A.R. Jarvis's Blog, page 13
October 15, 2013
Prince Riquet
Prince Riquet is free this week! http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Riquet-e...
Read the blog post about it here: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013...
Read the blog post about it here: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013...
October 1, 2013
Koshchei the Deathless
New blog post: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013...
This week's freebie: Koshchei the Deathless, a mildly humorous take on a classical fairy tale trope. http://www.amazon.com/Koshchei-the-De... (Free through 10-5-13)
This week's freebie: Koshchei the Deathless, a mildly humorous take on a classical fairy tale trope. http://www.amazon.com/Koshchei-the-De... (Free through 10-5-13)
September 26, 2013
The Ferryman and the Merman
Free through Saturday 9/29/13: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ferryman-Me...
Also, a blog post about it: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com
/2013/09/25/the-ferryman-and-the-merman/
Also, a blog post about it: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com
/2013/09/25/the-ferryman-and-the-merman/
September 21, 2013
Old French Fairy Tales
New post on my OTHER blog: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013...
Also, today (Sat, Sept 21, 2013) is the last day to get The Ninja and the Firebird free on kindle http://www.amazon.com/The-Ninja-Fireb... Get it soon!
Also, today (Sat, Sept 21, 2013) is the last day to get The Ninja and the Firebird free on kindle http://www.amazon.com/The-Ninja-Fireb... Get it soon!
September 12, 2013
Cinder-Ninja
New blog post, new kindle freebie (at least through Saturday). Details here: http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013...
September 8, 2013
Another New Blog
I don't even like the word 'blog,' but I thought I might go ahead and get myself a "real" one. I'm not sure if I'll still be posting something different here, or if I'll just go rant over there or what's going on, but it's fairyninjas.wordpress.com unless Goodreads steals links, in which case you'll never know, muwahahahaha!
This week I read Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland Within This Century
Read more about it here:
http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013... Or my review on the book's page, whichever your heart prefers. Because you should always follow your heart. Unless it jumps off a cliff, then maybe you should think it over and make your own decisions.
This week I read Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland Within This Century
Read more about it here:
http://fairyninjas.wordpress.com/2013... Or my review on the book's page, whichever your heart prefers. Because you should always follow your heart. Unless it jumps off a cliff, then maybe you should think it over and make your own decisions.
August 30, 2013
Balanced
Now that my Fans and Blog Posts have the same number again, we can all rest...wait, what is this??! now I have one more post than fans again? Bah. Someone will have to bring a friend.
This week's reading was the rather uninspiring Legends of the Rhine, which was a bunch of German folk-hero stories, some of which were downright cruel.
Not that that stopped a reviewer from commenting how great a book it would be to read to children. Because what child doesn't LOVE a tale about starving people being burned alive by a cruel bishop, who then gets attacked and killed by mice? I mean, that's prime bed-time-story material Right There.
The adultery stories, too, are likely to strike a beneficial chord in your child's psyche. ...Although, I suppose that does depend on the parents.
There was a rather interesting version of the Elves and the Shoemaker near the back, though. 'The Goblins,' I think it was called. They lived in darkness because they'd turn to stone in light, but liked coming out to help the various workmen in the town. Until a wife realized what was going on, and set a trap with pease [sic], which caused them to stumble and tumble all over, and was great fun for the wife. Even if they immediately left town thereafter and haven't been seen since. LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU; don't trip the help.
This week's reading was the rather uninspiring Legends of the Rhine, which was a bunch of German folk-hero stories, some of which were downright cruel.
Not that that stopped a reviewer from commenting how great a book it would be to read to children. Because what child doesn't LOVE a tale about starving people being burned alive by a cruel bishop, who then gets attacked and killed by mice? I mean, that's prime bed-time-story material Right There.
The adultery stories, too, are likely to strike a beneficial chord in your child's psyche. ...Although, I suppose that does depend on the parents.
There was a rather interesting version of the Elves and the Shoemaker near the back, though. 'The Goblins,' I think it was called. They lived in darkness because they'd turn to stone in light, but liked coming out to help the various workmen in the town. Until a wife realized what was going on, and set a trap with pease [sic], which caused them to stumble and tumble all over, and was great fun for the wife. Even if they immediately left town thereafter and haven't been seen since. LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU; don't trip the help.
August 22, 2013
German Forests
Today I finished Fairy Tales from the German Forests, which I can't recommend for children because it's old and has bad gender-role-modeling, and I can't recommend for adults because the prose is overly descriptive and meandering. I also can't recommend it for anyone who identifies as neither a child nor an adult because honestly it sucked.
I did like a couple of the stories in a 'hey, that premise could have been interesting' sort of way, but not enough to wish this book on anyone.
One thing I've noticed in all this reading of fairy tales that I've done is that it's actually really clear when the stories are not traditional stories.
Sure, they have some of the same elements (nixies! dwarfs! talking ravens!) but the moral hits like a ton of bricks, and often the prose is taken to a new level of meandering description.
Traditional tales tend to be rather concise, especially if they are transcribed from an oral source, because verbally telling stories is vastly, vastly different from penning one.
But once an author gets it in his head that he wants to write a 'Fairy Tale For the Children', he pulls out all the stops between sanity and purple prose. There should be fairies dripping with the morning dew, and gems cascading off their wings, the sweetness and goodness cascading off of them in palpable waves of lilac-scented air.
So like I said, it's usually pretty obvious when I'm being fed non-traditional 'fairy tales' instead of 'real' ones.
I did like a couple of the stories in a 'hey, that premise could have been interesting' sort of way, but not enough to wish this book on anyone.
One thing I've noticed in all this reading of fairy tales that I've done is that it's actually really clear when the stories are not traditional stories.
Sure, they have some of the same elements (nixies! dwarfs! talking ravens!) but the moral hits like a ton of bricks, and often the prose is taken to a new level of meandering description.
Traditional tales tend to be rather concise, especially if they are transcribed from an oral source, because verbally telling stories is vastly, vastly different from penning one.
But once an author gets it in his head that he wants to write a 'Fairy Tale For the Children', he pulls out all the stops between sanity and purple prose. There should be fairies dripping with the morning dew, and gems cascading off their wings, the sweetness and goodness cascading off of them in palpable waves of lilac-scented air.
So like I said, it's usually pretty obvious when I'm being fed non-traditional 'fairy tales' instead of 'real' ones.
August 17, 2013
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen.
Seriously.
Why do people like him so much?
I used to like his fairy tales when I was a kid, and there's some interesting stuff in there, but when you look at all his stories as a whole, you have to wonder why no one's realized he FUCKING SUCKS yet.
Maybe I can blame Disney for this. They like to take his stories and turn them into something palatable--and then everyone whines that the Little Mermaid doesn't die in the end, HOW COULD DISNEY DO THAT? But really, what they should be asking is "Why did Disney cut out the fifty pages of monologues from when the littlest mermaid's sisters went to the surface and had horrible experiences?" Because the answer; "IT IS A BETTER STORY NOW" is the same both ways.
How much do you want to bet the new Snow Queen movie from Disney cuts out the part where she talks to all the flowers in the garden, and they each tell her a novella about what they saw that day--except not whatshisname the boy, which is what she wants to know--AND NO ONE WILL NOTICE? I might have to go trolling about it on the 'nets just to be difficult.
There is some variation of readability due to translations for HCA, it's true, but at some point you're still stuck with the same dull, depressing tales. You really just get variations from 'zzzzz...' to 'I read three paragra...zzzzz'
Moreover, HCA wrote the stories from his head, he didn't copy them down from the local populace ala John Jacobs, or those benighted Grimm's bothers. So it's not like sticking to the gruesome, morbid endings of HCA's tales are staying true to the story's roots. Because...it HAD NO roots before him. It's like our great-grandchildren claiming Twilight is folklore from the 21st century, and indicative of ALL writing nowabouts. Terrifying.
So. You know. I was trying to read another translation of HCA's tales this week--except it wasn't a translation, but rather some guy who took all the translations on the market, and then combined them. I...didn't get very far. I generally love the repetition from rereading fairy tales, since they are almost always different each time, but I think I've capped out my tolerance for Hans Christian Fucking Andersen.
Seriously.
Why do people like him so much?
I used to like his fairy tales when I was a kid, and there's some interesting stuff in there, but when you look at all his stories as a whole, you have to wonder why no one's realized he FUCKING SUCKS yet.
Maybe I can blame Disney for this. They like to take his stories and turn them into something palatable--and then everyone whines that the Little Mermaid doesn't die in the end, HOW COULD DISNEY DO THAT? But really, what they should be asking is "Why did Disney cut out the fifty pages of monologues from when the littlest mermaid's sisters went to the surface and had horrible experiences?" Because the answer; "IT IS A BETTER STORY NOW" is the same both ways.
How much do you want to bet the new Snow Queen movie from Disney cuts out the part where she talks to all the flowers in the garden, and they each tell her a novella about what they saw that day--except not whatshisname the boy, which is what she wants to know--AND NO ONE WILL NOTICE? I might have to go trolling about it on the 'nets just to be difficult.
There is some variation of readability due to translations for HCA, it's true, but at some point you're still stuck with the same dull, depressing tales. You really just get variations from 'zzzzz...' to 'I read three paragra...zzzzz'
Moreover, HCA wrote the stories from his head, he didn't copy them down from the local populace ala John Jacobs, or those benighted Grimm's bothers. So it's not like sticking to the gruesome, morbid endings of HCA's tales are staying true to the story's roots. Because...it HAD NO roots before him. It's like our great-grandchildren claiming Twilight is folklore from the 21st century, and indicative of ALL writing nowabouts. Terrifying.
So. You know. I was trying to read another translation of HCA's tales this week--except it wasn't a translation, but rather some guy who took all the translations on the market, and then combined them. I...didn't get very far. I generally love the repetition from rereading fairy tales, since they are almost always different each time, but I think I've capped out my tolerance for Hans Christian Fucking Andersen.
July 28, 2013
Reviews
Last week I read the dull, yet tolerable, Fairy Tales of the Allied Nations - Illustrated by Edmund Dulac (or some variation thereof). It was clever at times, but kept putting me to sleep for some reason.
So instead of babbling about that here, I thought I'd come up with some witty commentary about reviews. Try to, anyway.
See, I'm one of those authors who obsessively reads the reviews her books get. I know better than to respond to them at least (although I suppose if they were directly comments to me, I'd answer), but I *do* read them.
But I also like to read reviews of other books before I get them, and...sometimes I wish that I could be a review-reviewer. Because seriously. Most of my reviews are along the lines of "Too Short!" or "Reads like a fairy tale" Which, okay, yeah, that's what it is; why are you complaining?
Others are 'oh, it's just not my sort of thing' Then...why did you read it? or, better yet, why did you review it? I don't go reading non-fiction books, and then review them by pointing out that I normally like fantasy, and Galileo's Daughter just didn't have enough sword fights for me, so sorry.
Worse still are the reviews where the people just wander in and complain they don't like reading on their kindle. 'oh, well, it seemed like an okay story, but I hate my kindle, so I only give it one star, lol.' Then...go complain to the kindle page. Don't take it out on a poor innocent story. That's like watching Avatar, but bitching because you saw it on a tiny bus screen, and couldn't make out what was going on because there was an old lady snoring next to you. Seriously.
I'm also not fond of the reviews that re-summarize the story. I don't mind them as much, and sometimes they can be helpful, but a book only needs ONE of those. Just one. *Possibly* two, if the first one sucks. I don't want to read eight semi-spoilery summaries while trying to figure out if the characters are too two-dimensional to bother with.
Reviews that are helpful are ones that are about the story, give a bit of your emotional experience with it, critique the prose, mention errors or whatever that enhanced/detracted from the reading experience, and then...that's it. Each book should be judged by what they are trying to be, not for what the reader usually reads--i.e. a short story for completeness, a non-fiction book for facts, erotica for quality of smut, and so forth.
Reviews are to help other people choose what they want to read, and if you don't have something useful to say, you shouldn't be talking. Or I'll give your review one star, because I usually read reviews of computer games, sorry, lol.
So instead of babbling about that here, I thought I'd come up with some witty commentary about reviews. Try to, anyway.
See, I'm one of those authors who obsessively reads the reviews her books get. I know better than to respond to them at least (although I suppose if they were directly comments to me, I'd answer), but I *do* read them.
But I also like to read reviews of other books before I get them, and...sometimes I wish that I could be a review-reviewer. Because seriously. Most of my reviews are along the lines of "Too Short!" or "Reads like a fairy tale" Which, okay, yeah, that's what it is; why are you complaining?
Others are 'oh, it's just not my sort of thing' Then...why did you read it? or, better yet, why did you review it? I don't go reading non-fiction books, and then review them by pointing out that I normally like fantasy, and Galileo's Daughter just didn't have enough sword fights for me, so sorry.
Worse still are the reviews where the people just wander in and complain they don't like reading on their kindle. 'oh, well, it seemed like an okay story, but I hate my kindle, so I only give it one star, lol.' Then...go complain to the kindle page. Don't take it out on a poor innocent story. That's like watching Avatar, but bitching because you saw it on a tiny bus screen, and couldn't make out what was going on because there was an old lady snoring next to you. Seriously.
I'm also not fond of the reviews that re-summarize the story. I don't mind them as much, and sometimes they can be helpful, but a book only needs ONE of those. Just one. *Possibly* two, if the first one sucks. I don't want to read eight semi-spoilery summaries while trying to figure out if the characters are too two-dimensional to bother with.
Reviews that are helpful are ones that are about the story, give a bit of your emotional experience with it, critique the prose, mention errors or whatever that enhanced/detracted from the reading experience, and then...that's it. Each book should be judged by what they are trying to be, not for what the reader usually reads--i.e. a short story for completeness, a non-fiction book for facts, erotica for quality of smut, and so forth.
Reviews are to help other people choose what they want to read, and if you don't have something useful to say, you shouldn't be talking. Or I'll give your review one star, because I usually read reviews of computer games, sorry, lol.
