Not just poetry. Here is a play for you too! (ooh, I'm impressed Roe!)

BASKETS
Act 1, scene 1

setting: Entrance and dining hall at the Tambre Inn

ANN IS SWEEPING VIGOUROUSLY, TIDYING UP. WILLIAM ENTERS AND STARTS UPON SEEING HER. HE APPROACHES FROM BEHIND, THEN CHANGES HIS MIND AND HEADS OFF STAGE. SECONDS LATER HE REAPPEARS, MORE DETERMINDED. ANN DOES NOT NOTICE HIM AT ALL. 

William: My love, I -
ANN SHRIEKS AS HE TAKES HER BY SURPRISE. THEY STARE AT EACH OTHER. 
William: Sorry, wrong sister.

FROM A BACK ENTRANCE MARI ENTERS, DRESSED IN A LONG CLOAK, WITH HER HEAD COVERED. SHE ATTEMPTS TO SNEAK TO THE FRONT DOOR UNSEEN.

Mari, aside: Stay calm. He hasn't seen me yet.
Ann: Oh Mari dear, there you are! Have you only just woken up?
William: Mari!
Mari: Oh, perhaps. Have you finished all the washing up then?
Ann: Nearly I-
Mari: Good, then you don't need my help. William, release my hand at once.
William: of course, I only . . .
Mari: Yes?
William: Ah, um, just going out? Are you? Here, let the door for you. Might I escort you this morning, somewhere.
Mari: No thank you. I shall be fine.

MARI EXITS

Ann: Don't forget Auntie Wren will be here to- day.
William: Now, she's gone. Why can't I say something to her? Why do I stutter, my words fail me. A fine speech maker I'm not, but a simple 'hello Mari, how are you? Good Morning. You look lovely as day, today.
Ann: Thank you.
William: Oh, I don't mean you Ann. You're a nice girl. You're alright, but your sister. Mari is . . .
Ann: oh brother.
William: An Angel. Truly descendant upon this earth. Glorious to behold. None can - dare compare to the splendor that is ...
Ann, reciting along with him and finishes for him: Glorious to behold.  None can - dare compare to the splendor that is Mari Tambre.


(Ah, but sadly, its unfinished. . . )
(What a shame. I really liked where it was going too.)
(Thank you Lackscroft.)
(Perhaps I should finish it for you?)
(IF you think you can. . . )


image credit goes to...

Curses, another poem (someone must have taken over this blog) (Wasn't me, how about you Roe?)

The Cursemaker Returns

The cursemaker is coming.
The cursemaker is coming.
It's not enough to say it once.
Three times and you know it to be true.
The cursemaker is coming.

She'll be there giving birth to salamandar toads.
She withers birds with her eyes, and keeps them in a cage.
Her nettle-wine and fish-eye stew smell like sour sweat.
Don't let her touch you.
Don't get too close.
She'd try to snatch you and catch you and eat you.

The cursemaker is coming. 
Quickly, hold your breath.
The air stinks like ink. 
You know it to be true.
The cursemaker is coming.

Stones crumble at her feet, the water boils, the fishes bleed,
she has a grip to hold you down like a spider's web of iron.
She doesn't burn. She doesn't drown. She must be quite the -
Don't say it.
Don't even whisper it.
She'll know you did. She'll pin you down to stitch your lips.

The cursemaker is coming.

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.