Anyway, all joking aside, I wrote this story back in March for an English Communications course. The assignment was to recreate the popular fairy tale of Cinderella as we saw fit, incorporating various aspects of the many versions out there (I felt like I had to explain this a little before stating the story's genre). I suppose you could call it a modern comedic fantasy, or a modern comedic fairy tale (the choice is yours). In either case, it's pretty light reading. Those who are more serious readers (like myself) are hereby officially warned. MSWord puts the word count at 3,858...in 13.1 double-spaced pages. My professor loved it (I got an A+...which nearly gave me a heart attack, since that particular professor didn't usually give me As). I'm not sure if my professor's approval is a good thing or a bad thing. That bothers me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. I may consider submitting it somewhere...after you've read it perhaps you could give me a few suggestions as to the best place to send it? For those who aren't interested in reading the whole thing: please feel free to comment on the intro.

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"A Fairy's Tale"

Max manifested a telescope from thin air and grimaced when the image finally came into focus. His new assignment was busily cleaning a high-rise window across the street, oblivious to the noise and organized chaos of the city below. That would not have been surprising, since every ‘Cinderella’ was usually engaged in menial labor when her ‘godmother’ made contact. However, Max’s Cinderella happened to be scrubbing the interior of the glass with furniture polish, smearing the inappropriate cleaning solution all over the windowpane. That error, when accompanied by the other observations he had made over the past few hours, generated a distinct sense of concern in Max’s mind. The first dumb thing he had seen her do could have been chalked up to ignorance; the second, to negligence. But this mistake, well into the forty-something range of his list, bordered on sheer stupidity.

“Not too bright,” he muttered to himself as the girl proceeded to wipe off the useless polish with a roll’s worth of paper towels. “Not too bright at all.” He swore under his breath, cursing the Fairy Council, his grandmother, and life in general. The first two woes almost amounted to the same thing. Grandmother would give him an idiot to spoon-feed, and with so much at stake. He had known the odds were going to be stacked against him, though he had not expected them to be stacked quite this high.
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Please let me know your preferred document format, as well as any e-mail title specifics (to bypass your spam-blocking software).

I'd like to read it, too.

I had a little bit of a disjuncture when you mentioned that Max had been watching this girl long enough to see her do forty-odd stupid things, since your beginning clearly indicates that he is only beginning his observation of her. I think that you would also have done well to specify the first and second actions, both for our amusment and edification

Other than that, the language and tone of the story seem very promising, and in keeping with the description of your story. Choosing to tell the story of the fairy (and naming him Max, which could go in several promising directions, only a few of which are cliche) is an instant hook, and the wordcrafting fully supports it.

Carlene, I'll send you the manuscript as soon as I get ahold of my laptop (where it's saved). In other words, tomorrow. Thanks again to all those who've responded so far, and to those who have yet to comment. I'll probably inquire officially about where you think it should be submitted (in other words, where it has the best chance of being accepted) after I've edited the thing and polished off the rough edges.