"The Golden Goose" is a perfect fairy tale.

Many - most! - fairy tales are crazy, full of leaps of logic and mysteries that remain unresolved even when happily ever after arrives. They need work. But "The Golden Goose" is fine without my help. This was a challenge! How could I fracture it? Add poetry? Yes. Jokes? Yes. And a tormented, self-doubting fairy. Yes!

There is one unsolved puzzle in the original, the same puzzle that you find in a zillion fairy tales. Why do the hero and heroine fall in love? The lad and the princess have never clapped eyes on each other until he makes her laugh. She laughs, and that's it. They're stuck, so to speak, for life. To make their union work, I had to invent tragic-comic back stories for each of them. He's unappreciated. She's lonely. He's excellent company. She's a born appreciator. A perfect match!