It’s hard to believe that the release for the second book in The Fairytale Keeper series is only eight months away. If you didn’t know, the book has a tentative title, The Fairest of Them All. At this point, I am halfway done with writing and beginning work on revisions. For me, this is the perfect time to start revising. It’s quite fun to read parts of the book that I’d written months ago. They feel so new. Thankfully, I am very pleased with the first chapter. For those of you who know me personally, I am no good at keeping surprises. I am absolutely dying to post the first chapter of The Fairest of Them All today! But I think I will be a good little author and wait until after the entire book goes off for editing. For those of you who are dying to have a sneak peek into The Fairest of Them All, visit my Pinterest page, which holds clues as to what will happen in the next installment of The Fairytale Keeper series.
Top Ten Most Gruesome Fairy Tale Facts
Illustration of “The Girl with No Hands” by H.J. Ford
“Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere. This list looks at some of the common endings we are familiar with – and explains the original gruesome origins.” -Jamie Frater
Of course, I had to find something gruesome, gory, and Grimm for Halloween! I hope you enjoy this article from Listverse written by Jamie Frater.
The Three Army-Surgeons: A Little-Known German Tale Despite Being Essentially, Grotesquelly Grimm
Life during the Middle Ages was harsh and children, like those that would be told the sometimes gory German folklore later compiled by the Grimm brothers, lived an R-rated existence. Death due to infection and disease was common, especially during times of war. And as the saying goes when life hands you lemons, make lemonade, or in the case of this story, when life hands you a horrific war in which people die of infection and horrible wounds, compose a story about three foolish surgeons who have the magic to fix such problems.
“The Three Army Surgeons” is a tale of three men roaming the countryside on their way back home from war. The men spend a night at a tavern and participate in a very grotesque challenge. The innkeeper dares the surgeons to detach their own body parts and reattach them the next morning. Each of the surgeons accepts the challenge and amputates a part of his own body: the first removes his hand, the second tears out his heart, and the third gouges out his own eyes. The surgeons put the parts on a platter and the innkeeper locks them in a chest for safe-keeping. The innkeeper gives his serving wench the key to the chest and the charge of guarding these items for the night, but when she opens the case later and accidentally leaves it open all night, all goes awry. The parts are missing and fearing punishment from her employer, the girl forces her lover to go out to search for them. Unfortunately, a cat snatched the items and has mauled them beyond repair so the lover must set out to find replacements.
Illustration by Agnieszka Wrzosek of The Three Army Surgeons
The essentially dark humor and magical elements traditionally associated with many of Grimm’s tales comes into play during the second half of the tale. The lover, in his scramble to find a replacement hand, heart, and eyes, comes up with a silly solution by turning to second-hand parts. In the end, a thief’s hand, a pig’s heart, and a cat’s eyes end up on the platter. The following morning, the unsuspecting surgeons use a magical ointment to successfully put the used body parts back into their bodies. Within a day, they find themselves feeling and acting strangely, due to their new animal anatomy, but I won’t spoil the humorous ending for readers.
For those looking for an authentically Grimm tale, I highly recommend “The Three Army Surgeons.” My readers can look forward to seeing it in one of the installments of The Fairytale Keeper series.
Five Things You Didn’t Know About the Cinderella Story
Written by Andrea Cefalo, author of The Fairytale Keeper series
While Cinderella is one of the most widely known tales, here are a few facts about it that are not…
1. From Russia to India and Vietnam to Scotland, nations from all over the world have their own traditional telling of the Cinderella story. A few examples of titles are The Story of Tam and Cam (Vietnam), Baba Yaga (Russia), The Saddleslut (Greece), Pepelyouga (Serbia), Ashey Pelt (Ireland), and Conkiajgharuna (Georgia).
2. Many Native American tribes fused the European Cinderella with their own legends to create unique versions of the tale. For example, Mi’kmaq Native Americans combined the French Cinderella with their own legends to come up with a version called The Invisible One. Some other Native American versions include The Turkey Herd and The Rough-Faced Girl.
3. The tale was first recorded in 9th century China by Tuan Che’ng-shih, but the tone of the tale suggests it was already a well-known story to its readers. That makes the story at least 1,140 years old!
4. The next recording didn’t come until over eight hundred years later when Charles Perrault of France published it in 1697. This version is the one Americans are most familiar with. That’s probably because it is kinder than most other versions which result in the maiming or killing of the wicked stepsisters in the end.
5. There are approximately 1,500 versions of the tale when one includes retellings, movies, musicals, operas, and picture books!
Resources:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0510a.html
How to use your Smashwords eBook Code
Thank you for purchasing a Smashwords eBook download code at the festival. I have listed the instructions for downloading your copy of The Fairytale Keeper eBook below.
1. Scan the QR code on your bookmark or on the poster at the festival tent or click here to go to Smashwords.com,
2. Click “Add to Cart”,
3. You will be prompted to login or create an account (creating an account is free and only requires an e-mail address),
4. In the “coupon code” area, type the code on the back of your bookmark,
5. Click “Update”,
6. Click “Checkout”,
7. Click on “Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen”,
8. Click “Download”,
9. Click “Download” next to the version you need for your eReader,
10. Sync The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen to your eReader.
For more information on buying and syncing to your specific device, use this link: https://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq#kindle
Simpsonville Labor Day Festival
Come join me and fellow author Rick Veal at the Simpsonville, South Carolina Labor Day Festival this Sunday and Monday. I’ll be selling personalized copies of The Fairytale Keeper, as well as, bookmarks with coupon codes for The Fairytale Keeper e-book for only 99 cents. Come on down and ride some rides, eat some deep-fried confections, peruse the goodies, and enjoy all that Simpsonville has to offer.
The Real Snow White: A 16th Century Countess?
Portrait of Margarete von Waldeck
Most of us associate the origins of Snow White with Willhelm and Jacob Grimm’s 19th century publication of Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales) which is a volume of German folklore collected by the Grimm brothers and not actually composed by the two. So where did this tale actually come from? Is it really just the product of an unknown story-teller’s imagination or was this famous fair-faced maiden based on historical fact? German scholar Eckhard Sander presumes in his book Schneewittchen: Marchen oder Wahrheit? (Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale?) that the real Snow White was in fact Countess Margarete Von Waldeck.
Margarete was daughter to Count Phillip von Waldeck-Wildungen and step-daughter to Katherina of Hatzefeld, whom Margarete did not get along with. At the age of sixteen, Margarete was sent away to Wildungen, Brussels where she met and fell in love with Phillip the II, who would later become king of Spain. A marriage between the Spanish prince and German countess was seen as politically disadvantageous by many and Margarete’s untimely death all-too-conveniently ended the affair.
According to Sander, Margarete did not die of some unknown illness, but was poisoned by the Spanish secret police to keep her from marrying the future king. However, her “wicked” stepmother couldn’t have been the culprit since she was dead before Margarete’s death. While it is unlikely that the weapon of choice was an apple, poisoned apples were given out by a man living in Wildungen who didn’t want children stealing his fruit. And as for the seven dwarves, Maragerete’s brother owned copper mines in Wildungen which employed children who worked twelve hour days. The children grew crooked and crippled from the work. Their hair grayed prematurely and most were dead before the age of twenty. Thus, they looked much like the dwarves from the Brothers Grimm’s tale. According to Sander, the many parts of the story from this particular region were told and retold until they became the tale that the Grimm’s brothers recorded and we now know as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”
Article written by Andrea Cefalo, author of The Fairytale Keeper: a novel of corruption, devotion, and the origins of Grimm’s fairytales. To follow Andrea Cefalo and hear more about The Fairytale Keeper series, please visit:
Amanda’s Writings Book Review
“T
here was never a slow moment, and I couldn’t put the book down… And then came the end. Gah! That can’t be it! It was perfect, and I was excited and it ENDED! I sincerely hope there will be a book two!”
Oh yes, Amanda, there is definitely a book two coming. To find out what else Amanda had to say about The Fairytale Keeper click here.
Reading Extravaganza!
It was a great honor to be featured at The Reading Extravaganza in Laurens, SC. This free event organized by Michelle Caroll, an area teacher, offered free books, school supplies, food, and entertainment to area children. What a great way to get children excited about reading and the upcoming school year! To read an article with details about this event, click here.
Free E-Version of FTK
Click here to visit the very beautiful book blog Burgundy Ice and enter for a chance to win a free ebook version of The Fairytale Keeper. While you’re there check out my latest interview with the Laura Armstrong, the site’s editor, and see what she has to say about her favorite books.
THE WRITER-LY WORLD OF ANDREA CEFALO 