The Story So Far...

Two writers of a musical (a.k.a. 'The Creators') create a blog and ask people to post stories about their "fairy tale realities" for a project they're working on.  A letter arrives from a mythology professor, introducing her student, Ashley St. Helens Prince. A letter arrives from Ashley herself, which piques the curiosity of the writers. After a few flurries of letters, postcards, and emails, Ashley begins telling her story. In Chapter One, Once Upon a Time, Ashley recounts...

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Let's Put Our Feet Up!

And So it Begins! Thank you, friends, for being there for me as I finished writing this story. If it were not for my commitment to you, I wouldn't have made myself stick it through to completion. Knowing you were there, salivating for each new twist and turn, kept me accountable to the project. And now look what we've done. The blook is going to grow up to be an ebook. And the musical has come back to life. What Happens Next? Here is a short...

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A Five-Minute Survey

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A "Mirror Imag(in)e" Teaser....

Mädchen March, Ph.D. Castleton College Black Forest, OH 44883 July 25, 2010 My Dear Creatives, I just received the most delightful letter from Ashley about your work together, and I wanted to wish you well on your project. Ashley asked if I would write something about Nevada LeBlanc. Poor Nevada, what she went through really changed her. She worked for me during her Freshman Year, helping with one of my research projects on Urban Mythologies....

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Roll Credits

The Souls of Her Feet interactive BLOOK was brought to you by: Kristen Caven in collaboration with both the real and the fictional Michael O'Dell and the following artists: Frontspiece photo (artified): Gyorgy Vass Demos for "Big Bitch," "Ashley's Blues," and "If The Shoe Fits" Jenn Graham as Ashley (sung) and Brian Yates Sharber as Harry.  (Spoken parts & photo of Brian's feet by Kristen Caven) "When You Try to Clean With Dran-o" Kristen Caven using Autotune* "It's A Waltz" The robots at XtraNormal* New...

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Three Blocks from Broadway

From: FTR <info@fairytalereality.com> To: Ashley <ash-prince gmail.com>, <crankingitout@gmail.com> Date: Sunday, 28 August 2011 7:07:07
 Subject: Congratulations Ashley, Congratulations to you, Jeff, Harriet, and Peter on the newest little Princes... (and one is a Princess!) I hope you are recovering well and enjoying your first few days being the mother of twins. Michael and I are sending something along for the little ones. And here’s a treat for you: the video of the staged reading. We were only three blocks from Broadway!...

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That One Big Step

We crept back into the living room, hoping to grab them from the windowsill and go, but Sylvia was still sitting where we had left her, staring into space. Light played over her fraying hair from the glass beads when we moved the shoes. “Ashley,” she said, looking up, “I’m sorry.” Startled, I turned to look at her. I had never heard her say those words. Sylvia’s eyes went from liquid to solid in an instant, as her dominant and dominating persona regained control. “If you walk through that door, though, I swear to God, you will never get an...

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Goodbye, Sylvia

When we came back down the stairs, we heard loud voices and stopped to make faces at each other. Down in the living room, Harry and Sylvia were continuing their argument from the dance floor. Harry was talking about my dad. “He was such a loving person, you destroyed him, and then you moved on to his daughter, to crush her, too.” Sylvia spat, “You’re just jealous I married him, aren’t you?” Harry sat down heavily. “I can’t deny that.” “Hah!” Sylvia cried. “You know I really loved him,” Harry sighed. “I loved them both. They loved me, too.” Sylvia...

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Who Was That Girl?

Passing Debra’s room, we heard the sounds of sobs. I knocked and twisted the knob. “Juicy” and “Pink” were spelled across the the bed. The sisters sat up and Debra said, “You can come in.” “I wanted to say goodbye, you guys,” I said. “Goodbye?” “You can’t go!” That felt really nice. It could have gone the other way. “Harry asked me to come live with him,” I said. “Oh, my, God,” said Donna. “He’s my godfather,” I said, not wanting to elaborate. “Is...

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My Stiff Upper Lip

“This is where you live?” Jeff had to duck to come through the small arched attic door. “Not anymore, I guess,” I said, surveying the room. Dust motes twinkled in the stillness of the late spring sunlight streaming in through the small open window, which had crawled like a slow spotlight since I’d awakened down the length of my unmade bed, and was now touching the stack of cardboard boxes, stacked furniture, old trunks and suitcases. I pulled a suitcase out and dumped my old baby clothes onto the bed, then started scooping things up and putting...

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Free to Be

Moments ago the mood in this room had been delightful; now, waves of crazy were emanating from the corner desk and no one was speaking. I started cleaning up. Jeff studied the paper. “Photo source: Justin Case,” he read, “wait – he’s a private detective! My dad knows him! Now he’s selling photos to the paper?” “I sold the photo,” said Sylvia. “To pay for his services.” “That’s unethical!” “Well at least I gave him a photo credit,” she retorted. “Besides, what would I know about ethics? I never went to college. I’m not the one with the law degree,”...

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A Boy of Character

The stairs creaked. We looked up to see Donna coming down. She took one look at Jeff, who had just excused himself to go to the bathroom, made a little “eep!” sound and turned around to run back up the stairs, where she crashed right into Debra. They whispered excitedly and then came wiggling down together, pulling their scrunchies out and tossing their hair around their shoulders. One wore a pink sweatsuit that said “Pink” across the buttcheeks. The other wore a green sweatsuit that said “Juicy.” Donna called out, “Hhhhiiii, Jeff!” Jeff waved...

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Sleep? What's That?

From: crankingitout@gmail.com To: FTR <info@fairytalereality.com> Date: Thursday, 7 July 2011 10:45:22
 Subject: NYC hey k - the reading is one month away! i definitely think we’ll have to pull out our credit cards for this. i like your idea of selling tshirts & giving to actors...also my parents kindly donated some cash for a cast party. ~m~ ------ From: FTR <info@fairytalereality.com> To: crankingitout@gmail.com Date:...

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The Day-Glo Orange Jacket

“Good morning you two!” I called out the window. “Isn’t it a beautiful morning?” Jeff and Harry looked up, big smiles on each of their faces. “Would you like to come inside?” I grabbed the shoe from the windowsill and tromped down the stairs again. When I opened the front door, I had to sort out my second impression from the outrageous woman who had walked in last night. This well-groomed, low-key forty-something fellow was a foot shorter than her, but he matched my childhood memories, which was an equally great surprise. “You look divine,” he...

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King Phineas Food Bank

When I became conscious the next morning, the first thing I noticed was the birds were singing. I lay with my face in the pillow for a moment, trying to figure out which of these images in my mind was reality and which was a dream: unlocking a great big door with a key as big as my backpack, or dancing with Jeff. When my eyes focused on the dress hanging on the wardrobe, I still wasn’t sure; I could have dreamed putting it on. Then I spotted the single glass shoe on the windowsill and I knew… both realities were true. I pulled on my dad’s old...

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