A damselfly in distress, a beetle with a will for mischief, and fairy high jinks. Storyfeather Gazette.

Published 28 days ago • 2 min read

April 2026 Issue 1

In this issue: A thought about how one person's "regular" is another person's "rare," and short stories & podcast episodes from the first half of April.

Circle format, a three-quarters view of Nila's smiling face from a photo with an oil paint filter applied.

THIS ISN'T MY FIRST...NEVER MIND 🤠

Have you ever experienced a moment when someone marvels at something that's familiar to you? Something you know how to do maybe. Or something you've experienced over and over again. Like say, the rodeo. One day, you take your friend to the rodeo. And they're wide-eyed about all of it. Because it's their first rodeo. 😏

Fairy tales below, about familiar things experienced through new and shifting perspectives.

✒️ 🪶 🎙

Greetings! I'm Nila. Every week, I release a new short story and a new podcast episode spanning the genres of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, mythology, fairy tale, fable, and horror.

Whether you're in the mood to read or listen, I've got stories to tell you.

🧚‍♀️ FAE-PRIL 🧚‍♂️
Fairy Tale April

✒️ For this month's theme, we spring into stories featuring fierce fairies.

🎙 The podcast episodes are about fools, tricksters, and the awesome power of rainfall.

Titles and taglines below. Enjoy!

Short Stories

Digital drawing. View looking out on a pond at night, with a full moon in the sky at top. Background middle, a stand of trees with fog rising from the water below. Lily pads lie in the water with spots of yellow glow on a few. At bottom foreground right stands a woman in dark blue silhouette, facing the pond, seen from waist up, hair tied loosely at her neck, holding her bent left arm up by her side. Her hand glows blue and is surrounded by a sparkling blue and purple cloud. Above and to the left of her hand, hovering in the air, is a beetle in bright orange and purple, also surrounded in a sparkling cloud. Behind them, far foreground at the corners are dark blades of grass. Watermark of “Storyfeather” along upper right arm of woman. Copyright notice along top right side reads “Copyright © 2026 Nila L. Patel.”

Year 13. This year's theme is WildCards. Cards pulled from games. Maybe characters who are wild cards? I'll figure it out as I go.

Each link below leads directly to the story post.

A DAMSELFLY FOR A DAUGHTER

This tale has two branches. And it would seem that those branches converge where a damsel named Edna made a choice. 🧚‍♀️

Genre: Fairy Tale

WILDERFYN

The fairy Wilderfyn grants mercy to a child, and loses her most precious possession. 🌙

Genre: Fairy Tale

Find more Year 13 stories at the button below.

Podcast Episodes

The Wheel of Fiction turns and decides each story's theme. Thirteen spokes, with eight occupied by the themes of prior seasons. There's a Wild Card, and a "Turn Again" spoke. And three mystery spokes.

The text links below go to the Explore page on Storyfeather, where you can listen to the episode and find more info about the story

Pressing on the Spotify embed image leads to the episode's Spotify page.

A REALM WITHOUT RAIN

A visitor from another realm encounters an overwhelming and mysterious phenomenon that bears further investigation, rain. ⛈️

Genre: Fairy Tale

A Realm Without Rain

Apr 3 · Storyfeather

27:46

ONLY FOOLS PREVAIL

In a realm where the learned are held at the highest esteem, a fool is called upon to challenge a trickster. 🎭

Genre: Fairy Tale

Only Fools Prevail

Apr 10 · Storyfeather

37:03

Find more episodes at the button below.

🪨

“Within this box is a stone,” her mother began.

She explained that the stone, bought at a dear price, was enchanted. It bore the power of transformation. It was granted to Edna in place of the bridal jewels that she otherwise would have received from her parents. The stone, once used, would carry no further value. But it would be worth far more than any jewels, for it would grant Edna the power to become even more alluring to her husband-to-be, and to remain so for many years to come, so many years that they would find themselves old and withered, and still married.

“Do not mistake me, daughter. You are beautiful through and through. But…”

—From "A Damselfly for a Daughter"

Attention Fiction Writers ✒️

I have another newsletter, one for fictioneers. Every month, I pick a topic or theme to cover. I send out a short weekly email to introduce the topic, cover a technique, talk troubleshooting, then use one of my stories to demonstrate some aspect of the topic. If you're a Gazette subscriber, you can get the fiction-writing newsletter by simply pressing the title here: Fictioneer's Field Guide.