When did you first decide to write a fairy tale?

The Fairy Tale form chose me, not the other way around. What I mean by that is that sometimes overhearing a word or phrase or reading a newspaper article will trigger an idea that sticks with me until I write about it. It’s as if the subject matter chooses the form it wishes to take, whether that be one of haiku, an adult short story, or a novel-length manuscript for Young Adults.

During the first gathering of Inklinks, a writers’ support and critique group that I once belonged to, a friend suggested we use a writing prompt as inspiration for composing a piece of writing to be read aloud at our next bi-weekly meeting. She described a library book she’d read entitled The Empty Box. It was an anthology of short stories compiled from among contributions made by well-known writers. We adopted that idea as our first prompt, and we had no restrictions on length, age level, or genre. You might think that sounds like “homework,” but it didn’t feel like that to me! It was fun listening to so many different takes on the same subject.

How did you make the leap from thinking of an empty box to imagining a specific one, as a plot element?

Before I fell asleep that night, my thoughts ricocheted from one idea to another: The “empty box” became an “empty shoe box” in my mind’s eye, which made me wonder what kind of shoes might have been stored in it. I immediately visualized a pair of glass slippers, suppressing a giggle so as not to wake my husband. Glass slippers, of course, led me to think of a “prince” and the possibility of “wedding gifts” in his future, which looped back to not just one empty box, but lots and lots of them! Why were they all empty? I knew I had to jot down an answer before I could get any rest, and so I did. The next day the first draft of my fairy tale practically wrote itself.

Did you write the Empty Box story to impart a particular message to the reader?

No, I didn’t. Most children are perceptive about an author’s intent, and may set a book aside if they feel a writer’s only reason for writing it is to provide moral guidance related to behavior. The book their parent chooses for them, may not always be the one they would choose for themselves. I believe a story should grow organically from beginning to end, with the main character(s) driving the plot. After reading my fairy tale in book form for the first time, I was surprised by the number of positive messages that jumped out at me. Many books for children contain a mix of fact and fiction, and I also like taking something from real life and creating a story to make the facts surrounding it more accessible, appealing or entertaining to the age group I’m hoping to reach.