On Fairies and pod casts

Owing to a friend of mine, I have been listening to a couple of pod casts on Celtic mythology. As I myself am writing, more in contemporary Ireland, I'm always interested in the folklore of the country, which I already knew was rich.

As a pagan myself, I'm not ignorant of the celebrations of Beltane and Samhain. This was the main topic being spoke of in this pod cast. For the entirity of the pod cast, http://celticmythpodshow.com/Shownotes/episodeSP01.php It's an hour long. Usually, they only go for about half an hour.

But these are points that I found of interest myself:

Children who die in April are abducted and taken away by fairies who watch to wait for children they can thusly take away. They are held back by primroses, picked before sunrise, on the threshold. Evil spirits can't touch these or iron.

Fairies are in best humor on May eve. It is then they carry of young people to join in their revels. Of women who danced really well, it used to be said, 'She danced to fairy music on the hill'.

Fire and salt, butter and milk are not given away on May day. They are sacred, and the former two used for wards against evil spirits. The witches, however, will take great pride in stealing the milk, and if they do so, then the luck and the prosperity of the milk with belong to the fairies until the next May eve. Mountain ash is the best safeguard against witches and evil work.

It's dangerous to sleep out in the open in the month of May, for that is when the fairies are most prominent. It is then that they take the most beautiful of women to be their brides and nurses for fairies babes, while the men are taken to be as husbands.

In one story, a man appeared dead, but was instead taken to the fairy land from our world. They knew this because when they left food out for him, it was always gone by the morning. So they sent someone after him, who said that he could get the man out in nine days. When the townspeople waited for the man to be born back into life from fairy land, instead of coming back, he spoke from fairy land to say 'I am happy with my fairy bride, leave me be where I am.' And his parents and the people were content with that.

Proofreading

On the heels of a couple of different sicknesses, some really terrible whether, a lot of homework, and much stressing and pulling out of hair, I have had the most productive week. These come in waves, and I'm quite conscious that this one won't last indefinitely, but I'll enjoy it while it's here.

To start with, I returned, with carefully annotated notes, the manuscripts of a couple of friends who I had promised to proofread. I feel really nice when I get emails back from those people saying that my humble comments have helped. It's something that every writer needs, I think; a bunch of people who aren't afraid to look through your manuscript and go 'You know, this isn't working, I think you should scrap the whole thing and start again'. >.< No, really, I love proofreading, and I know some pretty talented writers, so it's not a chore at all.

On top of that, feeling like I was quite reasonably allowed to spend my time on my own work after this, I have started the long mission of merging the drafts of two separate word documents, as well as one excersise book, and a wordpad document of notes, into one cohesive manuscript that I hope to send off to submissions at Tease come the first week of July.

I'm the proud owner of 41,000 words out of 70,000 in a single document, with paaaages more already written so far. ;) When this is all done, I think I'll be the one needing a proofreader! :D


Nikki Watson.

Les Bonnes Fees

My, it has been a long time since I last wrote here. I must admit, I'm very embarrassed, noticing the date of the last time that I wrote something. All I can say is that time got away from me, as it often does, I am still here, but extremely busy between school work and writing my next project, which I'm hoping might get picked up by Tease Publishing.

The subject that has brought me back into my blog to post for the first time this fine month is not actually something to do with my writing. Well, perhaps in time (what time, I seriously have none!) it will have something to do with my writing, by which I mean I may send something to it, but in the meantime, I would just like to plug this little site because I think their idea is a good one.

Les Bonnes Fees, a new zine that is coming out on the subject of fairies, folklore, and everything in between, as they say. Obviously I and they have some common interests. I already have a couple of articles and reviews around about that I might think of sending to them. I might want to polish them up.

Ah, time, how I wish I had some more of that...

Nikki Watson.