Attention Seattle NaNoWriMo authors: the University Book Store Press wants to publish your book this year!
Find out the rules and etc. for the NaNoWriMo Contest.
Submission deadline is December 2. You have nothing to lose, and publication to gain!
Perrrault’s “Donkey Skin” is a great fairy tale, full of unwholesome passions, magic, trickery, and wonder. So of course fellow Frenchman Jacques Demy turned it into a film starring Catherine Deneuve in 1970.
Courtesy of We Love You So.
If that clip made you thirsty for more, you can read the whole thing over at SurLaLune:
THERE was once upon a time a king who was so much beloved by his subjects that he thought himself the happiest monarch in the whole world, and he had everything his heart could desire. His palace was filled with the rarest of curiosities, and his gardens with the sweetest flowers, while in the marble stalls of his stables stood a row of milk-white Arabs, with big brown eyes.
Strangers who had heard of the marvels which the king had collected, and made long journeys to see them, were, however, surprised to find the most splendid stall of all occupied by a donkey, with particularly large and drooping ears. It was a very fine donkey; but still, as far as they could tell, nothing so very remarkable as to account for the care with which it was lodged; and they went away wondering, for they could not know that every night, when it was asleep, bushels of gold pieces tumbled out of its ears, which were picked up each morning by the attendants.
This month is blessings and bonanzas month at the Fairy Tale Factory. Not only have we been interviewed and featured, but folks are writing to me to solicit stories for publication. So nice!
Here is the latest call for submissions:
I just wanted to let you know about New Fairy Tales, the online magazine I run, as some of your participants might be interested in submitting their original fairy tales to us. We’re an illustrated magazine with an audio collection as well and we only publish new and original tales rather than retellings.
It’s all run on a voluntary basis, so unfortunately we can’t pay, but we do ask readers to consider making a small donation to my local children’s hospice. It’s a good showcase for the writers’ and illustrators’ work and it helps raise money for a good cause. We’ve published three issues so far and the deadline for submissions to Issue 4 is the 20th October.
There’s lots of info on the site but if you’d like to know anything else feel free to get in touch.
There are so many things to love about this short video of Ray Bradbury: his awesome white shorts, his house, his lunch (hint: Coors). Oh yeah, and his words. He says some stuff about writing, too. Nice if you like that sort of thing.
Check out the Russian version of “The Little Mermaid,” with magically delicious animation. I’m starting with part 2. If you’d like to watch the entire thing, just follow the link in the bottom right-hand corner of the YouTube embed and you’ll find the index for the rest on the right-hand side of the YouTube page.
Taken directly from BoingBoing:
The June issue of The Atlantic has an article about a 72-year-long study at Harvard about how different experiences affect the health and happiness of people. Video above, full text of article here.
Is there a formula—some mix of love, work, and psychological adaptation—for a good life? For 72 years, researchers at Harvard have been examining this question, following 268 men who entered college in the late 1930s through war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age. Here, for the first time, a journalist gains access to the archive of one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.
There are distinct differences between traditional fairy tales and fantasy short stories. When I teach my class, I ask my students to stick to the former and eschew the latter. I love fairy tales and I believe passionately in the discipline of writing to the traditional fairy tale form. Plus, in a six-week class, there’s not enough time to stray too far from the curriculum.
However, I love fantasy short stories and novels just as passionately. I love comics, too. Any story form that takes me out of the world I know and into a world of surprise and possibility is a story form that I love.
So it is with tummy-tingling, heart-glowy anticipation that I await the release of this movie:
Dave Eggers wrote the script, and while he may be the most maddeningly over-hyped hipster author in print today, he’s also one talented mother[shutyourmouth]. I can’t wait to see how the movie turns out!
A lot has been said against the “Disney-fication” of fairy tales, and for the most part I agree.
However.
Check out the introductory sequence of Snow White, which was released in 1937. It’s dark, dramatic, and exquisitely animated. It leaves The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast in the dirt. The evil queen is genuinely disturbing and, well, evil. The peacock throne is a nice touch.
The March ‘Intro to Fairy Tales’ class is going swimmingly, thanks for asking! We have six full-time students and one who drops in when he can take time away from working on his Ph.D. in mythopoetic studies at the Pacifica Graduate Institute (this is an unusual privilege – don’t go getting any fancy ideas). In terms of age, I think we’ve got a representative from each decade of life from the teens to the fifties (with a few doubling up in the 20s and 30s); in terms of experience, we span the entire spectrum, as well. And it works beautifully! Class discussions are funny, intelligent, and engaging thanks to the cool folks who came out to play this time.
Last night was the third class in this series, so we have officially hit the halfway mark. There’s no turning back now! With each class we move steadily closer to our goal of a complete, polished, original fairy tale for every student. There’s some great imagery on the table, and I’m looking forward to the stories that are in the pipeline.
Check back in three or four weeks (at the very least), when I will post student stories – if the students in question don’t get too shy!
