Hi All! As you know, my latest collection of stories for World Weaver Press, Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers comes out on April 19. To promote it, authors from the collection have recorded excerpts from their stories, so head on over to World Weaver Press’s YouTube channel and prepare to be delighted ..read more

  Her sorcery-cloaked sisters come seeking her spells. The Sea Witch asking for An ocean tempest for a prince’s doom and A mermaid’s voice. The Ice Queen willing To pay for a shard to pierce an eye and Freeze a heart. The Enchantress in need of Gloom and rain to seal a merchant’s fate and A daughter’s loss. Stirring storms of fire and ice, Water and wind, Shadow and light, The Weather Witch obliges. Chanting Meteorological incantations, she conjures Cold nights for lost children and Dry wastelands for sightless lovers, Sea squalls to drown sailors and Blizzards to blind travel ..read more

  Long ago, in the coastal village of Soltriste, while dreaming, a woman named Dolores met Death. Santa Muerte was wandering the shore not far from Dolores’ home, her bare, skeletal feet sinking into the sand. The early morning sky grew overcast with dark gray clouds, and the wind blew tremendously, its howls causing Santa Muerte’s robes to flutter and her bones to clack. The diosa stopped where the waves could perfectly kiss her ankles and stared out at the open sea. Dolores turned to find what captured the skeletal woman’s attention only to discover a fishing boat: her beloved Rio ..read more

Dear Enchanted Conversation Readers: This site is now an archive of older material. We cannot move everything to our new site. Also, while we always said that we would archive posts indefinitely, we did not guarantee that we would leave published stories and poems here up until the end of the internet. Since all rights revert to the author after publication, we hope writers will take advantage of that and post their works themselves on other platforms. If this situation is unsatisfactory, please let us know, and we will remove any works you wish us to from this site. Some stories and poems h ..read more

  Hello Enchanted Friends: I’m busy picking stories and poems for the next issue, and with that in mind, I want to let you know that the August issue will be a small one. We will then go on hiatus in terms of buying and publishing new work through the end of the current year. That means submission windows will not be open again for publication in 2022. We are doing this to allow us to save money and time for the new publication we are launching in 2023! This is a long post, but please read the whole thing. I hope you’ll like what I’m saying here. Here are some of the big changes: We ..read more

    The Golden Age of Illustration is a term applied to a time period (1880s - 1920s) of unprecedented excellence in book and magazine illustrations by artists in Europe and America. Advances in technology at the time allowed for accurate and inexpensive reproductions of their art, which allowed quality books to be available to the voracious public demand for new graphic art. When many people think of the Golden Age of Illustration, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and other male artists come to mind, but there were also female artists that excelled during this time. Margaret Evan ..read more

Editor's Note: Today's essay, by Priya Sridhar, takes Hans Christian Andersen's tale of "The Little Match Girl," and looks at it through a modern literary interpretation. Enjoy! Modern takes on classic fairy tales can prove fascinating when they subvert the original narrative. Whether it's differing values, updated understanding of gender and economics, and plain wanting to add a new message, you can always find a new spin on older tales.   Hans Christian-Andersen (HCA) earned fame in Denmark for his fairy tales. While a few had happy endings, the more infamous ones went to the ..read more

  On the first day of Windy Season, Mina woke at dawn. The house was already filled with life. Her mother boiled water in the kitchen, the hiss of steam matching the clattering of the wind against her window pane. Her brothers whispered in the room beside hers, the walls thin as the skin over their bones. "When the North Wind wakes, He carries a large sword," Vincent said, reciting the chant her family had spoken for years. "He cuts down the trees so the seeds will spread and circle the globe, making new life and forms." "Then the West Wind carries a large spoon to stir the waves ..read more

  There’s a scorpion in your mind, and vast fires in your eye. The sun went down ten thousand years ago, its light fell into a swallowing dark.   Listen to the bell ringing over a mass grave, hear your heart stop in an ocean  of silence. Hear an absolute absence, there where a frigid blue sinks into the forest. Hear the bell stop, watch the fox and the lamb fall into black shadows. Was it in this misty world where you first touched the face of grief?  Do you remember those closed eyes,  and that first wave of cold rain? One vision bled into the next— the firs ..read more

  Hiking through a forest preserve, I tried to find myself hiding in dappled shadows.   Hazy clouds  veiled the sun, unleashed icy drizzle.   A blue jay squawked, berating me for trespassing in his territory.   The mist thickened.   Raindrops beat a staccato patter.   My teeth started to chatter, but I was too stubborn to turn back.   Down the hill I trod, carefully stepping around a mound of Artomyces pyxidatus clinging to a downed log.   I stroked the lacy fungi, so tasty when sautéed,  but the coral crown was too perfect to pluck.   ..read more