#CoffinHop Day 3: Fairy Tale Confessional

Another day, another coffin. This time it’s Sleeping Beauty’s…

An Excerpt from Fairy Tale Fusion:

I Cursed Sleeping Beauty... And She Deserved It

So you want to hear my side of the story? All the dirt behind the scoundrel of the Sleeping Beauty Tale?

Well here’s the scoop...

The fact is I've gotten a bad rap. I've been branded the bad guy because I put some prissy, pink-cheeked spoiled princess under a curse and she fell asleep for a century. Big deal, so she took a nap. She woke up eventually and now she’s got her happily-ever-after and a dreamy prince. Plus, she’s over a hundred and she still looks like a teenager. I bet she'll be wishing she was still snoozing when things start to sag.

Yes, dear little Sleeping Beauty’s got it good, and what did I get? Bad PR, that’s what. Of course nobody ever looks at it from my side. It’s all, well, “she’s the bad fairy.” Was it my fault that fate chose me to be the keeper of the darker things in life? No it wasn't, I was born into it; I've been up against it since I came into this world.

A numbers game, that’s what my life started as, a freaking unlucky chance of being born the thirteenth heir of the ruling fairy families. All my life I knew my destiny would be to follow the path of Dark Magic.

As a child, I was sent to magic school with my cousins. I learned curses and poisons while the rest of my family made love potions and fancy fairy dust. On the playground they shunned me, taunted and teased me. I toughened up quickly in that school.

I spent my teen years crawling around swamps for toads and lizards while the other girls dreamed about boys and lacy dresses. No one teased me anymore, though; you turn one girl blue for a week and that sort of thing stops cold.

After graduation (head of my class, but I never got credit for that) I found myself at loose ends and an outcast in my own family. I went to live on my own, shut myself away in a lonely tower, while my twelve cousins went on to fame and fortune. They flitted about, bestowing beauty, happiness, and charm on the world; I dished out warts and bad luck spells. Is it any wonder I'm a little bitter?

It’s not like I looked for any trouble, I just did my job. I went out of my way to temper all that evil I was in charge of and make the best of it. All I asked for was some respect. Not too much to request, but still I got shafted.

You see, there’s a part of my story that tends to get glossed over, you know the part about me being snubbed, publicly. They knew the tradition, that a royal child is christened in attendance of all the fairy houses, even the Dark Fae. I wanted to go, to have a new elegant dress, and maybe dance a waltz at the after party. I picked out the right gift—nothing too ostentatious, just a touch of temper—a flaw to give her a rounded personality. I figured with all those other gifts like wit, charisma and beauty she needed a little something to make her more human.

But the King and Queen couldn't bear to have their precious daughter marred (their word, not mine) so they made the wrong decision to change the centuries old custom. Did those royals ever consider my feelings? No, they went and left me out of the christening party. An oversight they said later, they simply forgot to dispatch my invite. Yeah, right. And I was supposed to stand back and suffer that slight, take the insult? Well, not this gal, I can tell you. I had a reputation to maintain.

So I crashed their soiree and cursed the little princess. Sure, I went a little overboard with my original, “prick her finger and die” proclamation, but I've always had a tendency to overdo when I'm mad. It’s not like she died or anything. And maybe I did cheat a little on her sixteenth birthday to ensure my curse, but hey, a bit of chicanery is my trademark. I needed some insurance, to show those royals that I was still in control.

I stand by my actions. I was justified and they all had it coming. What did they expect for offending the Queen of the Dark Fairies? It’s the spin that bugs me, this whole “wicked fairy godmother” crap. Where do they get off judging me? A bunch of snooty royals screw up and for that I get labelled a villain!

Life just isn't fair.

Fairy Tale Fusion is available at:

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1RJUCA
Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00G1RJUCA
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/356889
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/fairy-tale-fusion
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fairy-tale-fusion-a-f-stewart/1116913271
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/fairy-tale-fusion/id706475602?mt=11

Don’t forget to scroll down for the list of more Coffin Hoppers, and enter the Rafflecopter contest before you turn out the lights. See you tomorrow …I hope.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#CoffinHop Day 2: Into the Woods

Into the Woods

Once Upon a Time…

If that phrase conjures up image of Disney Princesses and happy endings then you’re missing out on the delightfully dark aspects of fairy tales. The ones that come with the original versions of the stories, where sinister woodlands held wicked witches, vengeful spirits, cannibalistic queens, murderous ogres and all manner of things out to kill you. Even the princes had a sinister edge, with not-so-charming intentions.

Now I love the Disney animated films, but my childhood involved reading more nasty versions, namely Grimm’s Fairy Tales. These are the stories that bite, where menacing things prowl in the darkness, behind the trees and even invade your home. In these stories bad things happened, and even the happy endings could seem rather imperfect.

These stories had a spooky ambience and a lurid nature, dark and dripping in blood and terror, but being a main character in one of these fairy tales wasn't easy. A walk in the woods could get you eaten by wolves, captured by witches (who wanted to cook and eat you) or turned into some kind of animal. Even family wasn't safe. Step-mothers, mothers-in-law, fathers and siblings could all conspire to kill you. They could be hungry for your flesh, jealous of your beauty, or just greedy for your gold.

And those Not-So-Charming Princes I mentioned? Well, they tended to scoop up their Princesses without so much as a by-your-leave (I mean who whisks off girls they've just met in a forest?) and marched them to the altar as quick as they could (or do even worse, as in the original Sleeping Beauty tale). Happily ever after for these heroines often meant being forcibly snatched from the life you knew and wedded to a stranger (and sometimes being persecuted by his crazy witch mother).

So the next time you think of fairy tales, don't imagine pretty princesses, shiver in horror.  And remember:  death (and a witch) lurks around every corner, family can't be trusted, and stay away from princes.

I hope you'll visit some of the other hoppers  (scroll down, way down, to find the list) and don't forget to enter my Rafflecopter Contest.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Beware, Coffin Hop Begins!

Beware, Coffin Hop Begins!

Yes, Dear Readers, it’s that time of year again. When all the naughty and nasty things crawl out the ground (or the woods) to play…

Welcome to Coffin Hop 2013!

Every October a Halloweeny hoard of horror writers get together and turn the last week of the month into a scarefest, with the blood dripping Coffin Hop. This blog hop runs from Oct. 24^th until the 31^st, Halloween, and is always tons of fun, with contests, stories and ghoulish delights from all the participating writers. Plus, this year Coffin Hop is proud to present its first anthology, Death by Drive –In. All profits from the COFFIN HOP: DEATH BY DRIVE-IN anthology will be donated to LitWorld.org to help encourage children’s literacy throughout the world. 

So on with the creep show...

This year I'm doing a Dark Fairy Tale Theme, in honour of my just released book Fairy Tale Fusion.  For the next week this blog (mostly) belongs to the darker side of Fairyland; there will be a book excerpt and fairy tale poems, some stories and a guest post from writer R. M. Ridley.

There will also be contests.  One mega Rafflecopter Contest running all week long, with three chances to win, plus a couple of mini contests for free books, including the Coffin Hop anthology, Death by Drive –In (where I have a story, yay!). 

To kick things off I'll be introducing my new book, Fairy Tale Fusion:

Welcome to Fairy Tale Fusion.

Where things get messy in the Riding Hood.

What if the characters in Fairy Tales existed? What if they lived and breathed in a place called Fairyland, a setting not too divergent from our world, situated next to Wonderland and down the lane from Camelot?

Meet Detective Piper, member of the Fairyland Metro Police. His job, to ferret out the suspects and investigate crime on the streets and in the lanes of Fairyland. Along with Officer Simon, he’s hard at work, searching for a missing pumpkin, hunting for an arsonist, wondering what the future holds in a series of crystal ball robberies, and dealing with spells, curses and other strange happenings.

His cases, and others like them, are the headlines of the day, brought to you by FTN news anchors Spider Bramble and Aurora Gossamer, with entertainment correspondent Lucinda Lovedust and reporter Chip Charming. Keep up-to-date on the latest information out of Fairyland and its adjacent suburbs, and the recent hubbub with trolls, princesses, fairies and their ilk. 

And after leaving Fairyland, you'll journey to a place where toys are born… to be bad.  When spells go wrong and playthings turn mean, where clown dolls would kill to meet you and a Rubik’s cube holds a cosmic secret.

If you survive the toy box, then head out to party with some elves (if you can outlast the celebration), battle in a far, far away galaxy, play “find the dragon”, and discover how they do crime and punishment in Oz.

And remember, always be nice to your Fairy Godmother.

Fairy Tale Fusion is available at Smashwords and Amazon.

Now for the Rafflecopter Contest. You enter via the widget below, and there’s no mandatory entry, just click the ones you want.
Here's what the prize packs consist of:

1^st

Free Fairy Tale Fusion ebook

Autographed paperback copy of Mechanized Masterpieces: A Steampunk Anthology

Digital artwork

PDF Wanted posters

Postcards

2^nd

Free Fairy Tale Fusion ebook

Pen and Notepad

Digital artwork

PDF Wanted posters

3^rd

Free Fairy Tale Fusion ebook

Pen and Notepad

Digital artwork 

(A Note: the pen/notepad bear the original name of Fairy Tale Fusion, which was Fractured Fairy Tales; apparently that happens when you order prizes in advance and then change the name of your book.)
You can check out photos of the artwork prizes here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151843612673540.1073741827.18416128539&type=3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That’s it for today, but come back tomorrow for a trip into the dark woods. And visit the other Coffin Hoppers  (scroll down, way down, to find the list).

Fairy Tale Fusion Launches Today!

Today's the day for the official launch of my new book Fairy Tale Fusion, and there's a big celebration going on over at Facebook this afternoon at 4 PM Atlantic Time (that's 3 PM Eastern) until 7 PM Atlantic (6 PM Eastern). There will be trivia questions, chatting, and free swag, plus I may even bring some virtual chocolate, and peppermint daiquiris.

It all happens here: https://www.facebook.com/events/446300328811870/449328735175696/

And don't worry if you can't make it because the dark fairies are heading to this very blog tomorrow, Oct 24th, for the start of Coffin Hop 2013. Yes, that's right it's that time of year again, when Halloween starts early. So, please join me until Halloween for Dark Magic, Creepy Creatures, and the Seelie Court...

Oh, and did I mention there will be contests with lots of free stuff.

Fairy Tale Fusion

What if the characters in Fairy Tales were real? What if they lived in Fairyland, a place not too dissimilar to ours, next to Wonderland and down the street from Camelot?  

Come follow the exploits of Detective Piper of the Fairyland Metro Police, the Fairy Tale News updates and more cracked characters taken from the world of childhood.  

When you are done dancing with Cinderella and her cronies, open the lid of a very scary toy box to find where children’s nightmares begin... and end, badly.

Book Links: 

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/356889

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1RJUCA

Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00G1RJUCA

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/fairy-tale-fusion

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fairy-tale-fusion-a-f-stewart/1116913271

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/fairy-tale-fusion/id706475602?mt=11

Inspiration by Tolkien: A Guest Post by Sheila Deeth

Today, author Sheila Deeth stops by on her blog tour to talk about Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and how it connects to her Five-Minute Bible Story Series and her new book, Bethlehem’s Baby.

How the Silmarillion inspired a book of Bible Stories

Once upon a (student) time I got a copy of Tolkien’s The Silmarillion for Christmas. I took it back to college with me as term began, and rationed myself to reading one chapter a day—kind of like rationing chocolate to two pieces a day (which I also did), and cake to one slice. It was hard to read so slowly though. I really loved the book and was hooked right from the first tale—the Music of the Ainur. What a wonderful “creation” story! What a haunting blend of weighty prose, musical language, and thrilling fantasy. “Never since have the Ainur made music like to this music,” the author writes, “though it has been said that a greater still shall be made before Iluvatar by the choirs of Ainur and the Children of Iluvatar after the end of days.” The words begged to be sounded aloud, and the press of eternal meaning bore into me. But I was a mathematician, studying the logic of number systems and the vagaries of function and form. I was already a “mongrel Christian mathematician” though, so Tolkien’s Biblical hints dug deep. I went to Christian Union meetings, represented the Catholic Chaplaincy, and wondered—oh heresy of heresies—why didn't God use interesting authors like Tolkien to write the scriptures?

I was kind of an accidental mathematician really. When it came to a choice between studying mathematics or writing, I chose math because at least when you're right you're right and no-one’s going to tell you you're not good enough. In contrast my son, when faced with the identical choice, plumped for writing because those who judge words can only give opinions; they can't definitively declare your answer’s wrong.

So what’s an accidental mathematician, with a love of writing, a sudden total addiction to Tolkien (especially The Silmarillion), and a deep Christian faith to do? In my case, dreaming was way easier than doing, so I dreamed a set of Bible stories, written so kids (and teens, and students too) might actually want to read them, written to be fun and spoken aloud and shared, and going all the way from creation to revelation—from that first music of Tolkien’s Ainur until the end of days. Then I got a job and wrote computer programs, got married and had kids, got another job and broke computer programs, became infinitely more mongrel, learned tons of stuff about the Bible and Biblical times, lost my job… and then I started writing those stories I'd dreamed of long ago.

The kids are grown, and one of them even writes. So now the Bible, science and history feed my muse, Tolkien and faith inspire my intent, and the Five-Minute Bible Story^TM Series keeps growing, though Creation to Revelation’s already taking six books with Bethlehem’s Baby’s recent release, and many more in the works.

Meanwhile I still love The Silmarillion best of all my Tolkien books. I just found it again while tidying up the shelves, so please excuse me while I curl up and read.

Thank you so much for welcoming me to your blog, Anita.

Links:

Find Bethlehem’s Baby at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EY172MA/

More of the Five-Minute Bible Story^TM Series on the publisher’s website: http://capearagopress.com/Five-Minute.html

Connect with Sheila at:

Sheila Deeth: http://about.me/SheilaDeeth

Blog: http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheila.deeth

Fan page: https://www.facebook.com/SheilaDeethAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sheiladeeth

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2853735.Sheila_Deeth