10/12/2024
Meet Steve Aultman, Honorable Mention in Prose of our 2024 Prose & Poetry Contest for his fabulous fairy tale âWhen Rumpy Met Sally.â (Li n k to his story in comments!) We asked him about fairy tales and about his writing practice. Here's what he says:
Steve, tell us about the source material you used to create your new work for the Poetry and Prose contest. What about it inspired you, and how did you transform a traditional folk narrative into something new?
For source material, I started out by re-watching the Rumpelstiltskin episode from Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. I hadn't seen it in quite a while, but it was such a warm, comfy place to revisit. I loved that series so much. I also watched a replay of the "Stories with Spirit Presents: Fairytale Variations: Rumpelstiltskin" recording by Cooper Braun and friends, for some outside-the-box inspiration. I know "Mothers of Enchantment" has a retelling by Claire Thomas, which is on my TBR list, and her description of that contributed to my interest. Finally, I bounced some ideas off of friends in the Carterhaugh School, and got wonderful suggestions from several folks, especially Carole Wallencheck.
I transformed the story by "flipping the script," taking a sly look at its events and recasting them for post-modern sensibilities, making the villain into the hero, and generally being subversive. I'm not sure how close-to-the-surface my influences appear, but they include Chumbawamba, The Princess Bride, Monty Python, Shrek, even Bruno Mars, to name just a few.
Do you have any writing rituals that help you complete your work?
The usual: a good cuppa chai, a golden retriever nearby, a looming deadline for dramatic effect. Oh, and dark chocolate, for the endorphin jolt. I'm pretty sure that dark chocolate was involved when Frankenstein was reviving the "creature." (Cue lightning strike.)
Did you have a favorite fairy tale as a child, and do you have a favorite fairy tale now? If so, what?
It may seem "basic," but cross-my-heart I cannot lie: my favorite fairy tale as a child was the Disney movie version of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." I saw it at a very young age, in a real theater, the Fox Dome Theater on Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, California. I loved the dwarfs, though I really want to call them "dwarves," now. I have a real fondness for Disney, while remaining aware of, and vigilant towards the peril that entails.
It's harder to pick a favorite fairy tale now, but one that comes to mind is "The Brewery of Egg-Shells," collected by Thomas Crofton Croker in the south of Ireland in 1906. A mother outsmarts a changeling, and all ends well. I relate to changelings, and I'm fond of happy endings.
Do you have a favorite contemporary retelling?
You probably won't be surprised by this: "Glass and Feathers." I spent a long time with this book, I struggled at first, during the glass part, wary, and sometimes weary of all the trauma, but I really, really loved the evolution of Sparrow, and the conclusion. I trust most readers of FTM are already familiar with it. If not, they know what to do.
How has your interaction with fairy tales and folklore developed over time?
I studied history and folklore at UCLA in the 70s; it informed my avocation after graduation, working at Renaissance Faires, but not my career. I returned to it after retiring a few years ago, first as a student, now as a fledgling teller-of-tales. It turns out it was my true calling all along.
Author Bio: Steve "Aelfcyning" Aultman spins yarns in an ever-evolving storybook cottage, and lives with his wife, Lori, and his familiar, Finley, at the end of a trail of breadcrumbs near Berkeley, California.
