Calling All Writers Who Love To Read!

Our partnership with Timeless Tales has opened up an exciting new opportunity for our readers. We are forming a team of volunteer reviewers, so if you're a fellow fairy tale lover who would like to contribute to this blog (and have the opportunity for a little publicity for your own work), here is how you can apply.

We currently have a team of three regular reviewers and would like to add 2-3 more consistent members to our team and a longer list of intermittent members.  

I have no idea what kind of response this will receive, so consider this an open invite until May 1, 2015 with the possibility of us extending it.

INSTRUCTIONS

Send an email to Tahlia at 
timelesstalesbookreviews AT gmail DOT com 
with "I want to join the team!" in the subject line. 

Include the following information:

1. Your name and a short paragraph about yourself, focusing on your love of fairytales, your writing background, and what genres you like/dislike reading (so we know what books your most likely to enjoy). Please include links to any blogs or published pieces. Note: you are not required to be previously published to be considered for this position.

2. Are you interested in reviewing ebooks?

3. Do you have an iPad or iPhone? (We have a request at the moment that requires one of these devices) 

By Agata Kawa

General info:

• When you send us your application info, Tahlia will look it over and if she likes what she sees, she'll send you a review to write as a trial run. With the assignment, you will also receive all our review writing guidelines. If she's happy with what you submit, we will use it on the blog and consider you for further reviews. 
• This is sadly not a paid position, but we will give you full credit and a bio blurb at the end of the review, including links. 
• However, you will be allowed to keep any review copies/ARCs of books sent to you.
• The expected word count for your posts will be 250-500 words (not including the published blurb/synopsis).
• We will try to be flexible with your schedule, but must have writers who can commit to an agreed-upon deadline. If we send you a request and you choose to pass, that's totally fine. Once a deadline is agreed to and we send you a book, however, we will need you to meet that deadline (usually around a month after we mail you the book). Note: This is particularly important for books about to be released. We aim to support and promote the work of fairy tale authors, and possibly, one day, you too!

Welcome to the Debut of OUABlog Fairy Tale Forums (Don't worry the OUAT one is coming...) Let's Chat!

Since I had such a good response (especially via email) to the idea of a chat room/forum for TV series and more that...

Ta da!

Welcome to the launch of Once Upon A Blog Forums for fairy tale folk.

First up is a fan and viewer forum for NBC's GRIMM, fairy tale community edition, but I'll be adding a forum for each of the major active series or movie sensations of the season as we go along. (In the list so far: OUAT, Maleficent movie, Cinderella movie, Into The Woods movie... Ever After High?? General Forum for Fairy Tale Films?? Suggestions welcome.)

There's a bunch of topics set-up to get you going and all are welcome to join in. Active and lively discussion is encouraged! I only ask that you use common sense and courtesy in posting (additional guidelines are posted below the forum box but they're about the same as every other forum you've seen - no surprises).

Here's the link >>>> OUABlog GRIMM Forum and you should see a GRIMM Forum tab at the top of the page, under the header, that you can access any time.

And here's what it looks like in it's brand new baby forum... with some extra text and arrows to show you around.

To answer your question, yes I will be participating in discussions fairly regularly. I have a lot I'd love to discuss that I don't feel is appropriate to be creating whole posts on, so please, come, join in, chat with me and let me know your thoughts! We have a lot to talk about. *claps hands - can't wait!*

See you on the forums!

New Permanent Page: FABLES 411

With all the Fables news continuing and interest growing in the series I thought it was about time I put together a page to help guide newbies through Bill Willingham's daunting universe.

The link will remain in the tabs at the top of the page so you can quickly find it at any time.

Here's a quick summary of what you'll find:

• Fables Explained (aka "what the hell is Fables??" And why should I care? Really?)
• How To Read (aka navigate) Fables, A Handy What-Next?! Guide
• Bill Willingham on Fables vs Once Upon A Time (why they're not "at war", so fans shouldn't be either)
• Awesome Art Sampling from Fables & Fairest

Hope it's helpful.

Once Upon A Blog's New Visual Archive (& Katerina Shtanko's Snow White & Rose Red)

First of all - aren't these illustrations just beautiful? They're by Ukranian artist Katerina Shtanko (Катерина Штанко) and are, of course, telling the story of Snow White & Rose Red. Although she's a contemporary artist these illustrations look vintage and I adore the watercolor washes over ink. She's one of my (many) inspirations and the first artist I decided to dedicate a Pinterest board to.

And speaking of Pinterest...

ARCHIVES AT-A-GLANCE

Yep - I've been a busy bee. Still am. But you now have Once Upon A Blog "Archives At-A-Glance"!

I am currently in the process of archiving all the posts ever posted on Pinterest in batches so you have another way to browse topics and I have another way to get fairy tale news out to people.

I am working backward, so the archive is current from today (I update daily when I post the headlines on Facebook and Twitter) all the way back to the beginning of 2012 - so far. As with blogs, the newest entries are at the top of the page. I am nearly done with 2011 as well. Then there will be only two years worth to go... (except for dailies, of course).

While it's a little laborious it's also pretty wonderful revisiting all the fairy tale news (that I got to post at least - I missed a TON!). I can safely say I am NEVER at a loss for something to post. Whenever there's a lull in actual news or events I always have a backlog of things I missed, artist's whose work I want to profile, books to chat about, articles upon fascinating articles of topics all over the shop... it's amazing really. People wonder how on earth I run a daily blog of fairy tale news. And then they get a glimpse of what I've posted as opposed to what I chose to miss that time around and then I get asked: how do you have time to do anything else? (I'm actually beginning to wonder the same thing.)

Anyway - the archive is to, hopefully, make things easier for you to track, browse and to share. (Yes! Please don't keep the news to yourself! Share - get it out there! Have some fairy tale conversations. If you credit me as your source that'd be nice but my goal is to get it out there to the world - to show everyone that fairy tales are not dead and gone. They're alive, loved and one of the best gifts our different cultural heritages have given us - for lots of reasons.) The archive boards are at the top of my Once Upon A Blog page so you don't have to hunt-scroll for them and they each state the time period they cover.

Old boards will state "COMPLETE" when archiving for that period is done and won't be added to. Ones I'm actively working on say "IN PROCESS". The current one has a little pen-arrow next to the title, like this...

✒ FTNewsArchive~Jun/Jul 2013 ♛

...so you know it's being updated daily as posts go live) Each entry has a image representing the post, the headline, the date it was posted, a credit for the image (& title if applicable) and each "pin" links back to the original article.

EXTRA FAIRY TALE NEWS POSTS VIA FACEBOOK & TWITTER

You should also be aware that I AM POSTING EXTRA FAIRY TALE NEWS CONTENT ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER EVERY DAY!

Yes! You want more fairy tale news? Well now you have it. There's always more - and I'm aiming to give you as much as I possibly can.


Please note: I do not intend to try and cover every subject, tale or news story - that's impossible - and there are other truly excellent fairy tale blogs that post on their different subjects - which I try not to duplicate in general - unless I really, really want to say something about that too. Although I like it when people post different opinions on one subject and we have an (almost) inter-blog discussion (very fun!), I don't want you to feel like you're wading through the same news twice all the time either. I might very well link you to an article from FB and Twitter, though, just to help spread the love, er, news. :)

One of the things I got discouraged about before (funnily enough) is that I simply couldn't get to sharing everything I felt was important or interesting. I didn't even have the time or room to share what various readers were working on to encourage people in their own fairy tale work! It was very easy to get overwhelmed - still is - but I'm working on managing that, by doing things like this. So Facebook and Twitter both get: the daily headlines (with links back to the blog), Friday fairy tale funnies, notable fairy tale quotes & excerpts, links to short films, podcasts and other media presentations, additional news headlines I didn't get time to profile on the blog (but didn't want people to miss,) updates on blog stuff (like announcements, archiving updates, additional features and pages) and pretty much anything else I can post quickly without having to spend a lot of time researching.


Note: The Facebook page is public so you don't need an account to go check for the extra news! 

If you do have an FB account though, clicking "LIKE" on the page will send the news to your feed as it comes in (always make sure to add it to your "Interest List" on the pull-down menu - click the thing that looks like a gear wheel - to make it visible in your stream).

NEW ONCE UPON A BLOG TUMBLR (experimental)

I have also started a Once Upon A Blog... Gallery of Enchanted Arts Tumblr BUT it's definitely in the the experimental stage right now. Between the blog, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter I'm really not sure where I will fit that in.. BUT I want to try, since so many people love Tumblr and use it as their main blogging platform.

DAILY PINTEREST UPDATES

I am using Pinterest every day for fairy tale purposes - at least briefly to add the headline pins but often more than that. If you feel a little overwhelmed at how many boards I have (I have a lot!) and just want to know what I've been up to recently here's a shortcut: just check my PINS page - they'll show all my recent pins at the top as well as any new boards I've created. If you check my LIKES page you can see what I (usually hurriedly) liked but didn't necessarily end up pinning anywhere (I try to clean this up from time to time as well).

The Once Upon A Blog.. Pinterest page is continually growing but there are already a lot of boards dedicated to particular tales. I have so many I made a special page right here on the blog site (see the tabs under the blog header) so you can check if a tale is there you want to see. If you click on the title you will be direct-linked to that tale board!

See how easy and linked everything is now?

I hope all this makes your fairy tale reading and research more fun and helps you discover stories and fairy tale related goodness you wouldn't have otherwise. Now, more than ever, if you have some fairy tale news of your own, or something you've heard or seen somewhere you'd like to share, let me know and I'll do my best to get it out there. I want to encourage everyone working and creating in fairy tales and not have people feel so alone in their studies, work, art or discoveries. I'm also hoping that all this will bring you more of what I set out to give you in the first place: FAIRY TALE NEWS!

PS. Oh yes. And I most definitely have a Pinterest board dedicated to the amazing Katerina Shtanko (Катерина Штанко)! You can find that HERE. :)

Working on Some Changes...

A post to ask for your continued patience as I work on restructuring the way I handle a few things regarding the blog.

I am busy trying to get a new work station happening so I can be more mobile (and therefore more in touch and post more often) but it may mean compromising some of the features and formatting - we shall see. So far things look promising but there are a few important things that I can't get to work smoothly just yet.

Since I have also suddenly had a large amount of review requests, (!) rather than repeat myself inconsistently as I answer and have to assess every request from scratch, I will shortly be adding a policy for review requests for Once Upon A Blog to direct people to so that authors and artists will be better prepared when they contact me.

Snow White Reinterpreted via Rene Magritte by Brian Cook

(T-shirt design concept.  Why have we not seen this before?)

Please note! The intent is not to discourage you if you'd like promotion via the blog. I'm actually adding some suggestions for those who would like promotion via OUAB (especially for those who may not fall within the review guidelines), and trying to make it clear with regard to what is acceptable for promotion and content. I'll also be putting up some guidelines for anyone interested in writing guest posts, so watch for that too.

The upshot of this announcement is that I'm working hard on making a lot of changes happen right now but - hopefully! - the only thing you'll really notice when I'm done, is that you'll get more regular posts again, unlike the image at the head of the post in which all the major aspects have well and truly been swapped around and nothing is at all like what it was before.

The flipped Snow White scene at the top is an ad for digital art studio Farbraum, showing how completely they can make you over. It's a version of Snow White we haven't seen yet, at least not in the sense of a straight gender swap (though I'm certain I've seen a gay version once upon a time). That would certainly put a different spin on things. 

Once Upon A Blog Joins Pinterest

After doing some research, I've decided to have Once Upon A Blog branch out a little and join Pinterest. 

My concern about joining anything is that my time is very limited and posting regularly here is already a big challenge. Having said that I think having a Pinterest account is not only very manageable but might be beneficial to Once Upon A Blog readers.

So here it is:

Once Upon A Blog at Pinterest

(click above to go straight there)

I'm including soe screenshots of the boards as they are right now (note: most boards have far more images than are shown in the preview).

I don't ever intend to have a definite collection of anything pinned there: not of illustrations per tale, nor best books for students of fairy tales, nor most recommended picture books. Heidi Anne Heiner already has most of this information collected and easily searchable at SurLaLune. My aim in having the blog is to supplement and support the phenomenal work she's already done there and on her own daily blog by bringing you news you may not have seen, or link you to new and different art, books, projects or products I've found. My aim in having Pinterest boards is to link you visually to resources, ideas and inspirations and to better enhance your "fairy tale life".

I am just starting there (I've only been on it a day and a half - and it's taken all my computer time so blogging has been a little light sorry!) and have very quickly put together some boards so you'd have some fun exploring straight away. In the interest of speed, a lot of my "pinning" has initially been within the Pinterest community so I've speedily "re-pinned" entries into my own categories of boards without much, if any commentary of my own. This means I have a bit of catching up to do to update credits for illustrations and photos so, for the most part, most of the comments you read below the pictures aren't mine (and I can't promise when I will be getting to them, just that I intend to). Enchanted Conversation is also on Pinterest (Kate Wolford's interest is the reason I looked into getting an account in the first place) and you'll see her boards are beautifully informative in addition to being lovely and interesting collections.

I will definitely be adding boards in the future, particularly to break up the books boards and make them easier to navigate. Right now all fiction and reference books are together and only being kept separate from picture books. I don't intend it to remain that way! I also have pinned whatever I happened to find first - there's no priority order there so if you think a book is missing, it probably is. I have a lot to add - and that's only regarding books I like and happily recommend. A proper definitive board/list would be... HUGE! 

The "tales" boards are not meant to be (again) definitive illustration collections. I'm putting together images I either really like or find interesting and unusual. Hopefully you'll always be able to discover something new among them.

You're welcome to follow me there, to "like" and/or comment, or, better still, you can make your own boards and help build more of a fairy tale community there. There are obviously quite a few fairy tale readers and enthusiasts on there already who've built a generous collection of magical boards to browse. I've tried to have the Once Upon A Blog boards be a little different to these (hence the "fairy tale colors" series) but there will always be some overlap. That's one of the wonderful things, though. If you're fascinated by crowns, for instance, you can make a whole board of them and we can all visit, appreciate and enjoy, while someone else might be completely focused on animals in fairy tales.

So, consider the Once Upon A Blog Pinterest boards a place to browse for fun magic and inspiration. Expect to find many side paths and don't feel you need to explore them all. I'm a very visual person so I enjoy things like mood boards and images collected on a theme. This Pinterest account will reflect that. It's also intentionally personal so you'll be getting a better glimpse at the kinds of things that make this fairy tale enthusiast tick, including on subjects not directly within fairy tale circles. :)

Enjoy!

Fairy Tale Inspired Writing Pages Coming

The Carlo Collodi Fountain Pen nib detail

It's come to my attention that almost all my fairy tale inspired short stories, podcasts and other work have been slowly disappearing from the web due to personal site upgrades, defunct blog programs and various other things...

So:

I am going to be adding pages to the Once Upon A Blog site when I can so some of my fair tale writing can have a (hopefully permanent) home here. :)

First cap off the rank:

Torn

(A short story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's The Marsh King's Daughter)

It was originally written for as a Halloween story for Supernatural Fairy Tales, a great site which has recently had an upgrade. (Note: This is STILL an awesome site full of fantastic fairy tale short stories by Dorlana Vann and other wonderful finds. At last look, my two-part article on True Love and Fairy Tales is still there.)

You can read more about the initial publishing HERE in the announcement post on this blog (which I have also updated with the new page link).

The direct link to the story is under the header next to the About InkGypsy page or you can click HERE.

And, since we're on the topic of fairy tale writing, what better than a fairy tale pen? Look at this lovely, lovely Montblanc Carlo Collodi Fountain Pen I found recently. (They come in rollerball and ballpoint pens too apparently, but you need to contact them for prices. I'm guessing $$$!) It was released just in time for Christmas last year (2011).

Though I haven't been able to write (or blog or be online!) much at all the past year or so, I am beginning to write again and just the thought of this pen is very inspiring. Though it will likely take me a little while to publish anything new, I am excited to go dig up some fairy tale bits and pieces of my own and share them with people again.

I hope you enjoy the pages to come.

:)

Once Upon A Blog Is Going Through Some Changes

I thought it was about time I updated the look of the blog so I will be experimenting over the next little while until I settle on something I'm happy with.

Please be patient! I'm not likely to get it right the first time. Or the second time. Or... ya know!

Think of it as Once Upon A Blog going through some transformations. ;)

In the meantime, this is what we've looked like for almost a couple of years...

And I honestly have no idea where I'm going with things this time yet!

PS Expect frogs - at least at first. ;)

Update...

I've been wanting to do an update for a while and know many people are sad the blog is no longer being updated, wondering what happened and did I really get sucked into an abyss somewhere. The answer to the last question is "sort of".

For any who followed the blog regularly you'll know 2010 has been a rough year for me and my family. We've lost jobs, house, had financial issues, health issues (which turned out to be minor, thank goodness!) and problem after problem with computers and other supposedly-necessary equipment, just to keep the pressure on.

Things are not resolved. We're not quite back on our feet and breathing easy yet but we are all together, safe and healthy. I have been offline almost completely for many months this year and no longer have a computer of my own, which makes it very hard to keep up with anything let alone have some sort of online presence and input (especially daily). I do not know when/if I will be able to 'fix' this and currently rely on borrowing a machine and access to do anything online, so I've tossed and turned over what to do.

Here's my decision:

Daily blogging is out of the question for now and the foreseeable future. I hadn't originally planned to blog every day but it happened that way naturally. The problem is now that the expectation is for a daily (at least!) post (a large part of that pressure is from myself, I know) and I simply can't do that.

BUT

I've decided I'm keeping the blog going.

I won't be able to do it daily, or even guarantee something every week at this point, but I will post small snippets when the opportunity allows. I'll try not to worry that I'm missing all the good stuff or that I'm letting everybody down. I'll try to be content with my small offerings because I'd rather be a small part of all this than not at all.

I miss the fairy tale community. I miss sharing. I miss touching base with all the tales I know and discovering new variations. Fairy tales inform my life, my creativity and help me cope in my day-to-day with the truths of the stories.

One thing I have achieved is I have managed to run an online urban fantasy chat for writers and readers on Twitter (known as #UFchat) for the last few months. Even when my computer breathed its last and I could no longer check in with the community there I realized people were hungry for discussing the tales, in all their modern guises, and, prompted by the response, found 'work-arounds', both by borrowing machines and access and by allowing people to pitch in and help. It's been tough to keep up. I've had to cancel at embarrassingly short notice more than once but it's happening. You see, urban fantasy has much in common with fairy tales - in many ways it's the modern equivalent - and working on that has brought home to me again how important the tales are. It's also reminded me that there's a reason Once Upon A Blog is important to continue, if I possibly can, both for me and for others.

So I'm going to start posting again at Once Upon A Blog - just here and there and very randomly. I'm going to take it slow and steady, one post at a time, and enjoy whatever wonders of the wood I glimpse along the way. I have faith that things will get better but I'm not waiting any longer till everything is 'better'. If there's anything this year has taught me, it's what's important - family and health are the big ones. Fairy tales are another.

Thank you to those who have sent emails of encouragement and support - I haven't been able to read many of them until recently and won't be able to reply individually at this time, but please know each one has meant so much to me and my family. I thank you for news of fairy tales and various projects and again regret I'm not able to follow through on them all, though I will when I can from now on.

Thank you for your patience, for your enthusiasm for Once Upon A Blog and for loving fairy tales. You've been a greater gift to me and mine than you can know.

Sincerely,

Gypsy

NOTE: The lovely images are by French artist Kris Soft, whose website/blog you can find HERE. While Kris Soft does sculpt paper dolls in some of the usual fairy tale subjects (Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood and more) you'll discover an instant fairy tale sympatico in her many unusual and unique characters. They are both evocative of fairy tales and full of feeling, capturing perfectly many of the sentiments I and my family have had over the past many months. Do go browse her blog! I believe you have to contact her directly if you'd like to order any sculptures or prints.

Grateful

Making Roots

by Kathleen Lolley

Thank you SO much to all who've commented and emailed in support of our situation here. I really didn't expect any feedback but the number of kind and supportive responses have been amazing and really helped keep our spirits up. Every single comment, note and mail is truly and greatly appreciated by me and mine here. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort.

Update: There really aren't any new developments regarding our living situation except to say the pressure is still on and the clock continues ticking but we are making sure we are pro-active in some way every day, being thankful for the good things. We have high hopes that things will be resolved soon (in the next few weeks) and that we'll leave this chapter behind. I'm just thankful I don't have to relocate an entire shoe's worth of children and convince possible buyers to see (sniff?) beyond the old sock smell!

Leave Home
by Kathleen Lolley

Thank you again - to everyone - for the support. I hope to be making more regular news posts from here on out until the actual move happens, though there are bound to be a few missed days here and there still - especially on the day I make my toddler that cardboard box castle I've promised him, when everything is unpacked again! Thank you again for your patience and continued readership. This is an awesome and special community.

The lovely paintings in this post are by Kathleen Lolley. She has a wonderful collection of mythic art at her site HERE and at her Flickr account HERE (a must-see if you like owls), including a number of home themed images that take on new meaning for me at present. "Making Roots" particularly exemplifies our current feelings: our house is up in the air but our roots reach beyond that little detail, growing daily stronger as we work on building our Home.

Once Upon A House...

My apologies for the sudden lack of posts and for not answering emails the past couple of weeks (at least!). I've decided to share what's been happening for me and mine in the hopes that others having difficulties will be encouraged that they are not alone. So here's the most personal post I've written for Once Upon A Blog so far...

I have houses on the brain.

You see, to put it bluntly, we are losing ours. I almost wrote 'home', but in the days since finding out that this was not only a possibility but an actuality it's become very clear that home will be wherever my little family ends up. It's not dependent on a building or a location, or even our 'stuff'. As long as we're together, we will be Home and everything will be OK.Everyone knows the economy in the US is in a terrible state but it's not till it starts affecting people you know (and your own family) that you realize how widespread it is. We've known the possibility of moving was there for a while but facing it, especially under these circumstances (which are complicated and personal) as the 'thing that has to happen' was shocking - devastating even. Once we started talking about the difficulties we've been having though, lots of people began to confess they were in hardship too. And I do mean LOTS. All the secrecy, shame, the hiding heads in the sand and the fear are contributing to people not learning what they should about their situation and what their options truly are. This is the main reason I want to share. No matter where you are in your troubles with finances, jobs (and the lack of them) and housing, you always have a choice.

This is one of the very important lessons I've learned from fairy tales. Bad things happen. Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it isn't. No matter what, you DO have choices. Maybe they're not nice choices or easy choices BUT it's empowering to actively choose, instead of just having everything happen to you.

For us, the choice has been to proceed with what's called a "short sale". It's not what we wanted but we believe it's our best option at this juncture. It's tricky with banks changing the rules every few weeks (and incredibly frustrating when you've been trying to negotiate a loan modification for over half a year) but being active in what happens to us in the future makes us feel less like victims and more like we're managing a bad situation for a better outcome. Knowing we are doing everything we can to put things right means we can move forward with fewer regrets and reduce our chances of ever being in this situation again.I will continue to post at Once Upon A Blog when I can during these challenges but please forgive the lack of daily fairy tale news until the changes are complete and the dust settles.

To all those facing trouble of all kinds, hang in there. You're not alone. We're right there with you and we're determined to make it out the other side. Yes, we're trudging through a very dark part of the woods and yes, there most definitely are wolves (they come in all shapes and sizes). The worry continues and the stress is high (we are human after all) but we now know there's a way through and that there's a 'they lived happily' in our future to look forward to.

Sincerely,
Gypsy

PS The fun pictures in this post are from a Photoshop challenge called Bizarrchitecture, by Worth 1000. You can see these and lots more fun, fantasy houses HERE (you'll need to scroll down past the welcome at the top of the page).

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: End Notes & Recap

Sleeping Beauty Mucha Style
by freaksmg

I hope you've enjoyed the giant catch-up on news.

If you're just joining us, I've done a special set of posts today:

A Fairy Tale News 'New Year's Stories' Bumper Edition!

Once again, here are the 'newspaper sections' for you to browse through (the first one is the earliest post in the day, of course) - now with extra 'linkage'!:

INTRO & CONTENTS
General (& latest) fairy tale news headlines (that I haven't seen posted elsewhere)
Blog posts and/or articles discussing/using fairy tales
Friends and other fairy tale people online
Fairy tales in performance arts
Fairy tale artists & illustrators (past & present)
Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines
Fairy tale films & movies
Fairy tale influenced books (and reviews)
Newly discovered online fairy tale retellings
Fairy tale fashion news
Home & garden fairy tale style
Fairy tale sports
Fun fairy tale finds
Fairy tale funnies
Fairy tale weather & the natural world
Fairy tale music/audio
Food and dining fairy tale news
Classifieds/ads for fairy tale people
Careers - fairy tale knowledge required!
From the archives: fairy tale articles to read again (or for the first time)
End notes & recap

Please do let me know any comments you have here or on the posts. I'll even publish 'Letters to the Editor & Fairy Tale News Hound' if you email fairytalenews AT gmail DOT com!
Beauty and the Beast
by wdkimmy

I'll be back to daily blogging as soon as my commitments allow, so keep checking back for more news. In the meantime, happy reading and happy new year.

***************************************************
UPDATE - 2PM:

I've just linked each content title to it's respective post to make navigation a little easier.

Also, as I was posting this morning, Cabinet Des Fées went live with their 9th Issue. More fairy tale reading - yay! More details will be added to the Fairy Tale Journals/Online 'zines post. In the meantime, the link is HERE.

Enjoy! :)

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition!

"I believe in the truth of fairy-tales more than I believe in the truth in the newspaper."

- Lotte Reiniger
(Silhouette AND quote)

Hello and welcome to 2010 - a year that promises to be exciting for fairy tale enthusiasts everywhere. (Yay!)

I've been away from the blog longer than planned due to unexpected commitments and am still unable to return to daily blogging this week BUT the Fairy Tale News Hound is bursting with news she simply must share!

So: to bring you up-to-date and give you lots of fairy tale news (despite the fact I really shouldn't be online) I thought we could do something a little different...

A Fairy Tale News 'New Year's Stories' Bumper Edition!

Check out the collection of posts today for lots of story summaries and links, newspaper style. You have the following 'sections' (i.e. posts) to browse through (or you can hop straight there from here):

General (& latest) fairy tale news headlines (that I haven't seen posted elsewhere)
Blog posts and/or articles discussing/using fairy tales
Friends and other fairy tale people online
Fairy tales in performance arts
Fairy tale artists & illustrators (past & present)
Fairy tale journals/magazines/online 'zines
Fairy tale films & movies
Fairy tale influenced books (and reviews)
Newly discovered online fairy tale retellings
Fairy tale fashion news
Home & garden fairy tale style
Fairy tale sports
Fun fairy tale finds
Fairy tale funnies
Fairy tale weather & the natural world
Fairy tale music/audio
Food and dining fairy tale news
Classifieds/ads for fairy tale people
Careers - fairy tale knowledge required!
From the archives: fairy tale articles to read again (or for the first time)
End notes & recap

Snow White On Flowers
by Marina B.

Enjoy the "issue".
I'll catch up with you soon and be back to daily blogging before long.
:)

Psst!

Red Keds Design Collective (from Russia) - 33 Fairy Tales project
(Individual artist of this piece unknown)

Giant
Fairy Tale News
Special New Year's
'Bumper Edition'

coming shortly!

Stay tuned...
:)

Happy New Year!

New Year's fireworks over Cinderella's castle in Disney World, Florida

Happy New Year!

I found an great blog post from Russophilia that explains the importance of the New Year in Russia. It's the most magical time of the year there because it not only celebrates the end of an old year and the beginning of the new but also comes complete "with all the same enchantments as our Christmas," with children waiting for presents to appear under a tree from the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. (December 25th isn't celebrated. Instead the Orthodox Christ-mass is celebrated on Epiphany - January 6th.) As a result Russian New Years cards are of great significance. The blog shares a few lovely ones and I thought I'd post the one that comes straight from a Russian fairy tale, along with some excerpts to explain the significance.

I found this (New Year's) postcard which depicts a character from Russian fairy tales, Emelya, Емеля, the fool who snuggles up to the fireplace and never wants to have to leave to do anything. He gets lucky when we catches a magic pike (fish) in the river and the pike tells him a secret phrase to say to make everything obey his will:

I haven’t quite figured out what this has to do with the New Year, but I think it has to do with hopes of luck and success and a minimum of labor. A wish that in the New Year, may you, like Emelya, have every success and happiness, ability to get out of trouble and avoid punishment for your reckless behavior, may you have a princess fall madly in love with you, and most importantly, may you never have to leave the comforts of your warm fireplace to obtain these things. This is the Russian’s ideal year!

(You can read the whole article HERE.)

That's got to make you smile!

Let me rephrase, from me to you:

May your 2010 be wonderful:

full of magic, joy and plenty of good luck too!

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve fireworks over the Sydney Harbour bridge, Sydney Opera House & Sydney Harbour

Please note:

I'll be taking a brief blog break but then will be back with plenty of fairy tale news as usual. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy all the Stories of the Season posts (and more) I've put up over Christmas - there's plenty of reading there to catch up on and lots of links to follow.

All the best for the season and a magical New Year.

Gypsy

UPDATE 1/1/01 (12:36PM)

I have just posted my last two "Stories for the Season" posts at the date and time they were originally intended to appear - in the last hours of December 31st, 2009. Please scroll down to see a post on The Little Match Girl and a final 'story roundup' with lots of additional suggestions and links.

Enjoy!

Running Behind...

Just a little note to say I'm running behind - way behind! - in answering email.

If you've written to me and I haven't gotten back to you yet, hang in there. I'm not ignoring you and I haven't lost your mail (I don't think!). I'm slowly getting through my inbox... but I've got a ways to go.

[Don't worry - the "Pursuit of Happiness" contest is a priority.
I'll be doing the drawing for the lucky winner on the 21st as originally planned.]

Thank you for all your comments and mails. Knowing people enjoy the news, art and posts gives me extra incentive to try to post daily, no matter how busy things are.

May you find time to enjoy the season
and to explore a little more of the world of fairy tales with me.

(And thank you for patience as I wade through to the top of my inbox!)

*White Rabbit by the talented H. Kyoht Luterman who does a lot of folklore based art. You can see her website HERE and see even more on in deviantArt gallery HERE.