For Your Late Night Halloween Storytelling: “The Tale of the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was”

This is actually courtesy of the smart and talented Cate Fricke at Something To Read For the Train, and is so perfect for today, that I'm re-blogging a portion before sending you over to her site to read the rest.

This is a "freewrite" inspired by the perfect-for-Halloween Grimm's tale:

004. The Tale of the Boy Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was

*This post is part of A Grimm Project, a series of short fiction pieces using each of the Brothers Grimms’ Nursery and Household Tales as writing prompts. For more information about the project, click here. For more about the story which inspired this freewrite, click here.* 

When the bed stopped its bucking and the cats had gone to find milk, I straightened my suspenders and set off to explore the final wing of the castle. What fun I’d had so far—sheets askew and cards scattered, the castle had the look of a gaming den. One final hallway, one final door. I rapped my knuckles loudly, and the door gave way. 

Ah, it’s you, someone said. 

I could see no one in the dark. The voice was quiet and raspy. 

Nursing a cold there, eh, sir? I said. 

I heard a scratching noise near my feet. Fumbling in my pockets, I found the last match and lit it against my shoe sole. The small light flickered—two eyes looked up at me from the stone floor, reflecting the match’s dance...

Go HERE to read the rest of todays delicious entry and don't forget to also click on the link to Cate's notes and thoughts on the original tale.

BUT before you leave - please make sure you ALSO check out her inspired and wonderful Grimm Project, of which this story is a part.

I have been remiss in not mentioning it till now but it's one of those wonderful things I felt deserved more than a quick mention and, as a result, intimidated myself out of writing anything about it at all (when really I should be doing the exact opposite *red face*).

By the way, if you're looking for something to kick you into NaNoWriMo, which starts TOMORROW - this would be a perfect starting point!

Here's an excerpt from the "about' page to whet your writing appetite.

... read the rest at The Grimm Project HERE.

And Happy Halloween...

"The Grim" - Animated Web Series Halloween Premiere

This is a Kickstarter project that was successfully funded and the completed premiere webisode was uploaded this evening.

Months after the wolf attacked, Red Riding Hood must relive the terrible events and rediscover herself in this ongoing series.

The Grim is an ongoing series project that takes the characters of Grimm's fairy tales and nursery rhymes and works to connect their stories. The story begins with Red Riding hood. It's been months after the wolf attacked and she has completely blocked the traumatizing incident from her mind. As she continues to walk into the forest to search for the grandmother she still believes is alive the truth of that day begins to come back to her. Along with this she comes to learn that the wolf is relentlessly searching for her for reasons she doesn't yet understand. What commences is a story that finds Red searching for the origins of the wolf, the reason it hunts her, and how to stop it. Along the way she'll encounter many other familiar fairytale characters who will all have a mysterious connection to her journey and the wolf. This is a story about a girl coming to age in a harsh and grim world that is very unforgiving with its life lessons. The Grim also aims to take fairy tale creatures like Gingerbread men and make them surprisingly human.

This project definitely has potential and, if they've kept it fresh from other familiar mash-ups we know, is likely to take some twists and turns we're not familiar with. I like the post-wolf attack and unreliable memory premise. It would make for a different coming of age story to the usual LRRH ones. The first episode, titled "Fox", has very specific jaws this girl is worried about are different than the norm and it seems an apt metaphor for the place she's in post-attack as well.

While on her way to her Grandmother's, Gertrude Byrnes finds herself trapped and the only help she can find may only give her more trouble.

"Wolf" - Hasani Walker

I have to say I am impressed with what I've seen so far. While computer animation tends to be off-putting to me much of the time, the production is impressive and uses a smart mix of miniatures, stop motion puppets and computer animation to good effect. The opening frames of the main character didn't convince me but a minute or two in to her story I was far more interested than I thought I would be. I'm not completely sold on all the design aspects but was surprised how quickly they grew on me.

The fox and wolf characters (wolf shown in drawing only so far) are very reminiscent of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke characters, something that I think works here. It's early yet and there are only two characters interacting so far so we'll see, but overall, this seems promising.

You can watch the first episode below:

If you enjoyed that and would like to keep up to date, subscribe to Hasani Walker's YouTube channel for updates and to be alerted for new episodes when they're uploaded, or follow on Tumblr which should do the same. Hasani Studios is also on Facebook and posting updates, behind-the-scenes and more from all the various projects.

Mr. Walker is currently continuing work on The Grim and submitting it to festivals.

The Little Mermaid's Halloween

All the little mermaid wanted was to be a human for Halloween by Kiri Østergaard Leonard

What would the Little Mermaid wear for Halloween? Why legs of course!

I love this painting and it's different perspective on the tale (tail?). Although The Little Mermaid is incredibly popular, it's not often we imagine the Little Mermaid in her pre-story, longing state to become human/get legs/find a soul. Did she ever pretend she had legs? Did she paint her tail? Make a fake pair to wear just so she could see what she might look like with legs?

In many ways Danish artist, Kiri Østergaard Leonard's re-visioning of the story here, does the exact opposite of what many people do on Halloween (especially those in mermaid costumes!) - in dressing up we seek to escape our humanity and enter the fantastic while here, the Little Mermaid, seeks to enter humanity and join the human race (though in this case, she'd need a size adjustment as well).

"Happy Halloween! The Little Mermaid was always one of my favourite H. C. Andersen tales, it’s a tragic story but also beautiful story. The Little mermaid plays into feelings most women can relate to, wanting your body to be something else than it is and not being able to appreciate what you already are. With this illustration I took the idea of the ‘Little’ mermaid quite literally. It’s playing a little of the fairy tale with the mermaid wanting legs, but it quickly grew into its own story. I do have plans to make some illustrations that are truthful to the original story in the future." by Kiri Østergaard Leonard*

Although dressing up at Halloween originated in attempting to trick soul stealers and devils through disguise, today's traditions embrace both the wishing aspect and in embracing our own dark sides. I wonder if the Little Mermaid knew, in wishing to be human, that she was doing both?

This Halloween night, may you feel close to those you love who have passed on and have the strength and courage to face your own dark sides.

Happy Samhain everyone! 

* Kiri Østergaard Leonard is an illustrator and artist from Denmark, now living and working in New York. Her website can be found HERE, where you can see her other lovely fairy tale and fantasy work. 

Carol Ann Duffy & BalletLORENT Create a Spellbinding Rapunzel

I mentioned this contemporary ballet production briefly on Facebook a while back but it keeps appearing in the news - with good reason, so it's about time I wrote a proper post.

More and more positive critical response is appearing as people see BalletLORENT's new full-length work, Rapunzel (currently on tour in the UK). They're also taking note of the star-studded creative team aboard this project as well (finally!).

There was a considerable period of research time spent during the creation of Rapunzel, in conjunction with the world-famous Sadlers Wells Ballet Company and the project attracted some diverse world class talent as a result. BalletLORENT has a very good reputation in contemporary dance circles but beyond that the production boasts the talents of:

• Carol Ann Duffy  - multi-award winning poet, writer and playwright as well as having been appointed British poet laureate in 2009 (and whom should be known specifically to regular blog readers here for her work with fairy tales)
• Murray Gold - composer for Doctor Who
• Michele Clapton - costume designer for Game of Thrones
• Lesley Sharp - award winning British actress for film and TV (she is Narrator for the ballet)
• Phil Eddolls -  Commonwealth and Olympic Games set designer

And many more..! (You can see the full creative contributors HERE.)
Take a look at the promo video. It's beautiful, unusual and interesting.

✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ (click the "Read more" link below this line) ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ 

(The First?) "Fables Encyclopedia" Release Day

Dust cover art for Fables Encyclopedia

It's release day for the highly anticipated Fables Encyclopedia today, and it sounds better than I could have hoped for. Covering issues 1 to 121 (and including 1001 Night of Snowfall) the book promises an excellent read, including more information on both characters and stories (and you know Willingham will be adding notes on obscure fairy tales and folklore he's included as well).

Since I'm not able to go get a copy for myself just yet, I'm going to re-blog a review by Kurt Isensee aka The Iceman from Geeks Of Doom.

Since Fables issues already numbers well into 130+  and have many (many!) spin-offs, which aren't mentioned as being covered in this volume, it should be safe to assume that a second encyclopedia is already underway/under consideration.

The Fables Encyclopedia, by Jess Nevins, covers issues 1 – 121, and 1001 Nights of Snowfall. After only a few pages, it became clear to me that this is an indispensible tome, serving to compliment, and enhance the issues it covers. Hopefully, there’ll be a second volume in another decade or so. 

It’s loaded with panels from the comics, helping to refresh memories for more obscure characters, and includes enriching sidebar comments from Bill Willingham — check out his notes on the Hope character — cryptically cool! Plus, there are also fourteen pages of issue by issue annotations, as well as lots of behind-the-scenes tidbits, and clever revelations, such as artist Mark Buckingham’s inspiration for Tom Harrow. 

The sheer depth of the Fables Encyclopedia serves as a demonstration/reminder (as if the monthly comic wasn’t enough) as to just how well-read Willingham is, especially with regards to fairy tales/mythology from a number of cultures. It’s also testament to the staggering achievement in comics literature that is Fables. 

Well before the halfway mark, this encyclopedia made me want to go back and re-read my Fables trades. 

So I did. 

Highly recommended.

Notes and annotations!! *swoon*

Summary: it's awesome aka I will be getting one ASAP.

List price is $39.99. (Amazon currently has it for $25.29 for the hardcover and the Kindle edition for $22.99).

Fairy Tale Villains Do the "Spell Block Tango"

Todrick Hall's "Spell Block Tango"

Note: I meant to post this yesterday but time got away from me, (I always wish I could clone myself a few times during Halloween week!), so apologies for not alerting you before it went viral. 

This is another musical gem from Todrick Hall*, creator of Cinderonce, and is very fun. Not only is it extremely well done, it's great to hear the villainess' (ahem, including Scar) "arguing their POV", Chicago style. It's in perfect keeping with the current trend of retelling stories from the villains point of view (and it makes me want to see Chicago re-done with fairy tale characters).

The lyrics have been adjusted for each character and the Queen of Hearts' plea of "not guilty" is priceless.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, The Spell Block Tango.

Enjoy.

Kind of genius, really. I can't wait to see what Todrick Hall will do next!

* A former American Idol finalist turned actor and filmmaker, Hall has become known for his YouTube videos that combine show tunes or Top-40 hits with popular culture, such as his video "Cinderonce", which told the story of Cinderella using only Beyoncé songs.
* Source

Cap O' Rushes by Severino Baraldi

It's been a while since I did an art post so I dug into my drafts folder and found these gems to share. They are one of the set of fairy tale illustrations by the prolific and amazing Italian painter, Severino Baraldi.

You can be forgiven if you're from the US or UK and not aware of his work. He seems far better known in Europe, though that's a shame because his work is stunning. This is where my love of the internet knows no bounds - to have access to so many the fantastic things, especially writers and artists, that, till now, have been sequestered in their own countries and regions for whatever reason. Now we can all appreciate and enjoy the beauty!

The original source alerting me to this set said these illustrations are from a German tale titled, Prinzessin Binsenkappe, loosely translated as Princess Rush-Hood (or Cap O' Rushes).

Born in 1930, his illustrations cover a range of historical subjects, vehicles and Biblical subjects as well as fairy tales.

Aren't they beautiful? There are many more of Baraldi's "enchanted illustrations" on the web and by searching Pinterest HERE and Flickr HERE too.

He would seem to be quite an admirer of Gustav Tenggren (whose fairy tale work you likely know well, including Tenggren's influence on Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), but especially with regard to his 1001 Arabian Nights illustrations (see comparisons below), to the extent he reposed almost identical scenes. This style sensibility he seemed to carry through to his other fairy tale work though, like Cap O' Rushes shown above, and he ended up producing some truly beautiful pieces. I'm surprised we don't see his work more often, especially since it lends itself so well to popular animation styles today.

Baraldi was actually offered work in animation earlier in his career but he turned it down in favor of creating a huge set of Biblical illustrations. It should be noted, though, that he got his start in art by doing chalk drawings on pavement to entertain customers of a local barber's shop, as well as doing cartoons for a newspaper before moving on to more "serious art" and study, so seeing him return to a stylized form of these art expressions shouldn't be too surprising. I'm glad he did. These are some of the most beautiful and delightful works he produced. Although the others are amazing and the detail and technique are quite awe inspiring, it's these fairy tale illustrations that capture the imagination.

Baraldi has had quite a busy life, one which seems to have him constantly employed in illustration of one kind or another throughout, which is a great achievement in itself. He's now retired and enjoying his family, although I have no doubt his paint brushes aren't gathering dust now either. :)

You can read up on a detailed explanation of his biography and illustrations HERE.

Grimm Season 3 Premieres TONIGHT (Finally!)

While it seems late compared to other shows it would seem expectation for Grimm is the highest it's ever been.

(They knew the wait would be a long one didn't they?!)

So tonight's the night folks! Set your DVR...

And, while Grimm fans are checking their watches (do people even have those anymore?) every half-hour or so to see the time drag closer as slowly as a one-legged zombie shuffle, they can take advantage of the FREE e-book download HERE and browse the following features (at least, you they if they have an i-Thingy of some kind. Kindle, GooglePlay and other differently platformed folk like myself will have to wait a little bit for a non-i-version to be released):

Download this interactive, multi-touch book, and let the NBC hit drama series Grimm come alive!• Learn about homicide detective Nick Burkhardt and the rest of the characters on Grimm.• Watch Season 1 and Season 2 recaps.• Browse through the journal passed down by Nick's family for generations of Grimms.• Get a 360-degree look inside Rosalee�s Exotic Tea & Spice Shop.• Navigate through the Creature Gallery and see the creepy transformations.• View and maneuver 3-D models used to design the mythical creatures.• See behind-the-scenes photos from the filming of Seasons 1 and 2.• Create your favorite creature, save it and/or submit it to NBC - we just might post it online or in a future edition of this book.• Test your Grimm trivia knowledge, get each episode and so much more! 

And if you already have the eBook, then what are you waiting for?!? Download the free revised edition now and get ready for Season 3 of Grimm!Note: This revised edition is also coming soon for Kindle Fire, Nook, Google Play, and Kobo but with limited features. Stay tuned!

I forgot to mention, too that the SECOND official Grimm magazine is now available for purchase as well. 

In the 1st one (which I admittedly bought late at a cheap resale price, just so I could keep up to date in case there was anything included on fairy tales from the cast and crew), I was pleasantly surprised to see a listing, origin and explanation of all the opening fairy tale quotes for each episode (jackpot!), as well as more discussion on fairy tales and favorite tales than I expected. 

I'm definitely curious about the second one now.

And I think today's season premiere means we've (finally) begun all the regularly scheduled fairy tale shows for the season. Hurrah!

Reminder: Hallmarks' Indiana-Jones-Meets-Warehouse13-Meets-Fairy-Tale-Family-Movie "The Hunters" airs TONIGHT

Press Release:

‘THE HUNTERS’       Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premiere“Walmart and P&G Present Walden Family Theater”Friday, October 25 (8p.m. ET/PT, 7C)Starring: Victor Garber, Michelle Forbes, Alexa Vega, Robbie Amell, Keenan Tracey and Dan Payne 

Two brothers learn that they come from a long line of Hunters, a secret society sworn to protect powerful fairy tale objects from falling into the wrong hands. When their Hunter parents go missing in their quest to retrieve the magical Mirror, the very same mirror that played a prominent role in the story of Snow White, the brothers realize they have to assume their birthright and find their parents and the Mirror, before it’s too late.
In an adaptation of Joshua Williamson’s comic book Mirror Mirror, The Hunters is part of Hallmark Channel’s new Friday night franchise Walden Family Theater presented in collaboration with Walmart, Procter & Gamble, award-winning family entertainment producer Walden Media (The Chronicles Of Narnia, Bridge To Terabithia, Holes) and fast-growing independent studio ARC Entertainment. Walden Family Theater is designed to further fill the void on TV for quality family entertainment.

Note: I think this will be one of those "spot the fairy tale reference movies" though the lesser known ones are unlikely to make appearances. Mostly I'm curious as to how the well known ones are "differently referenced". Eg from this interview HERE on the Hallmark site, the actress makes note of Cinderella's glass slipper having one of the shards of the Mirror (from Snow White) hidden on the bottom and that they must use a tooth of The Big Bad Wolf (from LRRH) to open a tomb.

It could be fun but I've been so disappointed by adaptations, I'm afraid to get my hopes up. And I really would have called it something different... Gosh I hope this screenplay is written (and acted) well!

"Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" Set to Make Mini-Series Magic c/- the BBC

A seven-part series adaptation of the best selling fairy tale-ish novel is being developed for the BBC (squee!), the cast has just been announced and they're set to start filming in Yorkshire, Canada and Croatia next week!

 I love the way SFX UK added extra commentary in their announcement so I'll share that with you instead of the usual list:

Bertie Carvel

Eddie Marsan

 The BBC has confirmed recent rumours that Eddie Marsan (Snow White And The Huntsman, Hancock and loads of much better non-SF stuff) will play Mr Norrell, and Bertie Carvel (Sherlock, Les Misérables) will play Jonathan Strange in their upcoming adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s best-selling alternate history novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Joining Marsan and Carvel in the seven-part adaptation are Alice Englert (the best thing inBeautiful Creatures), Marc Warren (Doctor Who’s “Love And Monsters”), Samuel West (Eternal Law, Van Helsing), Charlotte Riley (Wuthering Heights, Easy Virtue), Enzo Cilenti (Guardians Of The Galaxy, Kick-Ass 2) and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, Being Human).

And you have to love this tidbit from Bertie Carvel who will be playing Strange:

“I read the book some years ago and was totally enchanted. I’ve been casting spells for the part of Strange ever since. It is a considerable surprise to find that some of them worked!”

I'm going to choose lovely, magical coincidence over marketing genius with that line.

Susanna Clarke's award winning novel has had numerous people attempt to realize it in movie form since it hit the best seller list but it looks like this mini-series is definitely a "go" now and, let's be honest, if you're a fan of the book, you'd rather a miniseries than just a two hour long movie... wouldn't you? (Though movie paraphernalia tie-ins would be awesome..)

I'm just VERY curious to see how they manage the footnotes... (Oh please be clever about it!)

You'll be glad to know Toby Haynes - director of both Doctor Who AND Sherlock will be calling the shots. Should be a good 'un! (And I have hopes on the footnote front with him at the helm too.)