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| To be fair, a crystal tunnel would be really pretty. |
Salutations, reader! Our story this week is The Three Sisters. This version comes from a book by Giambattista Basile. Click the link above to read the story and continue with me below to analyze it.
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| They say to reach for the stars, but what about becoming one? |
Salutations, readers! Today's legend comes to us from the Cheyenne people. The Quill-Work Girl and Her Seven Brothers is a story about how things came to be. It's a good story, and it's a nice change of pace because it's not about love. Click the link above to read the story and continue with me below to analyze it.
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| Mbiras as pretty cool-looking. And portable. |
Hello, reader. When I was writing this story, since it's a Greek myth, I thought it apt to write it about two men in love. It wasn't until I was most of the way through that I remembered the trope of "bury your gays", and well, we all know this story is a tragedy. So, my apologies for the trope. The next fairy tale won't be a tragedy.
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| Don't turn around! |
Hello, readers. Awhile back, I discovered Hadestown, which is a musical based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Since I can't stop listening to the music, I thought I'd take a look at the myth that inspired the musical. Click on the link above to read the story, and continue with me below to think about it.
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| Seems legit. |
Salutations, friends! The approach for this retelling of The Perfidious Vizier came to me right away, but there were a few details I had to figure out. One of those details involves an unexpected cameo from some of my characters in A Tale of Two Tricksters. To be clear, I wasn't expecting them, but once I thought of it, there was no going back. Also, for those of you who like names, I took some special care choosing the names of the characters in this story. Enjoy!
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| If I was traveling here and someone brought me to a well, I wouldn't ask too many questions either. |
Salutations, dear reader. This time our fairy tale comes to us from the Middle East. The Perfidious Vizier is a story about transformation and help from an unexpected quarter. Click the link above to read it and continue below to analyze it with me.
Salutations, readers. I decided to put "Pigling and Her Proud Sister" into the terms of high school. It seemed about right, since there's so much pettiness in this story. Although most of it comes from the stepmother who really should have grown out of that. Enjoy!
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| Sometimes, your makeup is a magic. |
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| They're here to help with that rice. |
Hello, reader. This week's story, Pigling and Her Proud Sister, comes to us from Korea. It reminds me of Cinderella, but there are definitely some differences. For one thing, it doesn't focus around a shoe. Read the story at the link above and continue with me below to analyze it.
Hello again, readers. With this retelling, I struggled a little with how to turn literal poison into something I could put into a modern day context, especially since I didn't want to talk about violence. When I'm in doubt, I always seem to end up with metaphors but, once again, I think it worked. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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| The importance of a ball of paper cannot be underestimated. |
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| So majestic, even if he's not venomous. |
This fairy tale comes to us from Australia. Mungoongarlee the Iguana and Ouyouboolooey the Black Snake is a story of cunning and an explanation for why iguanas and snakes are they way they are. Some creation myths are light on the plot, but this one isn't. Click the link above to read it and continue below to analyze it with me.
Hello, readers. I was a little stuck on how to turn this fairy tale into a modern story. I decided that the original story went on for too many days, so I squished the time frame down. Let me know what you think!
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| Crow or human? Who can say? |
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| You never know when a crow is royalty. |
Salutations, readers! This week, we look at a Bavarian folk tale, The Girl and the Enchanted Quill. I have to admit, I'm a huge fan of this story. It combines a few tropes, but it reads like something new. Click the link above to read it and continue below to analyze it with me.
Hello, reader! This story got away from me a bit, but since the story it's based on is so long, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I made a few changes to the quests to fit our modern world. I don't know about you, but I'd be annoyed if someone brought me a cow. I don't have the space or time to take care of one, no matter how beautiful it is.
This is another one of Lizzy's stories. It's fun to discover her character and her family like this. I'll just have to be careful that I don't contradict myself with the timeline.
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| Be careful. Maps don't always take you where you want to go. |
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| Imagine you and your husband's six other wives raising a son together. |
Salutations, dear reader, and happy Women's History Month! This week's fairy tale comes to us from India. The Son of Seven Queens is a story about a boy and the tremendous influence the women around him had on his life. Click the link above to read the story, and continue below to analyze it with me.
This week, I wrote a modern version of Queen of the Crows. I'm stepping out of what I normally write, so feel free to let me know if I didn't characterize something or someone quite right.
As a note, in the US, there is ASL (American Sign Language), but there is also BASL (Black American Sign Language). It's likely that Kisha would have started out learning ASL and picked up BASL from Tyrese.
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| Maybe a deaf person can be a singer's favorite person. |
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| He could be a king. |
Hello again, readers. This week, we'll be looking at Queen of the Crows, a story from the Caribbean. It shows the importance of forging relationships over time. And having a strong scalp. Read the story at the link above and read below to analyze it with me.
Hello, reader. This week, I wrote a modern fairy tale based on Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen. I hadn't expected to start writing about the Lapland Woman and the Finland Woman, but that's what happened. I guess I'm too old to identify with the children protagonists anymore. Enjoy!
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| Sometimes the kindest people live in the most desolate places. |
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| Winter is beautiful, but so cold. |
Salutations, readers. This week, we'll finish up the story of The Snow Queen with parts 5, 6, and 7. This is the longest story we've looked at together, so I applaud you for making it all the way through. If you haven't read the previous parts, or if you don't remember them, the entire story is at the link above. Give it a read and come back to analyze it with me.
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| Even beautiful flowers can be part of a prison. |
Hello again friends. I'm changing up my usual rhythm for this story. We'll be looking at Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen every week until it's done. Then I'll write a modern version of it. Otherwise, I'd be writing stories that didn't finish. So, if you read stories 1 and 2 last week, go ahead and scroll down to stories 3 and 4 and give them a read.
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| Beautiful, but cold as ice |
Hello friends! For those of us in the Northern hemisphere, we're deep into winter, so this story is pretty apt. For those in the Southern hemisphere, I suppose you can remember winter as you're deep into summer.
I've wanted to talk about Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen for quite awhile. The only reason I haven't is because it's so long. It's not a novel, but it's much longer than the short stories I usually choose for this blog. However, I was looking at fairy tales online the other day, as you do, when I found that some places have this story split into seven different stories, which are much more manageable. So, I hope you like Hans Christian Andersen's writing, because we'll be looking at The Snow Queen for the next several weeks. Today, we'll look at the first and second stories because the first one is so short. In future weeks, it will probably just be one story at a time. So, go ahead and read stories one and two at the link above, then join me below to analyze them.
