Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 129

Free Ebook: Redwall by Brian Jacques

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Redwall (Book 1, Redwall) by Brian Jacques, a modern classic, is FREE in ebook format on Amazon today. I don't know how long that price will last. I have fond memories of the kids who devoured this series while I was working in the Burbank Library.

And I think it fits well enough on the blog since these types of books are inheritors of fairy tales and fables, IMHO.

Book description:

As the inhabitants of Redwall Abbey bask in the glorious Summer of the Late Rose, all is quiet and peaceful. But things are not as they seem. Cluny the Scourge, the evil one-eyed rat warlord, is hell-bent on destroying the tranquility as he prepares to fight a bloody battle for the ownership of Redwall.

This dazzling story in the Redwall series is packed with all the wit, wisdom, humor, and blood-curdling adventure of the other books in the collection, but has the added bonus of taking the reader right back to the heart and soul of Redwall Abbey and the characters who live there.

Amazon.com Widgets

Early Cinderella: Yeh-hsien

From my book, Cinderella Tales From Around the World:

The story of Yeh-hsien, also known as Yeh-Shen and Sheh Hsien, is the oldest known Cinderella tale recorded in the Orient. It appears in Yu Yang Tsa Tsu (Miscellany of Forgotten Lore) written by Tuan Ch’êng-shih around 856-860 AD/CE. A full English translation of the tale appears in two sources, “Cinderella in China” by R. D. Jameson and “The Chinese Cinderella Story” by Arthur Waley, although neither were available for reprinting here. Waley’s translation and commentary are generally considered to be more accurate. I have retold the tale, deriving the story from both translations of the old text. 

The story was provided by Li Shih-yüan, a longtime servant to Tuan Ch’êng-shih’s family. He originally came from the caves of Yung-Chou and remembered many strange tales from the southern region.


Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China is the picture book version of the tale, adapted from the original as stated above. The picture book also provides an image of the Chinese text.

Overall, this is a fascinating version of Cinderella--and it is recognizably a Cinderella tale--with a mistreated heroine, a lost shoe, royal marriage, etc. It isn't quite the way we know it, since as in many Asian versions of Cinderella, the magical helper is a fish. The original is also a little meaner with a king who threatens death upon his servants and a stepmother and stepsister who are crushed by stones as their punishment. You can read a plot summary--which isn't much longer than the tale--on Wikipedia.

Also, depending on who you ask, this is considered the earliest known Cinderella. As I said in my entry about Rhodopis, that's up to interpretation. But this is the earliest, easily recognizable Cinderella. All of the elements of a Cinderella tale are there, and there's not much stretching the tale to fit the guidelines.

Bargain Book: A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine

A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine is currently $6.80 in hardcover and $6.64 in ebook format on Amazon. Either price is less that than the paperback. This was a successful 2012 birthday present to my niece Leighton.

Book description:

Newbery Honor author of Ella Enchanted Gail Carson Levine weaves a spellbinding tale about a clever heroine, a dragon detective, and a shape-shifting ogre.

Newly arrived in the town of Two Castles, Elodie unexpectedly becomes the assistant to a brilliant dragon named Meenore, and together they solve mysteries. Their most important case concerns the town’s shape-shifting ogre, Count Jonty Um: Someone is plotting against him. Elodie must disguise herself to discover the source of the threat amid a cast of characters that includes a greedy king, a giddy princess, and a handsome cat trainer.

Readers who loved Ella Enchanted and Fairest will delight in this tale of a spirited heroine who finds friendship where she least expects it and discovers that goodness and evil come in all shapes and sizes.

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Early Cinderellas: A Few More

It's Saturday. No one wants too much info to read today, do they? How about I provide a short list of other potential ancient Cinderellas, although they do not appear in my book beyond a list?

From my book, Cinderella Tales From Around the World:

Inarguably, there are several ancient myths and stories which include a few Cinderella motifs, but there are not many easily recognizable Cinderellas in the mix. At this time, one of the best published discussions about Cinderella in antiquity can be found in Graham Anderson’s book, Fairytale in the Ancient World (2000). His chapter on Cinderella offers several ancient stories with Cinderella motifs, for which there is not sufficient space to discuss in detail here, including:

• Sakuntala, a Sanskrit play by Kalidasa, from the fifth century AD/CE adapted from a tale in the Mahabarata (India);
• Pherecydes and the Io myth (Greece);
• The Inanna Cycle (Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer).

Many of these stories require compositing to find more than a few Cinderella motifs within them.

Because these are overall very long and are less strong Cinderellas than the ones I've already discussed--and those are loose versions themselves--I didn't include them in my book. But they are out there for your discussion and further research if you so desire.

And when I say compositing, I mean creating the stories from several sources to get one story and enough elements to consider the story a Cinderella.

Early Cinderellas: Aspasia

From my book, Cinderella Tales From Around the World:

Aspasia appeared in Aelian’s Varia Historia (12.1) around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD/BCE. As Graham Anderson points out in his Fairytale in the Ancient World,  “The relationships and dynamics of this story bring it close to Cinderella tradition even when details and outcomes are opposite.” Ultimately, the tale is one of virtue and modesty rewarded. Aelian allots more space to this tale than most in his miscellany, giving it more depth and thus power to teach and entertain.

Aspasia was a historical person and her real history is not very Cinderella-like. You can read about her on Wikipedia with links to other resources. But her story in Aelian is compelling and was one of Anderson's more interesting discussions in his book.

I included Aelian's version of the tale in my book, too.

Free Ebooks: Faerie Tale Collection Titles by Jenni James

Both Beauty and the Beast (Faerie Tale Collection) and Sleeping Beauty (Faerie Tale Collection) by Jenni James are free today in ebook format.

Book description for Beauty and the Beast (Faerie Tale Collection):

A prince by day and a wolf by night—

Prince Alexander has been turned into a werewolf and has one year to find someone to love the beast and break the spell, or he will be a wolf forever. He has nearly given up achieving the impossible, knowing no girl would ever fall in love with such a monster.

Just when he is about to abdicate the throne to his cousin, he meets Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe, while a wolf, and begins to hope for the first time in months. Can he balance both worlds as a human and beast, gaining the love and trust of a girl who has every reason to despise him?

Cecelia detests the prince. She only knows Alexander as the arrogant monarch—the tyrant who has made her life miserable—though perhaps he's changed right before her eyes. He's not as full of himself as he once was. The prince is gentle now... but then again, so is the beast.

Book description for Sleeping Beauty (Faerie Tale Collection):

The sleeping girl has no idea she is asleep.

After Aleyna witnessed the cruel deaths of her family, she was put to sleep by Ezralon the unicorn. He has been keeping her safe, hidden in the forest, until her true prince could come and rescue her.

While Aleyna is protected in the forest, her spirit walks the halls of her ruined, deserted castle in a dream-like existence, believing everything is still perfect. However, she is halted in this state—almost as if time were frozen—until the prince awakens her.

Prince Darién of Lybrooke Court loves a challenge as much as the next man, but believes it will be a fool’s errand to rescue a ghost who is already dead! He’s convinced no one could have survived sleeping thirty years, so what is the point of rescuing a girl who is quite content to haunt on her own?

Of course, if Darién wasn’t so afraid of ghouls, this whole thing could be much easier to fathom...

Early Cinderellas: Asenath

From my book, Cinderella Tales From Around the World:

This tale, part of Jewish tradition and often included in Biblical apocryphas, may seem one of the least likely Cinderellas in this collection. However, Graham Anderson discusses the Cinderella links to the story in his Fairytale in the Ancient World. He combines several versions of the tale to make a compelling case for classifying the story as a Cinderella tale, pointing out that Asenath (1) is a persecuted heroine, (2) covered in dirt or ashes, (3) who receives counsel from a heavenly (magical) helper, (4) is identified by a ring (necklace, birth token) as eligible for marriage, and (5) marries Joseph, a prince of his tribe. Not all of these elements appear in the version provided here, but it is one of the most complete versions of the tale available for inclusion in this collection. In some traditions, Asenath is Joseph’s niece, the daughter of his sister Dinah, who was exposed in the desert. An eagle carried the baby with a Hebrew-inscribed ring to Egypt where she was adopted by Pentephres/Potiphar.

If accepted as a Cinderella tale, it is also one of the earliest versions recorded with scholars estimating its first appearance most likely in Egypt between the 1st century BC/BCE and early 2nd century AD/CE.

As a result of Anderson's compelling arguments, the apocryphal version of Asenath and Joseph is included in my book. You can also read more about Asenath on Wikipedia which will refer you to other resources to read her many stories.

Read them all. And then you decide! Is Asenath a Cinderella?

Early Cinderellas: The Egyptian Rhodopis

When we discuss early Cinderellas, it is critical to recommend Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson.

From my book, Cinderella Tales From Around the World:

Rhodopis, an Egyptian tale, is popularly labeled the earliest or first Cinderella story. The tale was first recorded by the Greek historian Strabo in the first century BC/AD and is generally considered to be loosely based upon a real person written about by Herodotus five hundred years before Strabo’s time. Rhodopis also appeared in Aelian’s Varia Historia (13.33) around the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD/CE.

I share three versions of the Rhodopis tale in the collection, beginning with translations of the earliest texts as well as two retellings of the story from the 19th century which take on greater literary flavor, demonstrating how larger tales are created from small pieces of earlier literature. They were also rewritten with a stronger Cinderella flavor to them although their ancient source materials are well-used, too. The tale was embraced during the golden age of fairy tales as a Cinderella tale and thus retold to fit those needs.


There is only one picture book version of this tale that I am aware of, The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo. The book description gives a sufficiently short and tidy summary of the tale:

Poor Rhodopis! She has nothing - no mother or father, and no friends. She is a slave, from the far-off country of Greece. Only the beautiful rose-red slippers her master gives her can make Rhodopis smile. So when a falcon swoops down and snatches one of the slippers away, Rhodipis is heartbroken. For how is she to know that the slipper will land in the lap of the great Pharoah himself? And who would ever guess that the Pharoah has promised to find the slipper's owner and make her queen of all Egypt?

All that said, there has to be a disclaimer, too, for many scholars reject this tale as a Cinderella tale since it doesn't meet enough of the elements or they have to be jiggled too much to accommodate a Cinderella label. Rhodopis isn't persecuted, per se, although arguing that she was a slave or a courtesan is sufficient for many to make her downtrodden and a victim. Others argue against a magical helper although some accept the eagle/falcon who drops her shoe near the pharoah to be sufficient for the role. The arguments expand much further than the scope of this short blog entry.

A shoe and royal marriage doesn't a Cinderella make, is the argument. Or does it? Anderson makes fitting arguments in his book and I recommend it for further reading about Rhodopis. As well as the original stories, of course.

And then the final decision is up to you. Because folklore is never easy.

Free Ebook: Under the Covers and between the Sheets: Facts and Trivia about the World's Greatest Books

Under the Covers and between the Sheets: Facts and Trivia about the World's Greatest Books is currently free in ebook format. Don't know how much fairy tale stuff is in there--but see the description to see that there is some!--but this just the kind of book I like to have on my phone's Kindle reader for when I'm stuck in line somewhere. Short, interesting reading without sucking me in beyond paying attention to my surroundings. Mostly.

And did I mention free? For a short time...

Book description:

Bibliophiles, grab your glasses! Here is a compendium of interesting--and often scandalous--facts and quips about the literary world. Featuring authors and tomes of yesteryear and yesterday, from Tolkien's Middle- earth to Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, you'll sections such as:

You Don't Say?: Commonly-used words and phrases that were coined or popularized in classic words of fiction--sometimes with very different meanings.

Gruesomely Ever After: The original endings of some of the world's most cherished fairy tales--"Snow White," "The Little Mermaid," "Cinderella," and more.

Parental Guidance Suggested: Banned works of fiction and the controversy surrounding them.

Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh My!): The real-life stories and inspirations behind beloved "leading creatures."

Time to Make the Doughnuts: Odd jobs of famous authors.

Tell Me a Story: Dahl's short stories, Seuss's political cartoons; the lesser-known, and sometimes shocking, adult writings of beloved children's authors.

The Long Con: Shocking (and sometimes shockingly long-lived) literary hoaxes: Frey, JT Leroy, The Education of Little Tree, The Day After Roswell, etc.

Science Fiction, Science Fact: If alien monoliths are ever found on the moon, the safer bet is that they would be translucent crystal; Sir Arthur C. Clarke is celebrated for making accurate predictions of various technologies, years ahead of their time. A look at which of his predictions held true and the same feats of other authors.

Yes, But is it Art?: The weirdest books ever written: books without verbs, without punctuation...or without the letter "e".

Make this and all of the Blackboard Books(tm) a permanent fixture on your shelf, and you'll have instant access to a breadth of knowledge. Whether you need homework help or want to win that trivia game, this series is the trusted source for fun facts.

Free Ebook: Red (Transplanted Tales) by Kate Serine

Red (Transplanted Tales) by Kate Serine is FREE today in ebook format. This is the first in a series from Kensington's ebook arm, in anticipation of the February release of The Better to See You (Transplanted Tales), the next book in the series. Somehow I missed this one when it was first published last August. But the title makes it hard to find, so I'll excuse my failure.

Funny how mainstream publishers's covers are looking more like well-done self-pubbed these days--or so a friend said and I see the trend. And I'm not saying that as a judgment on the book at all, in fact it's to point out that this isn't self-pubbed. I'm not against self-pubbed at all--that'd be hypocritical of me!--but some of you readers are understandably wary of it. And if I wrote about every self-pubbed fairy tale inspired novel on this blog, I'd never have time for anything else. So those have to really stand out and not be erotica to get air time on this blog.

But this is published by a long time publisher. And it's free. So if you like paranormal romance, try it at little risk to you!

Book description:

"My name is Tess Little. But everyone calls me Red."

Once upon a time, a spell went awry, stranding Make Believe characters in the ordinary world. Since then, Tess "Red" Little--a/k/a Little Red Riding Hood--has worked as an Enforcer for the Chicago branch of the Fairytale Management Authority. But, consider yourself warned--she's not just some waif with a basket of goodies. All grown up and with nothing to lose, a gun and combat boots is more her style. And Red's new assignment threatens to be short on happily ever afters. . .

Someone is murdering transplanted Tales in gruesome fashion. The list of fictional characters capable of such grisly acts is short and includes more than one of Red's old flames. And if that wasn't bad enough, there's another complication, in the form of sexy, enigmatic Nate Grimm, the FMA's lead detective and part-time Reaper. Used to following her own rules and living life on the edge, Red has managed to avoid taking on a partner until now. But Nate's dark side makes him perfect for a case like this. That is, if she can trust him. Because if there's one thing Red knows for sure, it's that believing in the wrong person can have big, bad consequences. . .

Kate SeRine (pronounced "serene") faithfully watched weekend monster movie marathons while growing up, each week hoping that maybe this time the creature du jour would get the girl. But every week she was disappointed. So when she began writing her own stories, Kate vowed that her characters would always have a happily ever after. And, thus, her love for paranormal romance was born.

Kate lives in a smallish, quintessentially Midwestern town with her husband and two sons, who share her love of storytelling. She never tires of creating new worlds to share and is even now working on her next project.