Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 52

New Book: Fearless (Pax Arcana) by Elliott James

Fearless (Pax Arcana) by Elliott James was released earlier this month, the third full-length book in his series that pulls from Prince Charming fairy tale tropes.

Book description:

When your last name is Charming, rescuing virgins comes with the territory -- even when the virgin in question is a nineteen-year-old college boy.

Someone, somewhere, has declared war on Kevin Kichida, and that someone has a long list of magical predators on their rolodex. The good news is that Kevin lives in a town where Ted Cahill is the new sheriff and old ally of John Charming.

The attacks on Kevin seem to be a pattern, and the more John and his new team follow that thread, the deeper they find themselves in a maze of supernatural threats, family secrets, and age-old betrayals. The more John learns, the more convinced he becomes that Kevin Kichida isn't just a victim, he's a sacrifice waiting to happen. And that thread John's following? It's really a fuse...


FEARLESS is the third novel in an urban fantasy series which gives a new twist to the Prince Charming tale. The first two novels are Charming & Daring.

Short Fiction in the Pax Arcana world:
Charmed I'm Sure
Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls
Pushing Luck
Surreal Estate
Dog-Gone
Bulls Rush In
Talking Dirty

Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella on The Balancing Act

You can click on the above to see it larger, but the gist is this:

Watch Lifetime to meet Cast Members from Cinderella on Tuesday, August 25 and September 1 at 7:30am (ET/PT)
Check local listings for details.

Tune in as The Balancing Act® takes you behind the scenes of the newly reimagined Rodgers + Hammerstein's classic, Cinderella, an updated version for the 21st century. The Balancing Act’s® correspondent, Amber Milt, introduces Paige Faure (“Ella”), the talented leading actress starring in the national tour, as she navigates the demands of her life on stage and off, raising her son on the road and performing eight times per week. We’ll also see the supportive environment Paige shares with her fellow actors including Andy Huntington Jones (“Topher”), who recently found his “fairytale ending.” In addition to Paige and Andy, we’ll hear from Jill Furman (Producer) and Douglas Carter Beane (Book Writer), who re-imagined this classic tale with an inspiring and new contemporary perspective.

I've always had great affection for Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella. I saw a local production of it a few years ago and I found even greater affection for it then. Somehow none of the film versions have thrilled me very much--the Julie Andrews' version--Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella (1957 Television Production)--is by far my favorite, but the recording and production values make it hard to relax and fully enjoy it, too.

Time for Some Fairy Tale Fun: The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile

The Tale of Tales by Giambattista Basile is coming from Penguin Classics on February 9, 2016!

Why am I posting about this release so early, you ask? Because it has amused me for a few weeks now. Keep reading all the way to the end to learn why.

First, here's the book's official overview from the publisher:

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Toby Jones, and Vincent Cassel: a rollicking, bawdy, fantastical cycle of 50 fairy tales told by 10 storytellers over 5 days

Before the Brothers Grimm, before Charles Perrault, before Hans Christian Andersen, there was Giambattista Basile, a seventeenth-century poet from Naples, Italy, whom the Grimms credit with recording the first national collection of fairy tales. The Tale of Tales opens with Princess Zoza, unable to laugh no matter how funny the joke. Her father, the king, attempts to make her smile; instead he leaves her cursed, whereupon the prince she is destined to marry is snatched up by another woman. To expose this impostor and win back her rightful husband, Zoza contrives a storytelling extravaganza: fifty fairy tales to be told by ten sharp-tongued women (including Zoza in disguise) over five days.

Funny and scary, romantic and gruesome—and featuring a childless queen who devours the heart of a sea monster cooked by a virgin, then gives birth the very next day; a lecherous king aroused by the singing of a woman, whom he courts unaware of her physical grotesqueness; and a king who raises a flea to monstrous size on his own blood, sparking a contest in which an ogre vies with men for the hand of the king’s daughter—The Tale of Tales is a fairy-tale treasure that prefigures Game of Thrones and other touchstones of worldwide fantasy literature.

I am especially amused by the tasteful Penguin Classics cover with that little "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture" sticker. There are times when marketing machines entertain me so much! I appreciate the synergy and cross-pollination of the larger media machine, too, that Hollywood dominates. It frustrates me no end, but it has merits for reaching a very large audience.

So I am thrilled that a book that is over 400 years old and important to our fairy tale history is getting perhaps the biggest marketing push of its life all thanks to a film. Gypsy Thornton has shared several articles about the upcoming film at her Once Upon a Blog, so I haven't really addressed the movie yet. See her posts to date:

Breaking News: "The Tale of Tales" In Production (That's Right - We're About to Get Basile's Tales On Film. In English!)

What To Expect From Matteo Garrone’s "Tale of Tales" by "The Thinker's Garden" Custodian (& Film Update via FTNH)

"The Tale Of Tales" Gets A Trailer!

International Trailer for "Tale Of Tales" Released (Embedded video NSFW)

New "Tale of Tales" Trailers, Posters, Descriptions & TONS of Stills!

I am curious but I have to admit as much as I am willing to read the book--because I have!--I am squeamish at what the movie may offer. I'd rather not see some of the things I read in living color. Once we have that NSFW label, I'm very cautious. And Basile isn't as squeam-inducing as Straparola. Perhaps Hollywood or HBO should attack Straparola next.

Anyway, the final cause for my amusement is also a warning. If you already own this book:


Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones (Series in Fairy-Tale Studies)--which I do--you do not need the new book. According to the available descriptions and such, they are the same book. The first was published over 8 years ago and was a book I was very thrilled about when it was released. (Still am. I had been wanting a modern translation for years! Thanks, Nancy Canepa!) The edition is oversized and has fine quality paper. It is very much academic in nature. Yes, it is still in print and it is more expensive than the upcoming book release, but it is the same book. You don't have to wait.

And if you want the loosely translated, less inflammatory version--some stories removed in other words--you can always visit Il Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile on SurLaLune, too.

Bargain Ebook: Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer for $2.99

Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer (her daughter) is bargain priced at $2.99 for ebook format. The book is usually in the $9.99 range. It is also the companion book to their other book that plays with fairy tale tropes, Between the Lines, which has been on sale previously but is currently $9.99.

Off the Page has higher review ratings than the previous book. I haven't read either book yet--but now both are in my library. I do like the cover for this one. I would have snatched this one off the shelf when I was a teen reader and probably not put it down until I was finished reading it.

Book description:

From #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and her daughter and coauthor, Samantha van Leer, comes OFF THE PAGE, a tender and appealing romantic YA novel filled with humor, adventure, and just a little bit of magic.

Meet Oliver, a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairy tale and transported into the real world. Meet Delilah, the girl who wished Oliver into being. It’s a miracle that seems perfect at first. Sure, Oliver doesn’t know that you shouldn’t try to open your locker with a dagger or that there’s no such thing as “the ruler” of the local mall. But he also looks at Delilah as if she’s the only girl in the world—the only girl in any world—and Delilah can’t help feeling that being with him is a dream come to life.

But not every story can have a happy ending. Because the book wants Oliver back. And it will turn both worlds upside down to get him.

Oliver and Delilah will have to decide what—and who—they’re willing to risk for love and what it really means for a fairy tale to come true.

Full of humor and witty commentary about life, OFF THE PAGE is a stand-alone novel as well as the companion to the authors’ #1 bestseller Between the Lines. Fans of Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot are sure to appreciate this novel about love, romance, and happily-ever-afters.

“Off the Page is just so sweet and magical. In high school, I would have given ANYTHING to crawl inside one of my favorite books to escape the real world. I wish!”—SARAH DESSEN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Saint Anything

Fairy Tale Highlights of the American Folklore Society's 2015 Annual Meeting

The American Folklore Society's Annual Meeting is coming soon and the deadline to register at a discounted rate is August 31st. The Society's 2015 annual meeting will be held October 14-17, 2015 at the Westin in Long Beach, California.

I've pulled the fairy tale related papers from the most recent program. There is always plenty to hear and see at the meeting--and WONDERFUL people to meet--but highlighting fairy tale discussions is SurLaLune's purpose. I won't be attending this year since I have another commitment that is entirely worthwhile, but I still wish I could be in two places at once!

01-10
Legends, Fairy Tales, and the Supernatural, Part I
Tokyo/Vancouver

Merrill Kaplan (The Ohio State University), chair
8:00 a.m. Andrew Peck (University of Wisconsin, Madison), At the Modems of Madness:
Slender Man Ostension and the Digital Age
8:30 a.m. Elizabeth Tucker (Binghamton University), "There's an App for That": Legend
Tripping with Smartphones
9:00 a.m. Claudia M. Schwabe (Utah State University), Doppelgangers, Automatons, and
Golems: Demonic Creatures in German Fairy Tales and Modern American Media
Culture
9:30 a.m. Merrill Kaplan (The Ohio State University), discussant

02-10
Legends, Fairy Tales, and the Supernatural, Part II
Tokyo/Vancouver

Merrill Kaplan (The Ohio State University), chair
10:15 a.m. K. Brandon Barker (Indiana University), I Hate the Bell Witch: Mirror-Summoning
Rituals and the Science of Visual Perception
10:45 a.m. Emily Burke (Indiana University), The Academic and Popular Discourse of Fairy
Changelings and Autism
11:15 a.m. Ray Cashman (Indiana University), Witchcraft and Anxiety on the Irish Border
11:45 a.m. Merrill Kaplan (The Ohio State University), discussant

02-12
Storytelling and Folktales
Shoreline

Lisa Gilman (University of Oregon), chair
10:15 a.m. Lowell Andrew Brower (Harvard University), “It Happened, but May It Never
Happen Again”: The Politics and Poetics of Storytelling in Post-Genocide Rwanda
10:45 a.m. Ann Schmiesing (University of Colorado, Boulder), Fairy-Tale Homiletics: Fairy
Tales as Illustrations in Contemporary Sermons
11:15 a.m. Anton David Banchy (independent), A Gendered Look at “Mulan”
11:45 a.m. Lisa Gilman (University of Oregon), Is Oral Tradition Alive and Well?
Contemporary Legends and Social Issues in Northern Malawi

04-06
Women in Folklore and Literature, Part I: International Perspectives
Melbourne

Sponsored by the Folklore and Literature Section and the Women's Section
See also 05-06
Jill Terry Rudy (Brigham Young University), chair
8:00 a.m. Theresa A. Vaughan (University of Central Oklahoma), Teaching the (Absent)
Woman: Advice for the Medieval Housewife in Le Ménagier de Paris
8:30 a.m. Veronica Muskheli (University of Washington, Seattle), Brides and Bridles:
Female Batyr and Her Horse in Central Asian Wonder Tales
9:00 a.m. Danielle M. Roemer (Northern Kentucky University), Rosario Ferré's "Sleeping
Beauty”: Rebellion and Confinement
9:30 a.m. Mayako Murai (Kanagawa University, Japan), Tales of Transformation,
Transformation of Tales: Hiromi Kawakami's Tread on a Snake

04-07
“Ain't No California”: Travelers as Tricksters
Naples

Sabra Webber (The Ohio State University), chair
8:00 a.m. Nancy Dinan (Texas Tech University), “Now Comes a Fairy Tale”: Heinrich
Schliemann Goes to Ithaca
8:30 a.m. Marisa G. Wieneke (The Ohio State University), “Where He Goes, Many Will
Follow”: The LA Trickster and His Taco Trucks
9:00 a.m. Yeliz Cavus (The Ohio State University), “Long Ways, Long Lies”: Evliya Celebi as
Traveler and Trickster
9:30 a.m. Sabra J. Webber (The Ohio State University), “A Mean and Malignant Witch”:
Captain Burton's Tricky World

05-04
A Year in Fairy-Tale History: Motley Encounters with Textual "Sociability”
Centennial D

Christine A. Jones (University of Utah), chair
10:15 a.m. Jennifer Schacker (University of Guelph), 1804: Recasting Cinderella, from Stage
to Page
10:45 a.m. Molly Clark Hillard (Seattle University), 1842: “The Fairy Tales of Science/And the
Long Result of Time”
11:15 a.m. Christine A. Jones (University of Utah), 1901: Perrault's Seductive (and ShortLived)
Fin de Siècle
11:45 a.m. Nancy Canepa (Dartmouth College), 1956: Italo Calvino's Fiabe Italiane and a
National Folklore

06-04
Disney (En)Counters: Fairy-Tale Films in France, PRC, and Italy
Centennial D

Cristina Bacchilega (niversity of Hawai‘i-Mānoa), chair
2:00 p.m. Anne E. Duggan (Wayne State University), Engagé Animation: The Films of Paul
Grimault and Jean-François Laguionie
2:30 p.m. Jing Li (Gettysburg College), Telling Her Story as a Woman: The China-Made Hua
Mulan (2009)
3:00 p.m. Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawai‘i- Mānoa), Nationalism, Migration, and
Parenthood: Italian Pinocchio Films As Critical Encounters with Disney
3:30 p.m. Kimberly J. Lau (University of California, Santa Cruz), discussant

07-06
Destabilizing Fairyland: Fairy Tales and Folklore in 19th- and Early 20th-Century
British Literature
Melbourne

Sara B. Cleto (The Ohio State University), chair
8:00 a.m. Brittany B. Warman (The Ohio State University), Reimagining "Rumpelstiltskin":
Fairy Tale, Gothic, and Queer Possibilities in George Eliot's Silas Marner
8:30 a.m. Sara B. Cleto (The Ohio State University), Lamps and Levity: the Dis/abled,
Embodied Experience in George MacDonald's Fairy Tales
9:00 a.m. Jason M. Harris (Texas A&M University), "They Were No Longer the Fields We
Know": The Disconcerting Dimensions of Fairyland
9:30 a.m. Jennifer Schacker (University of Guelph), discussant

08-03
Fairy-Tale Webs of Intermedial Encounters and Enactments
Centennial C

Claudia Schwabe (Utah State University), chair
10:25 a.m. John Laudun (University of Louisiana), What Scientists Think about When They
Think about Folk Narrative
10:35 a.m. Timothy R. Tangherlini (University of California, Los Angeles), Rotten Poisonous
Apples: Explorations of Audience Response to Films Based on Fairy Tales
10:45 a.m. Rebecca B. Hay (Brigham Young University), Into the Woods, Out a New
Character: Live-Action Woods as Catalyst
10:55 a.m. Jarom McDonald (Brigham Young University), Modeling Intermediality: Using
Computational Network Analysis to Explore Fairy Tales on Television
11:05 a.m. Bethany Hanks (Utah State University), Fairy Tales over the Telephone
11:15 a.m. Jill Terry Rudy (Brigham Young University), Back with the Baba Yaga:
Intermedial Webs of Ambiguity and Growth

09-06
Close Encounters and the Circulation of Folk Narrative
Melbourne

Kimberly J. Lau (University of California, Santa Cruz), chair
2:00 p.m. Kimberly J. Lau (University of California, Santa Cruz), Specters of the Marvelous:
Race and the Fairy Tale
2:30 p.m. Ulrich Marzolph (Enzyklopädie des Märchens), Hanna's Contribution to Galland's
Nights: Reconsidering the Narrative Art of the Subaltern
3:00 p.m. JoAnn Conrad (California State University, East Bay), Chance Encounters:
Meetings with Extraordinary Women
3:30 p.m. Margaret Mills (The Ohio State University, emerita), Patience Stone: Afghan
Folktale and Proverb to War Novel and Film

09-12
That Fairy-Tale Life
Shoreline

Molly Clark Hillard (Seattle University), chair
2:00 p.m. Savannah Blitch (Arizona State University), Between Earth and Sky:
Transcendence and Symbolic Encounters of Reality and the Fairy Tale in Pan's
Labyrinth
2:30 p.m. Jose Nayar Rivera (City University of New York), “Little Red Riding Hood” and the
Problem of Attribution
3:00 p.m. Mary Sellers (Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg), Fifty Shades of Folklore:
An Analysis of E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey
3:30 p.m. Martha Rachel Gholson (Missouri State University) and Chris-Anne Stumpf
(Douglas College), It’s Not the Blood You Take, but the Ideas You Give:
Rereading Bella

New to DVD: After The Ball, a Fashion Industry Cinderella Story

After The Ball will be released to DVD next week in the US. It stars Portia Doubleday, Marc-Andre Grondin, Chris Noth, Lauren Holly, and Carlo Rota in a fashion industry inspired Cinderella story.

I saw the DVD listed online and thought, "Oh, I missed learning about a Hallmark Channel fairy tale movie!" But I was wrong. This was actually a theatrical release. However, some of the reviews say it is on par with a Hallmark Channel movie, so my instincts were right. Other reviewers enjoyed it for exactly what it is, so if you are an unapologetic Hallmark Channel film watcher--like some members of my family--this is for you.

Has anyone seen this one? It had virtually no publicity in my world this past year although IMDB lists its official US theatrical release as April 24, 2015.

Movie description:

Kates dream is to design for couturier houses. Although she is a bright new talent, Kate can not get a job. No one trusts the daughter of Lee Kassell, a retail guru who markets clothes inspired by the very designers Kate wants to work for. Who wants a spy among the sequins and stilettos?

Reluctantly, Kate joins the family business where she must navigate around her duplicitous stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. With the help of a prince of a guy in the shoe department, her godmothers vintage clothes, and a shocking switch of identities, can Kate expose the evil trio and save her fathers company?

And here's a trailer:

Bargain Ebooks: The Mirror's Tale and The Brave Apprentice by P. W. Catanese for $2.99 Each

The Mirror's Tale: A Further Tales Adventure (Further Tales Adventures) and The Brave Apprentice: A Further Tales Adventure by P. W. Catanese are on sale for $2.99 each in ebook format. That's half of their usual price of $5.99.

These two books are part of a series by Catanese that retells fairy tales for middle readers aiming at boys as the primary audience, but don't let that stop you from enjoying them if you are not an elementary and middle school aged boy. When these books were first published, there wasn't much out there marketing fairy tales to that age and gender group--there still isn't--so it was a refreshing addition to fairy tale retellings. The series also has fun with some lesser known fairy tales, such as the Brave Little Tailor.

Not all books in the series have been converted to ebooks--these were published just as ebooks were growing in popularity--so buying the books also essentially votes with the publisher to get the other books published in ebook format for future generations of readers, too. The series is still available in paperback.

Book description for The Mirror's Tale: A Further Tales Adventure (Further Tales Adventures):

Everyone has heard the story -- the dwarves, the talking mirror, the evil witch. But this tale doesn't belong to Snow White anymore....

Bert and Will, the twin sons of the baron of Ambercrest, are best friends. They do everything together and can't help it if trouble just seems to...find them. But the baron is fed up and has decided that separation will keep them out of mischief. One twin, he proclaims, will stay in Ambercrest for the summer, while the other will be sent to The Crags -- a foreboding, rocky outpost on the edge of the kingdom.

It is there, hidden in a forbidden black chamber, that one of the boys discovers a bejeweled and mysterious mirror. What is the precious object? And why does it make him feel so...powerful? Soon the twins' kinship is replaced by dark magic and deceit, and a kingdom hangs dangerously in the balance. What becomes of one who is ruled by the forces of evil? And can brotherly love conquer a consuming quest for power?

Book description for The Brave Apprentice: A Further Tales Adventure:

"Seven at one blow!" That's what they say about the Brave Little Tailor -- he killed seven foes with one blow. But no one can prove it's even true. Besides, that took place a long time ago, and the Brave Little Tailor is now an old man. So what happens when an army of angry trolls invades his kingdom?
Meet Patch Ridlin. He's a tailor's simple apprentice in the remote village of Crossfield. He's a hard worker who's never wanted for much, except maybe a little adventure. But when he rescues his friend Osbert from an aging and decrepit troll, Patch finds himself something of a town hero. Word of his bravery quickly spreads throughout the countryside, and Patch is summoned to the king's castle. King Milo needs his help to wage war on a gang of trolls threatening to destroy the kingdom.
Soon Patch finds himself engaged in an all-out battle against the trolls. With only the help of a fool named Simon and a maddening riddle, can Patch figure out the troll's fatal flaw? Or is the kingdom destined to perish?

Bargain Ebook: Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly for $3.99

Waterfire Saga, Book One: Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly is on sale for $3.99 for ebook format, for at least the weekend, I believe. It's usually in the $8 range.

Book description:

Deep in the ocean, in a world not so different from our own, live the merpeople. Their communities are spread throughout the oceans, seas, and freshwaters all over the globe. When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed when an assassin's arrow poisons Sera's mother. Now, Serafina must embark on a quest to find the assassin's master and prevent a war between the Mer nations. Led only by her shadowy dreams, Sera searches for five other mermaid heroines who are scattered across the six seas. Together, they will form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood and uncover a conspiracy that threatens their world's very existence.

Bargain Ebook: Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon for $1.99

Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale by Carolyn Turgeon is on sale in ebook format for $1.99. This is the first time it has been on sale at this price to my knowledge and is usually more in the $9 or more range.

Book description:

Two sheltered princesses, one wounded warrior; who will live happily ever after?

Princess Margrethe has been hidden away while her kingdom is at war. One gloomy, windswept morning as she stands in a convent garden overlooking the icy sea, she witnesses a miracle: a glittering mermaid emerging from the waves, a nearly drowned man in her arms. By the time Margrethe reaches the shore, the mermaid has disappeared into the sea. As Margrethe nurses the handsome stranger back to health, she learns that not only is he a prince, he is also the son of her father's greatest rival. Sure that the mermaid brought this man to her for a reason, Margrethe devises a plan to bring peace to her kingdom.

Meanwhile, the mermaid princess Lenia longs to return to the human man she carried to safety. She is willing to trade her home, her voice, and even her health for legs and the chance to win his heart….

A surprising take on the classic tale, Mermaid is the story of two women with everything to lose. Beautifully written and compulsively readable, it will make you think twice about the fairytale you heard as a child, keeping you in suspense until the very last page.

SurLaLune Update and a Bargain Ebook: Tides by Betsy Cornwell

Tides by Betsy Cornwell is on sale for $.99 in ebook format. This one isn't a fairy tale retelling but explores selkie folklore instead, which is so often catnip for readers here.

Book description:

When high school senior Noah Gallagher and his adopted teenage sister, Lo, go to live with their grandmother in her island cottage for the summer, they don’t expect much in the way of adventure. Noah has landed a marine biology internship, and Lo wants to draw and paint, perhaps even to vanquish her struggles with bulimia. But then things take a dramatic turn for them both when Noah mistakenly tries to save a mysterious girl from drowning. This dreamlike, suspenseful story—deftly told from multiple points of view—dives deeply into selkie folklore while examining the fluid nature of love and family.

And as for that update--like so many of you, I've had a very busy summer which is promising to be followed by a very busy fall. That's a great thing because it also includes my first vacation in four years. SurLaLune has been neglected during the slower summer months this year due to family and work obligations, but I am ramping back up with more posts in the coming weeks for the new school year--not just bargain books and new books!--as much as I love those. So stay tuned and thanks for sticking around. SurLaLune turns 17 this fall and it's not going away any time soon, I'm just trying to find the bandwidth to do all I want with it, including a redesign with mobile capability for the main site. Fingers crossed!