Short Fiction and Poetry

Vivian: Short Fiction

 

I wrote the short story "Vivian" for Martin Greenberg's Robin Hood Anthology many years ago, and later, I reprinted it in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Datlow and Windling. My take on the well-known tale was to imagine the complications of a man trying to be heroic but unable to do it alone. That behind every good man, there is someone else making his success possible. So what does Robin owe to the fantastic? How does he manage between wanting to be that hero and knowing that it comes at the price of another when he becomes successful? 

 

 

Give me my bent bow in my hand, and A a broad Arrow I 'll let flee. And where this arrow is taken up, There shall my grave diggi'd  be."

 

From the "Song of Robin Hood. 

 

 

                                                    

Baba Yaga Duet: Poetry

Baba Yaga Duet. Between my daughter coming of age and and my own passing beyond the age of young fairy tale heroines, I discovered a kindred spirit in the rough and powerful figure of the Russian woodwife, Baba Yaga. So I wrote the poem "Baba Yaga" both for my daughter and as a consolation for myself, no longer so young. A few years later, while living in Costa Rica, my daughter Taiko Haessler wrote a reply, "Baba Yaga's Daughter." Both poems can be read here: