Edward H. Carpenter at Creatokia

Edward H. Carpenter

Edward H. Carpenter is a 29-year veteran of the US military, who spent most of his life as a warfighter but chose to finish his career serving as a peacekeeper. An award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction, he’s a member of the Washington Post talent pool, and reads for the Harvard Review.

A graduate of Harvard’s Creative Writing and Literature program, he enjoys reading, writing, experimenting with visual arts and photography, and adventures involving charismatic megafauna.

Find him on Twitter, Amazon, OpenSea, and Objkt!

All writers of fiction are storytellers, and there’s no sort of storytelling more elementary or entertaining than the classic fairytale.

Edward H. Carpenter

My contribution to the theme of fairy tales

So, this story was my small attempt to give the archetypal “evil stepmother” the voice that she’s been rather unfairly denied, encourage readers to learn a bit more about the many great (and sometimes cruel) women who have shaped history, and was also a fun exercise in looking at some old stories from a new and slightly skewed angle.

Thinking about the power of fairytales goes a ways in explaining my impetus for writing this story. Of the basic archetypes in the classic fairytale, only about one-third are female, and of that minority share, about half are “evil” (witches, stepmothers, unfaithful wives, temptresses) and the other half are nice, but rather ineffective. Good witches, whose spells are always a bit less powerful than those of the “bad” witches, damsels in distress, etc. Good girls are young, pretty, patient, and kind. Women who are old, unattractive, or unwilling to suffer fools gladly get cast in the “evil” roles.

Get into my take on the "Happily Ever After" fairy tale.