Liz DeJesus's Blog, page 12
November 13, 2013
Different
Lately I've been harassed on facebook by an overzealous woman who is obsessed with all things Latin. Every single time I post something about my work there she goes, leaving a comment asking if this book will feature an AMAZING LATINA woman. And I had to unfriend her. It was getting to be too much. Almost like passive aggressive bullying. I even wrote her a very polite letter and asked her to stop. And she replied with a bunch of links on how we need more Latina role models. She has it in her head that I should be a positive role model for the entire Hispanic community and that my books should feature more Latin characters.
Umm...here's a newsflash for you. I write whatever I want. My writing is not a soapbox for anyone to stand on to bring forward an issue. I write what's in my heart. I write what brings ME joy. And other people just happen to enjoy it as well. The world is a wonderful place filled with people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders. My characters have ranged from Latinas (if you read The Jackets, Nina and Note to Self then you know what I'm talking about), Italian (upcoming horror novel, Morgan) Asian (Ming Lee from the Frost Series) and American (Bianca Frost from the Frost Series).
Another reason I'm in no particular hurry to create another AMAZING LATINA character? First of all she's not living inside my head at this particular moment (I'm the good kind of schizophrenic), secondly, I'm in no hurry to revisit the experiences I went through while I lived in Puerto Rico because that's where I would draw those characters from, the past and what I know (best advice is to write what you know right?). Some Latinos have a great love for their country and that's wonderful. Good for you. Hang on to that, because I will never ever have that. The only time I was ever fully and completely embraced for who I am as a person, as the unique individual that I am was when I came to Delaware on September 9th, 1999. The moment that I set foot in the USA was the day that I actually made true friends. Some of which I am still friends with to this day.
The day that anyone tries to control me or my writing is the day that I will stop writing altogether. I will literally throw away every pen and notebook and never write another sentence again.
So crazy lady has been unfriended. I wish her the best of luck finding someone else she can put on a soapbox. Not me.
November 12, 2013
Help Liz DeJesus and Esther Wheelmaker to Otakon!
Liz DeJesus & Esther Wheelmaker met for the very first time when they went to the Baltimore Comic Con. It was a match made in heaven. They got along so well that they decided to go to Otakon next year. But they need your help....
November 8, 2013
Fairy Tale Friday
Anyway without further ado, here are The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I remember reading this story when I was a little girl and I was fascinated with the idea that you could go someplace else and dance. And then I watched it on Faerie Tale Theater and it was better than I could've imagined. I loved the fact that the soldier was smarter than the princesses (who thought they had tricked him into drinking the drugged wine). Anyway I'm not gonna ruin it for you, I'll let you read it for yourself.
Happy reading!!
The Twelve Dancing Princesses (taken from Wikipedia)
Twelve princesses, each more beautiful than the last, sleep in twelve beds in the same room. Every night, their doors are securely locked. But in the morning, their dancing shoes are found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night. The king, perplexed, promises his kingdom and each daughter to any man who can discover the princesses' midnight secret within three days and three nights, but those who fail within the set time limit will be put to death.
An old soldier returned from war comes to the king's call after several princes have failed in the attempt. Whilst traveling through a wood he comes upon an old woman, who gives him an enchanted cloak that he can use to observe them unawares and tells him not to eat or drink anything given to him in the evening by any of the princesses and to pretend to be fast asleep until after they leave.
The soldier is well received at the palace just as the others had been and indeed, in the evening, the eldest princess comes to his chamber and offers him a cup of wine. The soldier, remembering the old woman's advice, throws it away secretly and begins to snore loudly as if asleep.
The twelve princesses, sure that the soldier is asleep, dress themselves in fine dancing gowns and escape from their room by a trap door in the floor. The soldier, seeing this, dons his magic cloak and follows them. He steps on the gown of the youngest princess, whose cry of alarm to her sisters is rebuffed by the eldest. The passageway leads them to three groves of trees; the first having leaves of silver, the second of gold, and the third of glittering diamonds. The soldier, wishing for a token, breaks off a twig of each as evidence. They walk on until they come upon a great clear lake. Twelve boats, with twelve princes, appear where the twelve princesses are waiting. Each princess gets into one, and the soldier steps into the same boat as the twelfth and youngest princess. The youngest princess complains that the prince is not rowing fast enough, not knowing the soldier is in the boat. On the other side of the lake stands a castle, into which all the princesses go and dance the night away.
The twelve princesses happily dance all night until their shoes are worn through and they are obliged to leave. The strange adventure continues on the second and third nights, and everything happens just as before, except that on the third night the soldier carries away a golden cup as a token of where he has been. When it comes time for him to declare the princesses' secret, he goes before the king with the three branches and the golden cup, and tells the king all he has seen. The princesses know that there is no use in denying the truth, and confess. The soldier chooses the first and eldest princess as his bride for he is not a very young man, and is made the King's heir.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by ~baba-studio on deviantART
The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes by *Alicechan on deviantART
November 6, 2013
November 5, 2013
It's official
Note: Because I signed a non-disclosure agreement I'm not allowed to say the title of the comic book until Emerald Star Comics makes the official announcement on their site.
But...I'm still gonna open a bottle of champagne and celebrate. Oh and how else am I gonna celebrate? By dancing of course!
November 2, 2013
November 1, 2013
Fairy Tale Friday
LOL So that's my take on this particular story. I just feel bad for The Three Bears because they seem like really nice bears.
What I found on Wikipedia:
In Southey's tale, three anthropomorphic bears – "a Little, Small, Wee Bear, a Middle-sized Bear, and a Great, Huge Bear" – live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each of these "bachelor" bears has his own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman (who is described at various points in the story as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction) discovers the bears' dwelling. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The old woman eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The climax of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds the old woman in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, – and here she is!" The old woman starts up, jumps from the window, and runs away never to be seen again.Later variations: Goldilocks
Twelve years after the publication of Southey's tale, Joseph Cundall transformed the antagonist from an ugly old woman to a pretty little girl in his Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children. He explained his reasons for doing so in a dedicatory letter to his children, dated November 1849, which was inserted at the beginning of the book:
The "Story of the Three Bears" is a very old Nursery Tale, but it was never so well told as by the great poet Southey, whose version I have (with permission) given you, only I have made the intruder a little girl instead of an old woman. This I did because I found that the tale is better known with Silver-Hair, and because there are so many other stories of old women.[11]
Illustration from Childhood's Favorites and Fairy StoriesOnce the little girl entered the tale, she remained – suggesting children prefer an attractive child in the story rather than an ugly old woman.[9] The juvenile antagonist saw a succession of names:[16] Silver Hair in the pantomime Harlequin and The Three Bears; or, Little Silver Hair and the Fairies by J.B. Buckstone (1853); Silver-Locks in Aunt Mavor's Nursery Tales (1858); Silverhair in George MacDonald's "The Golden Key" (1867); Golden Hair in Aunt Friendly's Nursery Book (ca. 1868);[11] Silver-Hair and Goldenlocks at various times; Little Golden-Hair (1889);[15] and finally Goldilocks in Old Nursery Stories and Rhymes (1904).[11] Tatar credits Flora Annie Steel with naming the child (1918).[1]
Goldilocks's fate varies in the many retellings: in some versions, she runs into the forest, in some she is almost eaten by the bears but her mother rescues her, in some she vows to be a good child, and in some she returns home. Whatever her fate, Goldilocks fares better than Southey's vagrant old woman who, in his opinion, deserved a stint in the House of Correction, and far better than Miss Mure's old woman who is impaled upon St. Paul's church-yard steeple.[17]
Goldilocks caught in Baby Bear's bed – by BrookeSouthey's all-male ursine trio has not been left untouched over the years. The group was re-cast as Father, Mother, and Baby Bear, but the date of this change is disputed. Tatar indicates it occurred by 1852,[17] while Katherine Briggs suggests the event occurred in 1878 with Mother Goose's Fairy Tales published by Routledge.[15][16] With the publication of the tale by "Aunt Fanny" in 1852, the bears became a family in the illustrations to the tale but remained three bachelor bears in the text.
In Dulcken's version of 1858, the two larger bears are brother and sister, and friends to the little bear. This arrangement represents the evolution of the ursine trio from the traditional three male bears to a family of father, mother, and child.[18] In a publication ca. 1860, the bears have become a family at last in both text and illustrations: "the old papa Bear, the mamma Bear, and the little boy Bear".[19] In a Routledge publication c 1867, Great Papa is called Rough Bruin, Mrs. Bruin is Mammy Muff, and their "little funny brown Bear" is called Tiny. Inexplicably, the illustrations depict the three as male bears.[20]
In publications subsequent to Aunt Fanny's of 1852, Victorian nicety required editors to routinely and silently alter Southey's "[T]here she sate till the bottom of the chair came out, and down came her's, plump upon the ground" to read "and down she came", omitting any reference to the human bottom. The cumulative effect of the several changes to the tale since its original publication was to transform a fearsome oral tale into a cozy family story with an unrealized hint of menace.
Portrait of Goldilocks by ~jasminetoad on deviantART
Goldilocks by ~TeeLamb on deviantART
October 30, 2013
Shattered Frost
White Queen by *LimKis on deviantART
White queen by ~fiixx on deviantART
26084 / 50000 words. 52% done!
