Happily Ever After

Edited by John Klima.

Once Upon A Time...

...in the faraway land of Story, a Hugo-winning Editor realized that no one had collected together the fairy tales of the age, and that doorstop-thick anthologies of modern fairy tales were sorely lacking...

And so the Editor ventured forth, wandering the land of Story from shore to shore, climbing massive mountains of books and delving deep into lush, literary forests, gathering together thirty-three of the best re-tellings of fairy tales he could find. Not just any fairy tales, mind you, but tantalizing tales from some of the biggest names in today's fantastic fiction, authors like Gregory Maguire, Susanna Clarke, Charles de Lint, Holly Black, Aletha Kontis, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Paul Di Filippo, Gregory Frost, and Nancy Kress. But these stories alone weren't enough to satisfy the Editor, so the Editor ventured further, into the dangerous cave of the fearsome Bill Willingham, and emerged intact with a magnificent introduction, to tie the collection together.

And the inhabitants of Story, from the Kings and Queens relaxing in their castles to the peasants toiling in the fields; from to the fey folk flitting about the forests to the trolls lurking under bridges and the giants in the hills, read the anthology, and enjoyed it. And they all lived...

...Happily Ever After.

Contents:

• Bill Willingham - Introduction
• Gregory Maguire – The Seven Stage a Comeback
• Genevieve Valentine – And in Their Glad Rags
• Howard Waldrop – The Sawing Boys
• Michael Cadnum – Bear It Away
• Susanna Clarke – Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower
• Karen Joy Fowler – The Black Fairy's Curse
• Charles de Lint – My Life as a Bird
• Holly Black – The Night Market
• Theodora Goss – The Rose in Twelve Petals
• Jim C. Hines – The Red Path
• Alethea Kontis – Blood and Water
• Garth Nix – Hansel's Eyes
• Wil McCarthy – He Died That Day, in Thirty Years
• Jane Yolen – Snow in Summer
• Michelle West – The Rose Garden
• Bruce Sterling – The Little Magic Shop
• K. Tempest Bradford – Black Feather
• Alan Rodgers – Fifi's Tail
• Kelly Link – The Faery Handbag
• Peter Straub – Ashputtle
• Leslie What – The Emperor's New (And Improved) Clothes
• Robert J. Howe – Pinocchio's Diary
• Wendy Wheeler – Little Red
• Neil Gaiman – The Troll Bridge
• Patricia Briggs – The Price
• Paul Di Filippo – Ailoura
• Jeff VanderMeer – The Farmer's Cat
• Gregory Frost – The Root of the Matter
• Susan Wade – Like a Red, Red Rose
• Josh Rountree – Chasing America
• Nancy Kress – Stalking Beans
• Esther Friesner – Big Hair
• Robert Coover – The Return of the Dark Children