Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama | Updates

Susan Chapek's Works for stage

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 16:10:38 -0400

For young audiences:
A Little Princess (featuring songs and music of the period)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

For young performers:
Bluebeard's White Castle (Now With More Zombies)
The Snow Queen
Sleeping Beauty & the Frog Prince
Carmencita (adapted from the opera)
Swan Pond (lyrics)

Classical/concert scripts:
The 45-Minute Fledermaus (with Keith Lockhart)
Images of God (with Robert Ward)
Peter & the Wolf & the Orchestra--"Auditions" Intro (with Keith Lockhart)

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Historical fiction WIP

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 16:14:26 -0400

Brushing more cobwebs out of a corner of history with my Rivals series, YA romances (intense but decorous).

The Three Musketeers as jeunes filles. Their motto: "None for all, and all for love!"

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On Historical Fantasy

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

"History is infuriating in what it leaves out, what it tells us and doesn't tell us.
But sometimes these gaping holes are everything, are the crack where the light gets in.
Sometimes the lacuna is what makes space for a new story."

--Jo Walton (Or What You Will)

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Plays that make every kid a star

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Make every kid a star.

That's my playwriting motto.

It reminds me that there's always some deep heartfelt reason a young person wants to be in a play.

My mission is to honor that yearning, to make sure that dream comes true in some tangible way, even if--especially if--that young dreamer won't be the one playing the princess, the hero, the fabulous villain.

My playscripts call for large casts, and always offer opportunities to make each performer know that without them the show can't go on.

Coming soon in the Gritty Women Plays series:
A Little Princess (a musical featuring popular songs and dances of the gaslight era)

Browse my companion research & inspiration board, A Little Princess scrapbook at https://www.pinterest.com/susanchapek/

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Coming-of-age stories never grow old

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Coming of age may feel like a fairy tale romance, mythical adventure, dark comedy, or shattering historical drama.
And that’s just on Monday.

For me, the delight in coming-of-age stories comes in following the character along those twists and turns, downs and ups.

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Shall I compare thee to a summer's re-read?

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My readers tell me they'd shelve my historicals alongside
Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks)
Great Maria (Celia Holland)
Frenchman's Creek (Daphne du Maurier)

and have compared my retellings to adult/YA historical fantasies like
The Wild Girl (Kate Forsyth)
Daughter of the Forest (Juliet Marillier)
Upon a Starlit Tide (Kell Woods)

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Outlaws and Outliers

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Give me the outliers who never surrender and who win their happy endings while staying true to themselves. (Who taught me that first? Jo March? Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm? Tom Canty? Mary Lennox? Pip, Huck, and Penrod?)
My stories and plays always put at least one outlier in the spotlight.

I began as a playwright, adapting classics. Sara Crewe's the same Little Princess, whether in parlor or garret. Hans Christian Andersen's Gerda charms a whole outlaw gang. And everybody in Bluebeard's White Castle (Now With Even More Zombies) is--no surprise--either outlaw or outcast. Or both.

Now that I'm writing fiction ... more on that in separate posts.

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Red Riding Hood & the Lovelorn Werewolf

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I didn’t know I’d be tracking a werewolf that day. It was hot and sunny and the only trees around the Lied Library were a couple of thirsty-looking palms. I forget now what I was actually researching. But I dusted off a book of academic essays that looked as if it had never been opened before, and scanned the contents for the article I wanted.

And up jumped a much more enticing chapter title: What the Werewolf Will and Will Not Wear. I followed that title right off my research track and into the deep, dark woods.

Now, this all happened once upon a time and rather long ago. I wasn’t a werewolf fanatic. I was into historical realism. But this chapter winked at me and smiled (without showing any big sharp teeth) and lured me off track. And I entered the 12th century world of Marie de France and her amazing stories in verse.

Specifically, the one about the lovelorn werewolf, the Bisclavret.

The Bisclavret’s transformation didn’t seem to depend on the moon. He’d just get into a mood. Then he’d plunge deep into the forest, take off his clothes and hide them to retrieve later. Presto, change-o! He became the werewolf Bisclavret, and did all the wolfish things. When the lupine mood wore off, he’d put on his clothes again, and go back to his regular life as best buddies with the King.

What could go wrong? I'll tell you what: he married the wrong lady.

Of course I immediately tracked down a copy of Marie de France’s (translated) original. As in so many fairy tales, the Bisclavret’s life gets exceedingly sad before it reaches its happy ending.

By then, he’d captured my heart. Because who wouldn’t love a sweet and noble knight, and root for him to overcome his curse?

A match-up/mashup of the Bisclavret’s story (which you can read about in lots of places online nowadays) with Little Red Riding Hood’s immediately jumped to mind.

I wondered, What if Grandmother actually was a wolf? And not just any wolf....

It took several years to work out the details.

The result is THE FOREST OF FOREVER AFTER, a story of true love set in a magically real world where the old monsters still roam and the old stories still come to life. There's a kindly King who still pines for a long-lost love. A woodcutter’s daughter as brave and noble as any knight. A forest foundling desperate to find a forever family. And a charming exile from across the sea who may possess the knack of turning lead into gold. There’s magic, mystery, true and false love, and the dark forest with all of its immortal secrets.

And of course, there’s a wolf who seems to be much more than wolf.

Browse my Arthurian era inspiration boards at https://www.pinterest.com/susanchapek/

Read the essay that inspired me: Marie de France’s Bisclavret: What the Werewolf Will and Will Not Wear by Gloria Thomas Gilmore, in Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-08394-4_5

Find an English translation of Bisclavret at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3972

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Awards for work-in-progress The Malice of Circe

Susan Chapek writes fiction & drama — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

He’s the most hapless prince in fairy lore. (It really isn’t easy being green.)
She’s an American princess so ambitious and so feisty that only a magical coma could hold her down.
Each of them will dare to defy the immortal Circe, a witch who can transform boys into beasts and spindles into stiletto blades.
The Briar Rose and the Frog Prince should be embarking on a fairy tale romance. Instead, they’re marked to be road kill in Circe’s pursuit of her own happy forever ever.

I'm pleased to announce that this time-slip historical fantasy has been awarded

1st Place On the Far Side Award for YA Pre-published Novel (Futuristic, Fantasy, & Paranormal Romance Writers)
3rd Place Romance Through the Ages Award for YA Pre-Published Novel (Hearts Through History Romance Writers)

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