Erin Morgenstern's Blog, page 28

flax-golden tales: i have heard the mermaids singing

i have heard the mermaids singing 

My sister says it must be mermaids, but I don’t think the stream is deep enough for mermaids.

We get in an argument about how much water mermaids need and decide it depends on how they breathe and we agree they must at least be able to breathe air sometimes because if they couldn’t they wouldn’t be able to sing and we both agree that the mermaids sing.

We don’t agree about the rocks, though. I still say mermaids wouldn’t flop around our shallow stream just to build little towers of rocks but when she demands another explanation I don’t have one.

After a thorough investigation during which we accidentally knock one of the towers over we decide that mermaids must be nocturnal since the rocks were stacked overnight.

We ask if we can camp in the backyard and dad asks why and I don’t have a good non-mermaid answer but my sister says we want to commune with nature and he laughs but says it’s okay and we can come inside if we get tired of communing or if there are too many bugs.

The moon is bright enough to see fine from the yard but we put the tent in the shadows of a tree so the mermaids won’t be able to see us from the water and we take turns checking from the shore to make sure it’s properly camouflaged.

While we wait in the dark we whisper about what the rock towers might be for because we didn’t discuss that earlier and we decide they might be for directions, like a mermaid map signaling system.

We wait and wait and wait and nothing happens and my eyelids get heavy but I don’t realize I’m mostly asleep until my sister shakes me to get my attention.

She covers my mouth to shush me before I say anything and points to the water where a hand is reaching up from the dark surface and slowly re-stacking the rocks we knocked over and then I can hear the singing.

About flax-golden tales . Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

start here

You may have already heard about Book Riot‘s Start Here project. If not, you can click the picture or the link or read this helpful description that I’m going to cut and paste for you:

There are so many fantastic authors and great books out there that sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.

Say you’ve always wanted to read something by William Faulkner. You probably know a bunch of his books: The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying; Light in August; Absalom, Absalom! Maybe you’ve even come close to buying one. But every time you think about it, there’s that big question:

Which should you read first?

Start Here solves that problem; it tells you how to read your way into 25 amazing authors from a wide range of genres–children’s books to classics, contemporary fiction to graphic novels.

Each chapter presents an author, explains why you might want to try them, and lays out a 3-4 book reading sequence designed to help you experience fully what they have to offer. It’s a fun, accessible, informative way to enrich your reading life.

Start Here will be available both as an ebook (compatible with Kindles, iPads, Nooks, and a variety of other devices) and as a printed edition.

 

Fun, right?

I thought it was a fantastic idea to begin with, and I knew Joe Hill was writing a chapter and anything Joe Hill does seems like it’s probably cool, and now the section introducing the varied and wondrous worlds of Neil Gaiman will be composed by yours truly.

I am delighted and honored to be involved. I am still pondering my suggestions, as the collected Gaiman is vast and eclectic. It’s kind of like starting someone out on sushi when they’ve never had it before, there are a lot of tastes and textures to set up before we start setting things on fire.

(I really did have sushi that was on fire last week. It said “torched at table” and I expected maybe they’d pull out a little crème brûlée torch but instead it arrived aflame and continued to burn for quite a while and it was delicious.)

My Gaiman guide may end up having a slightly unconventional approach (I already know I’m not going to suggest starting with American Gods, for one thing) but I think it will be a lot of fun and also gives me an excuse to page through my gorgeous Absolute Sandman editions again.

If any of this sounds appetizing to you, you can help kickstart Start Here here.

 

flax-golden tales: of boxes and blame

of boxes and blame

It was the box’s fault. That is, if boxes can be faulted for such things.

And perhaps it was not the box itself to blame as much as the fact that the box was locked.

Which would make it the fault of the lock.

Or more precisely, the fault that it could not unlock itself at will.

Had it been able to perform such a feat, the entire ordeal might well have been avoided.

The bench was the one to suffer, though, left horribly bent and broken.

They can never resist a locked box, even when the locked box is placed on a bench that cannot possibly hold their weight without buckling under the pressure of curious claws.

The box remained intact but traumatized.

No one knows what became of the lock.

 

About flax-golden tales . Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

mini-hiatus and also a bunny in a hat

Hello internet! How is it August already? I am travelling, going on a mini-hiatus this first week of the month for a multitude of reasons including trying to write for a change. Also I have a new friend, pictured above with rainbow.

Thank you to everyone who tuned into the chat on goodreads on Monday to listen to me babble and talk with my hands! We had a few technical difficulties but I believe everything recorded fine and the video will eventually be archived over on my goodreads author page.

And I was on NPR talking about reading Stephen King at a rather young, clearly impressionable age. You can read (or listen) to it over here.

I’m also hoping I will have more time in August to write some blog posts with actual content (I still have a draft of one about books-not-written-by-me that I started in May) and time to catch up on emails, but for the moment I am off having adventures both real and imagined with a bunny in a hat and I shall be a bit scarce around the internet. Please don’t break anything while I’m gone.

 

flax-golden tales: muses

muses

What are you doing? they ask in earnest, curious unison.

Writing, I reply, answering automatically even though they ask the same question every day and they often sit directly on the typewriter so it should be rather obvious.

Writing what? they chorus with their typical giddiness.

A story.

There should be a bear! one suggests.

No, bears are scary! the other insists.

That’s why they make a good story, the first argues, because scary stories are exciting stories and exciting stories are good stories!

You’re not helping, I tell them, but they don’t listen. They never listen to me.

They argue about bears and relative levels of scariness (digressing into a lengthy debate as to whether dragons could be scarier than bears and who would win in a dragon versus bear situation, including caveats as to age of dragon, type of bear, landscape the fight is taking place on and both competitors psychological motivations) and what makes a story properly good while I continue to type.

About flax-golden tales . Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

in lieu of post, bunnies.

I was going to write an epic post-NYC blog post and then this week got away from me, lost in two straight days of phone interviews followed by credit card fraud shenanigans and deadlines and also I’m still not sure how it managed to be almost-August already.

So, instead of a proper blog post, here are some adorable pygmy rabbits, brought to bunny up the busy week by ZooBorns:

 

Also, on Monday July 30th at 5pm eastern I will be doing a live video chat on GoodReads. I imagine it will be something like all the phone interviews only people will actually be able to see how much I talk with my hands.

flax-golden tales: bridge use restricted

bridge use restricted

We reach the bridge on the third day, in the late afternoon with the sun just starting to sag into the trees. We are tired and hungry, having eaten the last of the almost-stale scones with honey hours before, and overjoyed to have finally reached our next landmark.

We whoop and shout enough to scare the nearby birds but we fall silent when we notice the sign.

No one warned us of this part, though few had set down this path before and returned to share the particulars. We did not expect the bridge, this fabled bridge we had heard about that seemed solid and eternal in our imaginations, to be so narrow and flimsy and have formally posted restrictions.

“Do Not Run” seems understandable given the rickety construction, but “Limited To Three Pedestrians” gives us pause, leaving us shuffling our formerly eager feet in the dirt with four pairs of eyes refusing to make contact.

We decide, after some debate, that it is likely not an enforceable restriction and we should all cross, but one at a time so that there are never more than three of us at once.

No one wants to be last, just in case, so we break a stick and draw straws and I am only slightly surprised to find the short one in my hand when I open my eyes.

My companions cross slowly, it seems an eternity before the third begins to walk, and when she is almost halfway with the other two safely on the far side and watching nervously, I shift my pack on my shoulders and prepare to step forward.

Before I even lift my foot the bridge has vanished, leaving me standing alone next to another sign that instructs me to continue west to the other bridge, and beneath the sign is a warm honeyed scone.

 

About flax-golden tales . Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

quick post with books & socks!

I am in NYC at the moment, but on Monday I spent the day being herded around eastern Massachusetts to sign stock at several different bookstores. So if you would like a signed paperback of The Night Circus they can be found at:

Harvard Books in Cambridge

Porter Square Books in Cambridge

The Concord Bookshop in Concord

Willow Books in Acton

Wellesley Books in Wellesley

and the New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton Highlands.

And I imagine most if not all of these stores would be willing to ship them if you called & ordered.

I of course did not get through all of those stores without a bit of book shopping, even though my to-read pile is absurd at this point. Also, socks.

And this evening I shall be at McNally Jackson Books in conversation with Lev Grossman. I am not entirely sure what we will be conversing about. Possibly books or writing and very likely Harry Potter. Actually probably mostly Harry Potter.

flax-golden tales: another place in another time

another place in another time

I found the lamppost in the middle of the woods, half-hidden in branches and vines.

I confess, the first thing I thought about was Narnia even though it was summer-warm with green leaves instead of wardrobe snow and I’m too old to be thinking such things in serious wishful ways.

I untangled what I could to get a better look at the lamppost itself, which was set securely in the ground even though the nearest road was half a mile away.

I’m not sure when I stopped being in my woods and started being in Everglynn, but it was probably somewhere around dusk when the lamp flickered on and the chipmunk sitting by my feet asked if I happened to have the time.

It’s not Narnia, not by a long shot. No icy queens or wise enigmatic lions, just a messy, run-down land of squabbling creatures who argue over everything from what to farm and how to form a proper army—though I’m not sure who the army would be fighting, there aren’t any other lands as far as I can tell—to what books to keep in the expansive hollow-tree library and whether or not to legalize gambling.

They think I’m their savior, a strange beast sent from another land to fix their unruly society and their failing economy and bring peace to their vine-tangled forest.

I try to help. I untangle what I can. I worry what would happen if I were to leave.

 

About flax-golden tales . Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

birthday!

Today is my birthday! I am thirty-four years old, which also means that this blog is four years old and flax-golden tales are three years old, and three is of course the magic number. My continued & eternal thanks to the multi-talented Carey Farrell for allowing me to make things up to accompany her fantastic photos.

We celebrate all of these things with the meta-wonderment that is a balloon covered with balloons.

 

Also there is wrapping paper featuring a very dapper cat.

 

And my favorite part, the birthday pony.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes both in person and via Twitter and comments, my day so far has been balloon and kitten and pony and pancake-filled, and later there shall be ice cream cake. Thirty-three was a strange, wondrous, roller coaster of a year. I’m curious to see what thirty-four will bring, and I’m going to assume a balloon covered in balloons is a good birthday omen.