Folktales and Fairy Tale Retellings
Sometime last year, I set out to challenge myself and set up a goal to write a handful of retellings of folk- or fairy tales, but with a decidedly Puerto Rican twist. I had managed to successfully write a series of in-world ones for As the Shore To the Tides, So Blood Calls to Blood, so why not give it a try? I’d argue that All Good Children, Come Out to Play falls within that challenge – even though I probably wrote the first draft of that story sometime in late 2015. What I ignored was that All Good Children. . . was written around 6 years ago, during which time I’d consistently submitted it until around 2019, when I ran out of pro-paying places to send it to. I sent it a couple places more in 2022 until it was accepted at khōréō after 20 rejections.
Ah, I thought, but that was then – before I’d gathered 12 fiction credits (all but one in pro-paying markets) and made a bit of a name for myself!
What I fool I was.
My next attempt was a story I wrote last year inspired by The Juniper Tree, but taking place in 1970s rural Puerto Rico when the U.S. funded sterilization program (locally known simply as “La Operación”). I wanted to write about this because my writing often tries to grapple with the effects of colonialism on the island, because it was and continues to be under-reported in Puerto Rico and the U.S. I’ve mentioned the fact that by the 1970s (when La Operación was “officially” discontinued) up to 30% of women on the island had been sterilized to people I know, and their reactions are disbelieving when they don’t border into the specific type of outraged refutations reserved for tinfoil-hat-style conspiracists.
That story’s still making the rounds, racking up rejections (10 so far!) – so, great plan, Karlo.
I have full faith in this story, since I believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever written, so I’m sure it’ll get published somewhere – even if it’s in my hypothetical collection.
This type of slow going brings to mind things I’d discussed in a recent Rite Gud episode – the difficulty of getting U.S. editors (at least in short story magazines) to give stories that don’t seem to center a particular U.S. centered worldview, full of an optimistic tone I do not feel.
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