4th Podcast Episode of "CAGES: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel" is up

Part IV of V of my steampunk fairy tale retelling is up at Supernatural Fairy Tales!

You can read the text and/or listen to the podcast
(me reading with a little music added)
HERE.

There is a small button labeled PLAY below the header for the audio.

Part I can be found HERE.
Part II can be found HERE.
Part III can be found HERE.

If you'd like to read the fairy tale that inspired it, you can find it HERE, at the amazing fairy tale resource site of SurLaLune.

The next and final episode - V - will drop on August 28th, along with a PDF of the whole story that will be available for FREE download and distribution.

Dorlana Vann has been wonderful for hosting this short story podcast series and very patient with me as I figure out the technical details of recording a podcast for the first time. :D

Thank you Dorlana! You are awesome!

Enjoy Part IV!

The Great 'Sleeping Beauty' Rewrite (III of IV)

If you missed Tuesday's post on Diamonds & Toads, I suggest you go read it so you'll know more about where these lovely short story retellings have come from.

As promised, here are the rest of the stories (and their authors) that entered the Diamonds & Toads contest. Their stories are published on a special page for all to read them. Please note, these are in no particular order, though I will be making another special mention today. The winner of the contest will have a special post all to herself in a couple of days (August 22nd). :)

A sincere thank you (again) to Kate Wolford of Diamonds & Toads for helping me put these posts together!

“Sleeping Beauty,” by Victoria Zhou, is notable for its extremely determined and mean villainess, Jade.

Diamonds & Toads comment: This story had an extremely compelling villainess, which made it stand out among the entries.

“Cinderella,” by Tom Mollica, turns the whole fairy tale theme on its head. “Cinderella” just happens to be the heroine’s name, and she falls into her sleep because of an aunt who is so anti-alcohol, she sets a spell on Cinderella to cause her to fall into her deep sleep based on one sip of champagne. A jolly story.

Diamonds & Toads comment: Kookie aunts, beer, a sleeping beauty named "Cinderella" -- I enjoyed this irreverent tale.

“Cupcake Princess,” by Jennifer Alberts, is a story set in a little French town, where the heroine is really just the daughter of the most talented bakers an author could dream up. This story is filled with references to confections, making it a foodie’s dream story.

Diamonds & Toads comment: How could I not love a story about cupcakes? A very yummy tale.

“Saving Beauty,” by Heather Spiva, clearly shows the reader how tough life would be for the parents of any “Sleeping Beauty,” character. Serious in tone, the story even has a Cain and Abel twist.

Diamonds & Toads comment: This was intriguing because it involved fostering the endangered heroine, and I liked the dedication.

“Sleeping Beauty 2009,” by Tyffany D. Neiheiser, has many of the conventional elements of the original tale, except dad is a doctor, and the “evil” force in the story, Aunt Destiny, in the end, is the one who brings our heroine happiness. For who can deny Destiny?

Diamonds & Toads comment: This story was such fun, because it was set in the suburbs, and the author did some smart work with "Destiny."

“A Gift Returned,” by Liz Chernov, features a schoolteacher hero and a villainess who keeps going even after the happy ending for hero and heroine. Dreaming is used as an intriguing way of letting the couple communicate.

Diamonds & Toads comment: I loved this entry because it had a charming hero and a well-drawn villainess.

Today's special mention is:

“The Sleeping Beauty Mystery,” by Carl Macek, which features a detective hero who brings Humphrey Bogart’s old movies to mind. Yet, it has a modern flavor to it as well, and is light and amusing.

Diamonds & Toads comment: I am a total sucker for a mystery. I can truly say that I thought this story was great fun!

And here's a brief excerpt from the beginning of "The Sleeping Beauty Mystery":

The package was delivered to my office, Charlie Prince Investigations, without a return address. I suppose somebody at the Post Office had finally decided to clean out a couple of their dead letter files and put some effort into delivering the previously undeliverable. But when I saw the ratty condition of the homemade cardboard envelope that was sitting outside my office door, I wasn’t all that eager to open it. I kept thinking about the people that I’d heard of who’d found out the hard way that what they thought was Aunt Agnes’ famous fruitcake turned out to be a letter bomb. The way I figured it, I had a fifty-fifty chance of coming out alive. I just closed my eyes and ripped the cardboard package apart.

What I found inside was an old VHS tape. I hadn’t seen one of those “antique” plastic cassettes for nearly 25 years. There was a piece of white tape along the spine with the words “Please Help” scrawled with a thick black marker pen. It took me almost two weeks to find someone who had an old video tape player that worked so that I could even watch the stupid thing. And by that time my curiosity was sufficiently piqued. But I wasn’t prepared for what I found recorded on that antiquated relic...

To keep reading, click HERE.

Stay tuned for the winning entry - coming in a couple of days on August 22nd.

NOTE: All images and close-ups are from Errol Le Cain's "Thorn Rose". Click on the sleeping dog at the head to find out more about this amazing animator and illustrator. He illustrated many fairy tales! The other pictures you can click on for a closer view - highly recommended.

The Great 'Sleeping Beauty' Rewrite (II of IV)

If you missed yesterday's post on Diamonds & Toads, I suggest you go check it out so you'll know more about where these short story retellings have come from.

As promised, here are a half of the stories (and their authors) that entered the Diamonds & Toads contest. They all have their stories published on a special page for all to read them. I'll profile the rest tomorrow. Please note, these are in no particular order, though I will be making a special mention of a story today and tomorrow. The winner of the contest will have a special post all to herself at the end of the week. :)

A sincere thank you to Kate Wolford of Diamonds & Toads for helping me put these next couple of posts together!

“Sleeping Beauty,” by Sandra Urias, is an intergalactic adventure featuring suspended animation, twists and turns in the plot, and an unusually kind and generous heroine.

Diamonds & Toads comment: Please make a special effort to read this extraordinary entry.

“Aurora Speaks,” by Lisa Fu features a first-person narrative by Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) herself and a non-perfect hero, which makes the story a bit more realistic, in a good way. Aurora’s plight also results from an interesting twist in family relations.

Diamonds & Toads comment: I love that we see some point of view from the princess. I also love that the hero is not perfect.

“Lonely Beauty,” by Elena Valeriote, is unusual because Oriana, our heroine, is “protected” from her fate by being raised in a dungeon. What makes this story fun is that she has seven brothers, and is the much-hoped-for girl. All ends happily, and Oriana ends up with lots of company.

Diamonds & Toads comment: A princess protected in a dungeon? Now that was some creative thinking! I also love the seven brothers angle.

“Sleeping Cutie,” by Hugh Neeld has a funny, Hollywood excess feel to it that makes the story just plain fun. After all, it is set in the land of “Gotitmade.”

Diamonds & Toads comment: What do I have to say about this story? Just this: It is very, very good! And fun!

“Sleeping Beauty and the God of Death,” By Emily Debenham, uses mythic characters and mythic story structures to give the story a grand sweep.

Diamonds & Toads comment: This writer took the story into the realm of gods and myth, making it stand out.

“Sleeping Beauty,” by Juliette Bowers features family jealousy, as many fairy tales do! What is intriguing about the tale is that Philip, our hero, is the son of the family’s housekeeper, and knows the heroine before she falls into her sleep, making the happy ending seem more probable.

Diamonds & Toads comment: This story had some intriguingly written sisters and an excellent hero, both qualities draw the reader in.

Today's special mention is:

“Keeping Beauty,” by Barbara Knight. It stands out because it highlights some of the troubling, complicated relationships we all have with beauty, as the story is set in the “Land of Vanity,” where homeliness of any kind is not permitted.

Diamonds & Toads comment: Note: Barbara Knight should keep on writing! This is highly entertaining and provides some very smart commentary on beauty standards.

And here's a brief excerpt from the beginning of "Keeping Beauty":

Once upon a time, King Handsome and Queen Charisma ruled in the lovely Land of Vanity. All those who lived in Vanity were pleasing to the eye. There was beauty everywhere. Rows of pastel colored houses were perfectly landscaped and immaculately maintained. Organic gardens grew only unblemished fruit and vegetables. Long necked swans graced the clear ponds as feathery finned angelfish swam below the surfaces. And melodic birds filled the flowering trees.

Each time there was a birth within the kingdom, the baby was presented to the King and Queen. If he or she was worthy, they would be allowed to stay. But if the child was not up to standards, he or she would be banished from the land forever, forced to live amongst the plain. This happened rarely, as beauty usually begets beauty...

To keep reading click HERE.

Stay tuned for the other stories - coming in a couple of days on August 19th.

NOTE: All images and close-ups are from Errol Le Cain's "Thorn Rose" (ie. Sleeping Beauty) picture book. click on the book cover at the head to find out more about this amazing animator and illustrator. He's illustrated many fairy tales! The other pictures you can click on for a closer view - highly recommended. The man was amazing! More of these gorgeous illustrations coming from "Thorn Rose" in a couple of days too.

"Diamonds & Toads" Blog Holds "The Great 'Sleeping Beauty' Rewrite" (I of IV)

If you're not aware of the blog "Diamonds & Toads", let me now direct your attention to this wonderful resource:

Run by Kate Wolford, a lecturer at Indiana University South Bend, this blog focuses on the analysis, research and writing of fairy tales as well as the general enjoyment of fairy tales and, while aimed to help her students, is available and accessible to non-students too. Kate, who's love of fairy tales is evident with every post, encourages dialogue on fairy tales from all sources and is working on getting an online magazine, specifically on fairy tales, up and running sometime during 2010 (more details to come).

(We can't wait Kate!)

In the meantime, she held a contest called "The Great 'Sleeping Beauty' Rewrite" and had a lot of excellent entries.

The above gorgeous painting is one of my favorite artistic renditions of Sleeping Beauty and is by a later Pre-Raphaelite artist, Edward Burne-Jones.

The requirements were that the story be unpublished elsewhere (ie 'new'), to retell 'Sleeping Beauty' and be 1 000 words or less. Entrants had one month to write it (from July 1st to July 31st). The story had to be 'G' rated but adult in tone and not geared toward children. Diamonds & Toads reserved the right to publish the story on their blog and keep it there, though authors were free to publish it anywhere else after the contest was over. And yes, there was a lovely fairy tale themed prize (you can see a picture on the blog).

Kate was delighted with, not only the number of entries but the quality of them and, with her permission, I'm going to introduce you all to the stories (which are available to read HERE) over the next few days and show you just how many wonderful variations people came up with.

But the good news doesn't end there.

There's ANOTHER contest - just for READING the stories! (Details HERE on the August 7th entry.) You enter by reading, then making a comment... where and how, I'll leave up to you to figure out. (It's not difficult.) Contest ends at the end of August so get reading! (The prize is a lovely one-of-a-kind artwork by talented artist Cat Mallard, a.k.a. darklingwoods on Etsy and Twitter. (She has other fairy tale themed art too and all her work is beautiful, so check out her Etsy page HERE.)

Part I of "The Great 'Sleeping Beauty' Rewrite" is posting tomorrow.

Before we get to the new stories, though, I'd like to share two of my favorite retellings:

Jane Yolen's Briar Rose and Robert Coover's Briar Rose (book covers are shown below and you can get more information on each by clicking on the images. Please note there are two covers for Jane Yolen's book currently available.)

I recommend the audio book for this version too - unabridged of course!

In the meantime, go check out the rest of "Diamonds & Toads". If you're not familiar with the story this blog is named for you can find more information there. ;)

3rd Podcast Episode of "CAGES: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel" is up

Part III of V of my steampunk fairy tale retelling is up at Supernatural Fairy Tales!

You can read the text and/or listen to the podcast
(me reading with a little music added)
HERE.

There is a small button labeled PLAY below the header for the audio.

Part I can be found HERE.
Part II can be found HERE.

If you'd like to read the fairy tale that inspired it, you can find it HERE, at the amazing fairy tale resource site of SurLaLune.

The next episode - IV - will drop on August 21st...

Thank you, once again, to Dorlana Vann for hosting this short story podcast series.

Enjoy!

2nd Podcast Episode of "CAGES: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel" is up

This is the second episode of five coming your way, of my new short story "CAGES".

Click on the image to go to Supernatural Fairy Tales and listen to the podcast (with me reading and wonderful music by steampunk band Abney Park) and/or read the text (with some related pics).

Enjoy!Thanks again to Dorlana Vann for this opportunity. You can follow her on Twitter and get all the latest Supernatural Fairy Tale updates HERE.

Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel - short series podcast

There's a new special short series podcast dropping today - August 1st - at "Supernatural Fairy Tales" - and it's a Steampunk retelling of a Grimm's fairy tale - by me!

Dorlana Vann was kind enough to invite me to write a short story for her site and it's turned into an exciting mini-production, being presented in five weekly parts during the month of August in both text and as a podcast.

The title of the story is:

"Cages: A Steampunk Retelling of Grimm's Jorinde & Joringel in V Parts with Epilogue"

(gotta love those old-fashioned lengthy titles!)

and has a definite Neo-Victorian feel.

You can go listen (and/or read)
HERE.

In case you're not familiar with the fairy tale you can read it HERE (and thank you to Heidi at SurLaLune for making this a readily available online reference for me to check when I didn't have my complete Grimm's handy!)

I also managed to secure permission from Steampunk band Abney Park to use some of their music in the podcast, one song in particular being perfect thematically. Many thanks to them for their generosity in sharing their fabulous music. You can check out their website HERE.I'll also be making a PDF of the complete story available for free download and distribution at the end of the series, so watch out for that.

Lots of steampunk fairy tale goodness coming your way!

Enjoy.

The Supernatural Fairy Tales of Dorlana Vann - Interview!

One of the regular blogs I visit (and link to in my sidebar) is "Supernatural Fairy Tales", hosted by author and writer Dorlana Vann.

Dorlana's interest in fairy tales is obvious to anyone who visits her sites or interacts with her on Twitter. She's written a number of short stories based on fairy tales and added a paranormal element for a different twist. Her stories are fresh, modern and not for little kids but there's definitely a sense of fun about them. Dorlana kindly agreed to a short interview for Once Upon A Blog...

Fairy Tale News Hound: Thank you, Dorlana, for being available to answer some questions for Once Upon A Blog today. In previous interviews people have asked about you as a writer, your books and your interest in the supernatural. I thought I would focus on your interest in fairy tales and the resulting wonderful blog, "Supernatural Fairy Tales".

When do you first remember being influenced by fairy tales and how are you influenced now?

D: I wrote my first fairy tale inspired short story, Phone Calls and Dwarfs, about 15 years ago. The more I learn about them, the more I respect them, and today they are my main source of inspiration.

FTNH: What is/are your favorite fairy tale/s (or types of tales) and fairy tale characters? Why?

D: I guess I’m still a little girl at heart, because my favorite is Cinderella—the one with the happily ever after. I avoided writing a Cinderella inspired short story for a long time because there are a ton of adaptations already out there. And, since it’s my favorite, I wanted to do it justice. I did finally write a short story, Midnight, where I had fun creating a modern Cinderella who was a bit feisty; I threw her into a paranormal situation with an old-fashioned Prince, who turned out to be not so charming.

FTNH: You've written a lovely collection of fairy tale inspired short stories which are available to read at "Supernatural Fairy Tales". Personally, I love "Blueberry Eyes", "The Tower" and the latest piece you've posted, "Forbidden Beach". Do you remember the genesis of any of your fairy tale inspired short stories?

D: Thank you.

Except for my earlier pieces that weren’t paranormal, they all started out pretty much the same. I read the fairy tale and either retold it, using a supernatural element, or more likely, used what I thought was the theme/moral or sometimes just the character, to write a paranormal short story. My favorite stories are the ones where, on the surface, you can’t tell which fairy tale I used, the reader has to really dig; but when the fairy tale is discovered, it’s like “ohhh…”

Also, a lot of personal experiences influence my thought process in the unfolding of a story. Right before I wrote Silverweed Muffins my mom was reminiscing about how my grandfather was so superstitious. I used some of these memories in my story—like when he saw the devil in the woods, and the fact that he thought he killed his mom when he was 5-years-old by shooing the black birds off of their front porch—and they also set the entire mood of the story. And in one of my more recent stories, If You Feed a Wolf, I pulled out my dream journal and took actual segments of my dreams, from years ago, and used them in the story—because the feel of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (the inspiration story) reminded me of my dreams and made me believe that Lewis Carroll was a lucid dreamer, too.

FTNH: When did you decide that combining a fairy tale and a supernatural element (or two) made a good short story? Do you remember how you arrived at that combination?

D: It took me a while to find my genre, but when I did, (around 5 years ago) combining my two interests just kind of made sense. Now it is almost like a fun addiction. I crave that spark of inspiration from the fairy tale to get my imagination flowing. And because I choose the fairy tale and the supernatural element first, it also provides a disciplined writing challenge.

FTNH: I see you're having more and more guests involved in your website. Are you expanding what you're doing with the short stories and fairy tale articles?

D: I’ve had my blog for about two years, and I feel like I have just barely scraped the surface of the fairy tale world. Every day I learn something new and find new artists and writers who are extremely passionate about fairy tales. The blog, like me, has changed and grown from this exploration of fairy tales through other people’s eyes, voices and imaginations.

FTNH: Do you have any plans to collect your fairy tale inspired short stories into an anthology or perhaps write a novel length story based on a fairy tale?

D: I do plan on having an anthology one day, but right now the short stories that were inspired by fairy tales are now inspiring longer pieces. It sounds crazy, but I use the fairy tale to inspire the short story which in turn inspires the novel. I’m using my short stories, The Tower (inspired by Rapunzel) and Silverweed Muffins (inspired by Little Red Riding Hood) for my YA novels in progress. My plan is to have both novels finished by the end of the year. I’m really having a blast writing them.

Thank you again for making yourself available today, Dorlana! We wish you every success with your YA novels and can't wait to see what you have lined up for "Supernatural fairy Tales" in the coming months.

Dorlana's newly released book "Death" combines her two paranormal romance novels in one volume (available HERE). She is also one of the contributing authors to the anthology "Split" (available HERE).

You can learn more about Dorlana's "Death" HERE and read some of her excellent fairy tale inspired short stories HERE. Two recent stories are "Forbidden Beach", based, not on The Little Mermaid as you might think, but on Thumbelina, and "Cyberstock", based on Jack and the Beanstalk.

"Supernatural Fairy Tales" also has fairy tale articles, book reviews and profiles fairy tale-inspired artists of all kinds. If you haven't already, I encourage you to subscribe to Dorlana's site. You'll be very glad you did.