A long time ago (about 1995), I was invited to contribute a short story for Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's short story collection. At the time, we were encouraged to write short stories dipped in sexual content for grown-ups. Ok, I thought, that sounds like fun. So I cooked up a short story with enough enjoyable sex and mostly, laughed a lot as the story "Tattercoats" emerged.
As it turned out, many of the stories in the collection were dark fairy tales, with very little love in them. A reviewer of the collection said this about the majority of the stories.
"To compensate for the whitewashing of the original tales, these authors have assembled a collection of fairy tales that are mostly shadows and darkness. Against this most frightening backdrop, the various authors have revised the old fairy tales, revealing the entire gamut of human foibles, from greed, stupidity, and self-delusion to self-hate, prejudice, and betrayal."
But wait! There was some light at the end of this dark world.
The reviewer went on to write:
"A delightful exception to this description is Midori Snyder's "Tattercoats," an adult fairy tale about putting love to the test. It is beautifully written and one of the few stories in the anthology with a happy ending. " I was pretty pleased by his remark, and it inspired me to write another story, "The Reverend's Wife," which still makes me laugh....especially when I read it aloud to my husband with a southern accent.
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Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
