QSFer K.S. Trenten has an FF fairytale story in a new queer anthology book:
FAIREST:
On the eve of my sixteenth year, I’m cursed to prick my finger on spindle and fall into a hundred year sleep. This is what the witch with the snow white skin and haunting dark eyes promised me, as I lay in my cradle. I haven’t been able to get her out of my mind, since.
She haunts my dreams, steals into my quiet moments, when I think I’m alone. Everyone thinks she’s my enemy. Everyone thinks I need to be protected from her. I can’t think of her as an enemy, no matter what anyone else thinks. Who is she, truly? The only name she’s ever been given are a few, enigmatic words. The fairest of them all.
ONCE UPON A RAINBOW:
Your favorite stories from childhood have a new twist. Nine fairy tales of old with characters across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.
Morning Star by Sydney Blackburn – Five wishes; one desire.
Fairest by K.S. Trenten – What will you change into?
Gingerbread by Riza Curtis – A night out to die for.
Sleeping Beauty by A. Fae – United by true love’s kiss.
Little Match Girl by Dianne Hartsock – Falling in love with the Little Match Girl was easy, but now Christian is determined to help Dani find his family, even if doing so means he might lose him forever.
Hood’s Ride is Red by J.P. Jackson – A red car, a werewolf, and a trip to grandpa’s house – this ain’t your usual Little Red Riding Hood.
The Gingerbread Woman by Donna Jay – When Candace sets out for a weekend of solitude she gets far more than she bargained on.
White Roses by A.D. Song – A kiss to break the curse…or continue it.
Once Upon a Mattress by Mickie B. Ashling – Will Errol spend a miserable night and prove his worthiness or will Sebastian have to keep on looking?
Excerpt – Fairest
My first memory was of her dark eyes. They seemed to capture all the colors of my infant universe, even as they threatened to swallow me. Her eyes should have been terrifying, but they weren’t.
Her blood red lips moved, shaping words I could only dimly recall. My parents remembered them only too well, as did everyone else who’d gathered at the castle for my christening.
“I, too, have a gift for this child. She shall grow up, with all the beauty and promise of the dawn, but her sun will never rise.”
My mother told me she nearly swooned with terror at the look of sheer malevolence the witch gave to the sunbeams, playing about my cradle. She wanted to stop the witch from speaking, as did my father. No one could move, no matter how much they wished to. Everyone stood, still and motionless, spellbound by the witch’s gaze.
“Before the sun sets on the eve of her sixteenth year, the princess shall prick her finger on a spindle. With the first drop of her blood, a sleep will fall upon her, claiming her for a hundred years.”
My mother tried to call in another witch to remove the curse. My father burned every spindle he could find. However, nothing could lift the curse, for all their efforts. The witch had disappeared into a cloud of green smoke. No one could find her after my christening, despite many attempts to locate her. The only thing she left behind, besides her curse, was the memory of her dark eyes.
Author Bio
K.S. Trenten is the author of Fairest, a f/f fairytale within Once Upon a Rainbow, an anthology of lgbtq+ fairytales available from Nine Star Press. She’s got a Mouse Prince/Nutcracker holiday tale, Seven Tricks coming out on 11/27/17, followed by a second f/f fairytale, At Her Service in Once Upon a Rainbow 2 1/18/18. She’s currently revising Aissa and Polyxena (a m/m mythic tale of cross dressing) and Stealing Myself From Shadows (a boy who’s not a boy returns to a realm of dreams and illusions to save his beloved creator) among other projects.
Facebook | Twitter | Tumbler | Live Journal
The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration (wordpress) | The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration (blogspot)