After several unforeseen and unavoidable delays, my Never Afters novellas are being released as a single volume by Brain Jar Press. The collection will include all six titles published by Brain Jar over the past few years along with Triquetra, currently only available as a stand alone from Tor.
I wrote these novellas as part of my PhD in the Before Times and always intended them to be released together, so I am beyond delighted to see these tales finally joining hands and hearts between a single set of covers. And what a superb cover it is!
Each novella in the collection re-visions a well-known fairy tale, telling a sequel of sorts. The question that spurred the was simple: what happens to the fairy-tale girls after their stories are over?
An aging Gretel runs a bakery in a remote town, enduring the antics of her drunken brother and the siren song of the witch’s grimoire searching for a new mistress.
Bluebeard’s seventh bride survives his reign of terror, but now occupies a manor filled with ghostly wives who crave vengeance.
Queen Cinderella is exiled in her own palace, replaced by a younger, prettier girl who can bear her King an heir.Through her journals, she charts how she lost her power . . . and what she’ll do to regain it.
Rapunzel confronts the trauma and sorrow of a childhood locked in a tower when she learns Mother Gothel is dead, while Beauty and her once beastly husband find themselves estranged as their passion dwindles.
Red Riding Hood discovers a long-kept family secret, while Snow White learns her prince is less charming than he first appeared.
Never Afters will be published on 6 May 2025 and is available to pre-order from Brain Jar Press now.
Dark, powerful, and brimming with magic, the Never Afters weaves a world in which the fairy-tale girls grow up to find both love and heartbreak, family and friendship, loss and forgiveness.
Never Afters is available to order in print or digital from all the usual outlets:
Kirstyn McDermott 