Most Popular Fairy Tales According to SurLaLune

As promised yesterday, here are the most popular fairy tales according to their visitor traffic on SurLaLune in the past month.  I decided to go with a top 12 for the month of September.

12. Jack and the Beanstalk
11. Rumpelstiltskin
10. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
9. Rapunzel
8. Hansel and Gretel
7. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
6. Three Little Pigs
5. Little Mermaid
4. Sleeping Beauty
3. Little Red Riding Hood
2. Beauty and the Beast
1. Cinderella

And here is the list for the past year for which I did a top 20:

20. Six Swans
19. Thumbelina
18. Ugly Duckling
17. Twelve Dancing Princesses
16. Armless Maiden
15. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
14. Princess and the Pea
13. Puss in Boots
12. Snow White and Rose Red
11. Rumpelstiltskin
10. Little Mermaid
9. Three Little Pigs
8. Sleeping Beauty
7. Rapunzel
6. Jack and the Beanstalk
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
4. Hansel and Gretel
3. Little Red Riding Hood
2. Beauty and the Beast
1. Cinderella

And there is a huge gap between 1 to 20. Six Swans and Thumbelina each received less than 12% of the traffic Cinderella achieved. Little Red Riding Hood received less than half of what Cinderella did, 46% percent actually. Only Beauty and the Beast comes anywhere close at 67% of Cindy's traffic.

Those top three have remained pretty consistent over the years while the rest fluctuate according to pop culture influences--Puss in Boots had a big spurt when Shrek 2 was released years ago with a minor spike with Shrek 3, for example.

Now I am curious to see what happens to Rapunzel with the new Disney release in November. As you can see from this list, The Princess and the Frog didn't influence Frog Prince enough to get it into the top 20, showing just how disappointing a representation of a fairy tale it must have been to audiences. And, no, this isn't scientific beyond SurLaLune site's statistics.  But Frog Prince has been more popular in past years, making it into the top 20 quite easily.  That it didn't touch the top 20 in a year when a big theatrical release should have bumped it up says something...

So Cinderella wins the day....as usual. She always gets to be the Homecoming Queen and Prom Queen and Queen of the Universe in general.

Ava Leavell Haymon

I am gearing up for the next two weekends here in my hometown of Nashville.  This weekend is the Southern Festival of Books at which a few authors who have worked with fairy tales will be in attendance.  (The following weekend is the AFS Annual Meeting.)  The Southern Festival of Books is one of my favorite weekends of the year since it is about books and writing and reading.  Wonderful!

As I was mapping out my plan of attack from the Festival Schedule, I discovered another author/poet I wasn't familiar with until now: Ava Leavell Haymon.

She has a panel on Friday:

1:00-2:00 pm, Room 12 : The Future of the Imagined: Alice and Gretel Tweak Their Myths : Melanie Benjamin, Ava Leavell Haymon

So I had to read more about her:

Ava Leavell Haymon is the author of the poetry collections Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread, Kitchen Heat and The Strict Economy of Fire. She teaches poetry writing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and directs a writers' retreat center in the mountains of New Mexico. Why the House is Made of Gingerbread.

And then I went to her website to learn more about Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread: Poems which was released in March of this year.

In Ava Leavell Haymon’s third collection, an unremarkable, harried, contemporary woman named Gretel finds herself at midlife overtaken by the Grimms’ household tale “Hansel and Gretel.” The violence and terror in that story supplant the memory of her own childhood, and the fairy tale retells itself in a sharp succession of surprising poems. The witch, the sugar house, Gretel’s brother, her passive father, his cruel second wife, the sinister forest—all these and more rise like jazz motifs to play themselves in the present. Addressing themes such as hunger, child abuse, betrayal, cannibalism, and murder in a tone by turns disturbing and humorous, Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread is most certainly not a book for children.

Here's a poem from the collection:

The Witch Has Told You a Story

You are food.
You are here for me
to eat. Fatten up,
and I will like you better.Your brother will be first,
you must wait your turn.
Feed him yourself, you will
learn to do it. You will take him

eggs with yellow sauce, muffins
torn apart and leaking butter, fried meats
late in the morning, and always sweets
in a sticky parade from the kitchen.

His vigilance, an ice pick of hunger
pricking his insides, will melt
in the unctuous cream fillings.
He will forget. He will thank you

for it. His little finger stuck every day
through cracks in the bars
will grow sleek and round,
his hollow face swell

like the moon. He will stop dreaming
about fear in the woods without food.
He will lean toward the maw
of the oven as it opens
every afternoon, sighing
better and better smells.

And that's not all! Her second collection was Kitchen Heat:

Kitchen Heat records in woman's language the charm and bite of domestic life. Ava Leavell Haymon's poems form a collection of Household Tales, unswerving and unsentimental, serving up the strenuous intimacies, children, meals, pets, roused memories, outrages, and solaces of marriage and family.

Some of the poems are comic, such as "Conjugal Love Poem," about a wife who resists giving her husband the pity he seeks when complaining about a cold. Others find myth and fairy tale lived out in contemporary setting, with ironic result. Others rename the cast of characters: husband and wife become rhinoceros and ox; a carpool driver, the ominous figure Denmother.

An elderly female is Old Grandmother, who creates time and granddaughters from oyster stew. The humidity of Deep South summers and steam from Louisiana recipes contribute to a simmering language, out of which people and images emerge and into which they dissolve again.

Needless to say I plan to sit and listen on this panel.  And I wasn't trying to ignore her co-panelist, Melanie Benjamin, either.  Her work with Alice in Wonderland sounds interesting, too, but we all know fairy tales are my first love here.

And, no, I was unaware of Ava Leavell Haymon's work until this past week, so hooray for book festivals!

New Book: When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden

When Rose Wakes by Christopher Golden (Kindle edition) was released last week.  It's been on the SurLaLune 2010 new releases list but somehow I got the release date wrong. From the title, it's easy to guess that Sleeping Beauty provides some of the inspiration for this novel.

Book description from the publisher:

Her terrifying dreams are nothing compared to the all-too-real nightmare that awaits. . . .

An enchanting tale by Christopher Golden about a teenager who wakes from a coma and slowly comes to realize that she is Sleeping Beauty of fairy tales.

Ever since sixteen-year-old Rose DuBois woke up from months in a coma with absolutely no memories, she's had to start from scratch. She knows she loves her two aunts who take care of her, and that they all used to live in France, but everything else from her life before is a blank.

Rose tries to push through the memory gaps and start her new life, attending high school and living in Boston with her aunts, who have seriously old world ideas. Especially when it comes to boys.

But despite their seemingly irrational fears and odd superstitions, they insist Rose not worry about the eerie dreams she's having, vivid nightmares that she comes to realize are strangely like the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. The evil witch, the friendly fairies, a curse that puts an entire town to sleep - Rose relives the frightening story every night. And when a mysterious raven-haired woman starts following her, Rose begins to wonder if she is the dormant princess. And now that she's awake, she's in terrible, terrible danger. . . .

You can also read more about the author on his website.

Golden previously worked on a fairy tale inspired graphic novel, Baltimore or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, which has received strong reviews over the years.  Here's its description while we're here:

On a cold autumn night, under a black sky leeched of starlight and absent the moon, Captain Henry Baltimore clutched his rifle and stared across the dark abyss of the battlefield, and knew in his heart that these were the torture fields of Hell, and damnation awaited mere steps ahead.

From celebrated comic artist Mike Mignola and award-winning novelist Christopher Golden comes a work of gothic storytelling like no other. Reminiscent of the illustrated tales of old, here is a lyrical, atmospheric novel of the paranormal -- and a chilling allegory for the nature of war.

"Why do dead men rise up to torment the living?" Captain Henry Baltimore asks the malevolent winged creature.

The vampire shakes its head. "It was you called us. All of you, with your war. The roar of your cannons shook us from our quiet graves . . . You killers. You berserkers . . . You will never be rid of us now."

When Lord Henry Baltimore awakens the wrath of a vampire on the hellish battlefields of World War I, the world is forever changed. For a virulent plague has been unleashed -- a plague that even death cannot end.

Now the lone soldier in an eternal struggle against darkness, Baltimore summons three old friends to a lonely inn -- men whose travels and fantastical experiences incline them to fully believe in the evil that is devouring the soul of mankind. As the men await their old friend, they share their tales of terror and misadventure, and contemplate what part they will play in Baltimore’s timeless battle. Before the night is through, they will learn what is required to banish the plague -- and the creature who named Baltimore his nemesis -- once and for all.

Most Popular Fairy Tales? You Guess!

Over the weekend, I studied the SurLaLune traffic statistics to see which fairy tales are currently the most popular.  I ended up compiling a top list for the month of September 2010 and then did the same for the past year, Oct 2009 through September 2010.

I was going to go ahead and simply post them, but decided to let you guess for the next 48 hours if you feel so inclined.  Any guesses as to the most popular fairy tale?  How about the runners up?  The winner wins by a landslide--there would be no voting controversies over her wins based on stats. The second and third place are not very surprising but after that the field is wide open.

So go ahead, guess the top one, top three or top ten if you feel adventurous.  Don't be shy--this is all in fun. I am considering giving away a book to someone randomly picked from the comments if we get enough commenters to make it fun--say at least 10? Either way, on Tuesday at 5 AM CST, I already have the results scheduled to post.

Saturday Posts and My Overloaded Email Box

Hello all,

I have an email problem.  A serious one.  See, I run SurLaLune all by myself.  I write articles, write books, edit the website and write this blog.  I help my husband run a small graphic design business that actually pays the bills.  SurLaLune at best pays for itself, it does not feed me or pay the mortgage.  I am always behind on the things I want to accomplish online.  For fun and passion, I run what appears to be one of the biggest fairy tale resources on the web in the world.  Don't ask me how that happened.  And I have a hard time believing it, too, although people tell me this is true. Again, I do it all by myself although many of you share helpful links and news with me, thanks.

Anyway, now with the simplified ease of blogs and self-publishing and other endeavours, I am innundated with requests to post about or link to the work of other enthusiasts who are creating works out of passion, not for a living.  I wish I had time to evaluate and review it all.  I don't.  I don't have time to do all of my own work.  And when it comes to my work, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, excepting myself.  My personal interests and what I evaluate will best serve the largest audience gets the priority of my limited resources.  In other words, I have to focus my attention on the big projects of my own choosing instead of responding to every email.  I try, but I fail daily.  It's not a good feeling.  And no, I can't hire an assistant.  I can't even pay myself to do this. 

But I want to support creative endeavours as much as possible, including those that aren't professionally vetted and produced. We all start somewhere, right? And, yes, during the week, I focus on the professionally produced stuff because it has a larger audience and interest ratio.  Also, I trust it to have been vetted by others even if I haven't managed to do so myself yet.

So now I will post those emails from enthusiasts and indie and self-pub productions at least a few Saturdays a month to help clear out my inbox and support the dreams and hopes of others.  I won't be reviewing or evaluating.  I am not even promoting, per se.  I try to keep this blog as informational as possible although my world views slip in all the time.  I'm the monarch of this little realm so it's going to happen.

Now I need a catchy name for these posts, too.  "Saturday Email Box Clean-up" isn't very catchy. 

And if you have something you would like to promote that is your hobby, not really your profession, send it along. I make no promises, but if you provide good copy that I can cut and paste and a URL for images--I won't download and fill up my own limited space with your images--please feel free to email me.  It may takes several weeks for me to respond, but I will do my best.

Hint: If you sound professional and have good materials for me to use, I am much more likely to post your materials on SurLaLune. I don't require reciprocal links.  I don't need bribery either.   If it's usable and I don't have to think long about it, I am more likely to do the simple copy, paste and post.  I can't read it all.  I need blurbs, plain and simple.  Rule of thumb: If it takes me more than two minutes to evaluate your email and decide what to do with it, I put it aside and seldom return in a timely fashion.

Now does anyone have a catchy name for this SurLaLune blog feature? 

New Blog: Fairy Layers

Rachel has a new blog, Fairy Layers, in which she highlights fairy tale and fantasy themed books each day.  This past week highlighted children's banned books that weren't necessarily fairy tales.  However, this is a good resource for looking for titles if you are looking for new reading for she highlights new and old titles.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Rachel!

New Self-Pub Book: Rumpel by Eileen Cruz Coleman

From my inbox: Self-pub author Eileen Cruz Coleman has published a novel inspired by Rumpelstiltskin, titled Rumpel.

Here's the book's description:

When foreigners arrive on an island beach in search of a lost spinning wheel which they believe rightfully belongs to them and on which their very existence depends, the island inhabitants are thrust into a course of events during which some will become allies and others will turn against their own and Elizabeth Miller must defend her unborn child from a vengeful troll.

And here is a small sampling of the opening:

CHAPTER ONE: The Lowly Tavern

Franz Miller

Once in the Kingdom of Rodavlas, in which all manner of living beings co-existed, albeit not always in harmony, and no one questioned the presence of spirits, and darkness and light fought for space, The Lowly Tavern—a tavern which opened its doors only during nights when inclement weather was sure to mask the town—waited at the bottom of a bridge for those who dared make their way over the crossing’s slippery surface.

Prior to the falling of snow or rain, the tavern’s owner, Jacob, would streak the tavern door with black paint to let his customers know that on that night they were welcome. Before pellets of rain or snow could melt the sodden smear, news of The Tavern’s opening soared over Rodavlas.

Built without railings or walls, the bridge had witnessed countless deaths; the water below hid many secrets. Breaking through sheets of ice, men had sunk to its bottom where they remained trapped by rocks and the trash of people who used the river as a dumping ground.

And when a body managed to escape and rise to the surface, it floated for days before a tree trunk or branch or the river’s bank halted its progression. There the body remained, rotting and scavenged by vultures, until a fisherman or hiker or embracing lover discovered it and reported it or, more often than not, let it continue decomposing. No one ever asked who this dead person was or what kind of life he may have lived.

Despite the danger, hopeless men, both young and old, some dressed in suits, others in uniforms, beards on their faces and thick boots on their feet, and still others in fabric or newspaper remnants, hustled into the streets, their clumsy umbrellas doing nothing to protect them from the weather.

In the distance, they would see smoke from The Tavern’s chimney ascending above the water. Arm in arm, they’d march, until they would step off the bridge and onto a torch-lit ramp, its wooden planks guiding them to The Tavern.

Floor-to-ceiling dark velvet curtains lay over The Tavern’s high windows. Women in loose skirts drawn tight around their hips, their nipples peeking through lace blouses, swung their bodies around, dodging hands and refilling the glasses of men who waited until the sun set to turn free their inhibitions. In corners, on low couches, and wide-arm chairs, which lined the Tavern’s brick-exposed walls, these men ran their fingers up the legs of women, kissing their necks and mouths as if the sun would never rise again and remind them of their crying children, their unpaid bills, and their wives, who not long ago they had sworn to love forever.

A leather slingshot, used to propel stones at animals and in some cases humans, sat on the bar as The Tavern’s inhabitants went about their business—downing pints, inhaling shots, and snorting powder.

So far it is only available in an e-edition, but the Kindle reader is now available for free for several platforms.

Blog Role: Supernatural Fairy Tales Blogazine

Supernatural Fairy Tales Blogazine requested a SurLaLune shout-out:

Supernatural Fairy Tales features fairy tale inspired paranormal short stories, articles, art, and book reviews. Starting in October, I will be adding, Silverweed, my YA novel inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. It will be serialized in its entirety, one chapter a month posted in two parts. (In December, the eBook will be available.)

And here is a blurb for the novel:

Once upon a time Granny was attacked by a werewolf. Eighteen years later her grandson, Aiden Young, arrives in Indiana for his aunt’s funeral, and his unfortunate discovery of the family secret leads to a fatal mistake. Before the weekend is over, he’s trapped by a blizzard along with his superstitious cousin, Diesel, and Scarlet, Diesel’s manipulative girlfriend. In his grandmother’s spooky, old house in the middle of the woods, the teen faces life and death decisions: who can be trusted, and who needs to be saved? However, he must first figure out what the true monster is… werewolf or fear. Because in this Little Red Riding Hood-inspired supernatural fairy tale, the roles of prey and predator become interchangeable.

Little Red Hat in the Elementary Classroom...Don't Do It!

From Gory version of fairy tale read to elementary school students by Lindsey Connell:

News Leader 9 (in Georgia) has received a copy of an old world version of "Little Red Riding Hood" from outraged parents who say their 8-year-old child has been having nightmares ever since the gory story was read to their third grade class at New Mountain Hill Elementary School in Fortson.

The story, called "Little Red Hat," was read to 3rd and 4th graders this week by a visiting teacher from the gifted program in an effort to engage higher level thinking.

It's about an ogre who makes a little girl eat her dead grandmother's teeth and jaws and drink her blood before he kills the child.

"The content, the verbiage in that- it's a fairly old version- was inappropriate. She did not read the story, she told the story and in fact, modified portions of it to prevent what she had thought would be inappropriate stuff from going to the children but some of it scared a couple of the children," explained Dr. Craig Dowling, Superintendent of the Harris County School District.

And here's the text of the tale that was shared (provided with the article):

Little Red Hat

Italy/Austria

Once there was an old woman who had a granddaughter named Little Red Hat. One day they were both in the field when the old woman said, "I am going home now. You come along later and bring me some soup."

After a while Little Red Hat set out for her grandmother's house, and she met an ogre, who said, "Hello, my dear Little Red Hat. Where are you going?"

"I am going to my grandmother's to take her some soup."

"Good," he replied, "I'll come along too. Are you going across the stones or the thorns?"

"I'm going across the stones," said the girl.

"Then I'll go across the thorns," replied the ogre.

They left. But on the way Little Red Hat came to a meadow where beautiful flowers of all colors were in bloom, and the girl picked as many as her heart desired. Meanwhile the ogre hurried on his way, and although he had to cross the thorns, he arrived at the house before Little Red Hat. He went inside, killed the grandmother, ate her up, and climbed into her bed. He also tied her intestine onto the door in place of the latch string and placed her blood, teeth, and jaws in the kitchen cupboard.

He had barely climbed into bed when Little Red Hat arrived and knocked at the door.

"Come in" called the ogre with a dampened voice.

Little Red Hat tried to open the door, but when she noticed that she was pulling on something soft, she called out, "Grandmother, this thing is so soft!"

"Just pull and keep quiet. It is your grandmother's intestine!"

"What did you say?"

"Just pull and keep quiet!"

Little Red Hat opened the door, went inside, and said, "Grandmother, I am hungry."

The ogre replied, "Go to the kitchen cupboard. There is still a little rice there."

Little Red Hat went to the cupboard and took the teeth out. "Grandmother, these things are very hard!"

"Eat and keep quiet. They are your grandmother's teeth!"

"What did you say?"

"Eat and keep quiet!"

A little while later Little Red Hat said, "Grandmother, I'm still hungry."

"Go back to the cupboard," said the ogre. "You will find two pieces of chopped meat there."

Little Red Hat went to the cupboard and took out the jaws. "Grandmother, this is very red!"

"Eat and keep quiet. They are your grandmother's jaws!"

"What did you say?"

"Eat and keep quiet!"

A little while later Little Red Hat said, "Grandmother, I'm thirsty."

"Just look in the cupboard," said the ogre. "There must be a little wine there."

Little Red Hat went to the cupboard and took out the blood. "Grandmother, this wine is very red!"

"Drink and keep quiet. It is your grandmother's blood!

"What did you say?"

"Just drink and keep quiet!"

A little while later Little Red Hat said, "Grandmother, I'm sleepy."

"Take off your clothes and get into bed with me!" replied the ogre.

Little Red Hat got into bed and noticed something hairy. "Grandmother, you are so hairy!"

"That comes with age," said the ogre.

"Grandmother, you have such long legs!"

"That comes from walking."

"Grandmother, you have such long hands!"

"That comes from working."

"Grandmother, you have such long ears!"

"That comes from listening."

"Grandmother, you have such a big mouth!"

"That comes from eating children!" said the ogre, and bam, he swallowed Little Red Hat with one gulp.

Which appears to have been lifted fully from D. L. Ashliman's translation of the tale on his website without any credit to him. Very common with his site and mine in my experience...

I admire the teacher's idea--this is no judgment on her--but be careful as elementary school teachers about which fairy tales are appropriate for the classroom. Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood are both regularly challenged by parents for much more minor offenses than what appears in these more unadulterated versions. There is age appropriateness to consider especially in a room of 20+ kids. Especially in the South.  I'm Southern.  I can say that.  And this one has the wine that has gotten LRRH challenged before, too. 

And people think I play with pixie dust and fairy wands all day when I say I study fairy tales. Ha!

Another Snow White Film: Snow White and the Huntsman

The ever generous and vigilant Christine sent me a link to this first article a few days ago.  I'm finally posting it after doing a little more research:

From: 'Snow White' Adds Another Dark, Survival Story to Her Pile of Upcoming Adaptations by Dawn Taylor:

The fairy tales wars are heating up. In addition to multiple Red Riding Hood films in the works, there's now a second Snow White picture on the table, which could go head-to-head against Brett Ratner's recently-announced project, as well as Disney's latest spin titled 'Snow and the Seven'. The insane box office generated by the 3-D 'Alice in Wonderland ' means that studios are looking to replicate that success and feed off certain public domain fairy tales, so alongside Disney's own 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' projects, other potential fairy tale movies are now making the rounds as well.

The Hollywood Reporter shares that a project called 'Snow White and the Huntsman' is hitting executive offices at the studios, looking for a home. Written by Evan Daugherty with Rupert Sanders, director of the upcoming 'The Low Dweller', it's reportedly hit up every studio except Disney, who already have their own Snow White movie in the pipe.

If you recall the original fairy tale, the Huntsman is the fellow who's ordered by the Queen to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. Instead, he takes pity on her and lets her live. This new re-imagining of the tale reportedly has him acting as a mentor, teaching Snow White how to survive -- which could be very interesting, especially if it involves bear traps and martial arts.

And from that Hollywood Reporter article, New take on Snow White hits the town (exclusive):

“Snow White and the Huntsman,” a new take on the classic fairy tale from scribe Evan Daugherty, director Rupert Sanders and producer Joe Roth has been making the rounds at the studios.

The only studio sitting out of the visual presentation roadshow by Sanders and company is Disney, which already has its own Snow White project, “Snow and the Seven.”

The project already has a couple of offers but no one is being invited into the castle until the process is done, which should be by Wednesday.

As evidenced by the title, the new take sees an expanded role for the Huntsman - in the fairy tale, he is ordered to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, but instead lets her go - and according to sources the two are chained together for part of the movie as they make their escape.

The Huntsman is not a love interest (fear not, the prince is still in the story) but acts more as a mentor, teaching the teen girl to fight and survive.

The billion-dollar success of Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” (which Roth produced) has sent studios and production companies scouring the public-domain tales of yore.

Disney is developing retellings of both Sleeping Beauty, via an Angelina Jolie-Tim Burton project called “Maleficent,” and Cinderella. Warners is putting on a new coat on Little Red Riding Hood .

And then yesterday this also appeared at Universal Buys ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ Spec Script by Russ Fischer:

Last time we heard about Snow White it was because Natalie Portman was rumored for the starring role in Brothers Grimm: Snow White, a re-telling of the tale to be produced by Brett Ratner. In true Hollywood form, however, there is more than one Snow White re-do being shopped around town. There are three, in fact. One is the one I just mentioned, backed by Ratner and Relativity. The second is housed at Disney, and is called Snow and the Seven. (The, er, Twitter-friendly title.)

The third is this project for which Universal has just ponied up a rather large amount of cash: Snow White and the Huntsman.

THR says that the spec script, by Greyskull writer Evan Daughterty and with director Rupert Sanders attached, was picked up by Universal. Deadline says the deal was huge: $1.5m against $3m if/when the film is produced. That’s a lot of cash for a script that has two direct competitors. It’s a staggering amount of cash from a studio that has suffered a few big flops in the past year. First thought: the guys who nailed this sale shut are throwing around awesome cocaine. Could the script possibly be that good?

Thanks Christine!

And now I have to sit back and contemplate three possible Snow White films. A year ago the thought would have left me cold, but after translating and editing for Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World, I'm actually rather excited. 

(The illustration is by Jennie Harbour for Snowdrop.)

Seven Miles of Thistles, Susan Price & Silvertree and Goldentree

This Friday's entry at Seven Miles of Thistles features Fairytale Reflections (3) Susan Price.  Price isn't as well known stateside, but is a respected British author.  Learn more about her and her work in the Thistles blog entry, then read her thoughts about Silvertree and Goldentree, a fairy tale I've also discussed here in recent months since it is an intriguing Snow White variant included in Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World. (See A Scottish Snow White: Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.)

Price has also written her own interpretation of the tale on her own site, so don't miss that either.  It really is an unusual Snow White, very unexpected.

Goldilocks Planet and Baby Bear

Other than the name SurLaLune, it's rare that my love for astronomy gets to combine with my love for fairy tales and folklore.  So this news release tickles many of my fancies:

From Could 'Goldilocks' planet be just right for life? By SETH BORENSTEIN:

Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.

Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.

It's just right. Just like Earth.

"This really is the first Goldilocks planet," said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.

This made me smile this morning for just last night I was discussing with my dad the whole Goldilocks problem with living, usually there's too much or too little of things to bring daily peace in a normal life.  (Our particular conversation was about work load.) He smiled and said, "Yes, I guess we all really want Baby Bear's life, not Papa or Mama Bear's."

If he hadn't been driving the car at the time, I would have had to hug him.  Goldilocks may have called it just right, but she was stealing it all from Baby Bear who has always had my full sympathy.  I wonder if he was ever so innocent and happy again after Goldilocks wreaked her havoc on his happy little life...

That said, expect a little bit more about Goldilocks in the next few weeks, too.  My next Faerie Mag article is about The Three Bears and the Interloper and is either appearing on newstands now or will soon.