Category Archives: folklore

Being In Between Projects = Writing Limbo = Lots and Lots of Hand-Wringing

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Yessirreebob, I’m at that point again. Finished with writing and editing recent projects, and here I am, crouching in the corner, sucking my thumb, and rocking myself. One would think that having finally relieved myself of so many weeks of composing, revising, and editing meant that I’d be dancing around, whooping, gorging on chocolate, and reading every book that’s in my Kindle. But no.

This is the point that I both love and dread because, while I am free to do whatever I want now that Damocles’ sword has been put away (for the time being), I’m also at my most vulnerable insofar as deciding on what book to write next.

It’s the equivalent of that superstition regarding sneezing, i.e., when you sneeze, it’s believed that your soul leaves your body temporarily, hence the “Bless you!” response from others to prevent any demonic takeover of your temporarily soulless state. In my case, the soul’s elsewhere with no word yet as to when it wants to come back, and those demons are eyeing me like a slab of prime beef.

The Blue Bird

I’ve been wringing my hands over how to approach any future historical fantasy books. Should I slave away over a novel in a genre that continues to be overlooked by the market, or should I just cut my losses and keep those stories no more than short stories or novelettes to ease my grief in the promo department? I’ve been having the darnedest time deciding; every time I think that I’ve finally settled on a firm choice, the other side starts nagging me again about the upsides of writing a story in that form.

I certainly would hate to think that Renfred’s Masquerade and the Desmond and Garrick series would be the only novel-length historical fantasies I have to offer. But on the other hand, they don’t really enjoy the same kind of word-of-mouth notoriety that my Masks series enjoys. As with other writers who go through these crises of confidence, I can’t help but wonder why I should go through all that effort writing a novel that’ll fall under people’s radar, anyway.

For a few months now, I’ve been tinkering around with at least three possible stories that I can write for my next historical fantasy book, but it appears that the market’s reluctance to acknowledge this genre is feeding me all kinds of ideas that’re hampering my forward movement. “Do it out of love for that genre, not the market,” wise people would say. Of course I do exactly that, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that passion for something makes the end result any easier to deal with.


** Scenes from Tous Les Matins du Monde (a gorgeous and heartbreaking movie) **

By and large, the plotbunny I’ve pretty much settled on is an original fairy tale set in France. Looking at my notes on that story, it appears that I’ve got enough material for a novel, but again…

Incidentally, I’ve also decided not to make Helleville a series.

Now Available: The Knight

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Aaaaannndd short story number five is now available! :) “The Knight” is a retelling of the “St. George and the Dragon” myth, and it’s also the longest short story that I’m publishing with Queerteen Press, clocking in at around 8,000 words.

Here be the blurb:

A monster plagues the tiny kingdom ruled by King Awiergan. The dragon, left unchallenged by untrained warriors of a weak king, is pacified only through a monthly sacrifice of the kingdom’s young people. Prince Caedmon, though the heir to the throne, suffers in silence as friends and innocent subjects are chosen by lottery to be the dragon’s victims.

While it seems good luck has kept his name from coming up, things come to a head when his lover falls victim to the lottery, and Caedmon starts noticing strange conversations in the castle that hint at an act of betrayal. Blinded by grief and rage at what he discovers, Caedmon recklessly attempts to balance the scales through his own sacrifice — until the unexpected appearance of a tired and soiled knight.

As before, you can read an excerpt at the publisher’s website, and if you purchase directly from them, you’ll receive 20% off (new release discount).

My Life Just Grew Richer By 500 Stories

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Hat tip to Darren Steele, who tweeted the following link earlier today:

A whole new world of magic animals, brave young princes and evil witches has come to light with the discovery of 500 new fairytales, which were locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany for over 150 years. The tales are part of a collection of myths, legends and fairytales, gathered by the local historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886) in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz at about the same time as the Grimm brothers were collecting the fairytales that have since charmed adults and children around the world. Read more

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be eagerly awaiting the English translation of this new collection.

But will this take care of the insane dependence writers have on the usual fairy tales like “Snow White”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and the Big Mama of all fairy tales, “Cinderella”? Sad to say, but I’ve a feeling that things won’t change in this case. These three rule the roost at least in the YA romance department because they’re familiar and perhaps regarded as the most romantic fairy tales around. They offer safety in the well-known, I suppose, and from the publisher’s POV, familiarity also means profits.

And, yes, I’m also pointing an accusing finger at myself because I wrote Arabesque as a surrealist retelling of “Snow White”, and I’m about 20,000 words into Rose and Spindle, which is a retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” from the perspective of the princess’ gay cousin, who’s a dour, snotty sort. I know. My bad. I suppose in my defense, Rose and Spindle is also a satire on fairy tale conventions just as the Desmond and Garrick series is a satire on paranormal YA romances.

I personally would love to see writers take chances on folktales that are obscure. In fact, the more obscure, the better. I find them to be much more refreshingly unique – sometimes grittier or darker, sometimes more cockeyed than the popular charmers we know, sometimes just plain insane and fascinating. And there are hundreds and hundreds of these stories around the world (dare I say thousands?). Now another 500 just got added to their number, and I’d kill to get myself a copy.

And you can find several collections of those for free if you have an e-reader. Writers of fairy tales (retellings or original) could benefit from sampling them for inspiration. I own a Kindle, and I constantly raid Amazon’s site for free fairy tale collections from all over the world. I’ve been stocking up especially on Eastern European folktales and can’t wait to dive into them. At the moment I’m trying to finish off Scottish Ghost Stories, which I’m enjoying very much, and then I’ll be wringing my hands over what folktale collection to take up next.

New Story Listed at Queerteen Press

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Woot, I say! Short story number six is now listed at Queerteen Press, and it’s “Erl-King”, which turned out to be the hardest story to revise for me. It’ll be released in April.

The story was already written a certain way when I decided to submit it to the publisher as part of my short story collection with them. Then I had to change a bunch of things, basically ripping out at least half of the story I wrote originally and then picking through the rubble and recycling passages for the new version. It was brain-draining work, which is why it was the last story I submitted to them. It’s also a retelling of Goethe’s ballad, which you can read here.

Here’s the story blurb:

Baltasar grows up in a world of absolutes, of black and white, right and wrong. Just as his brothers and sisters who went before him, the boy is groomed to follow only one road, at the end of which is a life no different from his parents’ and grandparents’. His parents’ strict teachings and the naïveté that results, however, render him ignored and friendless, and Baltasar spends much time alone.

During one of his solitary wanderings in the countryside, he stumbles across an enchanted land and its melancholy, ageless ruler — a land full of color and magic, and a bond that defies everything he’s always known about the world. But what’s unusual, tempting, and exciting doesn’t always lead to a clearer path, and Baltasar is forced to choose between two wildly diverging worlds, with each exacting a high price.

Erl-King is a retelling of Goethe’s ballad by the same title.

And an excerpt can be found here. As for the rest of the short stories, we’re down to the last two titles to edit and process, and those will be out sometime in May, according to my publisher, with the print and e-book anthology containing all nine stories set for the end of May.

Now Available: Out of the Depths (And Some Goodies)

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Heads up! My short story, “Out of the Depths”, is now available from Queerteen Press in e-book format (note: short stories are only available in e-book format). In brief, it’s a horror / gothic retelling of the “Pygmalion” myth.

Blurb: It has been a year since Konstancji’s lover passed away, but rather than move on with his life, Konstancji hires one young man after another to sit for him as he obsessively works on a statue. What’s apparent is the fact that each sitter dies and is replaced with a new one, his grieving family compensated generously.

What no one’s aware of, though, is the purpose of the statue, which is the means through which Konstancji hopes to bring his beloved back from the dead.

If you purchase directly from the publisher, you’ll receive a 20% discount. Go here to buy it as well as to read an excerpt if you want to get an idea of the piece’s tone and style.

And some extra bits of news!

     

“The Knight”, a short story due out in March, is now listed at Queerteen Press. It’s a retelling of the “St. George and the Dragon” legend, and you can read the story’s description and an excerpt over here. And then there’s Mimi Attacks!, the next book in the Masks series (this is book number five), which is all about superheroes, supervillains, crazed fangirls, and a sixteen-year-old boy who always ends up with the short end of the stick. Book blurb and excerpt can be found here. Since this is a novel, it’ll be available in both print and e-book formats.

There you have it! And if you purchase a copy of “Out of the Depths”, I hope you enjoy it. :) It’s the only horror story in the collection of short fiction that I’ve contracted with Queerteen Press.