Fairy Tales for Writers
© Lawrence Schimel
A Midsummer Night Press (June 2007)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794308-0-1
ISBN-10: 0-9794208-0-6
Reviewed by Brenda Sutton

Author and editor Lawrence Schimel is an experienced Sherpa from the mysterious Shambhala of publishing. His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals — including The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Physics Today, and in more than 140 anthologies. He's been there; he knows.

In his newest work, Fairy Tales for Writers, Schimel recounts the frustrations, recasts the villains and heroes, and restages the battles many writers face. Each chapter is a poem shuttling the writer's weft through fairy tale tapestries. Any creative person will nod in acknowledgement while reading this book, but especially writers who've struggled like self-imprisoned Rapunzels. Yes, the writing life is daunting. Wolves and princes lurk out there in the darkness, and it's difficult to know which is which. The wicked queen still offers poisoned apples to young innocents, but seen through Schimel's eyes she's a jealous workshop critic armed with deadly remarks. If an author can't sleep it's because some editor has placed diacritical peas under the manuscript mattress. The clock strikes midnight, and a publisher searches for that promising anonymous writer who has vanished into the crowd of mediocrity at a reading.

This is a tiny, slender volume — thirteen oh-so-brief tales — that leaves the reader hungry for more stories, more enlightenment. Fairy Tales for Writers won't even appear on store book shelves until June 2007, but I'm requesting a pre-order from my local shopkeeper. And I've added it to the Mythic Imagination website's Recommended Reading/Listening/Watching List to make it easier for you to do the same. Actually, I think that I'll order several copies, since I anticipate giving this book, like a bandage on a scraped knee, to several of my writer friends.

Schimel has given permission for Mythic Passages to reprint some of these poems for you...as soon as the book is published. Click here and enjoy "Sleeping Beauty".

Lawrence Schimel is an author and anthologist, working in many different genres and forms. His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals — including The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, The Boston Phoenix, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Physics Today, and others — and in more than 140 anthologies including The Random House Book of Science Fiction Stories, Best Gay Erotica 1997 and 1998, The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales, Black Thorn, White Rose, The Sandman Book of Dreams, Weird Tales from Shakespeare, Gay Love Poetry, and The Random House Treasury of Light Verse. He is a regular lecturer at Princeton University, Yale University, Brown University, Rutgers University, and Wayne State University. His most recent work, Fairy Tales for Writers, will be released in June 2007.

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