- Fresh Apples
- CdF in Print
- Demeter's Spicebox
Fresh Apples
The Drawing out the Dragons Project
Not so long I wrote about a most important book, Drawing out the Dragons by James A. Owen. At the time of that writing, the book was only available in digital format. James is now trying to change that. In order to reach a wider audience, he is currently running a Kickstarter project to help fund the print edition. Why is it so important that we help him?
[read more...]CdF in Print
View Cabinet des Fées in Print for more information.
Demeter's Spicebox
Demeter's Spicebox is a new project for Cabinet des Fées and something of a storytelling adventure! We are inviting storytellers from different cultures to revisit specific fairytale types. This is a hypertextual project; while each piece of storytelling, be it via fiction or poetry stands alone, writers are encouraged to find ways to connect each independent storytelling fragment with the one before. The result is a storytelling patchwork which will invoke the feeling of a fairytale potluck, where different cooks with different spices will create variations of very old recipes. The Spicebox's aim is to explore lesser-known fairytale types with strong heroines and protagonists who know that the truth behind the feminine is that of collaboration, as well as the complexities underlying characters who are neither perfect, nor altogether good. We will accompany each run of these tales with an article introducing the fairytale type as well as the surrounding themes. Visit Demeter's Spicebox for more information.
Featured
It’s July, many of you will be going on holiday, whether you are sat around a camp fire, spending evenings in tavernas or relaxing on a Mediterranean beach with delicious bread and olives, wine and good company you could find the ideal space for a story. Some years ago, on tour with Pressgang in Italy I told the first
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The Jack Daniels Sessions EP - review
The Jack Daniels Sessions EP by Elwin Cotman Six Gallery Press, 2010 (Second Printing) Reviewed by Erzebet YellowBoy What does one do with a book like this? Read it, obviously, and if you could have seen me as I read it – eyes widening, jaw dropping, hair standing on end – you would probably have laughed. This is not always a comfortable
[continue reading…]
Kate Crackernuts: The Hen-Wife and her Cauldron of Wisdom
Kate Crackernuts: The Hen-Wife and her Cauldron of Wisdom by Colleen Szabo This tale is a wisdom tale featuring the old symbol of creativity and wisdom, the nut. We still use the term “nut” to denote the head, one location commonly assigned for wisdom; in fact, nuts are sort of like brains in a skull (shell). I suppose in
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The Lost Machine - review
The Lost Machine Written and Illustrated by Richard A. Kirk Radiolaria Studios, 2010 Reviewed by Erzebet YellowBoy Richard A. Kirk’s The Lost Machine is a delightful yet dark tale about a man named Lumsden Moss who first appears in a prison cell, waking from a nightmare. We never learn exactly why the door to his cell is open that
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Shamanic Initiations: A hidden Theme within the Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel
Shamanic Initiations: A hidden Theme within the Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel by Franco Bejarano The fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” was first recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 around the southwestern corner of Germany. The tale features a brother and sister who, while lost in the forest, encounter a cannibalistic witch. At the end, Hansel
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The Robber King’s Wife by Caspian Gray In the dark woods there once lived a masked robber king. He was tall and thin as spindles, with black hair and black eyes, and he worked alone. He lived in the back of a long, bleak cave, past the dripping water and the hanging roots and the cold stone walls,
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A Fairy Tale Princess by Shweta Narayan There once lived a king whose only daughter was a fairy tale. The king had three strong handsome sons and he found them well enough, but not entirely satisfactory. They fought, and yelled, and tore their clothes, as he was sure he never had; they never seemed to exist but in
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The Gates of Bordertown Have Opened
For thirteen years, the gates of Bordertown have remained closed, its denizens living on only in the memories of readers, both newcomers and old-timers alike, and the vast assortment of fan groups and websites and more. Now, with the publication of Welcome to Bordertown, those gates have once again been opened. Like any gate to faerie, the passage through is fraught with danger and excitement.
My Hans Christian Andersen Pilgrimage
By Carolyn Turgeon. Mermaid, which just came out in March, is my third novel and second based on a classic fairy tale. My last book, Godmother, imagined the “real” story of Cinderella’s fairy godmother… It was a tricky book to write, but the moment I put myself in the head of the godmother, and of Cinderella herself, I knew
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Food for Our Grandmothers - review
Food for Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists Edited by Joanna Kadi, 1994 Reviewed by Tanya B. Avakian This excellent collection of essays, memoirs, poems, and other writings by Middle Eastern (nearly but not all Arab) feminists in North America announces its relevance to sff writers as soon as one gets to the table
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Cabinet des Fées in Print
Our third issue in Print Cabinet des Fées: A Fairy Tale Journal Volume 1, Issue 3 Edited by Helen Pilinovsky & Erzebet YellowBoy Prime Books, 2010 116 pages Table of Contents Just Like Your Grandfather by Bret Fetzer Blackberries by Helen Ogden The Woman of Ebonstone Hill by Marcie Tentchoff Crossroads by Kim Kofmel Bricks by Rebecca W. Day The Underground by
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Our second issue in Print Cabinet des Fées: A Fairy Tale Journal Volume 1, Issue 2 Edited by Helen Pilinovsky & Erzebet YellowBoy Prime Books, 2007 180 pages Table of Contents Katabasis by Sonya Taaffe Stranger at the Wedding by R.W. Day The Devil Factory by Bret Fetzer The Hiker’s Tale by Mike Allen Giantkiller by A.C. Wise The Tower by JoSelle
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Demeter’s Spicebox
Lavanya and Deepika by Shveta Thakrar Lavanya and Deepika by Shveta Thakrar Once upon a time, in a land radiant with stars and redolent of sandalwood, where peacocks breakfasted on dreams salty with the residue of slumber, a rani mourned. On the surface, the rani had everything: a kingdom to care for, fine jewels to wear in her long black hair, silken saris threaded through with
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Sister and Bones by Mari Ness Sister and Bones by Mari Ness They say that before we were born, our mother gathered four cups and pounded plum blossoms and cherry bark and leaves from nine trees caught before they reached the ground into her powdered green tea, fresh as a spring after the departure of the winter snows. The tea hissed and bubbled
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Reviews
Rapunzel's Daughters - review Rapunzel’s Daughters Edited by Josie Brown, Rose Mambert and Bill Raciot Pink Narcissus Press (July 1, 2011) Reviewed by Valentina Cano This collection is a wonderful mixture of the magical, the bizarre, and the haunting flavor of the fairy tales we’ve all been raised on, with a healthy dose of the grown-up world. All of these stories deserve
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The Jack Daniels Sessions EP - review The Jack Daniels Sessions EP by Elwin Cotman Six Gallery Press, 2010 (Second Printing) Reviewed by Erzebet YellowBoy What does one do with a book like this? Read it, obviously, and if you could have seen me as I read it – eyes widening, jaw dropping, hair standing on end – you would probably have laughed. This is not always a comfortable
[continue reading…]
Interviews
Discovering the Anti-tale This past March, I had the pleasure of attending the Myths and Fairy Tales in Film and Literature post-1900 conference at the University of York. As well as being a sort of CdF reunion, with Helen Pilinovksy and I seeing each other in person for the first time in several years, I had the opportunity to meet one of
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Glass, Blood, and Ash by Catherynne M. Valente Here we come at last to the end of April, the month we all began as fools. Do we now end as hermits, the secluded wise? We may or may not; however, in our concluding installment in honor of National Poetry Month in the United States, we do have a modern urban anchorite to see us
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Fairies and Fairy Tales
Kate Crackernuts: The Hen-Wife and her Cauldron of Wisdom Kate Crackernuts: The Hen-Wife and her Cauldron of Wisdom by Colleen Szabo This tale is a wisdom tale featuring the old symbol of creativity and wisdom, the nut. We still use the term “nut” to denote the head, one location commonly assigned for wisdom; in fact, nuts are sort of like brains in a skull (shell). I suppose in
[continue reading…]
Shamanic Initiations: A hidden Theme within the Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel Shamanic Initiations: A hidden Theme within the Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel by Franco Bejarano The fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” was first recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 around the southwestern corner of Germany. The tale features a brother and sister who, while lost in the forest, encounter a cannibalistic witch. At the end, Hansel
[continue reading…]
Storytellers
The Gates of Bordertown Have Opened For thirteen years, the gates of Bordertown have remained closed, its denizens living on only in the memories of readers, both newcomers and old-timers alike, and the vast assortment of fan groups and websites and more. Now, with the publication of Welcome to Bordertown, those gates have once again been opened. Like any gate to faerie, the passage through is fraught with danger and excitement.
My Hans Christian Andersen Pilgrimage By Carolyn Turgeon. Mermaid, which just came out in March, is my third novel and second based on a classic fairy tale. My last book, Godmother, imagined the “real” story of Cinderella’s fairy godmother… It was a tricky book to write, but the moment I put myself in the head of the godmother, and of Cinderella herself, I knew
[continue reading…]