Better Watch Out

A little fairy tale humor for the approaching crazy season... :)
NOTE: According to the stamp, the illustration is by Thomas Artner, though his work is actually very modern and abstract. I can't find this piece (or anything else like this style) anywhere on his site! You can view his portfolio HERE.

"Red Hot Fairy Tales Anthology" - Open Call for Submissions

Interested in rewriting a fairy tale?

Samhain Publishing Ltd., has put out a submissions call for any interested author, in any genre, wanting to write a novella for a yet-to-be-titled fairy tale anthology.

Here's the announcement (reproduced in entirety by permission):

How did Belle tame the wild Beast? Did the carriage turn into a pumpkin….or did Cinderella? And just what was going on with Snow White and those Dwarves?

I’m very pleased to announce an open call for submissions for a new, yet-to-be titled Summer 2010 anthology. I’m open to any genre, M/F, M/M, or multiples thereof. I’m looking for your super-hot take on the fairy tales we grew up with and… there must be a Happily Ever After.

The anthology will include novellas from 20,000 to 25,000 words in length and will be released individually as ebooks in August 2010 and in print in Spring 2011.

Submissions are open to all authors, published with Samhain or aspiring to be published with Samhain. All submissions must be new material, previously published submissions will not be considered. Additionally, manuscripts previously submitted, whether individually or for past anthologies, will not be considered either. Please be aware that manuscripts submitted to this anthology cannot be resubmitted at a later date unless by invitation from an editor. Please note, we are not accepting multiple submissions for this anthology. If you already have a manuscript under consideration with Samhain and would also like to send in a submission to this anthology, please query editor@samhainpublishing.com first.

To submit a manuscript for consideration, please include:

The full manuscript (of 20,000 to 25,000 words) with a comprehensive 2-5 page synopsis. Please include a letter of introduction/query letter. Full manuscripts are required for this as it’s a special project. As well, when you send your manuscript, please be sure to use the naming convention FairyTales_Title_MS or FairyTales_Title_Synopsis. This will ensure that your submission doesn’t get missed in the many submissions we receive, and makes it easy for me to find in my ebook reader.

Submissions are open until February 1st, 2010 and final decision will be made by February 15th, 2010. Please send your submission to editor@samhainpublishing.com and include Red Hot Fairy Tales Anthology in the subject line. Questions and queries can be addressed to Laurie M. Rauch (laurie@samhainpublishing.com)

Other submission information as well as details on royalties and contracts can be found HERE. My take on 'hot' here is sexy as well as new and fresh but you may wish to check up on that definition. They're also currently looking for Steampunk Romance pieces too (information on that is on the same page). I wonder which anthology is more likely to publish a steampunk romance fairy tale? ;)

The poster shown is from the famous cartoon by Tex Avery "Red Hot Riding Hood", which you watch see below.

Baba Yaga's Beer

There's a new beer out which is:

"inspired by Eastern European folklore, by woodland, streams, cold dark nights and woodsmoke."

It's called "Babayaga" and is being made for the Winter season by Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. They even have a little poem that goes with it:I'm not a beer person (although I love a lot of the label designs people are coming up with these days) but I admit this one makes me curious.

And if you think this is interesting wait till you read about their 'Baby Tree' beer.
You can find out more about the beer (and the unusual, creative and fun brewing company) HERE.

Su Blackwell Creates Oz Papercuts for Harrods

The amazing papercut artist Su Blackwell was asked to create some Wizard of Oz landscapes for Harrod's and graciously posted the three page spread on her blog for us to see.
I love seeing how the worlds she creates emerge from their respective books.

About this project, she writes:

The December Issue of Harrods Magazine is out already, for which I was asked to create three double-page spreads based on 'The Wizard of Oz'. The kids and cuddly toys were photoshopped in afterwards.

It isn't the first time Ms. Blackwell has created Oz out of paper. Here's a lovely silhouette piece from 2007.About her chosen medium she says:

"I employ this delicate, accessible medium and use irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions. It is the delicacy, the slight feeling of claustrophobia, as if these characters and the landscape have been trapped inside the book all this time and are now suddenly released."

You can see more of her incredible work HERE on her blog and HERE on her website.

Cinderella's Evil Stepmother for Vogue Korea?

Another article from Vogue Korea's December 2009 fairy tale issue. This time it's Cinderella - or, if the write-ups at various blogs are correct, Cinderella's Evil Stepmother.

The model (also a Korean star) is Chae Si-ra.I'd seriously like to get a translation of these articles to find out the stories or if they're purely riffing on a theme. Whatever the case, it's something very different and very interesting.

The Vogue Korea website is HERE.

And there's still more to come. This issue is like a Christmas present for fans of fairy tales!

Behind-the-Scenes of Vogue's "The Wild Swans"

A sincere thank you to Jordan Scott (a.k.a. J.R.D.S.) for kindly alerting me to the fact that this video was already up (I guess, as Mr. Scott said, they meant November 23rd, not December 23rd).

Here's a real treat: the behind-the-scenes video of the fashion shoot for vogue Korea's 'fairy tale issue for December 2009, specifically the shoot for "The Wild Swans".I'm embedding two versions: one with English subtitles and one without. While both have text on the screen, the English subtitled one does cover some of the images you may be interested in. Interestingly, the models all talk about their impressions of the story and what they think we can learn from it.

Enjoy!

No English subtitles:


With English subtitles:



While I found these on YouTube, the Vogue Korea website Mr. Scott alerted me to with the original video is HERE.

The models for this shoot were the popular 'boy band' members of SHINee and Korean star Seo-hyun.

There are obviously scenes shown in this behind-the-scenes that I haven't found photos of on the web anywhere (I got some poor quality screen caps as examples) so that's another reason to go find this fairy tale themed issue of Vogue Korea (December 2009). Nice stuff!

I should also mention Jordan Scott's fascinating website of little known animated fairy tales from around the world called "The Palace of Animated Drawings". It's worth taking some time to look through properly - there are some real gems there. You can find it HERE.

Snow White's Deadly Tomato

Here's a different use of Snow White and the modified fruit she bit into with tragic results. This one uses a tomato (you know the tomato is officially a fruit, right?) and is designed to get us thinking about what we're doing to our food sources with everything from pesticides to selective propagation.

This work is from art student Alice Wang at Brisbane Girl's Grammar School in Queensland, Australia.

From the description of the piece:

"The Invention explores the issue of genetic modification. The still life genre is normally associated with affirmations of life and momento mori reminders to seize the day, but this image features the hand of a dead Snow White, after taking a bite of a tomato. In a contemporary twist, the tomato has been modified with fish genes. Flies are bringing on putrefication to both the corpse and the fruit and a pungent smell is implied.

Questions are raised about human motivations regarding genetic modification of food, and more broadly in relation to other interventions in the life fabric".

Makes you think - which is the whole point. Congratulations to Miss Wang.

"A Queen of Mirror" (A Vogue Korea Fashion Fairy Tale)

I cannot vouch for the translation "A Queen of Mirror" as the title for this shoot but it definitely has echoes of Snow White in it. (Note: Monica Bellucci played a Mirror Queen in Terry Gilliam's movie "The Brothers Grimm" from 2005 [heads-up: auto-sound at the official site I've linked to] and there's also a book titled "The Queen's Mirror: Fairy Tales by German Women, 1780-1900 (European Women Writers)" by Jarvis & Blackwell.) And yes, that does look like a glass slipper... Anybody have any ideas on that one?

This is, once again, one of the fairy tale fashion shoots for the December 2009 issue of Vogue Korea. The Korean celebrities for this shoot are Han Chae-young and Baek Seol-goong.

Again, I have no idea of the correct order of these images.The website for Vogue Korea is HERE.

We're not done yet - stay tuned...

Japan's Oldest Folktale "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" Next In Line From Studio Ghibli

"The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" a.k.a. "TheTale of Princess Kaguya" a.k.a. The Bamboo Princess" (Taketori Monogatari or Kaguya Hime), Japan's oldest known folktale from the 10th century (also considered Japan's first fairy tale) is coming to the big screen courtesy of Studio Ghibli (the animation studio that created "Ponyo", "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro" among others). While it won't be directed by Miyazaki it will be the same team, so expectations will be high.From Asian Movie Pulse:

Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli co-founder and director (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, My Neighbors The Yamadas) has made the very exciting announcement that he will be directing a new feature-length film. Takahata is the “other” half of Studio Ghibli (edit FTNH: Miyazaki being the more well known "half"), and one of Japan’s most famous anime directors. With this new film, Takahata will be breaking a 10-year hiatus (his last feature film, My Neighbors the Yamadas, was released in 1999). His new film, Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), is a movie adaption of the classic 10th century folktale (also popularly known as Kaguya Hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya)).

Taketori Monogatari has directly and indirectly inspired many Japanese manga and anime, such as Sailormoon and Inuyasha. This beloved story is considered to be the oldest surviving example of Japanese narrative, and every Japanese person knows this story. A little baby is found inside the stalk of a glowing plant by a bamboo cutter. He takes her home, and raises her with his wife as their own daughter, and they give her the name Kaguya-Hime (radiant-night princess). She grows into a beautiful adult woman, with many suitors, even the Emperor of Japan – and she rebuffs them all. Then, things become even more complicated as her true lineage becomes revealed, and her special relationship with the moon...

This would be Studio Ghibli’s first foray into remaking a classic folktale (unlike Disney, which is famous for such remakes – Cinderella, Snow White, etc.). Taketori Monogatari has been made into live-action and animation remakes many times, and while it has not been announced whether Takahata intends to faithfully follow the original story, it is more likely that he will surprise us. For one thing, a faithful rendition of this story has been done many times, and it might not be interesting for Japanese locals; for another, he is well-known in Japan for his originality and creativity. So it is certainly a treat to look forward to.

And if you're wondering how this film will differ from other well-loved Studio Ghibli films, here's what the official Ghibli Blog has to say about Takahata's directing style:

What sort of movie will Taketori Monogatari become? We can expect a stunning attention to detail and documentary realism, emotionally-charged human drama, and Takahata's patented style of logic and precision. His adaptations are more logical and calculated than Miyazaki's instinctive, almost impulsive style. He doesn't scrap the original source material as Miyazaki-san always does (Conan, Kiki, Howl). Instead, Takahata gets to the core of the story, fleshing it out, adding depth and color and bringing them to life.

This tale can be found everywhere and will be familiar to those who've read any collection of Japanese fairy tales. The Golden Book of Japaneses Fairy Tales is a good place to find a copy as it also has some lovely illustrations. Online, there's a sweet child-friendly site HERE where you can read the story with the illustrations shown here (which are actually animated gifs at the site) for each page and some Japanese music that's optional to listen to as well.

And what will the 68 year old beloved Studio Ghibli Director, Hayao Miyazaki, be doing? Not retiring. He's reportedly in the planning stages on TWO more films right now - set to be released 2011 and 2013. Miyazaki-san creates animation which is unapologetically for children, so we can expect more fantasy family films coming our way.

Vogue Korea's Adventure in Wonderland

Continuing the fairy tale theme in the December 2009 issue of Vogue Korea is an article titled "Adventure in Wonderland" with Korean celebrity Ha Ji Won.What I find funny is that out of all the fairy tales this issue interprets, the Alice (and Alice as Gulliver) article is the most conservative/least outlandish.

Again, you can see more HERE at the Vogue Korea website.

And a heads-up for those who liked the fairy tale photoshoot of The Wild Swans: apparently Vogue Korea will be releasing a behind-the-scenes video of that gorgeous photoshoot on December 23rd. I hope we can access it!