Simple Pleasures (other than fairy)

I remember being 13 and pretending to be sick to stay home from middle school. I’m pretty sure my mother knew I wasn’t sick, but I was a good student, so she allowed the deception. And I used the day to read a book from cover to cover (another likely reason she let me stay …

Fairy Tale Billing Switch

Ever wonder how fairy tales get their titles? Some make perfect sense like Cinderella or Snow White, but how about Jack and the Beanstalk? I understand Jack, but how does the vegetation get higher billing than say, the Giant? Or what about Rumpelstiltskin? He might be pivotal, but the woman (who they didn’t bother to …

Lost in the World of Faery

Before the Victorians made fairies cute and cuddly, they were naughty and dangerous. It was said they would whisk a person away to dance at their court for what seemed like an afternoon and yet years would pass in the mortal realm. That’s how I feel these days. Like I’ve been taken away to an …

Minding my Mythology, part II

Here’s the problem when mythology is collected from an interrupted culture: the stories are left partially incomplete. The Greeks thrived for centuries recording their mythology for posterity in a written language. It proliferated throughout the ancient world allowing it to become further etched in the culture. Even after the arrival of Christianity there were folk …

Minding my Mythology, part I

I’ve mentioned once or twice that my superpower is research. It’s also my comfort zone and in these unsettling times, research is where I go to relax. Lately it’s been mythology. As a child, I devoured books about Greek and Egyptian mythology. And yet I never thought to search for my own. In a previous …

Marking Time with Tale Friends

The other day I was trying to conjure up my quarantine fantasy (not that being under quarantine should be anyone’s idea of a fantasy other than the whole stuck on a desert island with your dream lover, but that’s for another post). It included things like spending an entire day in bed with meals delivered …

Writing while…

As a writer in the 21st century, you’re often asked to share more of yourself than you’re comfortable with in order to gain readership of your intended work, be it blog posts or novels. The field is so crowded with talent that something has to help you stand out. When I started my writing journey, …

Less Fairy, More Tale

It's been far too long, dear reader, since I've written. Not that I'm not writing--I've been working on editing the third book in my four-book series. But I have been woefully negligent with my social media. It's an offshoot of my mixed feelings about marketing. Therefore, I'm going to write one of my rare writing …

Random Joy in Weird Times

Whenever I'm given unexpected good news, I think about the Valiant Tailor. It was a small thing, working away at his trade and then pausing for a snack only to be interrupted by pestering flies. He ended their buzzing with one blow and was so tickled by the fact he made himself a sash proclaiming …

Not all those who wander…

When I was about eight, I watched Alice in Wonderland over and over again. I loved the chatty and catty flower garden. I memorized all the Cheshire Cat's lines. I hated the ending. I didn't want Alice to back to her old life. I hoped she would learn to navigate the ins and outs of …