Castle Waiting by Linda Medley

Sleeping Beauty's abandon castle has become a place for fairy tale refugees.  It's a safe place for all who need it, no matter what reason.  Some only pass through, and others live their indefinitely.  Lady Jain has come to Castle Waiting, fleeing from an abusive husband and seeking a safe place to have her child.  There she meets a variety of characters and begins to learn their stories.

This is lots of fun, especially if you are a reader of fairy tales and can pick out whom some of the people are at Castle Waiting and in the surrounding towns, even before you hear their stories.  It's mixture of light fairy tale and more serious issues, like Lady Jain leaving her husband, or some of Sister Patience's story.

Castle Waiting was originally self-published serially in 1997-98.  Medley planned to publish other volumes, so that over time each character's story of how they ended up at Castle Waiting would be told.  In the first volume, only part of Lady Jain's story and the story of Sister Patience is told.  Due to not great sales, this never happened, which was very sad.  But hurrah, for Fantagraphics picked it up, published the existing Castle Waiting stories in one volume and this year the second volume finally came out!  So now you can get Castle Waiting vol. 2.