Thursday’s Tale: The Brownie and the Thievish Maids

by Carol1 Comment
How about a brownie story from Scotland today? Traditionally, brownies inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts of food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies often make their homes in an unused part of the house. The brownie in today's story, "The Brownie and the Thievish Maids," shares some characteristics with the ùruisg or urisk, who are similar to brownies, but lived outside in streams and waterfalls and was less likely to offer domestic help. Around the end of the harvest, he became more sociable, and hovered around farmyards, stables and cattle-houses. He particularly enjoyed dairy products, and tended to intrude on milkmaids, who made regular libations of milk or cream to charm him off, or to...
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Guest Post: D. W. Carver, author of Nightmares and Other Therapy

by Carol2 Comments
Today, I'm happy to welcome D W Carver, author of Nightmares and Other Therapy, to my notebook, talking about being a mental health counselor and how that led to writing fiction. I am D. W. Carver, English, married with three adult sons and live in a London suburb. For many years I was a community mental health counsellor and learnt a good deal about the good and bad aspects of English professional help for those with mental problems. Like most national services, the need always exceeded the supply and  ‘the walking wounded’ – people who were functioning with little or no support outside their families although suffering a good deal, made up the bulk of the clientele for the charity for which I worked. I watched whole families disintegrate under the pressure of severe mental illness and saw some incredible acts of courage. During that time I wrote no fiction at all, just books and booklets for my employers. If people are rash...
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Audiobook Review: A Cruise to Die For by Charlotte and Aaron Elkins

by Carol5 Comments
Title: A Cruise to Die For (Alix London #2) Authors: Charlotte and Aaron Elkins Read by: Kate Rudd Category: Mystery Published: September 3, 2013 by Thomas & Mercer Audio published: September 3, 2013 by Brilliance Audio Rating: 3 out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Audible | Amazon | Book Depository This should be the cushiest job Alix London’s ever had. The second Alix London mystery finds the art restorer in a world brimming with idle luxury, spectacular locations, and deadly intrigue. Surrounded by art and wealth and the sun-drenched Greek isles, she’s aboard a sumptuous mega-yacht with no responsibilities save the occasional lecture to the guests of her temporary employer, Panos Papadakis, one of the world's richest men. But there’s a catch: Papadakis has long been suspected of being at the center of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and Alix is actually there as an undercover operative of FBI special agent Ted Ellesworth, a member of the Bureau’s Art Crime Team. They hope Alix can gather the inside information they...
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Audiobook Review: Invitation to Die by Helen Smith

by Carol7 Comments
Title: Invitation to Die (Emily Castles #1) Author: Helen Smith Read by: Alison Larkin Category: Mystery Published: May 14, 2013 by Thomas and Mercer Audio published: October 15, 2013 by Brilliance Audio Rating: 3½ out of 5 stars Add: Goodreads Purchase: Audible | Amazon | Book Depository Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die. As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift...
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Thursday’s Tale: Which Was the Foolishest?

by Carol2 Comments
I was looking at my list earlier, and realized I haven't done many tales from Iceland, so I hunted one up. "Which Was the Foolishest?" was published by Andrew Lang in The Brown Fairy Book, 1904, but his source was the Neuislandische Volksmärchen. I don't actually like the story much. First, let my give you the gist of the story and then I'll tell you why it bothers me. Two couples lived side by side in a little village and the men were good friends. The wives, however, argued constantly over whose husband is the most stupid. One put the baby's clothes on upside and planted rocks instead of potatoes, the other gave the wife's best hat to the hen to lay eggs in and returned from the market with 150 ducks instead of butter. The two women decided to prove once and for all whose husband was the most foolish. One wife made her husband a coat of the finest wool, so fine he couldn't see...
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