New Print Release: Beauty and The Beast: Act One (Volume 1) by Megan Kearney

Beauty and The Beast: Act One (Megan Kearney's Beauty and The Beast) (Volume 1) by Megan Kearney has been released in print.

If you are not familiar with Kearney's work, she has a web comic series of Beauty and the Beast. I wrote about it originally on the blog at Meagan Kearney's Beauty and the Beast. She has also shared a guest post with us in the past at A BEAUTIFUL BEAST: A Discussion of Panna A Netvor by Megan Kearney which shows her passion for Beauty and the Beast tales. A passion, I share, of course since this is my favorite tale, too.

Well, Act 1 of her Beauty and the Beast has wrapped up and is now available in print for those of us who prefer to read their graphic novels on paper. Or just want to keep a version of this tale for their personal libraries. You can keep up with Act II on her site or visit Kearney's main site at The Quietly to learn more about her. You can see her drawing style by looking inside the book at Amazon or at the comic's home site.

I also have this trailer to share:



Book description:

When her father returns from a journey bearing strange stories and stranger gifts, Beauty takes it upon herself to fulfill his debt to a mysterious creature called only “The Beast”. But neither the soft-spoken Beast or the uncanny Castle where he makes his home are what Beauty expects. Both harbour more secrets than she could have anticipated, and neither will give them up easily...

Fairy Tale Salt and Pepper Shakers

Westland Giftware Mwah Magnetic Princess and Frog Salt and Pepper Shaker Set, 3-1/2-Inch

I came across the salt and pepper shaker set above which led to finding a collection of these to share. Thank goodness I don't collect salt and pepper shakers or I would be in trouble now. There are lots of Disney Fairy Tale Salt & Pepper Shakers, too, but I decided to stick with the nonlicensed characters here. The Red Riding Hood below is my favorite.

Little Red Riding Hood And Wolf Magnetized Salt and Pepper Shaker Set

Appletree Design Frog Prince and Princess Salt and Pepper Set, 2-1/8-Inch

Fairy Tales - Salt and Pepper Shakers Cinderella apparently!

Present Time Silly Magic Wand Salt and Pepper Set, Pink and Blue I shared the black and white version of these after receiving them for Christmas. Now they are in pink and blue, too!

New Release: The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell

The Castle Behind Thorns by Merrie Haskell is released this week. Haskell has previously explored other fairy tale tropes, especially Twelve Dancing Princesses in The Princess Curse. This book is a very loose retelling of Sleeping Beauty, quite suitable for this week's release of Maleficent.

This book probably offers a fine counterpoint to the film.

Book description:

This magical adventure in an enchanted castle surrounded by thorns tells a tale of the power of memory and story, forgiveness and strength, and the true gifts of craft and imagination. By the acclaimed author of The Princess Curse and Handbook for Dragon Slayers, this original fantasy is perfect for fans of Gail Carson Levine, Karen Cushman, and Shannon Hale.

When blacksmith apprentice Sand wakes up in a ruined castle, he has no idea how he got there, but the thorny brambles that surround the walls prevent him from leaving. As he begins to fix up the castle in order to survive, everything he touches somehow works better than it should. Then, as he continues to explore, Sand discovers the castle's secrets, including its long-lost heir, Perrotte. Together, they must fully repair the broken castle if they ever want to leave.

Bargain Ebooks: Split Worlds Series by Emma Newman TODAY ONLY

Two books on my wish list are on sale today only for $1.99 each in ebook format. Between Two Thorns (Split Worlds) and Any Other Name (The Split Worlds) by Emma Newman don't retell any fairy tales to my knowledge but they do create a world of Faerie that has made them popular and recommended to me by other readers.

The marketing buzzwords are "Georgette Heyer meets J.K. Rowling" or something of that sort but reading the descriptions makes me think of the beloved cult classic Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (The Cecelia and Kate Novels, 1) and its sequels. Which I love. Reminder to myself, it's been a few years since I've reread those.

Anyway, the first two books are on sale for $1.99 today only, marked down from the $6 range. The third book, All Is Fair: The Split Worlds - Book 3, is $5.79, slightly dropped, too. All three books together are available for under $10.

And don't you love those covers, too?

Book description for Between Two Thorns (Split Worlds):

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city.

The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer.

There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

But can she be trusted? And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

Book description for Any Other Name (The Split Worlds):

Cat has been forced into an arranged marriage with William - a situation that comes with far more strings than even she could have anticipated, especially when she learns of his family's intentions for them both.

Meanwhile, Max and the gargoyle investigate The Agency - a mysterious organisation that appears to play by its own rules - and none of them favourable to Society.

Over in Mundanus, Sam has discovered something very peculiar about his wife's employer - something that could herald a change for everyone in both sides of the Split Worlds.

Fairy Tale Art and 40% Off Today Only at Art.com

My primary Christmas gift this past year was an art print from Art.com. It wasn't directly fairy tale related--it's the painting above. I wanted a landscape for my living room and this fit the size and colors and feel I wanted. I had my choices narrowed down to three options. Besides liking the painting for the space I needed filled, I was swayed to this one for its title: FAIRY TALE, 1892 by William Merritt Chase. Now you can really comprehend the depths to which fairy tales infiltrate my life. The title of this painting swayed my choice and whenever I look at it, I imagine the woman reading a book of fairy tales to the child. After all, this was painting during the heydey of Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs. Do you think the models were actually reading one of Lang's or Joseph's books--or perhaps Grimm--while they posed for this painting? I like to think so.

It's no secret that SurLaLune is affiliated with a few online retailers, one being Art.com. Most of my choices have to do with the opportunity to use imagery from the sites as an affiliate and that sometimes I do earn a little money to help defray SurLaLune's expenses. Art.com--from the nature of it's product--doesn't produce much in earning for SurLaLune but it is a fun place to browse fairy tale imagery.

"Die Sternthaler," The Ch... Buy From Art.com

Today only--and this is rare so I am posting it--there is a 40% off coupon for Art.com purchases. Use code YAY92 to receive the earnings. I pasted the terms and conditions below.

Here are some other quick links to recent Art.com fairy tale finds:

Illustration of Mother Re... Buy From Art.com

Rapunzel Fairy Tale Buy From Art.com

Art.com Terms & Conditions for code:

*Promotion applies to order total before shipping, taxes, and duties. This offer cannot be applied to previous or pending purchases. This offer cannot be combined with any other offers, discounts, coupons or promotions, except that free shipping offers may be combined with already marked-down items. One coupon per order. This offer cannot be applied to the purchase of gift certificates. No discounts may be applied to the purchase price of any Limited Editions and the "Museum Curated" collection. We reserve the right to cancel any order due to unauthorized, altered, or ineligible use of discount. We respect your privacy and will not share your email address with third parties for their marketing purposes. This offer expires May 26, 2014 at 11:59PM in your local time zone.

Indexing by Seanan McGuire for $2

Indexing by Seanan McGuire is temporarily reduced to $2.00 in ebook format.

Book description:

“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”

Good advice…especially when a story can kill you.

For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole. But for an unfortunate few, that day-to-day existence is affected—perhaps infected is a better word—by memetic incursion: where fairy tale narratives become reality, often with disastrous results.

That's where the ATI Management Bureau steps in, an organization tasked with protecting the world from fairy tales, even while most of their agents are struggling to keep their own fantastic archetypes from taking over their lives. When you're dealing with storybook narratives in the real world, it doesn't matter if you're Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or the Wicked Queen: no one gets a happily ever after.

Indexing is New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire’s new urban fantasy where everything you thought you knew about fairy tales gets turned on its head.

This book was initially released in episodes as a Kindle Serial. All episodes are now available for immediate download as a complete book.

Rutgers University Press Book Sale

Rutgers University Press is having a sale with 40% off all titles for a limited time when you use code 02SPRG14. While RUP's catalog isn't very rich in folklore related titles, I thought these two may be of interest to readers here: The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories and The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity toward Social Liberation.

My links are to Amazon since that is the easiest way for me to generate images and stable links for the books but follow the RUP link to buy the books directly from the publisher if you like--with the discount code they are cheaper there for as long as the code is valid. The Glass Slipper is also available in ebook format for about the same price as the paperback with the discount code and you can preview the book on Amazon by using the Look Inside feature.

Personally, I am more interested in the book about dwarfs. I also imagine that it is richer with fairy tale references.

Book description for The Glass Slipper: Women and Love Stories:

Why is the story of romance in books, magazines, and films still aimed at women rather than at men? Even after decades of feminism, traditional ideas and messages about romantic love still hold sway and, in our “postfeminist” age, are more popular than ever. Increasingly, we have become a culture of romance: stories of all kinds shape the terms of love. Women, in particular, love a love story.

The Glass Slipper is about the persistence of a familiar Anglo-American love story into the digital age. Comparing influential classics to their current counterparts, Susan Ostrov Weisser relates in highly amusing prose how these stories are shaped and defined by and for women, the main consumers of romantic texts. Following a trajectory that begins with Jane Austen and concludes with Internet dating sites, Weisser shows the many ways in which nineteenth-century views of women’s nature and the Victorian idea of romance have survived the feminist critique of the 1970s and continue in new and more ambiguous forms in today’s media, with profound implications for women.

More than a book about romance in fiction and media, The Glass Slipper illustrates how traditional stories about women’s sexuality, femininity, and romantic love have survived as seemingly protective elements in a more modern, feminist, sexually open society, confusing the picture for women themselves. Weisser compares diverse narratives—historical and contemporary from high literature and “low” genres—discussing novels by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, Victorian women’s magazines, and D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Disney movies; popular Harlequin romance novels; masochistic love in films; pornography and its relationship to romance; and reality TV and Internet ads as romantic stories.

Ultimately, Weisser shows that the narrative versions of the Glass Slipper should be taken as seriously as the Glass Ceiling as we see how these representations of romantic love are meant to inform women’s beliefs and goals. In this book, Weisser’s goal is not to shatter the Glass Slipper, but to see through it.

Book description for The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey from Public Curiosity toward Social Liberation:

"The Lives of Dwarfs is extraordinary in its range and vision. Beautifully written. Totally absorbing."—Ursula Hegi, author of Stones from the River

"As a little person, husband, and father of a little person, I dream of the day when dwarfs attain full acceptance in society. The Lives of Dwarfs provides a giant step in that direction."—Rick Spiegel, former president of Little People of America

"This important book makes it possible for both average- and short-statured people to challenge our collective understanding of dwarfism as a synonym for diminishment or as an array of cute and evil fairy-tale figures. The libratory work of this book is to invite us all to reimagine dwarfism as a livable experience and tenable way of being in the world."—Rosemarie Garland Thomson, author of Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature

"A work of compassionate scholarship. A unique contribution to the literature of physical deformity and social isolation and a gift to the individuals whose personal struggle this is."—Linda Hunt, actor

Historically, they have borne the labels "freaks" and "oddities"; they have been collected as pets, displayed as spectacles, and treated as comic relief. Now, for the first time, in this elegant and comprehensive volume, the lives of dwarfs are explored in all their fullness and humanity.

Spanning the centuries from ancient Egypt to the present, this unique social history chronicles the various ways this population has been exploited, describes their strategies for coping, and notes the persistent influence of mythology upon perceptions of them by others. The narrative also highlights the lives of eminent individuals and contains a thought-provoking account of the representation and participation of dwarfs in the arts, enhanced by outstanding color photographs. Betty M. Adelson, the mother of a daughter with dwarfism, brings special insight and sensitivity to the research. She traces the widespread mistreatment of dwarfs over the centuries, engendered by their being viewed as curiosities rather than as human beings capable of the same accomplishments as people of average height, and deserving of the same pleasures. For much of their history, dwarfs have resorted to exhibiting themselves: because of social stigma no other employment was available.

Only in recent years have short-statured individuals begun to challenge their position in society. Medical advances, new economic opportunities, and disability legislation have led to progress, mainly in Western nations. Advocacy groups have also formed in countries as diverse as Chile, South Korea, and Nigeria. Adelson compares what she refers to as the "small revolution" to similar social and cultural awakenings that women, African Americans, gays and lesbians, and persons with disabilities experienced when they identified themselves as a community with shared goals and obstacles.

Written with passion, grace, and the dignity that the subject deserves, The Lives of Dwarfs will not only revolutionize current perceptions about the historically misrepresented dwarf population, but also offer pause for thought on issues of disability, medical treatment, height, beauty, and identity.