Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
This is the fourth Tachyon collection of themed fantasy stories with backmatter and poems to go with each story. This one is all love stories that are full of magic and mystery and—of course—love. The stories had been published in other collections of mine, anthologies other people put together, and literary and sf magazines, but this is the first time they are all together by theme.
The third of my series of short stories (and poems in the back matter) collections is MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, for Tachyon Books. It follows the arc of the other two. But these are my dark stories. Who knew I had done so many! As I looked through what I had…
I was in my final year of college when the Rocky and Bullwinkle fractured fairy tale show was on so never watched it. (And my dorm had no tv.) The next year, living in New York City in 1960, working as an editor, again no television. By 1962 I was selling my own picture books and as far as I knew, invented my own kind of fractured fairy tales.
My first book of short stories with Tachyon, a small San Francisco Press. (Think The Little Engine That Could because everyone there does double and triple duty—with full heart!) These fantasy stories are all about fantasy worlds (Wonderland, Neverland, Oz, Camelot)
Andrew Fusek Peters of Shropshire, England, the well-known young (but VERY tall) British poet for children, emailed me and asked if I would be interested in working on an anthology of poems about a child’s day with him. He would choose the British poets and me the Americans. He’d already
So Patrick Nielsen Hayden, one of my Tor editors, called me up and said, “Hey, you have a barn, let’s put on a play.” Sort of. What he really said was, “Would you be interested in working with me on a Year’s Best Sf/fantasy collection for teens?” And my answer was, “You mean it hasn’t been done before?” Though I already knew that. And so the adventure began.
This book of mermen stories may have the longest and most difficult gestation of any book I have ever done. It began almost 30 years ago when my friend Shulamith Oppenheim and I wrote a proposal for a children’s book called
Heidi and I located forty mother/daughter folk tales from around the world, organized them, and then held long conversations about the stories. The stories range from well-known “Snow White” and “Cinderella” to lesser known tales from Portugal, Spain, Sudan,
Retellings of classic folk stories about fairies–from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, Brittany, Persia, South Africa etc. I had long wanted to do such a volume, and had presented the idea to many editors, but was always turned down. Then after I’d done the
An anthology of folk tales in which the heroes are all older or elderly. My contribution to the AARP set. (Of which I am a member in good standing.) I was surprised that there had never been any such volume before. A long