Faerytale Friday - The Princess & the Pea

Yay for Friday!! & Amber @ Down the Rabbit Hole!

This week, we're talking about The Princess and the Pea. One of my favorite faerytales. Peas are not "romantic" maybe, but the idea that a Princess cannot hide her beautiful essence - she is who she is regardless of her outward appearance... *sigh*

Of course, Hans Christian Anderson makes her sound like she's obnoxiously picky, which could be interpreted "brat", but I'm stickin' with my imagined version. He (Hans) wrote a Swedish tale passed down, so who's to say how it really started?

We begin with a girl in a Downpour who claims to be a Princess... but she doesn't look like one. The dissolutioned Queen Mother & Prince Royal come up with a plan to prove her identity...

1 - Alone in the Dark

2 - Seeking Shelter

3 - Seeking Companionship

4 - Facing Strange Kindness

5 - Planting the Pea

6 - Grateful, but... still alone.

7 - No Comfort Found

8 - Nor Sleep

9 - Deceptive Hospitality.

10 - Ouch!

11 - Admit to not sleeping?

12 - Claim Royal blood?

13 - Confronting the Hosts

14 - Compainship Found

15 - The Peas are Displayed

Fine Art America

Which picture do you like best?

I found most of these on Pinterest. You can find & follow these and more to their source from my Imagination Come to Life board (unless otherwise noted).

Happy Friday the 13th!

What a memorable Friday!!

Let's do something significant!!  :-D  Doesn't that sound like a good idea!!  Then you can remember & say "I decided to do that on Friday, the 13th!"  Or "I caused all that trouble..." or "I broke my foot entering the hospital on..."

Right... that stuff just happens without much planning. I, for one, am so glad to see Kathy @ I Am A Reader, Not A Writer back up-n-rollin' with her awesome "hobby" of blogging.  We missed you!!

I keep finding fun things I want to do on a Friday - any Friday, but especially this Friday.

My favorite Friday event is the totally awesome Feature & Follow hop hosted by Parajunkee's View & Allison Can Read:

I haven't been able to participate in WEEKS!!  Such a tragedy.  (Non-participation.) There's always so many new bloggers to meet, not to mention so many fav's to hop by & say "hi!" to!


I found this new fun thing on Down the Rabbit Hole on Fridays where Amber posts pix of some cool fairytale sort. And I love pix. And Fairytales. This week she posted about Mulan. How fun, hey?  Wanna hunt down some Mulan pix & post with me?!  I didn't know I would want to when I woke up this morning, but that's what you can expect out of a Friday like today... lots of surprising delights!!

This week... all week, actually, I've been chatting with Sasha Soren regarding yesterday's very playful post about mermaids, etc, etc, and did you know she posts Reading Nooks every week?!  Oh yea. It's true.  I'm always dreaming about where I'm reading in peace & quiet - something reality doesn't offer.



So... this is a muddled post of Too Much Fun this very fine Friday.

As for Real-Life Friday...
... I'm driving across town to pick up some more raffle prizes from generous businesses for the Totally Awesome Cruise-In comin' up in August (as I posted about this week). AND... pausing at a pool to take my tadpoles swimming.  (That's how "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" - playing WHILE working. The only way to "work" on such a great Friday!!)

Ok... so here is a medley of all my stuff.... READY?!

Q: What drove you to start book blogging in the first place?

Thx for asking, F&F... I started blogging with high hopes of writing better. It's an impossible quest, I realize now, and I've gotten sidetracked winning & giving books & meeting great book bloggers.

Which picture of Mulan do you like best?

1. Pure Intentions

2. Demure Daughter

3. Heart of a Warrior

4. Strength and Beauty

5. Hidden Identity

6. Tears of Hard Choices

7. A Woman of Many Secrets

8. Humble Savior

Finally...

A Nook to Enjoy my delightful summer reading...

Leave me a comment, so I know you stopped by!!  I'll be sure to return the visit and follow-follow-follow!!  Thank you!!


P.S.


Today only... get Until Next Time for FREEEEEEE!!!!!!

Feature and Follow ROBIN HOOD Pix

Feature & Follow is hosted by Parajunkee's View & Alison Can Read. 

Muchas Gracias for all the comments!!  I'll hop over to your site & visit/follow back. If you don't have a blog, watch for return comments here!!  And thx for hoppin' by!

This week's Featured Blogs are...

Sinnful Books & Books of Love

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Q: You are a matchmaker -- your goal, hook up two characters from two of your favorite books. Who would it be? How do you think it would go?

I've got Robin Hood on the brain this morning, having hopped over to Down the Rabbit Hole and checked out her Fairy Tale In Photos this morning. I've been wondering how things would go if he ran into Ismae, you know? I think they'd have a lot in common and one thing just might lead to another.  :-)

Choose your favorite!!

1. Composed Woodsman

2. Fleeing in Winter

3. Hardened Outlaw

4. Posing for "Wanted" Poster

5. Uncomfortable Point of View

6. Dystopian Hero

7. What? I practically memorized this cartoon!!

8. Who said Robin Hood was a guy?  Or human?!

Personally, I kinda like the idea of being Robin Hood myself.

I think I'd be great at it.

Thanks again for hoppin' by!!  See ya again soon over at your place!

Fairy Tale Hop, The Little Mermaid, and Anna Banks

Fairy Tale Giveaway Hop 

is hosted by 

vvb32reads 

& 

I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

The following interview did not happen. It is a figment of the blogger’s imagination from pieces of real correspondence (yes, I refer to myself in 3rd person on occasion). In the interest of being painfully honest, the following color-coding will clarify… black is the blogger, and reality vs. imagination is nearly impossible to differentiate. Actual quotes from Anna Banks will be in blue. Spurts of Oddness will be in red. Don’t believe anything in red.


As soon as I realized this was a very specific Giveaway with specific detailed rules, I wanted to interview Anna Banks. Not just because she snorts coconut slushies, although, that has great appeal, but because she wrote a story with mermaids. And The Little Mermaid is my favorite fairytale.

This may date me, but my first experience with mermaids was not Disney. It was (*gasp*) Hans Christian Anderson, whose mermaid turns into foam having failed to win the prince’s love. (What does that mean that I prefer a sad ending?!) (Wait... you're thinking that I was born in the 1800's now, aren't you?  I just mean pre-Disney's version. Sheesh!)

Anna kindly dressed up in a mermaid outfit with a pair of coconut boobs and came over to my house, where we discussed cool release party ideas. (That was a test... are you following my color-coding?! See above!!) And had the following conversation:

I think you were very brave to write a Young Adult book with… well, they aren’t “mermaids”, what do you call them?

Syrena - it's the Polish word for mermaid. Don't tell Galen.


Ok. Next time you come over, do bring him so I can try not to tell him!!  So... where did you get the idea  for writing about them, anyway?

I got the idea to write about mermaids from an article I read which outlined how they'd discovered that the colossal squid--that ginormous thing you see with its tentacles wrapped around ships in old drawings--actually does exist. All this time, as late as 2005, they thought the colossal squid was just fishermen's lore.  I thought, What ELSE could be out there? Mermaids? Sasquatch? (I believe in Sasquatch, BTW).

Wait... NO WAY!!  I believe in the Sasquatch, TOO!!! We're like, twins or something!!

What?! Sasquatch is real. I watch Finding Bigfoot. He's effing out there.

Seriously!!  I know!  (My husband's seen him, I think.)

I really enjoyed reading your book, Of Poseidon, and I was wondering what's next 'cause it got pretty exciting right at the end, where the story suddenly stops.

There will be a sequel, tentatively called Of Triton. Unfortunately, Galen dies. Or does he???? Mwahahahahaha! (Payback for my chili dog! I mean, it was a foot long!).

Hahahaha  Wait! You like foot long chili dogs?!  (This makes more sense if you see Snorting Slushies.)

Usually, it's salad and fat free dressing, mkay? And you know, sliced strawberries or something.

Oh, ok.  That's what I normally eat, too. Yea.

You really must bring Galen next time. Does he have any say about what happens in this book?!

Galen's visiting Danny @ Bewitched Bookworms with Toraf right now. On the real Tour.

Oh. Well. Okidoki!!

I'd like to give away a pre-order copy of... of... Of Poseidon... Hey, do you ever get hung up on the Of's?!

Yes, I stumble over all the "of"s. I can't tweet anything with the title in it until I've had coffee. Next time, no prepositions in the title. (Well, there's Of Triton, but none after that).


I think everyone should pause for coffee before tweeting. Definitely. Of Triton sounds so cool... when does that come out?!

*crickets*

Um... Anna?  We're having an interview, aren't we?

An interview like, today?  I can't! I have no less than 26 interviews to get done as of this second. And not with you!!

So... what was all this?  Seriously, where am I?!?!  And what just happened?!

Um.

So, I have a vivid imagination!!  So, what?!

Hey, you want some swag for a giveaway? I got bookmarks and Ohmysweetgoodness magnets....:)

Really?!  YAY!!    I mean yes!  YES-YES-YES!!  Thank you!!

Available to win for this giveaway:

A pre-order of... Of Poseidon or another book with mermaids and swag from Anna Banks!!!

See all my giveaway rules under About Me which include "must be 13", "no one's liable" and fun stuff like that.

Fav New Blog Find... Jaded Little Girl

I love hoppin' and surfin' book blogs... suddenly I find myself absorbed in the un-glamorous side of Fairy Tales. Chen of Jaded Little Girl has a unique view of fairy tales that is as fresh as it is old. Her pictures add to her writing.

Fairy Tale Friday #5 - Shoes 

I had to write as ask how Chen knew so many details?

I know some of this gritty stuff about fairy tales because I love fairy tales. I own anthologies, theories, criticisms, etc about fairy tales. (Three of my papers in college were about fairy tales!!!) I still need to start a collection of DVDs, anything related to fairy tales. Some of my favorite fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid" and "The Little Match Girl." They are both by Hans Christian Andersen, and they both make me feel emotional because of the sad endings. The absence of happily ever afters tells me that not everyone has a typical happy ending but they do have endings.

It's fun to read about the original fairy tales and find any connecting themes. So when I think of a topic (such as amputation, the color red, kisses...), I try to come up with a list of fairy tales that relate to that topic. Some of my future topics include: apples, 7 deadly sins, shoes, etc. 

"Gritty stuff" is right... Fairy Tale Friday #5 is on Amputation, with visual aides!

Fairy Tale Friday #2 - The Color Red 

What more can I share about you?

I'm working on a fairy tale dystopian novel called Beautiful/Wild. It's a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" set in a dystopian world. This is the synopsis of my WIP on my blog. 

"Beauty and the Beast" retelling in a dystopian world where the society performs surgeries to make you look princess beautiful, pair you up with your perfect Prince Charming, and give you everything you need for a happy ending. Arabella has waited all her life for her 18th birthday so she can have all her dreams come true until she meets Leo and falls in love without the society's permission.

I'm still in the early stage of writing this book, but I hope to finish by the end of the year! I'm even participating in NaNoWriMo to try to write as much as possible! I hope that once I finish writing and editing, I can query agents! I never thought I would write a dystopian novel. I love reading the genre, but I thought I wouldn't be creative enough to write my own. Then one day, I thought to combine fairy tales and dystopia together! My first original idea was to retell "Hansel and Gretel." Then as I started to form this plastic surgery idea, I knew a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" would make more sense!