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On the Unsuitability of Fairytales for ChildrenThe following essay will appear as an Appendix to the sequel of my fantasy novel, Her Unwelcome Inheritance, which is available for Nook and Kindle.

On the Supposed Unsuitability of Fairytales for Children

Shortly after supporting a local library event promoting fairytale literature, the folklore department at Lightfoot College received an animated communication from a very concerned mother regarding, in short, the "unsuitability of fairytales for children."

As this seems to be a rather widespread idea (I might mention the Daily Telegraph article of February 12, 2012) as well as an oddly long-lived one, I take the liberty of pu

Jadis (excerpt)Excerpted from my book Her Unwelcome Inheritance, a story about Faerie, going off to school, family tensions, and what to do when people you respect reveal that they believe in something absurd and impossible.

She was burning
Burning behind walls of ice

Grey was on her lips, on her bare throat, on her exposed arms. Her eyes were glassy, the pupils fallen as if grown weary of staring straight ahead, and had, as the centuries passed, slid imperceptibly downward.

Her hands rested in her lap, grey with grey nails. Nothing set her apart from the hundreds on hundreds of other figures sitting in that crowded room, grey and still, clad in clothes

Nathan Turner Nathan Turner, aged thirty, was a modest earner, if nothing other. Son of no

father and a flighty mother, and raised in most part by troubled brothers, he was never

one to put his trust in those upon whom the dust of age had scarcely settled. For a time,

he had meddled, even peddled, looking for the light in his own eyes. But never enough was

it, just as well, in his own mind, for the brand of fire which he desired was the sort a

man might chase until he dies, and even at the gates of Hell, never find.

But one cool evening in July, he chanced to meet - just walking by - a woman with

an empty stroller. "Empty stroller?" he asked at on

Death of an ImmigrantParakeets have no use for the ferryman.

I've seen them die feet furled and sails flapping,
Though they cannot travel, held in my hand;
If I let them, they would crash among the furniture and still
Their wings would frantically beat. I guess it is a stroke.

They are unsoothed by the touch of my fingers
Their eyes do not recognize me, they have seen –
I cannot say. Some beacon
That to us must lose all meaning during the daily flood of Lethe –
A light from Ellis Island.

Towards it they fling themselves, wild once again,
Unaware they are sharing moments that
To me are precious; for I am cradling a sudden stranger
Who doe

In the Hollow Space Under the StairIn the hollow space under the stair
spiders breed all unaware
of an untrimmed door set in the wall
behind the paint, narrow and small.

This door opens on meadows bright –
even while the household sleeps at night –
or, perhaps, on rainy days
where water licks at stony quays,
and houses lean across canals,
and ships return from hunting whales;
or else, broaching lands of trolls,
cracks wide the face of hoary knoll.

In the pantry, by the box of bread
someone has a flashlight hid;
close by it, on upper shelves
is tucked away – a book of tales.

I say not who, I say not when
might journey to an hour's end
from the hollow spac

the trouble isi'd like life to be
quiet and lovely
like distant church-bells
chiming through snow,
muted by the smell of
an old book and the
feel of a fire warming
me into my chair, and
a mug of tea, steeping
the moment in hushed
gratitude, easily in reach.

Whale Songs of the PacificListen, the girls swallowed by whales are the ones that grow up lucky.

Listen, no one will warn you about the little boys with the magpie eyes and the fists swinging splinters of glass. No one will warn you that their smiles are sweeter than their words are sweeter than their souls are sweeter than their intentions. No one will warn you of the sheer weight of the world.

Listen, sometimes girls are fragile. Sometimes girls are frothy. Sometimes girls let boys nuzzle "I love you"s into their necks and sometimes girls drink the wine of believing them.

Listen, sometimes the boys really are sweet, and little girls' tart puckered mouths can't ta

White Rabbit PillWonderland I am swallowing you
down
Blue-white, blue-white, blue-white
Tumbling down my rabbit-hole esophagus into the flooded warren
Where swims the swiftly dissolving key to my stable growth.

Wonderland I am swallowing,
swallowing, drinkmeswallowing
But this will never do.
The words come when I call them, tu

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Her Unwelcome Inheritanceby ~MrWootton

Digital Art / Vector / Fantasy

Petra Godfellow is ready – a little nervous, but ready – to grow up and leave home.

She doesn't know the family secret...

...about the man who loved her mother, who couldn't accept that it was over...

Who's crazy enough to believe that he's the king of Faerie.

As she begins her first semester of college, Petra will have to figure out what to do when others in her family – people she respects – reveal their belief in the absurd and impossible. She'll be stalked by the supernatural, forced to navigate her own doubts as Faerie intrudes into her little college town. She'll be asked to bargain with unfriendly powers for the fate of another world. And it's not just her future that's in danger – it's her mother, her aunt, her best friend... and thousands of refugees from a centuries-old civil war in Faerie who are tired of staying in hiding...

I'm very happy to announce that my new book is out!

It is available for Nook and Kindle for just $3USD.

You can still get the book even if you don't own an e-reader: download a FREE Kindle App or Nook App for whatever you do have (computer, tablet, smartphone, etc) and read the book that way.

If you would like to read an excerpt from the story, you can do so here.

If you like the book, please help me by rating it, reviewing it, commenting on it, liking its Facebook page, sharing links about it on social media sites, etc. All exposure is good exposure! The more the book is seen, the more people will become interested in reading it.

Kind of excited here.

(cover art & design by Jill)

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*ulfus May 18, 2013 New member Student Digital Artist

Is well written and seems to be quite an interesting story, though the cover is a bit too cartoonish, might want to hire a professional.

~MrWootton Jun 10, 2013 Professional Writer

Thanks!

~WhisperingWatermelon Apr 20, 2013

Ah, hey, I'll have to see if I can get this on my brother's nook.

I don't care much for the cover art, though. It's awfully muted for such a magical story. I probably wouldn't pick the book up at all if I didn't know what it was about.
It doesn't really say anything. It's just sort of brownish. Plus the house is very ordinary. It's not frightening or quaint or inviting or anything really. And the car is the exact color of the house. This is a good way to cut back on color, but not when it's rust colored. There aren't very many rust colored cars.
Additionally, I don't think a college freshman would be wearing clothes like that. Or even cut her hair like that.
And if there was light coming into the house, the windows wouldn't look like that. Unless there were boards over the windows, but that would mean the house was uninhabited which would mean that the bushes and yard would be unkempt.
Yeah, a simple black cover with some sort of shiny text would look better.
And there's no action whatsoever. She's just kinda, "Hey, cat, what up?"
And the shading on the house is nearly disappointingly nonexistent as unicorns. Or dragons. Take your pick.
The color saturation makes me feel like 1) it just rained, 2) I am choking on humidity, 3) there are mosquitoes everywhere.
And the second set of landscaping to the right is just sort of slapped over the house. Like, I can still see the corner of the house peeking out from under it. It doesn't even have to be a picture o her and the house at all. Maybe just a decorative picture of the fairy king/queen or whatever.

But who am I? I don't even know if you're gonna use this on your actual book, or if you're just using it to advertise on DA. And I probably wouldn't even be writing this if the colors, shading, and clothing were reworked.

All things aside, it sounds like a charming book, and I am going to ask my brother if I can buy it on his nook.

~MrWootton Apr 20, 2013 Professional Writer

Thanks for the feedback... I think the cover is due for an overhaul!

*magpie-poet Jan 13, 2013

Is it available for nook? I'm not finding it at b&n.

~MrWootton Jan 13, 2013 Professional Writer

I *just* took it down from the Nook store three days ago. It'll come back online there April 10th (see my DA journal).

If you don't want to wait, you can download a Kindle app...