double Dragon ebooks. RMFW member Alexis Brooks de Vita is the anthology editor as well as a contributor.

You can see the full table of contents and prologue on the Double Dragon website. Here’s a little hint of what you’ll find in the anthology from the inside flap:

Tales in Firelight and Shadow is a collection of short stories by well-known and fresh new writers of fantasy, speculative and science fiction, retelling folktales from many lands and cultures. Award-winning authors present challenging new twists on familiar tales: James Morrow’s museum curator and his university professor daughter discover the ultimate answer to the human condition; Mary Turzillo’s talking cat rats on a legendary illusionist; and Tenea D. Johnson’s fairies deal with the dream dolls of nightmare.

Writers testing the speculative waters with their risk-taking styles captivate and enchant us: an adventurous young professional tries out a new eatery, with disastrous results; a haunted lake binds the horrors of the slaveholding past to the land’s future; a boy steals what a Scottish fairy has no intention of parting with. A lonely girl in a beachside shack yearns for a mermaid godmother’s gifts. Shadowy stalkers haunt forests and dreams.

Emerging novelists delight us with old tales never before told like this: Jason Parent’s Salem shyster outsmarts his own self; Patricia Stoltey’s ogre is not at all what—or who—we think; Christina St. Clair’s loving wife on the ultimate spiritual quest seems to have gone horribly astray; and A.J. Maguire’s scientist alone on the moon with her husband and the man she truly loves must come up with the courage to choose if and how she will survive. We discover that fairytales and urban legends are the stuff of personal memory.

The folktales gathered and retold in Tales in Firelight and Shadow answer the oldest of our questions: “Why is my world as it is, and how can I find my way through it?” For, if folktales exorcize the pain of lessons learned over many lifetimes, then in this world of fairy, flame and chaos, enchantment—we realize with a start—is the only reality. We dream so that we may open our eyes.

Have you had a good result by stepping out of your comfort zone and writing in a new form or genre? Tell us about it.