Confession

Confession

I must confess something
get this off my chest.

I'd like to say I wrote this story,

but it really wrote itself.

It demanded to go one way

when I wanted to go the other.

It was stubborn,

uncooperative

immovable.

If I didn't follow the story

then we never got anywhere.

It said things unexpected.

It did things I never thought of

and went in entirely different directions.

Maps were useless,

schedules ignored,

the story was in charge, not me.

Sometimes I couldn't figure out what

the story wanted,

nothing I tried worked.

But I kept trying.

I kept at it.

Early mornings, while eating lunch, after dinner, late into the night.

The story couldn't be left unfinished,

it needed an ending, of some sort.

Conversations needed to be spoken,

actions taken,

the end written at the end.

Now, it wants to be shown off,

copied, reproduced, distributed and read

It is very bossy, I know.

Would you like to see it?

Fairy Tale Favorites from 2012

      


It's a little late in coming, but I felt like sharing a few of my favorites from last year. 

I didn't read as many fairy tale books last year. I'll have to do better next year. 

However, I did meet plenty of interesting characters. There were 8 different orphans, an amnesiac hero, a girl without a hand, and a boy without a hand, a girl with wolf ears, and another girl with cat whiskers. I read books with giant monsters, witches, vampires, werewolves, pirates, cyborgs, ghosts, evil stepmothers, and puppets. I attended a circus in the middle of the night, traveled to several parallel worlds, and saved the world several times over. 

Phew. Onto the awards:

Winnner of the Longest Title: 
Flora's Fury: How a Girl of Spirit and a Red Dog confounds her friends, astounds her enemies and learns the importance of Packing Light by Ysabeau Wilce
runner up: Kalpa Imperial: the Greatest Empire that Never Was by Angelica Gorodischer, translated by Ursula Le Guin

Somehow I always read a book with a long title, that I particularly enjoy. I never plan for it, I don't go out looking for books with long titles, it just happens. 

Best Monster/Giant Hunter: 
Barbara from I kill Giants by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura
Runner up: Rossamond from Lamplighter (Book 2 of the Monster Blood Tattoo Series) by D. M. Cornish

Killing monsters is rather fairy-taleish. The graphic novel 'I kill Giants' has a classic, familiar fairy-tale feel to it, but still manages to be its own story too. This one also caught me off guard. A powerful tale of a fifth-grade girl who fights giants, from the bully Taylor, to the one living upstairs in her house. She's preparing for the "giant" coming any day now. She makes traps for it, she studies ancient texts about giants and the Titans so she will be ready to fight. Don't we all fight giants in some way? 


Winner of the FlipFlop Award
Kylie Galen from the 'Shadow Falls Series' by C.C. Hunter
Seriously, girl pick one guy or the other. Either the hot werewolf or the gorgeous fey, you can't keep flipping back and forth between them. It's making me crazy. I am so over love-triangles. Give me a good solid romance between two people. That is hard enough.

Runner Up: Beatrice Shakespeare Smith from Eyes like Stars by Lisa Mantchev. Check her out at the Theatre Illuminate.

Favorite Twist in a Story . . . goes to Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker
Runner Up: Chime by Franny Billingsley

I try not to give away secrets here, at least not the really good ones. I hate to spoil good secrets. That's why I can't explain the reason for these winners. All I can tell you is these two stories have twists in them that really surprised me. Sometimes I can guess where a story is going, I can see a twist coming, but sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes the story or a character does something completely unexpected.


Best Story within a Story: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
runner up: The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Most Memorable Opening Line: Railsea by China Meville

"This is a tale of a bloodstained boy."

Winner of the most resourceful Orphan 
Rossamund from The Foundling: Book 1 of the Monster Blood Tattoo Series by D. M. Cornish
Runner up: Sham from Railsea by China Meville

Orphans are everywhere, I realize it's convenient  but even so there are always surrogate parents popping up somewhere in the story. We can't ever escape them. Some orphans manage better than others, some are more interesting than others. A lot happens to Rossumond, to start it off he was given a girl's name and to make it worse he lives in a world filled with monsters. 

The world D.M. Cornish creates is fascinating, with its vinegar sea, fortified cities and towns, the people all dress in fancy tri-cone hats and wigs and frock coats. It's like a Charles Dicksen story set in a RPG fantasy world. The monsters are real and scary, yet it so much more complex than that. While Rossumond's journey takes him from the orphanage to the home of the Lamplighters, he learns how some humans can be cruel and mean, and that not all monsters are evil. Don't be too intimidated by the size of these books, because half of it is a dictionary/encyclopedia about the world Cornish has created. You don't need to study it, Cornish weaves in the details effortlessly, think of them as extras.

Third annual Worse Parents Award
Winner of the Worst Father of the year goes to . . . Hector Brown, also known as Prospero the Magician, from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
runner up Bill Quakenbush from Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker

Just as orphans abound, so are parents that shouldn't be allowed to be parents. They're neglectful, abusive, cruel, and inescapable. The orphans have it easy, if you ask me. The ones who really have to struggle are the ones like Celia and Candy, with parents like Hector Brown and Bill Quakenbush. Having parents like these  - that force you to learn magic so you can play a mysterious game, in Celia's case, or try to steal your magic with some weird soul-sucking machine, in Candy's instance - they make you wish you were an orphan. 

Well, there you have it. I could probably assign an award or prize to every book I read last year, but I won't. 

Here's my sorta review of Night Circus.

For previous Awards and Favorites:

Eleven Noteworthy books of 2011

Notable Fairy Tale books of 2010

I'm Not afraid of Love. (#39 of Iana's story)

The end of Chapter 5 is upon us. I wanted to finish a chapter by the end of the year, and here it is. Iana has finally discovered a means to save her kingdom and to back fight against her enemies. Can you blame her for letting down her guard a little? 

39#   I'm Not afraid of Love

"Are you ready Princess?" Olwen asked as evening came on the last day. 

"As long as it stays windy out," I said listening to the shutters rattle on the windows nearby.

The last ten days had flown by so quickly. Olwen and I sat together in the dining hall, not alone, of course. Aunt Luna was near the fire, her eyes resting. Joli had gone up to bed earlier, and Mother had taken some dinner up to her. I should have gone up to bed too, but I found myself wanting to stay in Olwen's company a little bit longer.

Look no further, Iana's Story #38 has arrived

So much to do. So little time. Ah, but it only feels like that because there is so much to do. If there wasn't, then it would feel as if you had all the time in world. Time slows down when you count each second, trying to hurry it along, but when you are having too much fun, when you are busy preparing for Christmas, why then it runs off and suddenly the month of December is half over.

A simple solution presents itself, has Iana found her answer at last? 

#38 Look no further

"Can I help you Princess?" Olwen asked, pushing at the door with me. "What are you doing?"

"Wait, you'll see, or you'll hear it. Listen!" I told him, pointing upward. 

Day 6 and Counting: Iana's Story #37

The countdown continues, which is appropriate considering the season.
Will Iana be ready to fight when the time comes? Or will it be too late? 

#37 At Day 6: Arrivals and Curses, again

I barely saw Joli the next day. I was too busy and, I think she was avoiding me as well. She could have easily found me in the kitchens collecting lunch for the villagers, or when we collected the roses and locked them away in an iron chest. Olwen kept the key to the chest, and Mother locked the chest in closet and kept the key hidden. That way no one would be tempted by them.

On the sixth day before the Lion and Wolf returned, the first of the summerguards arrived. A"boy" dressed in a long hooded cloak, who fancied herself in disguise with long trousers. She said her name was Ben. 

A review, sorta. Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I have no idea if I'm allowed to do this, but I'm going to anyway. I am on page 50 inside a chapter called "Truth or Dare" and I've decided to write a review.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a marvelous little book. According to the book jacket its going to be a love story and a sorta fairy tale. It's more of an adult book than children's book, and filled with great characters. Even I get to be in this story. Portions of it are told in second person, and while sometimes a second person story is just a first person story in disguise, this one hasn't been. I've seen myself inside it, attending Le Cirque des Rêves.

The book has  multiple points of view, so why not include myself, the reader, but also circus attendee, seeker of dazzling stories and performances that are impossibly, delightfully almost real. So far in the book there has been magic, illusions, young lovers, teacups broken and repaired, fake magicians and real magicians and a mysterious game to be played. Celia and Marco, the main duo, have yet to meet, but they will soon, perhaps they'll be at the circus I'm attending.

I don't want to give too much away, so think of this more as a preview than an actual review (and see my disclaimer below). Not that I can spoil much, since I don't know how the story ends. I know someone who likes to read the end, or at least peak at it, to take off some of the pressure of not knowing, and give herself something to look forward to. 

I like to think of a story as a promise from the author to the reader. The Night Circus has promised me a magical performance. What will happen when Celia and Marco met? What are Celia's father and the man in the grey suit up to? How will Bailey sneak into the Night Circus - what will he find there? 

The Night Circus only opens at night, and after waiting outside in the cold I've paid my admission and entered the circus tent. I'm in the audience now, waiting to be entertained. I don't think I'll be disappointed.

Find out more about Erin Morgenstern.

Other reviews you might be interested in: 
Lunar Chronicles: Book 1 Cinder by Marissa Meyer
 The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne Valente
Adventures in Space ca 1851: Mothstorm by Philip Reeve


(Disclaimer: Since I'm only on page 50 this review/preview/recommendation shouldn't be taken too seriously. I couldn't resist telling you about it though. I'm still in the delightful beginning stages, when nothing is certain. You never know, halfway through the book might change irrevocably  The story might go somewhere unexpected. They do that occasionally  They begin so well and turn out to be entirely different by the end. They can be disappointing. Lloyd Alexander's The Iron Ring was like that. The first half so marvelous and wonderfully crafted, then the story changed, infected by realness, consequences and war, and it was no longer the exciting adventure it had been. It was still a good book, a well told story, but no longer the best. I'm always looking for the best, the stories that make my heart sing and my head spin, the excitement so hard to contain I want to go running outside in the middle of the night; those rare five star stories, perfect from beginning to the end that I read chapter by chapter hoping they will never end.)

A Cinderific Story (or the Lunar Invasion begins!?)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

You're familiar with the story of Cinderella, and Cinder (book one of the Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer has all the familiar parts. Cinder has a stepmother, and step-sisters. There is even a pumpkin (cleverly disguised). There is a prince, and a royal ball that Cinder is not allowed to attend because she has too many chores. Basically the story is summed up like this: 

"Cinder was not going to be the ball, because she is a cyborg"

Cinder lives in New Beijing, sometime in the future. She was originally human, but because of an accident that killed her parents, some of her body was replaced with cybernetic parts. She's half human - half robot, unlike her companion Iko who is an android - all robot, though Iko does has a quirky personality. 


I always believed Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine was the quintessential Cinderella retelling. It is so perfect. It makes so much sense and explains everything. Nothing could compare to Ella Enchanted, or compete. Why read another Cinderella story? And yet . . . Cinder works. Maybe it's not as perfect and classic, but somehow being a sci-fi fairy tale levels the playing field. 

I enjoy science fiction, (although I read space fantasy more often.) I don't usually see these two genres mixed. I'd definitely recommend the book, if only for the novelty. 

Although, I think the fairy tale elements might have limited the story. I realize it's odd for me to complain about this, but it's almost restricted. The characters and the story line had to fit inside the familiar, like forcing a foot into a too small shoe. I was ready to go somewhere else with the story, to see something different. There was potential for it too, with the Lunars showing up and their magical-psychic powers, the incurable disease called Letumosis. There is the the fact that Prince Kai will become Emperor someday, while Cinder is a nobody, a cyborg. How will they ever get together? It's a lot to cram into one book. 

And I have to warn you. This book is also Book 1 (of 4), and while the story sorta wraps up - a lot of mysteries are explained, and secrets are revealed - it doesn't really conclude. The next one Scarlet comes out in February.

I'm a greedy reader, it seems. I read books fast, sometimes within hours like a movie. I want the story to be exciting, a little adventure, and certainly romance, but not too predictable. A well told story. And sequels? To me they are a bonus. They shouldn't be necessary. Unless, of course, its available right now. I guess I hate waiting.

other reviews you might be interested in:
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Catherynne Valente
adventures in space ca. 1851: Mothstorm by Philip Reeve