Fractured Days: Rebecca Roland

When it comes to naming characters, I prefer coming up with names in fantasy settings more than any other. Sometimes I take actual names and tweak them a little. Sometimes I come up with a name I think is unique, only to find out that it exists already. And sometimes I just use actual names.

The main character in my latest novel, Fractured Days, was originally named Mila, but a few beta readers told me the name didn't work with the setting and the character's culture. I was so disappointed. I really liked the name, but I figured if more than one person noticed enough to mention it, then I should reconsider. I messed around with different names and finally settled on Malia as it had a similar sound and seemed to fit the setting better.

In general I tried to use names for Malia's people, the Taakwa, that sounded more pleasant. They're a gentle people, for the most part, and so I wanted their names to reflect that. The Maddion, on the other hand, are ruthless. They raid other people, they enslave anyone they capture, and they're willing to do anything to get what they want. They see themselves as superior to other people. So they get harsher sounding names, like Kushtrim or Muvumo. They get names that don't inspire sonnets.

The Jeguduns are gargoyle-like creatures who were once enslaved by the Maddion, but with the help of the Taakwa became free. Most of them tend to have a good sense of humor, although when it comes to defending their homes and loved ones, they don't hesitate to use their talons and teeth to the very end. They tend to have short, fun names like Aru or Tula.

And finally there's the changer. She's a powerful being who can change her form when she works her magic for somebody else. She calls herself Sersha, which is a deceptively soft sounding name. The Maddion call her 'changer' for what she can do for them, but the Taakwa and the Jeguduns know her as 'mutara,' which, in all honesty, I probably dug up from my subconscious because I love Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan, but I swear I wasn't thinking about it at all when I came up with the term. I was going for a word that suggested change, or mutation. 'Mutara' is also the name of the nebula in Star Trek where Khan detonated the Genesis Device, creating the Genesis Planet. And there's your nerd trivia for the day!

“FRACTURED DAYS” / REBECCA ROLAND– World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced Fractured Days, the highly anticipated sequel to the Shards of History by Rebecca Roland, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, June 9, 2015. 

Praise for Shards of History: “One of the most beautifully written novels I have ever read. Suspenseful, entrapping, and simply … well, let’s just say that Shards of History reminds us of why we love books in the first place. 5 out of 5 stars!” — Good Choice Reading 

“A must for any fantasy reader.” — Plasma Frequency 

"A passionate tale that will engage both young adults and more weathered fantasy readers.” — NewMyths.com 

“Fast-paced, high-stakes drama in a fresh fantasy world!” — James Maxey, author of the Dragon Age trilogy 

“Roland’s beautifully woven, suspenseful debut novel draws readers into a groundbreaking fantasy panorama and resonates in the heart with its genuine, personal portrayal of loyalty, relationships, and sacrifice. I eagerly await more stories about the Jegudun and Taakwa!” — David J. Corwell y Chávez, author of “Encounter at Boca del Diablo” (Tales of the New Mexico Mythos) 

Malia returns home the hero of a war she can't remember. The valley burning under the Maddion's invasion, the fate of her late husband, the way she resolved the long-time distrust between the Taakwa people and the wolfish, winged Jegudun creatures--all of it has been erased from her memory. Malia hopes to resume training as her village’s next clan mother, but when the symbiotic magic that she and the Jeguduns used to repair the valley’s protective barrier starts to consume more and more of her mind, she's faced with the threat of losing herself completely. A powerful being known as "the changer" might hold the solution to her vanishing memories. But the Maddion's new leader, Muvumo, also seeks the changer, hoping the being will cure them of the mysterious illness killing off his people. Meanwhile, Muvumo's bride hopes the changer can bring about a new era, one in which she and the other Maddion women no longer need to hold onto their greatest secret. 

Fractured Days will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, WorldWeaverPress.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fractured Days on Goodreads. 

WORLD WEAVER PRESS 

Rebecca Roland is the author of the Shards of History series, The Necromancer's Inheritance series, and The King of Ash and Bones, and Other Stories. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Nature, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Stupefying Stories, Plasma Frequency, and Every Day Fiction, and she is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. You can find out more about her and her work at rebeccaroland.net, her blog Spice of Life, or follow her on Twitter @rebecca_roland. World Weaver Press is an independently owned publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction. We believe in great storytelling. Publication Date: June 9, 2015 • 

Fantasy ISBN: 978-0692429280 

Fae

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get 
swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for 
certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant 
creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of 
stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles 
to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. Fae covers a vast swath 
of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and 
complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy 
and horror with a fae twist.

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock 
Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis 
A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine 
Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, 
and other online retailers. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and 
editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and 
is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been 
included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from 
Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, 
is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing 
quality works. We believe in great storytelling.
Publication Date: July 22, 2014 • Fantasy / Horror Anthology

Guest Post: Kristina Wojtaszek

Solomon's Friend is actually my own very personal story of raising a son with Asperger's.  Kadie, the mother in the story, has all the doubts about herself that I have, and Solly, her son, shares many unique viewpoints with my own son.  Hobby, the cranky old hob who narrates much of the story, came from an often-ignored voice of my own-- a well of common sense and courage that I found within.  Instead of seeing my son as having a problem (which, let's face it, is still predominantly how society looks upon children who have any form of social or emotional "disorder") I took a new perspective, seeing him as whole and perfect in his own right, just the way Hobby sees Solly in the story.  Children with Asperger's often have high IQs and tend to think more in depth about little things most of us simply take for granted, a quality that makes them well suited for future jobs in science, engineering, medicine, and technology.  These are great qualities that offset their social rigidity and high levels of anxiety.  Other traits, like finding it easier to spy on people rather than interacting with them, and taking things perfectly literally, jive well with the kinds of personality traits we see in fairy creatures all across the literary world.  It only makes sense that fae would have a greater fascination with the world, and a greater respect for the rules of nature, than we humans do, and yet, just as a child on the spectrum would, I imagine them to find it difficult at times to identify with the rest of us oddly social humans.  Thus evolved the deep understanding between Solly and his friend, the hob.  I also think that parents of those on the spectrum carry a lot of guilt and self-blame for things that simply aren't in their control.  I created Hobby in an effort to help me correct that.  I wrote Solomon's Friend as a reminder to myself that I am making some of the right connections with my child, that I am loving him every moment of every day, and that there is still a bit of magic left in the world, especially in the curious and cautious mind of my child.  And maybe there's even a little left in me.

Legally Undead

On the Broomstick

Legally Undead Playlist – by Margo Bond Collins

One of the things that I love best about writing about vampires (other than their sheer creepiness!) is all the fabulous mood music that’s available—some of it directly about vampires, and some of it simply nicely sinister.  Also, although Legally Undead is set in New York City, the heroine, Elle (a graduate student turned reluctant vampire hunter), is originally from New Orleans. That’s in part a nod to Anne Rice, of course (and to my own college years spent in the French Quarter), but it has the added benefit of allowing me to include some great New Orleans vampire songs in Elle’s playlist. Sadly, there aren’t as many New York vampire songs—but Elle’s snarky sense of humor shows up in the ones included here, and in the choice of songs like “My Boyfriend’s Back.”  Enjoy the Legally Undead playlist, and be sure to check out the excerpt below!

 

Direct Link:  https://play.spotify.com/user/12121922418/playlist/1z5nGt7lw5mgU7Wy55W08i

_____________________________________________

Legally Undead, available May 27 from World Weaver Press

A reluctant vampire hunter, stalking New York City as only a scorned bride can.

Elle Dupree has her life all figured out: first a wedding, then her Ph.D., then swank faculty parties where she’ll serve wine and cheese and introduce people to her husband the lawyer.

But those plans disintegrate when she walks in on a vampire draining the blood from her fiancé Greg. Horrified, she screams and runs--not away from the vampire, but toward it, brandishing a wooden letter opener.

As she slams the improvised stake into the vampire’s heart, a team of black-clad men bursts into the apartment. Turning around to face them, Elle discovers that Greg’s body is gone—and her perfect life falls apart.

_____________________________________________

Excerpt:

The worst thing about vampires is that they're dead. That whole wanting to suck your blood business runs a close second, but for sheer creepiness, it's the dead bit that gets me every time. They're up and walking around and talking and sucking blood, but they're dead. And then there's the whole terminology problem--how can you kill something that's already dead? It's just wrong.

I was twenty-four the first time I . . . destroyed? dispatched? . . . a vampire. That's when I found out that all the books and movies are wrong. When you stick a wooden stake into their hearts, vampires don't disintegrate into dust. They don't explode. They don't spew blood everywhere. They just look surprised, groan, and collapse into a pile of corpse. But at least they lie still then, like corpses are supposed to.

Since that first kill (I might as well use the word--there really isn’t a better one), I've discovered that only if you're lucky do vampires look surprised before they groan and fall down. If you're unlucky and miss the heart, they look angry. And then they fight.

There are the other usual ways to kill vampires, of course, but these other ways can get a bit complicated. Vampires are notoriously difficult to trick into sunlight. They have an uncanny ability to sense when there's any sunlight within miles of them, and they're awfully good at hiding from it. Holy water doesn't kill them; it just distracts them for a while, and then they get that angry look again. And it takes a pretty big blade to cut off someone's head--even an already dead someone--and carrying a great big knife around New York City, even the Bronx, is a sure way to get arrested. Nope, pointy sticks are the best way to go, all the way around.

My own pointy stick is actually more of a little knife with wood inlay on the blade--the metal makes it slide in easier. I had the knife specially made by an old Italian guy in just about the only ratty part of Westchester, north of the city. I tried to order one off the internet, but it turns out that while it’s easy to find wood-inlay handles, the blades themselves tend to be metal. Fat lot those people know.

But I wasn’t thinking any of this when I pulled the knife out of the body on the ground. I was thinking something more along the lines of “Oh, bloody hell. Not again.”

_____________________________________________

About the Author

Margo Bond Collins is the author of a number of novels, including Waking Up Dead, Fairy, Texas, and Legally Undead (forthcoming May 27, 2014). She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.

_____________________________________________

Connect with Margo

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins

Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com

Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net

Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin  @MargoBondCollin

Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902

Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/

Be sure to add Legally Undead to your Goodreads bookshelves: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18366353-legally-undead

Fae Cover Reveal

“FAE”

EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH

Alpena, MI (May 8, 2014) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced Fae, a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, will be available in trade paperback and ebook Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

                                                                                                                                                           

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. Fae is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies and modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. Fae covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters. Enjoy the familiar feeling of a good old-fashioned fairy tale alongside urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist.

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

Fae will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast andImaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling.

Release date: July 22, 2014

The Devil in Midwinter

“THE DEVIL IN MIDWINTER” / ELISE FORIER EDIE

Alpena, MI (April 8, 2014) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced The Devil in Midwinter by Elise Forier Edie, a new paranormal romance novella, and previously featured in A Winter’s Enchantment,  is available in trade paperback and ebook today, Tuesday, April 8, 2014.

Praise for The Devil in Midwinter: “The Devil in Midwinter is a beautiful tapestry of myth and legend and love, woven into a small town romance.” — Amalia Dillin, author of Forged by Fate “A mash-up of Mexican folklore and the classic Sleeping Beauty, set in the orchards of Washington, The Devil In Midwinter is a stunning romance that put me in mind of the lush works of Charles De Lint.” — Kristina Wojtaszek, author of Opal

A handsome stranger, a terrifying monster, a boy who burns and burns… Mattawa, Washington, is usually a sleepy orchard town come December, until a murder, sightings of a fantastic beast, and the arrival of a handsome new vintner in town kindle twenty-year-old reporter Esme Ulloa’s curiosity—and maybe her passion as well. But the more she untangles the mystery, the more the world Esme knows unspools, until she finds herself navigating a place she thought existed only in storybooks, where dreams come alive, monsters walk the earth and magic is real. When tragedy strikes close to home, Esme finds she must strike back, matching wits with an ancient demon in a deadly game, where everything she values stands to be lost, including the love of her life.

The Devil in Midwinter is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, OmniLit.com, other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram.

Elise Forier Edie is an author and playwright based in southern California. Recent works include the play “The Pink Unicorn,” which performed at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, a short story, “Leonora,” published in Penumbra magazine and several plays, included in the anthology “Original Middle School Scenes and Monologues,” edited by Kent R. Brown. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). She is married to actor Keith Edie. When she is not writing, she likes to make quilts and soup, but rarely at the same time. Visit Elise Forier Edie on these sites to follow her or list her as one of your favorite authors: Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter @EliseForierEdie, and www.eliseforieredie.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. As a small press, World Weaver seeks to publish books that engage the mind and ensnare the story-loving soul.

Publication Date: April 8, 2014 • NA Paranormal Romance $9.95 trade paperback, 155 pages  • $4.99 ebook ISBN: 978-0615990002 Publicity/review requests: publicity@worldweaverpress.com Information: www.worldweaverpress.com/books/devil-in-midwinter

WRITING SCRIPTS AND WRITING FICTION: 5 SIMILIARITIES AND  5 DIFFERENCES

Before I became a fiction writer, I was a professional playwright for twenty years.  I am often asked “how is writing fiction different from writing plays?” 

I have two really short answers to that question.

One is, “Scriptwriting isn’t that different from writing fiction.”

The other is, “Ohmigod, they have nothing to do with each other.”

Here is how plays and books are similar:

1)     They are both meant to entertain. Fiction and plays are written to provoke a specific emotional response from an audience.  At the very least, it’s the writer’s job to craft something that will divert the audience’s attention.  At the very best, it’s the writer’s job to craft something that will thrill, surprise and change their audience.

2)     Plays and fiction generally follow certain expected patterns.  The simplest pattern is this: characters in an environment try to do something and they change as a result.   The playwright and the fiction writer create the characters, environment, and then track changes through a carefully crafted series of obstacles, plans and complications.  The more original, artful, and specific the pattern is, the more interesting, unpredictable and satisfying the story.

3)     Telling the truth is important. Craft is great.  Skill is essential.  But a truthful fool can tell a more effective story than a smart liar.  If you’re just trying to follow the rules and attract an audience, you’ll never write anything good.  Audiences follow their hearts and they know if a writer is following hers.

4)     If you dare announce at a cocktail party that you are a fiction writer or a playwright, you will swamped with people wanting to tell you all about their idea for the book or play they think you should write. The only time this doesn’t happen is if you write romance fiction or musicals. Then everyone sidles away and ignores you for the rest of the evening.  (This is probably the reason I mostly write romance fiction and musicals.)

5)     It is hard to write good books and good plays.  Making good art is hard work, no matter what the medium

Here is how they are different:

1)     A play is really just a set of instructions for other artists to create an experience for an audience.  Ultimately, the playwright has no control over the finished product.  Well-written plays can be ruined by shoddy direction and bad acting.  Terrible plays can be made terrific by good staging and excellent timing. 

2)    A bad book is an awful thing but a bad play is utterly unforgiveable.

If a fiction writer writes and publishes a terrible book, the audience can throw the thing in the trash or delete it from their Kindle and only feel slightly pissed off about a dumb and/or icky experience.  If a playwright writes a truly terrible play, and it actually gets produced, actors have to drag themselves through ridiculous banalities night after night and the poor audience is stuck suffering the dark for two to three hours, with no escape. OhmiGod.  I would not wish that fate on my worst enemies, really I wouldn’t.  The only thing worse than a crappy play is an off-key music recital and maybe eggplant.

3) A playwright never works alone, not really.  Even if he drafts alone, in the end there will be a whole team to help him put the play on its feet, from a dramaturg to a lighting designer. And when the play is produced, the playwright can sit in an audience during a performance and watch the audience listen to the story he made up.  He can share in the weeping, edge-of-the-seat drama, feel when the jokes land, and thrill to a standing ovation.  It’s a crazy good time when everything comes together.  There’s nothing like it in the whole world. Meanwhile, the fiction writer, even if she is lucky enough to meet some of her adoring fans, will never get to know how her creation really landed. She doesn’t get to be there to hear the gasps and see the tears.  For the fiction writer, everything is done in isolation.

4)Playwriting is dialogue, and short description, period.  All the good stuff actually happens in between the lines and isn’t written at all.  Rather, it is implied by the playwright, and then created and discovered by actors.  Playwrights make their characters specific in terms of their background and needs, but a lot of the shading and nuance are created by other artists.  In fiction writing, the world of the story and its characters go straight from the author’s hands to the reader’s imagination.  How things look, sound, smell and taste, what the characters are thinking, whether they are drinking coffee or gin and tonics, whether they run across the room or saunter—all of these become choices a fiction writer has to make.  It’s a wonderful and awful responsibility.  As a playwright learning to write fiction, I always have to ask myself, “What is too little?  What is too much?”

5)     Only a finite number of people will ever see your play, even if it’s a big, fat hit.  A play is alive and therefore a fleeting thing—only in a certain space, for a certain time.  But a piece of fiction can last forever.  The successful playwright generally has a lot of fantastic memories and a very exciting life.  The successful author labors in solitude, but gets a body of work that she can always hold in her  hands and show to her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Beyond the Glass Slipper: The Tour

WORLD WEAVER PRESS

ANNOUNCES TRADE PAPERBACK AND DIGITAL RELEASE OF

“BEYOND THE GLASS SLIPPER:

TEN NEGLECTED FAIRY TALES TO FALL IN LOVE WITH”

WITH INTRODUCTION AND ANNOTATIONS

BY KATE WOLFORD

EDITOR OF “ENCHANTED CONVERSATION: A FAIRY TALE MAGAZINE”

AVAILABLE TODAY

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

Chicago, IL (April 16, 2013) – World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced the trade paperback and digital release of Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales to Fall in Love With, an anthology with introduction and annotations by Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine Editor Kate Wolford, today, Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales to Fall in Love With is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers. You can also find Beyond the Glass Slipper on Goodreads.

Wiedbrauk commented, “I wish Kate Wolford had been my folklore studies professor! BTGS is intellectual without being boring, fun without being superficial.”

Some fairy tales everyone knows—these aren’t those tales. These are tales of kings who get deposed and pigs who get married. These are ten tales, much neglected. Editor of Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine, Kate Wolford, introduces and annotates each tale in a manner that won’t leave novices of fairy tale studies lost in the woods to grandmother’s house, yet with a depth of research and a delight in posing intriguing puzzles that will cause folklorists and savvy readers to find this collection a delicious new delicacy.

In celebration of the release of Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales to Fall in Love With, World Weaver Press is hosting a Fairy Tale Festival through May 6. From Brothers Grimm to Walt Disney, from films and illustrations to fictive retellings, the Fairy Tale Festival features Opal by Kristina Wojtaszek, Wolves and Witches by Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt, and Beyond the Glass Slipper, by Kate Wolford. For the ever growing schedule of the next three weeks, check out our Fairy Tale Festival main page (www.worldweaverpress.com/fairy-tale-festival/)and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (#FairyTaleFestival) where we’ll be posting bonus content not seen on the blog!

Kate Wolford is editor and publisher of Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine at fairytalemagazine.com. She teaches first-year college writing, incorporating fairy tales in her assignments whenever possible. 

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. As a small press, World Weaver seeks to publish books that engage the mind and ensnare the story-loving soul.

ISBN-13: 978-0615797359
ISBN-10: 0615797350 

# # # # #

worldweaverpress.com

@worldweaver_wwp

This book looks great! Review will be forthcoming...

Now for a visit from our guest.

Which Tales Were Worth It?

Picking the "right" fairy tales for Beyond the Glass Slipper was by far one of the hardest parts of writing the book. The ten tales needed to make up an intriguing mix, be representative of a good variety of tale types, and be in public domain.

The third item may seem like the easiest part, as I was only looking at old, if fairly obscure, tales. Yet, many of the most interesting and engaging tales are in translations still under copyright by the translator. This makes perfect sense. After all, without the translator's efforts, there would be no tale to read in English.

Such was the case with "Little Broomstick." I discovered this story of true friendship between two young women on the indispensable DL Ashliman site. To my chagrin, because I had already begun the annotation process, the translation that had so captivated me was still Ashliman's. I could not include it in the book. But you can read it here:http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0425c.html#broomstick

Finding a mix wasn't so hard. I knew I wanted to show that fairy tales go way, way beyond "Snow White" and "The Little Mermaid," obviously. I wanted to demonstrate that fairy tales are not only about or for girls and women--you'd be surprised at how many well educated people believe this. I wanted to emphasize that the fairy tale is not always about happy ever after--even if it is implied. Also, fairy tales can be about friendship, even if that doesn't happen all that often.

As for tale type, I did not look too closely at the Aarne-Thompson fairy tale classification system when choosing the ten tales (although I didn't ignore it either). Instead, I focused on how each story would read as "different" for the others, yet compatible enough with them to give the book a sense of wholeness. The result yielded an animal bridegroom story, a ghost story, a vampire story, a mermaid-type story, plus six more.

I hope readers will find the collection enchanting. Go to World Weaver Press for more information. 
http://worldweaverpress.com/books/beyond-the-glass-slipper/

Wolves and Witches

Wolves and Witches, a collection of fiction and poetry by Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt. 

Witches have stories too. So do mermaids, millers’ daughters, princes (charming or otherwise), even big bad wolves. They may be a bit darker–fewer enchanted ball gowns, more iron shoes. Happily-ever-after? Depends on who you ask. In Wolves and Witches, sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt weave sixteen stories and poems out of familiar fairy tales, letting them show their teeth.

“Sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt are the female Brothers Grimm.” —K. Allen Wood, Shock Totem

___

.

Read the digital edition for $4.49 from these ebook retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | OmniLit

Read the trade paperback edition for $7.95 from these and other online retailers:
Amazon

___

• Release date: February 19, 2012 (ebook and paperback)
• Genre:  Fairy Tale / Short Stories / Poetry
• Length: Collection, approx. 85 pages
• Praise for Wolves and Witches
• Excerpt from Wolves and Witches
• ISBN-13 (print): 978-0615763231
• ISBN-10: 0615763235
• ASIN: B00BGR4H96
• BN ID: 2940016284798
• Kobo: 1230000107305
• Goodreads Listing/Reviews

Praise for Wolves and Witches

“Wolves and Witches is a fabulous collection of re-imagined fairy tales. I made the mistake of starting it late one evening and couldn’t go to sleep until I had read it all. With their dark prose and evocative poetry these sisters have done the Brothers Grimm proud.”
—Rhonda Parrish, Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine

“It’s in the details that Davis and Engelhardt get you. I don’t know if it’s love or obsession or maybe just succumbing to the spell, but what stays with me is the tenor and texture of these tales retold — whether the fabric of a dancing shoe, the hollowness of bones in the wind, or the sharp critique of stereotyped social norms. Let yourself be enchanted and enjoy.”
—Dan Campbell, Bull Spec

“Sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt are the female Brothers Grimm.”
—K. Allen Wood, Shock Totem

“Davis and Engelhardt’s Wolves and Witches: A Fairy Tale Collection is a joy, start to finish. At times eloquent, at times written in a bare-bones style, this collection of verse and prose takes familiar fairy tales and turns them into something darker, deeper, and delicious. My very heart was stolen by a cobbler with a bad leg. That’s good storytelling.”
—Mercedes M. Yardley, Author of Beautiful Sorrows and Shock Totem Magazine Staff Member

___

Read the digital edition for $4.49 from these ebook retailers:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | OmniLit

Read the trade paperback edition for $7.95 from these and other online retailers:
Amazon

SEVEN FAIRYTALE WITCHES THAT GOT AWAY WITH IT

It's the most basic maxim of storytelling that the villain has to get his comeuppance at the end. It's not enough to see the hero win; someone's gotta lose. At the very least, you don't want to leave open the possibility that the bad guy will come back and ruin things all over again.

Try telling that to fairy-tale writers. Their stories are brutal reminders that life ain't fair, and sometimes the worst offenders walk away without a scratch.

We kind of love that.

Here are seven fairytale witches who committed heinous crimes and suffered no retribution whatsoever.

RAPUNZEL: MOTHER OF THE YEAR

Once upon a time, there was a witch who kidnapped a baby girl, raised her in isolation, blinded her blueblood babydaddy, then banished her to the desert. Harsh! After the lovers are reunited and healed, you'd think the now-wealthy couple would have mustered an army to go after the woman who just about ruined their lives. Well, if they did, it was in the fanfic that Wilhelm Grimm kept hidden in his mattress, because there's no mention of the witch after she dispatches the two. For all we know, she went on to steal a replacement baby. Thanks for dropping the ball, Rapunzel.

Speaking of dropping the ball...

THE FROG PRINCE: DO ME A SOLID, MAN

What I love about the Grimm brothers' record of The Frog Prince is that the only mention how the prince was cursed is "he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy." A male one, which becomes interesting in light of the conditions of breaking the spell: "a princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights." A frat brother, just trying to get his princely bro some royal action? It's a mystery, because does the prince ever hunt down his spiteful assailant, if just to say, "Not cool, dude"? Of course not! He's too busy living happily ever after as the heir of two kingdoms.

SLEEPING BEAUTY: GOOD FAIRY, BAD FAIRY

In Sleeping Beauty (Briar-Rose), a fairy ("who was a bit of a witch") curses a baby to death because she wasn't invited to the christening, because get this--the happy parents did not have enough plates for everybody. I don't know, if I've only got twelve place settings and thirteen magical friends, I would probably also decide not to invite the one who liked to kill babies.

So child-murder is pretty bad. But here's a case where the cure is worse than the disease, because ANOTHER fairy--one of the ones who DID get a gift-bag--turned the curse from "one girl dies young" into "the entire kingdom goes into suspended animation for an entire century." Who's the villain in this piece again?

THE LITTLE MERMAID: PREDATORY LENDER

On one hand, Hans Christian Andersen's sea hag is mostly guilty of giving the Little Mermaid exactly what she wanted. On the other hand, she made sure to do it in the most vicious way possible.

"You want legs?" says the sea hag. "It'll cost you your voice. No, I mean give it to me. And it'll really hurt. And it won't stop hurting! Oh, and you'll turn into sea foam and die if you can't get your prince to marry you. You've got three days. SEA HAG OUT."

For comparison, a vocally able Kate Middleton got Prince William to the altar after a whirlwind romance of...nine years.

DIAMONDS AND TOADS: MASTER OF DISGUISE

We have no idea what this fairy had in mind when she sat herself down in the freezing woods to administer a moral test, but we know how it turned out: the nice girl who gave bread to an old lady ended up with diamonds falling out of her mouth with every word, and the proud girl who wouldn't dip water for a princess ended up spitting out vermin, presumably cussing up a storm at the same time. (That's what we'd be doing.) This isn't rewarding the good and punishing the bad; it's sowing chaos, consequence-free.

I want to look back at the moral test, because that's the most demented part. The fairy decides to test the second girl in the appearance of a princess. Because if you want to know the true measure of a man, watch how he treats rich, pretty, powerful people who could totally draw their own water.

CINDERELLA: POLITICAL CHESSMASTER

Yeah, yeah, the fairy godmother in Charles Perrault's telling of Cinderella is technically playing for the good guys. But this is some epic meddling going on. We assume the king who threw his sons all those balls was expecting to draw out wealthy, well-groomed, educated women of good standing. No less for a prince, right? And instead the prince ends up with an outcast kitchen maid. Don't get us wrong; it seems to have been a great move for the kingdom. But the fairy godmother could have put anyone in that position. Suddenly a few simple acts of kindness look like Machiavellian political maneuvering--with MAGIC.

It's also worth noting that in the Grimms' telling, Cinderella's dead mother sends a flock of birds to peck out the stepsisters' eyes. So there's that.

BABA YAGA

Not only does Baba Yaga have a name, in contrast with so many other fairy-tale characters (let alone villains), but she has stories named after her. She has an awesome house (it walks on chicken legs!), a sweet ride (a flying mortar!), and she doesn't always win, but she never really loses. You couldn't get a better model of a successful fairy-tale witch.

Oh, and she eats people.

So raise a glass and drink deep the draught of "Screw the rules, I've got magic." Here's to the ones who got away with it!

Review to come...