Fairy tale submission to Dante's Heart

Well, that's another short story done and submitted. This time the subject was a culmination of many tales of coming of age.

The story centers around a young girl and a wolf that she comes across. With this as the premise, it was sort of ambitious for me to try to draw it away from the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, but I don't think I did a terrible job of keeping it distinct. It helped that my wolf was not only wolf, but also man, for a portion of the story, faintly reminiscent of the Angela Carter's take on Little Red, A Company of Wolves.

Other influences that became apparent as the story created itself were that of Alice being changed for her experiences in Wonderland, and of course of Sarah inside of Jareth's Labyrinth.

However, as I am a romantic, I had my characters leave with a happily ever after and of continued being together-ness. Okay everyone, on the count of romantic -- "Awww."

So, within 6 to 8 weeks, I should be able to find out if I have a place in Dante's Heart's autumn publication.

Fairy tales and short stories

I think that retellings of old fairy tales are one of the new ways of getting them seen anew by those who haven't experienced them yet.

I've lately been reading Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland, by Lady Francesca Wilde, and finding them a really great source of inspiration for my current WIP and future stories that I plan to set in the same world as Unity. Francesca Wilde, consequently, was the mother of Oscar Wilde, who I can't believe I actually haven't written about in here before now.

I've never been one for writing short stories. Short stories, to me, have always ended up as a story idea that I didn't like enough to continue with, or alternately, a prologue for a longer story. This week, I was astonished and excited to write my very first short story, within the mystical fantasy genre that I have been indulging in now for quite some time.

Obvious for me to say, this story came with quite some inspiration from Lady Francesca's work. It only came in at almost exactly 1,000 words, and after some consideration, I have decided to submit it as a short piece for a fantasy magazine that I have been eying off for a little while now, and just wishing that I had something that was self contained, which I could share with them. As I look through my tags, I realise that I have mentioned this particular ezine before now, and had high plans to send them something already. This is something I obviously haven't done, considering I forgot it until this very moment. *bites lip*

The magazine's name is Les Bonnes Fees, and their website is http://www.les-bonnes-fees.com/. They have a current issue to peruse that's really worth a look over.

As with most things I post in here, I mostly wanted a convenient place to link this for myself. ;) So if I actually get accepted here, I might actually begin my branching from the romantic fantasy niche to include a more traditional fantasy readership. Could be fun, at the very least!


Nikki Watson.

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.

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.

Brother and Sister - Another story courtesy of the Brothers Grimm

Continuing to read through my bible-like Brothers Grimm, I have found another story that is one of my favorites from childhood, though I don't remember then that it was given the name simply Brother and Sister. So I will try to give a simple outline of it here.

The brother, once leaving the family home with his sister, gets turned into a roebuck by the evil machinations of token evil step mother, but come the King's hunt, he can't resist being a part of it. He wants to go, but the sister stays him in their house, giving him the password of 'My little sister, let me in.' He goes, and is chased, but on the second day, one of the King's men follow him and tell the King of the apparent roebuck's words. On the third day, the King comes to the house before the brother, says the password, and the sister opens the door. He is, of course, overwhelmed by her beauty and sweet disposition and asks her to marry him, she of course says yes, and when the step mother is killed for her evil deeds, the brother reverts back to his human form.

I'd like to add this as a second fairy tale to my list that I would like to rewrite... sometime.


Nikki Watson.

The Frog Prince

"Princess! youngest princess!
Open the door for me!
Do you not know what you said to me
Yesterday by the cool waters of the well?
Princess, youngest princess!
Open the door for me!"

Continuing on my fairy tale kick, I have started reading my Grimm Complete Fairy Tales. Specifically here, The Frog Prince, which I have half plans to write up as part of a retold fairy tales anthology. Maybe this will kick my arse in gear on another project that I keep putting off.

There are way too many of those. ;)


Nikki Watson.

The Snow Queen

And I'm back from the beach and reading up on my very own copy of The Grimm Brothers, Complete Fairy tales, which does, in fact, include the elusive story, The Juniper Tree. Apparently, that's been excluded from several editions because there was no way to soften it. Can't say that I'm familiar with the story just yet, but no doubt I'll report back on here when I have gotten to it and read it.

Funnily enough, it was thinking of Hans Christian Anderson that got me to picking up the Grimm Brothers again. I know some people have their fairy tale teller favorites, but for me, I just like them both.

I've noticed lately, however, much to my horror, that there are people out there who aren't familiar with my favorite of Hans Christian Anderson's stories, The Snow Queen.

Growing up, this was my very favorite fairy tale. I was endlessly sad every time Disney came out with a new adaption to a fairy tale and it wasn't The Snow Queen, because I'm an unrelenting Disney fan too. Or at least, a fan of the old school cartoon movies, anyway.

I had a picture book that told fairy tales through the seasons, so it started with the Spring relevant stories, went through Summer fairy tales, on to Autumn fairy tales, and finally to Winter, where my beloved Snow Queen fairy tale was located. I must have read that every other week when I was little. I unfortunately don't know where that picture book ended up, and I've never been able to find it since, but my memory of it is still pretty potent.

Because I thought that everyone should be familiar with The Snow Queen, I took the three seconds on Google to find a copy of it on onlineliterature.com

The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Anderson


Nikki Watson