'Make Fairyland Great Again' by N.T.O. Zamboni

We've had eras of fractured fairy tales rising in popularity, and it would appear that this is one of them.

This volume of fractured retellings was written in response to the results of the election last November and have proved even more popular than the author, N.T.O. Zamboni, expected.

Here's the blurb:

Normally, fairytales and fables teach important lessons:

Build a house to fend off deplorable wolves.

Don’t be tempted by candied false promises.

Beware of golden-haired thieves stealing your porridge.

But this is not normal. Trump is not normal. We need updated, 21st-century fairytales to warn against new threats. Tremendous threats. Crude, demented, racist, misogynistic threats. 

Make Fairyland Great Again is a collection of twenty-one revised folk stories and parables: Sleeping Beauty, the Frog Prince, Ali Baba, Rapunzel, the Pied Piper, the Three Little Pigs, and many more! 

(However, just like Trump himself, this book is not appropriate for children.)

There are quite a number available online to read for free HERE and HERE.

Your (free) choices are:

• The Ant and the Grasshopper
• The Emperor's New Clothes (an incredibly popular fairy tale right now!)
• Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
• The Frog Prince
• Sleeping Beauty

Should you feel like reading even more or adding this book to your library (or supporting the author), you can find it HERE.

"Desperately Ever After" Double Sale Starts TODAY

Starting TODAY, author Laura Kenyon is having a "double ebook sale" on her popular Desperately Ever After novel and its sequel,  Damsels in Distress.

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Evanovich says: “Laura Kenyon makes happily ever after desperately delicious!"

Adds Elizabeth Blackwell, author of While Beauty Slept:
"At times laugh-out-loud funny, and at times very touching, Desperately Ever After is the debut of a real talent.”

If you're not familiar with Laura Kenyon's series, just think:
Sex and the City + Desperate Housewives + Brothers Grimm = Desperately Ever After. 

Book One was named a 2014 National Indie Excellence Awards chick-lit finalist. In October, the e-book skyrocketed to the top of Amazon’s charts, hitting #49 and becoming the #1 Best Seller in each of its three categories: Women’s Humorous Fiction, Women’s Fantasy Fiction, and Paranormal Fantasy.

Laura explained more about what inspired her to write the series on her blog, some of which I thought I'd share, in case these books are new for you. (Excerpted from a two-part post):

Like so many women today, I grew up on Disney movies and fairy tales. 

Then… shocker… I grew up. I got to know the real world. I experienced heartbreak and cursed the very notion of “true love” as a bunch of poison we were all force fed as a generation. I took a second look at the tales I used to love and  wondered how each princess would have really felt in her situation. What would they have said if they had the freedom to do so? If their choices weren’t marriage, poverty or spinsterhood? If they had the luxury of deciding between the story’s chosen hero, someone else, or self-sufficient independence...

You can read more about the issues she explores in the rest of the post HERE, but for now, here's a good little summary. ;)

The sale details for the books, by country, are below:

In the US (Amazon.com -- ebook only):
• The price of Desperately Ever After drops to 99 cents on Friday, April 17, and steadily climbs back up until the sale ends at midnight (PST) April 24. Link: http://amzn.to/1zamP3j
• Damsels in Distress will be 99 cents from April 17 through April 23. Link: http://amzn.to/1DbMjkL

In the UK (Amazon.co.uk -- ebook only)
• Desperately Ever After will be 0.99 GBP from 8 a.m. (GMT) April 17 through April 23. Link: http://amzn.to/1ykox7c
• The price of Damsels in Distress drops to 0.99 GBP at 8 a.m. (GMT) April 17, and steadily climbs back up until the sale ends at midnight April 24. Link: http://amzn.to/1aKc9md

For more about the books, please visit http://laurakenyon.com/the-desperately-ever-after-series or see Laura's many links below:

Website: laurakenyon.com

Twitter: @laura_kenyon

Facebook: laurakenyonwrites

Goodreads: Laura Kenyon

Amazon: Desperately Ever After

Review: "The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice" by Kevin J.J. Carpenter

"The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice" 

(A Novel of Overlords, Underlings and Inhuman Resources)

Review by Kevin J.J. Carpenter

Editor's Note: When you pick this book up in its paper incarnation, the initial impression is that maybe it fell out of the box on the way to the shelves... perhaps even a couple of times. Then you realize, wait: are those scorch marks? The very capable Kevin J.J. Carpenter has the rest of the report.

Jacket description: 

A happy workforce, it is said, is a productive workforce.

Mmmm.

Try telling that to an army of belligerent goblins. Or the Big Bad Wolf. Or a professional dragon slayer. 

Who is looking after their well-being? Who gives a damn about their intolerable working conditions, lack of adequate health insurance, and terrible coffee in the canteen?

Thankfully, with access to an astonishingly diverse workforce and limitless natural resources, maximizing and improving operating profit has never really been an issue for the one they call "the Wizard." 

Until now.

Because now a perfectly good business model -- based on sound fiscal planning, entrepreneurial flair, and only one or two of the infinite parallel worlds that make up our universe -- is about to be disrupted by a young man not entirely aware of what's going on.

There's also a slight risk that the fabric of reality will be torn to shreds. You really do have to be awfully careful with these things.

This is a fun book! With The Outsorcerer's Apprentice, Tom Holt weaves a satirical mosaic hidden under the guise of an eccentric -albeit clunky- fairy tale perfectly suited for the modern world. There's plenty of techno-talk, a wealth of socio-political overtones, enough caustic language to garner a giggle, and most of the characters have an extreme case of cynical meta-syndrome, an increasingly popular trope in literature. The story has been penned solely for the internet generation, and all is held together by a surplus of sardonic humour.

The world Holt introduces to us is an amalgam of classic stories and while the presentation of this alternate reality is graceless and cumbersome, a coherent understanding of its complicated history is evidentially not the author's intention.* A little dubiety no doubt goes a long way in allowing readers to appreciate Holt's foreign fairy land. When one also considers that the world is described as nothing more than a patchwork of city-states, each weaved from our childhood imaginations, it is easy to understand why the author chose a less-explicative approach.

The story itself can best be described as a modern fairy tale. The familiar beats are all here and Holt uses a host of time-honoured tropes. There's the typical 'Once upon a time' opening, the particularly persistent Big Bad Wolf, and a strong female protagonist who practically begs to be the brainchild of the Brothers Grimm. Holt also offers plenty unanticipated twists to the genre staples. For example, the childhood fear of wicked relatives and cannibalistic witches has been updated to include an emphasis on economic instability. Quite ingeniously, Holt never treats the issue as anything more than allegorical, even going as far to state that economics is a 'wizard's word'. Furthermore, Holt portrays his goblin king as an empathetic characters, shown to genuinely care for the safety and longevity of his goblin-kin. This beast of the underdark is far removed from the gluttonous pigs of Rossetti's Goblin Market or the industrious demons from The Lord of the Rings, and it's a refreshing interpretation of a stale cliché.

Although Holt's peculiar novel can be a gratifying and amusing experience, the enjoyment factor is entirely dependent on how one approaches the story. At least a spattering of interest in the mythical is crucial. A base knowledge of pseudo-science and admitting to a guilty pleasure of the satirical would certainly go a long way toward appreciating the core substance of Holt's wacky world. As I said before, this is a fun book, and it doesn't try to be anything more than that.

*After a little research, it appears The Outsorcerer's Apprentice is actually the conclusion to the YouSpace Trilogy, which might account for some of the disorientation in the text, but can still be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

Disclosure: A complimentary copy of the book was provided in exchange for an honest review.

Kevin J.J. Carpenter is a professional editor, writer and an avid reader. He enjoys all genres, particularly the classics, and has a personal library of nearly 1,500 books. He currently resides in Sydney, Australia. For more of his reviews, you can visit his GoodReads page HERE. ( https://www.goodreads.com/kevinjjcarpenter )

Family Theater: "The Brothers Grimm & A Showgirl" & "Cinderella Italiano"

Despite the implication in the name, The Brothers Grimm & A Showgirl is a family theater production and has a short run starting TONIGHT. Pantochino Productions Inc ("ridiculously entertaining") is an award winning professional non-profit family theater productions company specializing in family friendly musical theater with a large dollop of fun.

From the New Haven Register:

The show features spoofs and goofs of favorite fairy tales such as Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty. In the play, the Brothers Grimm arrive to perform their stories and are taken by surprise when a sequined and feathered Showgirl appears and helps tell the tales in her own special way.

More information can be found on the Facebook page HERE and at the Pantochino theater company website HERE. You can see some photos via BroadwayWorld HERE.

The company is also staging an intriguing production titled Cinderella Italiano. Cinderella Italiano begins on April 24th, 2015.
                   

"Disenchanted" Goes Off-Broadway

A brief announcement from Broadway.com:

Who needs princes or glass slippers anyway? After a successful limited engagement off-Broadway over the holidays, fairy tale musical lampoon Disenchanted! will return to New York for an open-ended run. The comedy will begin performances on March 16 at Westside Theatre Upstairs. The cast and opening night will be announced shortly. 

Featuring a book, music and lyrics by Dennis T. Giacino and directed by Fiely A. Matias, the tuner features your typical “princess posse” in a show that’s anything-but-typical. Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and more toss off the tiaras and get real in a not-for-kids musical where fairy tales will never be the same.  

And here's a couple of excerpts from a comprehensive overview to give you an idea of what this is about, in case you haven't heard of it before:

In the Disney movie, Pocahontas is hot. She has flowing, silky hair that reaches her waist, which is as big around as her forearm. She has large breasts and wears a short, tight dress. When she meets John Smith she falls instantly in love. In real life Pocahontas was a hero. She bravely saved people's lives and died very young. She was not especially attractive. When she met John Smith, she was 10 years old. 

In a song in the middle of "Disenchanted," Pocahontas sings about that disparity. Why, she asks, was such a life story not good enough? Why did Disney have to turn the valiant child into a curvaceous adult? 

It's on of the most substantial and poignant moments in "Disenchanted," with a beautiful performance by Lulu Picart as the "real" Pocahontas. The rest of "Disenchanted" is a lot sillier than that song, but the entire show is smart, very funny and even subversive. 

...The idea behind the show is that a bunch of iconic female characters from fairy tales, folklore and history are unhappy with the way they're been portrayed in pop culture. They're tired of being depicted as helpless Barbies in distress who are just waiting for their prince to come.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/02/16/4993751/review-disenchanted-is-huge-fun.html#storylink=cpy

You can read the rest of the review, along with more pros as well as it's cons as a show still in the making, HERE. 

This is scheduled for an "open-ended run" off-Broadway, which says a lot about how successful it was. I'm curious to see how big a press covering it will get in 2016 when it is scheduled to start touring nationally. International shows are currently in development too so that will be interesting to keep tabs on as well.

Is Mattel's New "Ever After High" Just Another Princess Line? Or Is It Even Scarier Than "Monster High"?

Are you a royal or a rebel? Is Apple White's destiny at risk? Will Raven Queen flip the script? Let the page turning tale begin...

No. I did not write the above. (!) These are the teaser quotes for Mattel's soon-to-be-released Monster High spin-off line, Ever After High.

Fantasy writer Seanan McGuire (no stranger to fairy tales) summarized the premise for the new toys this way:

"Ever After High, where the children of famous fairy tale figures go to school as they prepare to take the Legacy Pledge and relive the stories of their parents. Hundreds of generations of Wicked Queens and whiteout girls* passing poison apples back and forth between them like Valentines..."

The story, er, collection begins with two characters**, er, dolls: Apple White (Snow White's daughter) and Raven Queen (the Evil Queen's Daughter), playing out their dueling destinies while attending the same classes. (Dum dum daaaaah!)

They even have "Mirror Blogs" we can follow them on as they comment on events, rumors and more from their (opposite) POVs.

(From the official Ever After High website:)

Raven Queen: "Just found out I'm not rooming with Maddie. My new roomie is Apple White???"

Apple White: "Spellbinding morning - the perfect day for starting a charmed new school year. Consulted my magic mirror, and I'm..." (to be revealed) 

 

OK I'll admit it. I've been rolling my eyes for much of this blog post but the "twisted teens fighting crappy destinies"/"stereotypical fairy tale characters get giant doses of reality" concept is actually beginning to make a bizarre sort of sense to me, especially if the characters are referencing the grimmer details of their parents tales and follow basic logic through. If any of those aspects are allowed to play out I can actually see this being quite "high concept" (*wince* sorry) and catching on... In fact it took me all of two minutes to find other people (mainly teens and therefore the target purchase group) thinking along the same lines and already quite excited about the whole idea.

Take a look at an excerpt from one of the (many) comments in a dedicated Tumblr blog:

"...like how is this premise somehow creepier than the one with monsters
I’m getting over my initial aversion but this is giving me some serious NO REALLY THIS IS F***ING DISTURBING feelings regarding fate and free will and the fact that some of these kids are expected to have no choice beyond ultimately dying in unbelievably gruesome ways (go look up what originally happened to Snow White’s stepmom*. Or Cinderella’s stepsisters. I’ll wait here) is a lot scarier than the franchise is admitting so far.
_____
*You know, on reflection, a woman who’d make her former tormentor dance to death in red-hot iron shoes as wedding entertainment probably is a woman who’d name her daughter after that which almost killed her herself and will eventually almost do the same to said daughter."

Then I (re)realized this is actually about selling (yet another) set of princess dolls and not primarily a story, or a show. Nor is it about providing a tool to deal with grim(m) teen issues (although it would be SO cool if that were the case). Unlike the Monster High dolls and accessories (beloved by many fairy tale afficionados) Ever After High has no cool teen zombie designs with bonus frankenfish or adorable voodoo puppy pet accessories to hook you into the sell. Despite that these princesses have the potential to be pretty dark in nature (Twisted Princesses anyone?) it's not like they'll be at home on the shelves next to Gris Grimley and The Walking Dead swag. They're just too... princessy-looking.

And then this appears on the Ever After High Facebook page:

So... yeah. We'll see. The seeds are there but will they bloom into the greatness of their true destiny or will they wither and die like so many forgotten...?

Ack. Never mind.

The line was officially announced at the end of May and is releasing in July this year.

*aka Snow Whites.

** Characters so far are: THE ROYALS - Apple White (daughter of Snow White), Briar Beauty (daughter of Sleeping Beauty), Ashlynn Ella (daughter of Cinderella), Blondielocks (daughter of Goldilocks, also a royal, kind of - not too 'this' and not too 'that'). THE REBELS - Raven Queen (daughter of the Evil Queen), Cedar Wood (daughter of Pinocchio), Cerise Hood (daughter of Little Red Riding Hood, who's hiding a big bad secret), Madeline Hatter (daughter of the Mad Hatter, roommate Kitty Cheshire, she can also hear the narrators) And there are Prince Charmings everywhere, there's a giant named Tiny and the headmaster (Mr. Grimm) has a brother who is locked in a secret library underneath the school... and arguing male and female narrators.

Theater: The Stinky Cheese Man And Other Fairly Stupid Tales

This isn't a brand new production but I thought it was worth a mention since it's playing to lucky Connecticut audiences, starting January 29th.

  In “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,” Jack must use his wits to save himself from the terrible Giant, but a host of familiar fairytale characters keep messing up his plans---and then there's that annoying Stinky Cheese Man! Very different from the traditional fairy tale, characters slide in and out of familiar stories. Cinderella rebuffs Rumpelstiltskin, and Goldilocks meets the Three Elephants. Nothing is quite the same as the audience remembers it. Recommended for ages 4 to 10, the show is produced by the Griffin Theatre Company, based on the book by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith.


If you're not familiar with the Caldecott Honor book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales do yourself a favor and go get a copy right now! Highly recommended and so much fun to read no matter what age you are.

Grimmer Tales: A Wicked Collection of Happily Never After Stories

There's a new book out (released December 9, 2009) of fairy tale retellings in which the stories are told in comics with a rather grim version of a funny bone.

The author/illustrator is Erik Bergstrom and the reviews are using phrases like "homicidal whimsy" and "joyfully morbid masterpiece" so this won't be everyone's cup of tea.
From Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:

The book consists of a series of extremely nasty comic-strips telling the aftermath of the classic folkloric fairy tales. For example, one running gag has Pinnocchio telling polite social lies in panel 1, while panel 2 depicts his sprouted nose gouging out the eye of some innocent (i.e., "Cute baby! -- stab").

These running gags are pretty funny, but the really standout moments are the longer strips, especially the "What a Witch" strip, in which two witches standing over a cauldron extol the virtues of Kiddee Flakes, which are much more convenient for kidnapped-child-fattening than candy-houses. This is good, wicked humor at its finest -- if you loved Fractured Fairy Tales...

The link for more information is HERE.