THE FAIRY TALE HEROINE grew out of Kate’s memoir, ONCE UPON, in which she braided tales of the feminine quest with her life story. She realized that most readers did not know the basic elements of the heroine’s journey found in fairy tales. To address this issue, Kate founded Woven: Telling the Heroine’s Journey based on her work in the ancient oral tradition and its legacy of the amazing archetypes in feminine fairy tales. She shares her process of discovery in workshops and on Substack.
Her new book, The Fairy Tale Heroine: Live and Create Her Journey, is available in Winter 2027 from Sibylline Press!
ONCE UPON: A Storyteller’s Memoir
On Substack, beginning August 11th!
Once Upon: A Storyteller’s Memoir by Kate Farrell will reach women of all ages as it explores her first forty-two years in a narrative shaped by the Jungian concept of the heroine’s quest archetype, while interweaving elements of feminine myth and fairy tales. It follows the extraordinary journey of a woman crippled by infant trauma to become an independent, accomplished single mother of a thriving toddler boy. It describes the effects of both negative and positive mothering—the abuse of her own mother and the nurturing of “other mothers” outside the home—the intersectionality of marginalized people, as secrets are revealed within her own family, and the healing lessons of intimate relationship. Once Upon follows the circular path of the heroine’s journey in three stages, Part One: Entanglements & Jealousies, Part Two: Escape & Initiation, Part Three: Return & Recognition.
Once Upon is a survival story of my abusive childhood with constant, chaotic moves, my dad on the run, afraid of being outed when a gay man was criminal, who found refuge in backwater towns of the Deep South and Southern Texas during Jim Crow. Living in poverty and confusion, I found security and meaning in stories and folktales, and learned the courage to overcome obstacles as the heroines and maids did in the old tales—to eventually find my own voice as a career storyteller and the strength to tell my own story.
~Kate Farrell, author of Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories
Praise for ONCE UPON
ONCE UPON is a woman’s saga of teeth gritting determination to not only survive but heal early primal wounds on a mind, body, and soul level. As she fights the dragons of neglect, abuse, and poverty, Kate’s brilliant mind and indomitable spirit lead her to embrace the power of stories and the wisdom of archetypal themes that burn through the darkness and lead her to the light. Weaving fairy tales through the book invites readers to think of the universality of these stories in their own lives. Kate’s emotional and inspiring memoir is written with the verve and intelligence of someone who has experienced all the world has to offer in her heroine’s journey and embraces the power of creativity and love.
~Linda Joy Myers, President of The National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Don’t Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains. Linda Joy co-teaches programs with Brooke Warner in their Magic of Memoir series of workshops.
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Kate Farrell’s ONCE UPON seamlessly threads together two stories: one is the story of a sensitive young girl struggling through abuse and neglect, a child who longs for good health, love, and stability. The other story saves her: myths, fairy tales, and wise women who lead her to find her inner strength and journey out of darkness into light.
~Louise Nayer, author of Poised for Retirement: Moving from Anxiety to Zen and Burned: A Memoir, an Oprah Great Read. Louise is an editor of memoir and teaches memoir classes with the Writers Grotto.
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Memoir Magazine 2022 Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript – Longlisted
“Out of an impressive pool of work ONCE made it to the longlist. Our readers thought your submission was a powerful depiction of the transformational power of memoir. The narrator’s compelling voice carried us through the piece.”
https://memoirmag.com/nonfiction/2022-memoir-prize-for-books-winners/
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