Thursday’s Tale: The Queen Bee

Thursday’s Tale: The Queen Bee

by Carol6 Comments
  "The Queen Bee" is one of Grimm's tales that I hadn't heard of until the Grimm episode "Beeware" back in November. The TV show really had little to do with the Grimm story though. Two king's sons went out to seek their fortune, but fell into a wild, disorderly way of living. The youngest, Simpleton, went out to find them, but they only laughed at him, to think that he, who was so young and simple, should try to travel through the world, when they, who were so much wiser, had been unable to get on. The three traveled on together, and Simpleton prevented his brothers from destroying an ant hill, killing some ducks, and suffocating a bee hive with smoke, each time saying, "Leave the creatures in peace; I will not allow you to disturb them." Then they came to a castle with stone horses in the stable, and no sign of anyone. They hunted through the castle and found a...
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P Is for Plight

P Is for Plight

by Carol11 Comments
Not too long ago I read Michael Mullin's 8: The Previously Untold Story of the Previously Unknown 8th Dwarf and loved it, so I was excited to read his newest rhyming story, The Plight and Plot of Princess Penny, and you have to admit, it is the perfect P title. I liked the concept: Penny is truly a princess, but she was totally unpopular at school. A former friend, Darcy, is the queen of the class and is who Penny blames for everyone disliking and misjudging her. So she decides to get revenge and hires the witch in the woods, who she found through an advertisement, to give her a spell. Spells are tricky things though, as are witches, and of course not everything turns out the way Penny expects. Two things I like: The rhymes. It's witty and fun. The story's self-awareness: He scolded her for visiting the cottage. His patience was wearing thin. "Don't you read," he pleaded his case,"any stories like the one you're in? You pay an...
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O is for Ohioana

O is for Ohioana

by Carol14 Comments
The Ohioana Book Festival is an event I look forward to every year. I have a blast, and my family kindly goes too, although I don't think they are as excited about it as I am. From the press release: Live music, food carts, exhibits, fun-loving crowds and….books—lots and lots of books! The Ohioana Library’s goal, as it prepares to present the 6th annual Ohioana Book Festival, is creating a festival that brings readers, writers and books together for an inspiring, fun learning experience. Activities during the May 12th festival will include more than 20 panel discussions on a varietyof topics. The 10 featured authors will appear in a track of five panels, including conversations about their own literary influences, the writing life and the creative process. Additional panel dialogue will explore children’s literature and poetry, along with several “behind-the-scenes” opportunities for new writers to find out more about how to get published. Author roundtables will be devoted to popular genres such as...
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N Is for Name

N Is for Name

by Carol6 Comments
Image credit: Daisy Juarez I like my name, in theory. Carol means "song of joy" and for someone who love playing the piano, it's appropriate. My middle name, Sue, apparently came from Hebrew and means "lily." I took my husband's last name when we got married and it actually has a rather interesting entry is Wikipedia. It's a Welsh name, which I knew, and it does mean "son of Evan." In Welsh however, it comes from the Ifan, a form of John. "The name does refer to Evan-S, meaning son of John; however, the historic context is that many Welsh were relative latecomers to Christianity, and around the 3rd century A.D. a huge evangelical conversion began. Converted followers took the name "Son of John (the Baptist)", in reference to John the Baptist as the baptiser of Jesus Christ and a symbolic cornerstone of Christian conversion. It is possible that, later on, some took it as meaning the son of their own father called...
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M is for Miss Piggy

M is for Miss Piggy

by Carol11 Comments
In one rehearsal, I was working as Miss Piggy with Jim, who was doing Kermit, and the script called for her to slap him. Instead of a slap, I gave him a funny karate hit. Suddenly, that hit crystallized her character for me -- the coyness hiding the aggression; the conflict of that love with her desire for a career; her hunger for a glamour image; her tremendous out-and-out ego -- all those things are great fun to explore in a character." -- Frank Oz in The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 1979. I have to admit I love all the Muppets, but one of my absolute favorites has to be Miss Piggy. Miss Piggy is a prima-donna pig who is absolutely convinced that she's destined for stardom, and nothing is going to stand in her way. Her public face is the soul of feminine charm, but she can instantly fly into a violent rage whenever she thinks she's insulted...
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Flash Fiction: Alone

Flash Fiction: Alone

by Carol11 Comments
Alone The witch was dead. I could see the piles of ashes, bones, bits of flesh, still smoldering in the town square. Her heart-wrenching screams had carried across the small town as the flames first licked the hem of her dark dress, then climbed higher and higher, burning, blistering, devouring. Finally she fell silent and I could breathe again, but my tears didn't stop. I wasn't crying for that evil woman. Her death was hideous and painful, no doubt, but she deserved to be tied to the stake, to be burnt, make no mistake. She was a witch, not a healer, not a wise woman. She ruined Farmer Brown's crop and caused Sissy's cow to go dry. Yes, she gave Alice the love spell, but look at Alice's life now, married to that oaf who beats her religiously, three rotten children who never give her a moment's peace. And my dear Geoffrey. He has waded out of the water to join me on the bank. His feathers...
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