Heidi Anne Heiner's Blog, page 88

New Release: The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell

The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell is released this week. Haskell has previously explored other fairy tale tropes, especially Twelve Dancing Princesses in The Princess Curse. This book is a very loose retelling of Sleeping Beauty, quite suitable for this week's release of Maleficent.

This book probably offers a fine counterpoint to the film.

Book description:

This magical adventure in an enchanted castle surrounded by thorns tells a tale of the power of memory and story, forgiveness and strength, and the true gifts of craft and imagination. By the acclaimed author of The Princess Curse and Handbook for Dragon Slayers, this original fantasy is perfect for fans of Gail Carson Levine, Karen Cushman, and Shannon Hale.

When blacksmith apprentice Sand wakes up in a ruined castle, he has no idea how he got there, but the thorny brambles that surround the walls prevent him from leaving. As he begins to fix up the castle in order to survive, everything he touches somehow works better than it should. Then, as he continues to explore, Sand discovers the castle's secrets, including its long-lost heir, Perrotte. Together, they must fully repair the broken castle if they ever want to leave.

Bargain Ebooks: Split Worlds Series by Emma Newman TODAY ONLY

Two books on my wish list are on sale today only for $1.99 each in ebook format. Between Two Thorns (Split Worlds) and Any Other Name (The Split Worlds) by Emma Newman don't retell any fairy tales to my knowledge but they do create a world of Faerie that has made them popular and recommended to me by other readers.

The marketing buzzwords are "Georgette Heyer meets J.K. Rowling" or something of that sort but reading the descriptions makes me think of the beloved cult classic Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (The Cecelia and Kate Novels, 1) and its sequels. Which I love. Reminder to myself, it's been a few years since I've reread those.


Anyway, the first two books are on sale for $1.99 today only, marked down from the $6 range. The third book, All Is Fair: The Split Worlds - Book 3, is $5.79, slightly dropped, too. All three books together are available for under $10.

And don't you love those covers, too?

Book description for Between Two Thorns (Split Worlds):

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer.

There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

Book description for Any Other Name (The Split Worlds):

Cat has been forced into an arranged marriage with William - a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family's intentions for them both.

Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate The Agency - a mysterious organisation that appears to play by its own rules - and none of them favourable to Society.

Over in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife's employer - something that could herald a change for everyone in both sides of the Split Worlds.

Fairy Tale Art and 40% Off Today Only at Art.com

My primary Christmas gift this past year was an art print from Art.com. It wasn't directly fairy tale related--it's the painting above. I wanted a landscape for my living room and this fit the size and colors and feel I wanted. I had my choices narrowed down to three options. Besides liking the painting for the space I needed filled, I was swayed to this one for its title: FAIRY TALE, 1892 by William Merritt Chase. Now you can really comprehend the depths to which fairy tales infiltrate my life. The title of this painting swayed my choice and whenever I look at it, I imagine the woman reading a book of fairy tales to the child. After all, this was painting during the heydey of Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs. Do you think the models were actually reading one of Lang's or Joseph's books--or perhaps Grimm--while they posed for this painting? I like to think so.


It's no secret that SurLaLune is affiliated with a few online retailers, one being Art.com. Most of my choices have to do with the opportunity to use imagery from the sites as an affiliate and that sometimes I do earn a little money to help defray SurLaLune's expenses. Art.com--from the nature of it's product--doesn't produce much in earning for SurLaLune but it is a fun place to browse fairy tale imagery.

"Die Sternthaler," The Ch... Buy From Art.com
Today only--and this is rare so I am posting it--there is a 40% off coupon for Art.com purchases. Use code YAY92 to receive the earnings. I pasted the terms and conditions below.

Here are some other quick links to recent Art.com fairy tale finds:

Illustration of Mother Re... Buy From Art.com Rapunzel Fairy Tale Buy From Art.com

Art.com Terms & Conditions for code:

*Promotion applies to order total before shipping, taxes, and duties. This offer cannot be applied to previous or pending purchases. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts, coupons or promotions, except that free shipping offers may be combined with already marked-down items. One coupon per order. This offer cannot be applied to the purchase of gift certificates. No discounts may be applied to the purchase price of any Limited Editions and the "Museum Curated" collection. We reserve the right to cancel any order due to unauthorized, altered, or ineligible use of discount. We respect your privacy and will not share your email address with third parties for their marketing purposes. This offer expires May 26, 2014 at 11:59PM in your local time zone.

Indexing by Seanan McGuire for $2

Indexing by Seanan McGuire is temporarily reduced to $2.00 in ebook format.

Book description:

“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”

Good advice…especially when a story can kill you.

For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole. But for an unfortunate few, that day-to-day existence is affected—perhaps infected is a better word—by memetic incursion: where fairy tale narratives become reality, often with disastrous results.

That's where the ATI Management Bureau steps in, an organization tasked with protecting the world from fairy tales, even while most of their agents are struggling to keep their own fantastic archetypes from taking over their lives. When you're dealing with storybook narratives in the real world, it doesn't matter if you're Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or the Wicked Queen: no one gets a happily ever after.

Indexing is New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire’s new urban fantasy where everything you thought you knew about fairy tales gets turned on its head.

This book was initially released in episodes as a Kindle Serial. All episodes are now available for immediate download as a complete book.

Rutgers University Press Book Sale

Rutgers University Press is having a sale with 40% off all titles for a limited time when you use code 02SPRG14. While RUP's catalog isn't very rich in folklore related titles, I thought these two may be of interest to readers here: The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories and The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity toward Social Liberation.

My links are to Amazon since that is the easiest way for me to generate images and stable links for the books but follow the RUP link to buy the books directly from the publisher if you like--with the discount code they are cheaper there for as long as the code is valid. The Glass Slipper is also available in ebook format for about the same price as the paperback with the discount code and you can preview the book on Amazon by using the Look Inside feature.

Personally, I am more interested in the book about dwarfs. I also imagine that it is richer with fairy tale references.

Book description for The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories:

Why is the story of romance in books, magazines, and films still aimed at women rather than at men? Even after decades of feminism, traditional ideas and messages about romantic love still hold sway and, in our “postfeminist” age, are more popular than ever. Increasingly, we have become a culture of romance: stories of all kinds shape the terms of love. Women, in particular, love a love story.

The Glass Slipper is about the persistence of a familiar Anglo-American love story into the digital age. Comparing influential classics to their current counterparts, Susan Ostrov Weisser relates in highly amusing prose how these stories are shaped and defined by and for women, the main consumers of romantic texts. Following a trajectory that begins with Jane Austen and concludes with Internet dating sites, Weisser shows the many ways in which nineteenth-century views of women’s nature and the Victorian idea of romance have survived the feminist critique of the 1970s and continue in new and more ambiguous forms in today’s media, with profound implications for women.

More than a book about romance in fiction and media, The Glass Slipper illustrates how traditional stories about women’s sexuality, femininity, and romantic love have survived as seemingly protective elements in a more modern, feminist, sexually open society, confusing the picture for women themselves. Weisser compares diverse narratives—historical and contemporary from high literature and “low” genres—discussing novels by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, Victorian women’s magazines, and D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Disney movies; popular Harlequin romance novels; masochistic love in films; pornography and its relationship to romance; and reality TV and Internet ads as romantic stories.

Ultimately, Weisser shows that the narrative versions of the Glass Slipper should be taken as seriously as the Glass Ceiling as we see how these representations of romantic love are meant to inform women’s beliefs and goals. In this book, Weisser’s goal is not to shatter the Glass Slipper, but to see through it.

Book description for The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity toward Social Liberation:

"The Lives of Dwarfs is extraordinary in its range and vision. Beautifully written. Totally absorbing."—Ursula Hegi, author of Stones from the River

"As a little person, husband, and father of a little person, I dream of the day when dwarfs attain full acceptance in society. The Lives of Dwarfs provides a giant step in that direction."—Rick Spiegel, former president of Little People of America

"This important book makes it possible for both average- and short-statured people to challenge our collective understanding of dwarfism as a synonym for diminishment or as an array of cute and evil fairy-tale figures. The libratory work of this book is to invite us all to reimagine dwarfism as a livable experience and tenable way of being in the world."—Rosemarie Garland Thomson, author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature

"A work of compassionate scholarship. A unique contribution to the literature of physical deformity and social isolation and a gift to the individuals whose personal struggle this is."—Linda Hunt, actor

Historically, they have borne the labels "freaks" and "oddities"; they have been collected as pets, displayed as spectacles, and treated as comic relief. Now, for the first time, in this elegant and comprehensive volume, the lives of dwarfs are explored in all their fullness and humanity.

Spanning the centuries from ancient Egypt to the present, this unique social history chronicles the various ways this population has been exploited, describes their strategies for coping, and notes the persistent influence of mythology upon perceptions of them by others. The narrative also highlights the lives of eminent individuals and contains a thought-provoking account of the representation and participation of dwarfs in the arts, enhanced by outstanding color photographs. Betty M. Adelson, the mother of a daughter with dwarfism, brings special insight and sensitivity to the research. She traces the widespread mistreatment of dwarfs over the centuries, engendered by their being viewed as curiosities rather than as human beings capable of the same accomplishments as people of average height, and deserving of the same pleasures. For much of their history, dwarfs have resorted to exhibiting themselves: because of social stigma no other employment was available.

Only in recent years have short-statured individuals begun to challenge their position in society. Medical advances, new economic opportunities, and disability legislation have led to progress, mainly in Western nations. Advocacy groups have also formed in countries as diverse as Chile, South Korea, and Nigeria. Adelson compares what she refers to as the "small revolution" to similar social and cultural awakenings that women, African Americans, gays and lesbians, and persons with disabilities experienced when they identified themselves as a community with shared goals and obstacles.

Written with passion, grace, and the dignity that the subject deserves, The Lives of Dwarfs will not only revolutionize current perceptions about the historically misrepresented dwarf population, but also offer pause for thought on issues of disability, medical treatment, height, beauty, and identity.

Gail Carson Levine's Fairy Tale Backlist Available in Ebook Format

The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales and The Wish are not new books. They are actually two of Gail Carson Levine's earliest books, dating back from when Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery) was released. I'm posting about them here because they have been released in ebook format for the first time and I have always been a fan of Levine's collection of Princess Tales that appear in The Fairy's Return since she plays with some lesser known tales in fun ways. They are short--short story length really--and were published individually back in the day for a higher price for each than this one volume costs with them all combined. How often do we see Princess and the Pea and Toads and Diamonds used for fairy tale retellings inspiration? Not much. Just see my lists on SurLaLune to understand how rare it is.

Book description for The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales:

Ever since Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine introduced the magical village of Snettering-on-Snoakes in the faraway Kingdom of Biddle, young readers have been laughing their way through her hilarious retellings of famous and not-so-famous fairy tales.

Now, for the first time, the six beloved Princess Tales are together in one magnificent volume:

The high jinks begin in The Fairy's Mistake, which pokes fun at a meddlesome fairy whose plans for good go terribly awry. In The Princess Test, the author spoofs the notion that a pea can prove a person's pedigree. Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep features a genius of a princess, a hundred years of snooze, two princes, and a flock of balding sheep! Cinderella is a boy in Cinderellis and the Glass Hill, and the glass slipper is a glass hill. In For Biddle's Sake, Parsley tries to forget her beloved prince and get used to life as a Biddlebum Toad. The road to happily-ever-after isn't easy when a baker's son and a princess fall in love in The Fairy's Return.

Elements of the classics are woven into these not-so-typical retellings of "Toads and Diamonds," "The Princess and the Pea," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Princess on the Glass Hill," "Puddocky," and "The Golden Goose." The fresh and funny twists on favorite fairy tales will win the hearts and capture the imaginations of young readers everywhere.

Book description for The Wish:

There's nothing wrong with Wilma Sturtz. She's perfectly nice. But nobody cares about nice at Claverford, her middle school. Wilma is left out, forgotten, ignored -- until she meets an extraordinary old lady who grants a wish: for Wilma to be the most popular kid in school. Presto! Everything changes. Now Wilma has more best friends than she can keep track of and forty dates to the Graduation Night Dance; and someone is writing her love poetry. What more could she want? Nothing! But will it last? How can Wilma make sure she is never unpopular again?

From Gail Carson Levine, author of the Newbery Honor book Ella Enchanted, this modern-day fairy tale shows a very real girl in a very unusual predicament, and along the way it reveals some painful truths about whether or not we really want to be liked for who we are.

Recent New Release: Grim (Harlequin Teen) edited by Christine Johnson

Somehow I missed this one but learned about it yesterday when I had the opportunity to request a review copy. It missed all of my fairy tale related book release searching. Keywords didn't work so well for this one!

Grim (Harlequin Teen) edited by Christine Johnson was released in February. I'll write more when I learn more but I thought I would share this today as my general announcement of a book release. There was even a blog tour promotion. Fairy tale related blog tours should consider inviting blogs like SurLaLune, Once Upon a Blog and Tales of Faerie into the mix. We have a very targeted audience, n'est-ce pas? An audience that would buy this book pretty naturally but may not follow these authors.

Book description:

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today.

About the Authors

A native of Michigan, Christine Johnson has lived in every corner of the state’s lower peninsula. She holds multiple degrees from the University of Michigan but prefers small-town life. After a decade as a librarian, she plunged into writing novels and never looked back. She and her husband now split their time between Michigan and the Florida Keys. You can read more about Christine at http://christineelizabethjohnson.com.

Born in Sacramento, CA, Julie Kagawa moved to Hawaii at the age of nine. There she learned many things; how to bodyboard, that teachers scream when you put centipedes in their desks, and that writing stories in math class is a great way to kill time. Her teachers were glad to see her graduate.

Julie now lives is Louisville, KY with her husband and furkids. She is the international and NYT bestselling author of The Iron Fey series. Visit her at juliekagawa.com.

Table of Contents:

Short Stories

The Key by Rachel Hawkins
Figment by Jeri-Smith Ready
The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo
The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron
Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell
Before The Rose Bloomed: A Retelling of the Snow Queen by Ellen Hopkins
Beast / Beast by Tessa Gratton
The Brothers Piggett by Julia Kagawa
UnTethered by Sonia Gensler
Better by Shaun David Hutchinson
Light It Up by Kimberly Derting
Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tongue by Christine Johnson
A Real Boy by Claudia Gray
Skin Trade by Myra McEntire
Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan
The Pink: A Grimm Story by Amanda Hocking
Sell it Out by Jackson Pearce

Grimmtastic Girls Series

There is a new fairy tale inspired series for middle readers starting with Grimmtastic Girls #1: Cinderella Stays Late by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams. The reader reviews are strong for these and this first book is already backordered in paper edition, but of course it's always available in ebook.

This series may become as popular or even surpass the Princess School series by Jane Mason and Sarah Hines Stephens. That one has been out of print for years now and I still get an occasional email about it, asking if it will be continued or reprinted. Alas, it was published before ebooks became de rigueur. So it remains regretfully out of print except for used copies. And I know nothing else about it.

Book description:

The authors of the hit Goddess Girls series put a fun and girly twist on another super-popular theme: fairy tales!

Once upon a time, in faraway Grimmlandia...

A Grimmtastic girl named Cinderella is starting her first week at Grimm Academy on the wrong foot. Cinda's totally evil stepsisters are out to make her life miserable. The Steps tease Cinda, give her terrible advice about life at the academy, and even make her look bad in front of her new friends, Red, Snow, and Rapunzel! But when Cinda overhears the Steps plotting a villainous deed that could ruin Prince Awesome's ball, Cinda, her new friends, and a pair of magical glass slippers have to stop them--before the last stroke of midnight!

Grimmtastic Girls #2: Red Riding Hood Gets Lost is already available and it is not backordered.

Book description:

Red Riding Hood might have a terrible sense of direction, but her grimmtastic friends are always there to help!

Once upon a time, in faraway Grimmlandia...

Red Riding Hood is thrilled to try out for the school play. Acting is her dream, and she's great at it--too bad she has stage fright! After a grimmiserable audition, Red decides to focus on helping her friends Cinda, Snow, and Rapunzel save Grimm Academy from the E.V.I.L. Society. But when Red gets lost in Neverwood forest and runs into Wolfgang, who might be part of E.V.I.L., she needs her magic basket and a grimmazingly dramatic performance to figure out what's going on!

Grimmtastic Girls #3: Snow White Lucks Out will be released on June 24th.

Book description:

Once upon a time, in faraway Grimmlandia. . .

No matter how many lucky charms she wears, Snow White can't catch a break. She's especially worried that her stepmom, Ms. Wicked, is a member of the E.V.I.L. Society. Snow and her friends Red, Cinda, and Rapunzel are trying to stop E.V.I.L.'s plans to destroy Grimm Academy, but Snow seems to be jinxing all their efforts. Her luck might change if she can find her own truly magical charm -- before it falls into E.V.I.L. hands!

Grimmtastic Girls #4: Rapunzel Cuts Loose will be released in September.

Book description:

Welcome to Grimm Academy, where Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel are BFFs -- and saving the world from the E.V.I.L. Society, one magical adventure at a time!

Once upon a time, in faraway Grimmlandia . . .

Rapunzel's magical fast-growing hair can be a nuisance, especially when an accident gives it magical powers she can't control! But Rapunzel can't let her grimmiserable hair woes distract her -- she and her friends, Cinda, Red, and Snow are trying to save Grimm Academy from the E.V.I.L. Society. Once Rapunzel tracks down her magic charm, she won't let a bad hair day get in the way of stopping E.V.I.L.!

New Book: Jack in the Green by Charles de Lint (Author), Charles Vess (Illustrator)

Jack in the Green by Charles de Lint (Author), Charles Vess (Illustrator) was released late last month. This is a limited edition book so if you are interested, don't wait too long.

Robin Hood is not a fairy tale, but he is folklore and one of my personal favorites. This retelling sounds fascinating so I probably need to heed my own advice, yes? And with luscious illustrations by Charles Vess--I couldn't find any other samples from this book and I waited for a while to see if any would appear!--this will be a feast for many senses.

And if I read it, it will probably spark a Robin Hood rereading, I have so many favorites, some I've shared on the blog in the past.

Book description:

Maria Martinez is a young maid, cleaning houses to get by, living in a neighborhood of Santo del Vado Viejo plagued by gang violence and drug cartels. When Maria witnesses her best friend from her teenage years breaking into a house in a gated community where she’s working, she has no problem pretending to the police she didn’t see a thing. But as Luz Chaidez comes back into Maria’s life, Maria can’t help remembering the magic Luz left to look for all those years ago. Magic she may have found. Maria is curiously drawn to one of Luz’s green-hooded gang of robbers, a handsome redheaded boy who calls himself Jack Green. Soon enough, she’s venturing into the dangerous territory of robbing from the rich to give to the poor…

In this deft, 22,000 word novella, acclaimed fantasist Charles de Lint brings one of the world’s most beloved tales into the modern day, transporting Robin Hood from the green wood to the barrio. Jack recasts an epic story of love and friendship, with justice at its center, in a way that readers won’t soon forget.

Jack in the Green features a full-color dust jacket, and five interior b&w vignettes by longtime de Lint collaborator, Charles Vess.

Grimm DVDs on Sale

Grimm: Season 1 and Grimm: Season 2 have both dropped in price significantly over the weekend, probably since the third season just ended and is available for preorder at Grimm: Season 3. The prices are fluctuating but are standing at about 20-30% less than their usual prices on Amazon.

Gypsy just wrote a fun post about the Grimm season finale over on Once Upon a Blog which made me smile.

That's the thing about the little show that could we call Grimm. It makes me smile. On paper, it makes no sense to me--I don't do the horror elements personally and detective shows are stale even if I watch a few.

But I will admit here that Grimm pleases me on so many more levels than Once Upon a Time, namely because they do their research on fairy tales and other folklore to inspire them. I see those quotes at the beginning of each episode and it makes me happy every time, especially when I recognize it!

I appreciate OUAT but I don't really enjoy it--it irritates me more often than not with its Disney commercialization--but I am thrilled so many people love it. It has been a juggernaut. Yay for it!

I'm not actively watching Grimm each week depending on my time constraints, but when I catch it, I enjoy it. I give it more time than OUAT because I find its storytelling more compelling and less predictable. It feels like an independent film show next to OUAT's major Hollywood studio slickness. I enjoyed Grimm's ending. I groaned at OUAT's ending, even though the media had alerted us it was coming. And, hey, I liked Frozen well enough. I have a niece who adores it. Watching the film become a worldwide phenomenon has been fascinating.

And I am so happy they have all been renewed for a 4th season! Who knew that Grimm and Once Upon a Time would both be seeing 4th seasons! And even CW's Beauty and the Beast--so very loosely based on anything fairy tale or related to the inspiration show--escaped the ax and will see a third season. So the name is out there, too. OUAT Wonderland got the ax but Wonderland was a stretch always. I hope the musical version will be much more successful in the fall or whenever it arrives on our screens.

Now I am tempted to order season 2 for a future marathon viewing. I own season 1 and although I can stream, that is still frustrating at times when watching several episodes at a time. Hmmm...