How I Write Fairy Tale Retellings

I posted at Forbidden Fiction describing how I come up with ways to retell myths and fairy tales:

I think that most retellings of fairy tales and myths are about answering questions raised by the stories but not resolved — or about adjusting the traditional answers given. This is why I can read literally dozens of versions of Bluebeard or Cinderella without ever getting tired of it. Each author has a different take on the questions that bother them or how they answer them.

You can read the rest here.

The Snake and the Lyre

There's a lot about the Orpheus myth that never made sense to me. Orpheus' music is so powerful and moving that Hades, God of the Underworld, gives him permission to retrieve his dead wife from death and bring her back to the sunlit lands. But he imposes an arbitrary condition: Orpheus isn't allowed to turn back and look at Eurydice. In pondering this weird ruling, I came up with the idea for The Snake and the Lyre, which has just been released by Forbidden Fiction. This is a dark retelling of the myth, so be warned. I hope you'll take a look!