The Goose Girl
While in graduate school at the University of Montana, Hale decided to write a novelization of her favorite fairy tale, "The Goose Girl," after a challenge from a friend. She sought to mainly stay "as close to the skeleton of the original tale" as possible while diving deeper into parts of the story that were left unexplained before. Her original manuscript was 80 pages long. It was rewritten some 30 times and rejected by multiple editors before publication.