American politics is a crazy place right now. TRUMPELSTILTSKIN puts that craziness into perspective in a simple fairy tale. As one early reader said: "To my mind, this has more rhetorical power than the the editorials of a gaggle of pundits."

TRUMPELSTILTSKIN: A Fairy Tale is available to read on this website, via pdf download, or as a Kindle book!

Click to read TS:   Online --Short story (in full) or Readers' play |  Free pdf--Short story or Readers' play |  Kindle version

TRUMPELSTILTSKIN is a big deal to me because I think story can reveal truth in a way that a thousand news reports or we-know-all-the-answer-let-us-tell-you polls cannot. And especially story in the form of allegory or, as in this case, fairy tale. The reason these genres are so powerful is that they allow the reader to decide how they interpret the story and what they take from it. Both allegory and fairy tales provide, as Merriam-Webster says, "...the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence."

I don't need to tell you the follies of human existence are on full display here at the end of 2016!

My only request as you read TRUMPELSTILTSKIN dear reader, is that you have a willingness to think critically, to engage in meaningful discussion, and to question your own beliefs and try to understand those of others. If you are willing to take on these tasks, then it is just possible that TRUMPELSTILTSKIN: A FAIRY TALE may not only be a fun read, but have some value, as well.

I wrote the readers' play for your group--theater, school, church, dinner party, family, whatever!--to put it on. A readers' play means just that, you print out the document, staple or bind it, maybe practice reading it together with the acting troupe (or not, just depends on how big a deal you are making it!), and then GO! You can sit around and read, or the actors can ... well ... act, wandering the stage as they read their parts. That's up to you!

TRUMPELSTILTSKIN is tentatively scheduled to run as a Readers' Play in Bozeman Montana on October 26th, 2016! More info as I have it. And I would LOVE it if other groups around the country took on the TRUMPELSTILTSKIN Readers' Play! Just download the full play here and GO! (Oh, did I already say that?!) And if you are doing it, please give me a shout via my Contact page or maybe take some photos or video and email to me or put it on my Facebook page. Thanks!