A.M. Offenwanger's Blog, page 29
March 1, 2018
Cat, a Bowl and Lots of Red-Heads, or: What’s This Septimus Thing, Anyway?
I was just re-arranging this website a little bit – posting the links to the recently published stories in one place, consolidating the books in the sidebar into one link – and it occurred to me that some of you folks who’ve come to reading my blog lately might not be all that familiar with this whole turquoise-coloured “Septimus Series” thing. For example, if you were to come from all those fairy tale stories I’ve posted recently to reading “Lavender’s Blue”, my Septimus short story, you mig...
February 26, 2018
#TellAFairyTaleDay: Snow White and Rose Red
Apparently today, February 26th, is Tell-a-Fairy-Tale-Day. Can’t pass up that opportunity, can I? So when I thought about what fairy tale to tell you, the first one that sprang to mind is one of my favourites, “Snow White and Rose Red”. I already told it once on my old blog, almost five years ago now, when I was studying the regular, dwarfy “Snow White” for a grad school paper, so I thought maybe it was time to find another favourite to tell. But when I looked up that particular telling, I f...
February 20, 2018
Project Unstick: Holy Slippers!
Project Unstick advanced to the coat closet yesterday. And in amongst the random mess of mittens, scarves, sun hats, broken umbrellas, and dozens of mismatched stretchy gloves that were crammed into the shelf above the coat rack, I found a pair of slippers I knitted a few years ago. Unfortunately, something got into the stuff and chewed holes into the slippers, so they’re kind of useless now.
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However, they inspired me to dig up the blog post I wrote about knitting them, just a few weeks afte...
February 19, 2018
Pennies Dropping – A Retelling
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A Fairy Tale Flash Fiction piece of mine is now up on Enchanted Conversations: “Pennies Dropping“, a retelling of the Grimms’ “The Star Talers”.
“Pennies Dropping” is double-featured with another Fairy Tale Flash, “Midnight” by Fanni Sütö. Two for the price of one – check it out!
February 14, 2018
#WordlessWednesday: There’s Water In Them Thar Hills
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February 12, 2018
Fire, Folklore and Family Day
Art Installation, “third beach”. Melany Nugent and Trent Noble.
The campfire light flickered over the floor as we sat around the circle, sipping hot chocolate, enthralled by the rise and fall of the storyteller’s voice.
“Coyote laughed at Crab. ‘Of course I will race you! How can you win, if you can only run backwards?'”
I had never heard these stories before, which is why I went to today’s Family Day event at the local art gallery – the promise of a First Nations storyteller giving Okanagan...
February 9, 2018
Conversing on Apples on Enchanted Conversations
Here is my first official article on Enchanted Conversations:
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FAIRY TALE FOOD: Apples & RECIPE OF THE MONTH: Fairy Tale Apple Pie by A.M. OffenwangerFood and Fairy Tales – I bet you had no idea that I’m into those.
Enjoy!
February 8, 2018
What Is A Fairy Tale?
Fairy Tale Castle, looking enchanted
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / by any other word would smell as sweet…”
I’ve been thinking of the term “fairy tale” in the last little while – partially inspired by William’s and Kyomi’s recent articles on the topic. They have both made an attempt to define “fairy tale”, as well as the related terms “legend”, “myth”, “fable”, and even the overarching “folklore”. I’m not going to bother with the latter here—you can go to their articles and r...
February 7, 2018
#WordlessWednesday: Sleeping Beauty’s Christening
“…and they set the table with twelve golden plates…” Residenz Palace Munich, August 2017
February 5, 2018
The Editor Pontificates: Pouring vs. Poring
You know that nerve on the front of your knee that makes your foot kick out when the doctor taps it with a little hammer? Well, that happened to me, metaphorically, the other day, while I was reading some short stories. Three times in two stories, all in the one day, this particular mistake whacked me in my editor’s knee. It’s a quite obscure and unimportant matter, and it’s really nitpickety of me to even complain, but, well…
The phrase in question goes something like this: “The scholar pour...
