Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 14

Two of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicle Books on Sale TODAY ONLY

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Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles Book 2) and Cress (The Lunar Chronicles Book 3) by Marissa Meyer are on sale today only for $2.99 each. They are usually in the $7-8 range.

Description for Scarlet:

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of Marissa Meyer's bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

An NPR Best Book of 2013

Description for Cress:

In this third book in Marissa Meyer's bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she's just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she'd ever expected. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai, especially the cyborg mechanic. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

SurLaLune New Site Under Switch Over

Hi All,

Just a heads up that an abundance of bad links on the old site to NSFW and thus not safe for me has precipitated an early switch over from the old SurLaLune site to the old one.

The site will site be at surlalunefairytales.com but it will be quite different and all old links will be broken on Wikipedia, etc. It was a necessary event to move to a new and hopefully improved site!

The new site is in the process of propagating or switching over. There will be some broken links for a time, too.

The site email address is changing, too, to fairytales at surlalunefairytales dot com.

So lots of changes. And they will take a while but school is now over or nearly over for most visitors.

Thanks and I'll be in touch soon!

Heidi

Bargain Ebook TODAY ONLY: Animal Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Sharon Jacksties for $1.99

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Animal Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Sharon Jacksties is on sale for $1.99 TODAY ONLY in ebook format.

Book description:

Stories and animals have long travelled the same routes. Through our heritage of charming, quirky and profound tales, you will find yourself re-acquainted with Britain’s wondrous fauna.Find out how hedgehog ended up with spines and what makes him scuttle so fast, discover how pigs saved a prince from leprosy and why the wealthy lord was so intent on capturing the black fox.Sharon Jacksties’ wonderful book combines traditional stories, little-known zoological facts and true anecdotes to create a treasure trove of stories for animal lovers of every kind.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Bargain Ebook: TODAY ONLY: Snow White, Blood Red (Fairy Tale Anthologies Book 1) for $1.99

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Snow White, Blood Red (Fairy Tale Anthologies Book 1) by Ellen Datlow (Editor), Terri Windling (Editor) is one sale TODAY ONLY for $1.99 in ebook format.

Book description:

Fairy tales retold—with a twist—from “some of our best storytellers” including Neil Gaiman, Gahan Wilson, Tanith Lee, and others (The Washington Post).

In this “no holds barred . . . nightmarish . . . provocative” collection, bestselling and award-winning fantasy masters put a dark, disturbing, and erotic spin on your favorite bedtime stories—and give you something entirely new to trouble your dreams (The New York Times Book Review).

A boy is haunted through adulthood by a soul-eating creature that lies forever in wait under Neil Gaiman’s “Troll Bridge”; a melancholy amphibian shares his most private fantasies with a therapist in Gahan Wilson’s “The Frog Prince”; in Tanith Lee’s “Snow-Drop,” a lonely artist invites seven circus performers into her home to satisfy an obsession; in Steve Rasnic Tem’s “Little Poucet,” a band of lost brothers find refuge and terror with a hungry family in the woods; and Wendy Wheeler delves into the deviant psyche of the predatory male in “Little Red.” Also featuring Nancy Kress, Charles de Lint, Melanie Tem, Patricia A. McKillip, Jack Dann, and others, all paying a revisit to our favorite fairy tales in ways you’ve never dared to imagine.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Watch an Opera: Little Red's Most Unusual Day: Activities During Corona

LITTLE RED’SMOST UNUSUAL DAYCreated by John Davies and shared with permissionMusic by Offenbach and Rossini

The Nashville Opera intended to tour Nashville, TN area schools with performances of Little Red's Most Unusual Day this spring. Since those plans had to be cancelled thanks to Corona, the Nashville Opera has shared a video of the performance online instead. They also have a Story Board, a Mini Guide and Coloring Pages to accompany the performance video on their Little Red's Most Unusual Day page.

I live in the Nashville area and am thrilled to offer a little bit of fairy tale related art from one of my local arts organizations!

Here's the video embedded:

Bargain Ebook: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

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The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is on sale for $1.99 in ebook format.

Book description:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

Praise for The Bear and the Nightingale

“Vasya [is] a clever, stalwart girl determined to forge her own path in a time when women had few choices.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Stunning . . . will enchant readers from the first page. . . . with an irresistible heroine who wants only to be free of the bonds placed on her gender and claim her own fate.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Utterly bewitching . . . a lush narrative . . . an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Arden’s supple, sumptuous first novel transports the reader to a version of medieval Russia where history and myth coexist.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Volunteer Proofreading for SurLaLune Tales Database: Activities During Corona

So I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was thinking of ways to provide volunteer opportunities during this time of Corona Isolation.

For many of us, the most important thing we can do right now is stay home and practice social distancing. For those of you looking for a way to do volunteer work, this is one opportunity.

The new version of SurLaLune Fairy Tales site--which is still in beta and hasn't officially launched yet--has a new tales database under construction. The database is a repository of tales from all around the world, classified by ATU number or Migratory Legend number when possible. Currently, the database has over 135 books in it, a few still under construction, and roughly 5,000 tales already input. You can see the database under construction at http://dev.surlalunefairytales.com/books.php.

Yes, that's a lot, but it doesn't come near to what is available to make SurLaLune an even more robust resource, free to readers around the world. But it takes time to proofread the many books and tales before they can be entered. Books published 1924 or earlier are now in the public domain in the U.S. and qualify for entry. Many have been scanned as images and can be found in online repositories like Google Books and the Internet Archive.

This week--or longer if necessary--I am asking for volunteers to help proofread copy for Fairy Tales from South Africa by Mrs. E. J. Bourhill and Mrs. J. B. Drake, first published in 1908. Digitized copies of the books are available at:

https://books.google.com/books?id=cs0WAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

and

https://archive.org/details/fairytalesfroms00hollgoog/mode/2up

There you will also find computer OCR text of the tales but they are riddled with errors from the computer scanning. This book's Plain Text copy starts at https://books.google.com/books?ppis=_e&printsec=frontcover&id=cs0WAAAAYAAJ&output=text You do not need to start from scratch in producing the text unless retyping it yourself is your groove. I have a friend who types a 100+ words a minute with precise accuracy and she prefers to type instead of proofread. Most of the rest of us tend to like proofing the existing OCR text instead.

So to participate, choose one tale from the list below, and produce a proofread text copy of it. Then email a copy of the tale to me at heidi @ surlalunefairyatles.com for formatting and insertion into the SurLaLune Fairy Tales database at http://dev.surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=143.

If you'd like to volunteer, please post your name in the comments and claim the tale. A few have already been done by me and entered.  Check the comments to be sure your tale hasn't already been claimed. You can do more than one tale, too, of course!

Since this is a volunteer project, you will also get credit for your contribution in the notes to the tale. You can dedicate it to someone. For example, I can add:

This tale was proofread and submitted to the SurLaLune Fairy Tales Database by Anne Shirley in loving memory of Matthew Cuthbert.

Or anything like that within reason.

Here is the list of tales with a short style guide. You can paste your final proofed text straight into an email to me. No need to create a document to send but you can use Google Docs if you prefer and send me a link to that.

If you have more questions, please post them in the comments and I will reply and update this with answers. I'm sure I've forgotten something despite pondering this for a few weeks now.

TALE VOLUNTEER Introduction: To All Children Who Still Love Fairy Tales
Setuli; or, The King of the Birds
Story of the King's Son and the Magic Song, The
Story of the Little Birds Who Lived in a Cave, The
Story of the Shining Princess, The
Rabbit Prince, The
Unnatural Mother, The
Three Little Eggs, The
Serpent's Bride, The: Part I. Heidi Anne Heiner  Serpent's Bride, The: Part II. Heidi Anne Heiner  Fairy Bird, The
Cock's Kraal, The
Baboon-Skins Heidi Anne Heiner  Reward of Industry, The
Story of Semai-mai, The: Part I.
Story of Semai-mai, The: Part II.
Fairy Frog, The
Nya-Nya Bulembu; or, The Moss-Green Princess Heidi Anne Heiner  Enchanted Buck, The Heidi Anne Heiner  Beauty and the Beast, The
White Dove, The

Some standardized styles that make it easier for me to quickly format the text:

1. Do not indent any paragraphs but put double spaces between them.

2. For copy that needs to be indented, please don't. Just keep it together single spaced--do not double space between lines of the copy.

For example:

Run, run!
As fast as you can!
You can't catch me,
I'm the Gingerbread Man!

3. For footnotes, put the footnote number in the tale's text like this [1]. Then add the footnote itself to the end of the copy with a [1]: in front of it.

For example:

"Merci," [1] she said to her readers.

FOOTNOTES

[1]: Merci: Thank you!

New Old Book: Johnny Breadless: A Pacifist Fairy Tale by Paul Valliant-Couturier and Prof. Jack Zipes

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Johnny Breadless: A Pacifist Fairy Tale by Paul Valliant-Couturier (Author), Prof. Jack Zipes (Editor) was released earlier this month. I have a review copy on my desk, but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I say this is a new old book because it is a new edition of a long out of print folklore book. Zipes' current mission is to resurrect these "lost" folklore related books for new generations. Zipes provides an introduction explaining the significance of this book and why it was chosen for reprint with a new English translation.

Book description:

During World War I at Christmas time in 1914 there were sudden widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front organized by the French, British, and German soldiers. They crossed trenches to exchange food, souvenirs, and ideas. In some cases they played soccer, sang Christmas carols, held burial ceremonies, and exchanged prisoners of war. The ceasefires were also held at various places in 1915. However, by 1916, the war had become more bitter, and the officers in the French, British, and German armies squashed the ceasefires. Killing was much more important than peacemaking.

Paul Vaillant-Couturier (1892-1937) was one of the French soldiers among those who celebrated truce. As a young man from a well-to-do bourgeois family in Paris, he had never thought he would one day fight for France and kill Germans. His parents were successful singers and actors, and as he indicated in his fictional autobiography, he was groomed to become a professional lawyer or engineer. However, he followed in his parents' footsteps and became an artist. Yet, after enlisting in the French army and serving in the infantry and artillery, he came to realize how cruel war was and caused the deaths of thousands of young men who sacrificed their lives to protect the interests of the ruling classes. By the time he was dismissed in 1919, he emerged as a pacifist and socialist with five medals of honor for heroism. From this point of his life, he went on to become a major journalist and politician; he was one of the founders of the French communist party and served as editor of the left-wing newspaper L'Humanité. He died in 1937 due to wounds from an assassination attempt.

Concerned about the future of young people, Vaillant-Couturier published numerous books about the war, and one of his most significant works was Jean sans pain (Johnny Breadless, 1921). It describes a much different education than he had received, for Johnny Breadless is an orphan and does not understand why and how his parents died and why there is no help for him. It is only after he encounters an amazing rabbit who takes him on a trip to various parts of France during World War I that Johnny begins to grasp the true conditions that lead to the exploitation of common people and to wars that benefit the rich. It is in this remarkable fairy-tale novel that a ceasefire takes place-one that gives Johnny hope that people can live together in peace. It is a truce that Vaillant-Courturer "waged" for most of his life.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Bargain Ebook: TODAY ONLY: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer for $1.99

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TODAY ONLY: A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer is on sale in ebook format for $1.99. Catnip for many of you since this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling!

Book description:

In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she's instead somehow sucked into Rhen's cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn't know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what's at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

Bargain Ebook: TODAY ONLY: The Gold-Son by Carrie Anne Noble for $.99

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The Gold-Son by Carrie Anne Noble is on sale TODAY ONLY for 99 cents on Amazon. This book draws on folklore about leprechauns and fae for inspiration.

Book Description:

All sixteen-year-old Tommin wants is to make beautiful shoes and care for his beloved grandmother, but his insatiable need to steal threatens to destroy everything. Driven by a curse that demands more and more gold, he’s sure to get caught eventually.

When mysterious Lorcan Reilly arrives in town with his “niece,” Eve, Tommin believes the fellow wants to help him. Instead, Lorcan whisks him off to the underground realm of the Leprechauns, where, alongside Eve, he’s forced to prepare to become one of them.

As Lorcan’s plans for his “gold-children” are slowly revealed, Tommin and Eve plan their escape. But with Tommin’s humanity slipping away, the fate-crossed pair has everything to lose unless they can find a way to outsmart a magical curse centuries in the making.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.