Summer Newsletter

A True Fairy Tale

My summer newsletter is out to paid subscribers! This month, you get a handmade summer booklet, a writing exercise called, “Overture Hunt + Destroy” which sounds scary I suppose, but we must fight to not write trite (I had to rhyme and I’m not sorry). You also get my first true fairy tale, a story about how I found my way back to teaching (and maybe it’s really that teaching found it’s way back to me).

Here are some excerpts:¹

“Look,” he said. She hates it when people, especially men, say “look.” Like we’re too stupid to use our five senses. Like our senses aren’t already always on high alert.

We are looking, wolf. We see you.

“I’ve been doing this for 13 years,” he told her. “You’re giving them busy work.”

The meeting ended, and he left but she stayed where she was. She felt the heat on her cheeks and ears and neck slither down to her stomach. She knew what happened next.

Flames rise like the phoenix bird. They left through her eyes, dropped on her fingers, like a baptism. The magic bird that turned to ashes, turns itself again. Her flaming tears shimmered and sparkled on her hands and she remembered that she is magic.

But magic, like words, is hard to carry. That’s because, like words, magic is supposed to be used. Use your magic; use your words.

So she did. Again and again. She ignored the wolf and like Cinderella’s fairy godmother, she took a look at what people are broken by and said, “Oh, but I think there’s something we can turn this into. I think this is just what the world needs.”

The best part? There’s no curfew for this magic. Once you’ve turned and shaped what has done its best to break you, that creation is yours, and it can be the world’s, too.

That’s how the magic multiplies.

So she learned to burn because she knew now that was the beginning of magic. From now on, she would live burned.

Rella handed her paper to her Professor. “I’m not part of the resistance writing this,” Rella said but the Professor said, “Don’t you see? Writing about love is part of the resistance. Sharing your life with the world in the hope others might connect with it is joining the battle!”

Rella smiled again, this time fighting a laugh. This woman is crazy, she thought. And Rella might’ve been right. This English class was required if she wanted to take the courses she really wanted to take. But this woman was always saying that it’s all about seeing what you get to do with what you have to do.

I write about myself in the third person, and names have been changed, but everything about this story is true. And just to add some sprinkles, here is a note from one of my students:

“Your teaching style made everything feel clear and approachable, and I could tell you genuinely cared about helping us grow—not just as writers, but as thinkers. The way you guided our discussions and gave feedback really stuck with me, and it’s already helping me in the classes I’m taking over the summer. I feel more confident expressing myself and organizing my thoughts, and a lot of that credit goes to how you taught us.”

If you would like to receive my paper mail newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You will receive a quarterly newsletter with an essay, a writing prompt or exercise, and a writing “goodie.”

Here’s to beginning ever after.

1. Thanks to Erin Strybis, who read an early draft and helped me make it bolder and better.