Laura Christensen's Blog, page 3

Here be Folklore….

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As you may or may not know, I’ve been translating French folklore and posting it online at www.littletranslator.com since 2014.

The website I created in 2014 I wrote from scratch in HTML and CSS, mostly so I could organize it any way I wished and avoid the blog-scroll format as the main focus.  However, I haven’t really invested in developing my HTML/CSS skills since the 90s, and unfortunately you can really tell. When Google changed its rules about highlighting mobile-friendly sites’ design in search results a few years back, I luckily did get some help from a patron who was much more experienced at coding websites than I was, and for that I’m immensely grateful.

However, five years later it’s December 2019 and an overhaul is long overdue.  Not only have I been yearning to redo my website’s theme and make it more visually folkloric to match my current emphasis on folklore translations, but my website hosting costs have steadily climbed, and while I’ve been disabled my income hasn’t been all that great. It’s time to change themes, change hosts, and scale back my costs considerably in preparation for self-publishing my upcoming folkloric fiction series which will have higher costs for editing.

Starting tomorrow until the Winter Solstice, I’ll be posting a folktale translation everyday as a way to mirror my site and keep a”back-up copy” while I change things around. It’s long past time for me to merge my literary translator of folklore and fairy tales and my folkloric writer parts of me, in any case, especially since my upcoming fiction series is inspired by the folklore I’ve been reading and translating. I needed that separation once, but perhaps no longer.

Enjoy the folklore!

P.S. As a warning, many of the footnote links won’t work with the move onto this blog, but that’s okay, I’ll fix them again once they reach their new home.

Fairer released!

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Once upon a time there was a princess so beautiful that her people named her Fairer-than-the-Fairies.  Of course, with a name like that, Fairer was destined for trouble.

When the wicked queen of  the fairies hears of Fairer’s reputation, the wicked queen swears to avenge her fairies’ pride. She captures the princess and condemns her to complete an impossible task by daybreak on pain of death.

But while Fairer is held prisoner, she meets a fellow captive—another mortal  princess—and the rebellious fairy prince. Together, they must complete  the wicked queen’s tasks and rescue the good queen of the fairies or all is lost.

Read two translations of this lesser-known 1698 French fairy tale, with commentary, and discover a tale featuring the power of friendship and love in its many forms. Come for the princesses and princes, queens and fairies. Enjoy the poetry, ancient history, and mythology. Stay for the friendship, and, perhaps, fall in love.

~

Fairer is now released on Amazon/Kindle Unlimited:

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2oTanw8

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08114LL9T/

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08114LL9T/

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08114LL9T/

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B08114LL9T/

With more retailers to come!

Next Fairytale E-book

I’ve been hard at work translating, researching, writing, and revising my next fairy tale translation e-book, to sequel Persinette.

Feel free to follow my progress on Patreon! Or else stay tuned, my next post here will likely be in celebration of its release.

“I Will Never Be in Doctor Who”

So far this year I’ve mostly paused working on my novel to dive into various applications, including writing and submitting shorter pieces.

Today my poem “I Will Never Be in Doctor Who” has been published on NewMyths.com quarterly magazine.  It explores the intersection of disability and science fiction.

Go forth and read.

(I seem to also be sharing an issue with a fellow World Weaver Press sister-writer. This writing world is small indeed.)

Here Be Aromantic and Asexual Protagonists

Three years ago this month I wrote my post “Where are the asexual protagonists?” making a case for more asexual and aromantic characters and storylines and suggesting quite a few story and character ideas.

I’ve been meaning to write a sequel post entitled “Here they are!” for some time now, ever since I discovered more of the aro/ace spectra community of indie writers on Twitter and found likeminded people also searching. (Indies are awesome.)

And here they be.

Claudie Arseneault has compiled a (rather large) database of aro and ace spectra characters in fiction here. (There are over 400).

There are currently two Kickstarters running, one for a collection of Asexual Fairy Tales (ends in 5 days) and one for an anthology of Platonic Friendships & Aromantic Characters (ends in 37 days).

And that, folks, is just the beginning.

Enjoy!

2018 in review

In the spirit of accomplishments, this year I

wrote over 100k words on my novel (probably over 120k?) written this year, increasing my overall writing pace.
hit 245k three times as I wrote, unraveled, and rewrote large sequences. Yep, I like big books, I cannot lie.
translated 5 folktales
completed another translation draft of “Fairer”
applied for several grants and a residency program in France.  A girl can dream, right?
renewed my passport and driver’s license, and got back to driving again, yay health improvements!
with driving comes A LIBRARY CARD and going to the library!
continued being a moderator for ELTNA.org

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From coniferous forest to….

Currently pausing forward progress on my novel rough draft by going back and readjusting/revising generic mountainous forest setting description to…this.

Aka I did my research wrong in the beginning and I need to go back and adjust several chapters to be more awesome.

(Current wordcount: 245k)

200k and other milestones

So, last week I hit a few milestones!  Unlike my 100k blog post where I went into all kinds of detail about my novel-writing journey to that point, this post is going to be fairly short.  I think.  <

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200k reached April 19, 2018

2017 in Review

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(Screenshot from “Sandbox project” on myWriteClub as of Dec 28, 2017)

This is going to be brief because there’s a lot going on this holiday season, but this year I –

Added ~100k to my novel project
Took “The Dragon’s Gift” novelette through more revisions, with the serious/experimental goal of publication. Tested out Scrivener e-book compiler and started learning Jutoh compiler.
Launched a fiction newsletter
Cleaned up and retooled my patreon for 2018
Alpha/beta-read several projects
Started drawing and painting again
Focused on health and healing, and added swimming and battodo to my exercise repertoire

“The Dragon’s Gift” – is an actual gift!

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I’m going on an adventure!  Would you like to come along?

I’ve been kind of hush-hush about my fiction over the past few years, but I’ve decided it’s time to step out into the world again and start sharing.  I’m launching a newsletter for my fiction.

My fiction newsletter will have loads of sneak peaks condensed into a four-part welcome series, including but not limited to:

a dragon friendship tale e-book
the first chapter of my folklore-inspired novel work-in-progress
not to mention the novel’s title (besides “sandbox project” >.>)
and current cover
and what folklore inspired it
and probably an exclusive folktale retelling….

Yikes, that’s a lot of insider info.  I’m actually kind of daunted to share, but I think it’s time.  And what better way for you to get to know what I’m like as a writer?

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Sign up for my fiction newsletter and get a copy of “The Dragon’s Gift” e-book.