Here as promised is my reading list from the “Sex ‘n’ Drugs ‘n’ Puss in Boots” panel. Cat and Anne may want to add to it as some point, and feel free to add your own recommendations in comments.

First up, here is the poem by Charles Perrault that I read to open the panel. It is from his popularization of Little Red Riding Hood.

Little girls, this seems to say,
Never stop upon your way,
Never trust a stranger-friend;
No one knows how it will end.
As you’re pretty so be wise;
Wolves may lurk in every guise.
Handsome they may be, and kind,
Gay, and charming — nevermind!
Now, as then, ‘tis simple truth
— Sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth!

And now, here are some books and stories:

• Catherynne M Valente — Six Gun Snow White, Deathless, Speak Easy
• Sarah Pinborough — Poison, Charm, Beauty
• Robin McKinley — Beauty, Donkeyskin
• Salla Simukka — As Red As Blood, As White As Snow, As Black As Ebony
• Angela Carter — The Bloody Chamber, A Company of Wolves
• Helen Oyeyemi — Mr. Fox
• Malinda Lo –- Ash
• Sheri Tepper –- Beauty
• Genevieve Valentine –- The Girls at the Kingfisher Club
• Neil Gaiman -– The Sleeper and the Spindle
• Linda Medley -– Castle Waiting (graphic novel)
• Joan Vinge –- The Snow Queen
• Margo Lanagan -– Tender Morsels
• Greg Frost –- Fitcher’s Brides
• Kate Forsyth -– Bitter Greens
• Tanith Lee –- White as Snow
• Holly Black –- The Darkest Part of the Forest
• Naomi Novik –- Uprooted
• Ellen Kushner –- Thomas the Rhymer
• Patrick Ness –- The Crane Wife
• Karen Lord –- Redemption in Indigo
• Anne Sexton — Transformations
• Christine Heppermann –- Poisoned Apples
• Bill Willingham — Fables (multi-volume graphic novel series)

Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have produced many anthologies of fairy tale based short stories, including the following:

• Snow White, Blood Red
• Black Thorn, White Rose
• Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears
• Black Swan, White Raven
• Silver Birch, Blood Moon
• Black Heart, Ivory Bones
• A Wolf at the Door
• The Green Man
• My Swan Sister
• The Faery Reel
• The Coyote Road
• Troll’s Eye View
• The Beastly Bride

We also mentioned the TV series, Once Upon a Time, and Grimm.

Jasper Fforde has also done fairy tale re-tellings in his Nursery Crime series, though they are rather different projects that the subjects of the panel.

My thanks to Cat Valente and Anne Leinonen for being great panelists. Nina, I hope you feel better soon, and that I managed to do justice to your original idea.