River Kelpies and Rebellious Fairies

An interview with Shonna Slayton, author of the River Kelpies Series and the Fairy-tale Inheritance Series

Today I’m delighted to be able to share an interview with Shonna Slayton, fairy tale author. Shonna, who, along with Ashlee Willis, founded the Fairy-tale Forum on Facebook, is the author of the Fairy-tale Inheritance Series. She’s now exploring a slightly different path with the River Kelpie Series. 

Here’s the blurb.

A girl meant to be a pawn starts playing her own game.

Farrah’s world is upended when a river kelpie invades her remote village and kills the hidden prince she was supposed to be protecting. As a member of the secret society created during the Kelpie Wars, Farrah knows she’ll be asked to pose as the prince’s twin sister and carry out the Society’s plans to safeguard the kingdom.

So, when the palace’s attention turns to finding the missing princess, Farrah travels to the capital with hundreds of other orphans also claiming the crown. She is more interested in finding justice for the prince than she is in becoming the princess. And when tragedy strikes along the way, Farrah will have no choice but to fight for those she loves.

Rise of the Kelpies is a cozy fantasy fairy tale in which a girl trying to save her kingdom has to learn to trust. Read Rise of the Kelpies and travel to Glenmoor Kingdom, a magical place with rebellious palace fairies and dangerous river kelpies.

Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Shonna. What first attracted you to fairy tales? Is this the same thing that draws you now, or does something different appeal to you these days?

Gail Carson Levine’s Princess Tales sparked my current interest in fairy tales. I read her Ella Enchanted novel and loved it, and then followed up with her shorter Princess Tales Series. They were unexpectedly fun to read, and I suppose it was then that the idea of writing a retelling began to take shape. Going into the genre, I had no idea the depth of study that was available in fairy tale circles. To try to get up to speed, in 2019 I read through all of Grimms’ fairy tales and studied them from a writer’s point of view. At first, I questioned what I was getting into, but quickly came to enjoy Grimm for Grimm and eventually compiled all my blogs into a nonfiction book: Lessons from Grimm, How to Write a Fairy Tale. Traditional fairy tales are wonderful springboards for an author’s imagination because they leave so many open questions to explore.

That’s so true. That’s one of their appeals for me, too. So what’s your favourite fairy tale of all, and why?

Usually my favorite tale is the one I’m currently researching. Each fairy tale becomes more interesting and nuanced the more I learn about it. But favorite fairy tale of all? I’d have to go with “Cinderella” if only for the fact that she is the one who launched my author career with the novel Cinderella’s Dress. I could say that “Cinderella” changed my life.

“Cinderella” it is, then! How would you describe the way you use fairy tales in your novels? How different is the Fairy-tale Inheritance Series from the River Kelpie Series?

The Fairy-tale Inheritance Series is a pairing of a historical time period and an inherited fairy tale object. I look for something—an object, a physical trait—that can be passed down through the generations. An object is easiest, like Cinderella’s dress, but in my Little Mermaid book, the “object” was her voice. I like to keep touchpoints to the original tales, but also allow the story to expand and go in new directions. Also, the stories are set in our world, not a fairy tale world. The River Kelpie Series departs from this pattern in that I’ve only taken the bare myth of the kelpies and set the story in a fantasy world that is loosely inspired by Scotland. Then I pull in fairy tale elements like royalty and fairies to add to the myth.

That’s quite a different route to take, isn’t it? What made you write a series featuring kelpies? As folklore from Scotland and Ireland, I think of them as creatures in very watery places. You live in Arizona, don’t you? That must be very different!

Ha, ha! Yes, I currently live in a desert and dream of water! But I grew up in lush British Columbia, Canada, practically on the banks of the Columbia river. As for the idea for a kelpie novel, new ideas tend to come while writing the current book. I started thinking about them when writing The Little Mermaid’s Voice. For that novel I was researching water creatures and settled on the finfolk for the mermaid book. But kelpies had also caught my eye! It’s a bit of a risk as a fairy tale author to get too far afield from popular tales, but I thought I’d give it a try. To be honest, the kelpie book has been a lot harder to sell than a known fairy tale like “Sleeping Beauty” or “Snow White”. Some of my regular readers were happy for something new, but most just want another Fairy-tale Inheritance book!

Ah, we have to go where inspiration calls! Are there any specific traditional kelpie stories that inspired you for this series? How about fairy tale inspiration?

The Kelpies, near Falmouth, Scotland. They represent the power both of the lengendary beasts and the horses of the industrial landscape of the past.

There are only a handful of traditional kelpie stories, and some kelpie stories you read online today have mingled with other water horse stories, giving kelpies powers not originally associated with them. That’s a reminder to me that myths change over the years, and it’s okay to make my kelpies different in some ways. As for fairy tale inspiration, for this book I wanted to try writing a twist. Not a reveal, but a genuine twist that makes you look back at the novel in a whole new way. Those are really hard to do. I’d like to have a twist in all the novels in this series, and it’s causing me a lot of brain gymnastics. An example of a Grimm story that has a twist is “The Beam”.

That’s intriguing. Now, in the blurb you mention rebellious palace fairies. Tell us more!

I really like the dynamic of fairies interacting with humans and each other. My fairies are not the small dragonfly-sized variety but have some height and heft to them. In the case of the palace fairies in Rise of the Kelpies, they have returned to the castle at a time when they are no longer held in high regard. In times past they were respected, but now they are treated as servants and largely ignored by those in charge. As creatures who live long lives and know the history of the land, they quietly rebel, participating in human life on the surface, but they’re very much doing their own thing to help set the kingdom to rights.

Interesting! When do you plan to launch Book 2, Reign of the Kelpies?

That’s a simple question with a complicated answer! While working on Book 2, I realized I needed to know more about past events, so I’m writing a prequel novella first. Simultaneously, I’m plotting Book 2 and Book 3 so that any “plants” that I need to bloom in Book 3 are seeded in the earlier books. And, as I mentioned, I’m trying to add a twist of some degree to each.

Now I understand what you mean about brain gymnastics! Thank you very much, Shonna, it was great to learn more about both your book series. Would you like to share an extract from Rise of the Kelpies to whet our appetites?

Extract:

As Farrah ducked behind the carriage, she heard a trio of women talking.

“I bet the real princess won’t parade herself through like this one. She’ll come dressed as a servant.” A middle-aged woman in a harvester’s hat nodded in Marnie’s direction. “Like our quiet, plain girl over there. No one would suspect who she was, and she could travel in safety. At least, that’s what I would do if I were the princess.” She laughed. “If I were thirty years younger, that is.”

The chandler’s wife, a short woman, stood on tiptoes trying to get a better look. “I can’t barely tell ’em apart. How will the officials?”

A third joined in, the postmistress looking down her long, intelligent nose. “They’ll have paperwork. A birth record. Something that proves who she is. They wouldn’t have sent her off with nothing now, would they?”

“The princess weren’t given a proper send-off when she was a wee babe, being kidnapped by the kelpies and all,” said the chandler’s wife. “She won’t have papers.”

Farrah’s lips twisted at the long-held rumor. You could be sure that if the kelpies had truly carried off the twin prince and princess, there would be no call for the heirs to return to the capital now. Being kidnapped by kelpies was only one rumor. Others included abduction by Evermoor, stillbirths being covered up, and the most distasteful was that the queen herself had killed them in a mad fit.

Farrah stepped back and continued listening to the gossip. Sometimes useful information bubbled up from the speculation.

“True, and besides, they’ll all have birth records if birth records are what they’re asked for,” said the woman wearing the hat. “And they’d all be saying the same thing. So-and-so is the true princess. The kingdom will be overrun with princesses as much as with frogs.”

“So how will them folks at the palace decide?” The chandler’s wife’s voice rose to a higher pitch, her words clipped with annoyance.

“The true princess will know things the others don’t. It might come down to who is the better student of history.” The postmistress, looking down her nose, continued to press her expertise.

“So, they’ll interview each one?” The chandler’s wife made a scoffing sound. “That’ll take months. Besides, she were hidden away when she was a wee bairn. How is she to know anything the rest of ’em don’t know?” 

The first woman shrugged. “How do you expect, then?”

“The palace fairies will get involved,” said the know-it-all. “They have deep memories and keen sight. They’ll spot the girl. They’ll know her by her eyes.”

Palace fairies? This was the first Farrah had heard about them. She leaned in so she could hear the women better.

The woman in the hat scanned the crowd as if looking for a fairy in their midst. “I thought the fairies were all gone. Haven’t been seen since the prince and princess were secreted away. If the princess is still alive, they’ll be the ones to bring her back. That’s how everyone will know.”

Osario had caught up to Farrah and cast another disapproving look at her attempt to disappear.

She gave him an I-told-you-so look as he took hold of her elbow and led her away from the gossiping ladies. She hadn’t even left and already their plans showed signs of unraveling. Palace fairies? Was Osario planning on rounding up some fairies who could vouch for her?

I hope you enjoyed reading about the inspiration behind Shonna’s book series. Find out more via Goodreads or her author website, https://shonnaslayton.com/ 

Lynden Wade lives in England near a haunted wood and two castles. She writes about history, folklore and legends. She has had a number of pieces published in journals and anthologies or on websites: more details on her website but here’s one you can read for free.

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

Druids, damsels and dragons: a week in Wales

My parents once came back early from a holiday in Wales because it hadn’t stopped raining. For years I carried this concept in my head that Wales was beautiful and full of mythology but always wet, so it was only recently that Mr W and I agreed it would be our next holiday destination. Mountains for him, legends for me. And in fact we were very lucky with the weather, only experiencing one wet and windy day, which was rather atmospheric for waterfall exploring.

Druids and Dolmens

Bryn Celli Ddu is a Neolithic burial chamber within an earlier stone circle. Its name means “Mound in the Dark Grove” but today it sits in an enclosure in a farmer’s field. On Summer Solstice the rising sun will shine directly from one end to the other, lighting up the chamber. What sort of rituals might have taken place here we can’t tell for sure, but these places always make me think of fairy tales like Kate Crackernuts (actually collected from Orkney) in which green hills are full of dancing fairies, the older, more capricious ones, not the flower fairies of children’s books. 

Bryn Celli Ddu as you approach it: you can see the remains of the stone circle round the barrow.

The entrance

Modern offerings

It wasn’t sunrise when we went, but the sun still lit up the tunnel within.

Anglesey has a strong connection with the druids. The Romans determined to break their power. On their first invasion they were met with a wall of warrior, cursing druids and screaming, torch-wielding women, and had to be exhorted by their general to press on, defeat the army and destroy their shrines and sacred groves.

Holyhead Mountain Hut Circles, also known as ‘Tŷ Mawr Hut Circles’ – a fort once frowned down on them from the higher ground.

Wise Wizards and Wounded Kings

Deep in Snowdonia is Dinas Emrys, the location of Merlin’s debut. The story of the fort that wouldn’t be built is told by Nennius: Vortigern, a British leader who is regretting inviting the Saxons into the island, is taking refuge in Wales and means to build a fort in the mountains. But each night all the materials disappear. His advisors tell him he needs to sacrifice a fatherless boy and sprinkle the boy’s blood on the site to succeed with his building plan. Such a youth is found – Ambrose, or Emrys – who challenges the advisors to instead dig deep into the foundations. There, two serpents are found, one white and one red. They are the problem, says Emrys. They fight each night, which causes everything to collapse. The red signified the Britons and the white the Saxons. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s version is more elaborate: the walls fall each night, the boy’s mother explains how she became pregnant by an unknown night-time lover, and Emrys becomes another name for Merlin. Today, the red dragon roars on the Welsh flag. 

We found a few dragons on our route up, and a waterfall, but on the summit there were only rocks and wind. We sat and looked out over the valley below, ringed in mountains. From a solitary house drifted party music.

Dragon spotted on the route up.

The route up Dinas Emrys wound round the rise and past a waterfall.

The fort remains

Views

Llyn Llydaw is one of the Welsh lakes that claims to conceal Excalibur, hurled into it by Bedevere when King Arthur was dying. It can only be viewed by booking a parking place at the start of one of the routes to Snowdon, or climbing Snowdon yourself, so Mr W saw this and I didn’t, because I don’t like mountain climbs. But Ynys Enlli/Bardsey Island on the Llŷn Peninsula has a claim to rival Glastobury as the site of Avalon, where Arthur sailed to be healed of his wounds. 

The island is rich in history, from its abbey ruins to its own kings in the 19c. You can read more here.

We drove down the Llŷn Peninsula then walked the headland until the island lay before us. It wasn’t a hot day as temperatures go, but the walk was strenuous, with steep climbs and dips, the sun shone hard on the hillside and where the path crept through ferns the fronds held in the humidity. The view was worth it though, and for a change, we didn’t puff up an incline to find a sheep already there, watching us with mild contempt.

Walking round the headland

Ynys Enlli from the end of the Llŷn Peninsula

Owls and Flowers

Alan Garner’s folk horror The Owl Service is set in North Wales, and the TV series (available on Youtube) was filmed as close as possible to the original settings. In the story three young people, thrown together by a new marriage and a move, find a set of plates decorated with flowers – or owls – which awaken an old myth that is re-enacted in every generation, that of Bloddewedd, the maiden made of flowers who was turned into an owl for conspiring with her lover to kill her husband. The myth features in the Mabinogian. It’s a harsh tale of resentment, loneliness and revenge, and no-one comes out well. Garner turns it into a story of adolescent bemusement and the claustrophobia that comes from a holiday where there’s nothing much to do. It’s one of the books I admire most from those I read as a child (it wasn’t intended as YA, but is usually seen as such now.) I highly recommend it and the TV series.

Tomen y Mur is said to be the castle where Bloddewedd, made by the magician Gwydion as a mate for the hero Lleu Llaw Gyffes, looked down on the valley and fell in love with Gronw Pebr. A small brown sign pointed us across a field, and a short walk took us through a muddle of ruined buildings to a mound. Not as high as Dinas Emrys, but what a wide view of the lands around! Even the power station didn’t spoil the quiet, barely broken by the distant bleat of sheep. Historically, it was once a Roman fort, later converted into a Norman castle.

Norman remains at Tomen y Mur

I believe this is reconstructed Roman, with the motte behind.

Looking down over the valley

Garner set his book in Llanymawddwy, a settlement that involved an hour’s drive from our cottage, along mountain passes and threading through a valley. No pub here, or Spa shop. The chapel and the church are closed up, and we only saw one person, shutting his gates for the day. The mountains round here are greener and closer than the ones round Snowdon.

Llanymawddwy

The Stone of Gronw, of uncertain age, is linked with the legend. Man-sized, it has a hole at the height of a heart, and through this Blodeuwedd’s husband pierced her lover and killed him. It wasn’t marked on either of our maps, so I was going by a website about British monoliths. We parked our car by the side of the road and walked up and down the farm track, but while we could see the river it was said to stand beside, there was no way to get there. I think it might have been moved.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoy folk and fairy tales, you might also enjoy this blog post about my favourite magical stories and modern takes on them.

Lynden Wade lives in England near a haunted wood and two castles. She writes about history, folklore and legends. She has had a number of pieces published in journals and anthologies or on websites: more details on her website but here’s one you can read for free.

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

My Year in Folk and Fairy Tales

In which a small-time author writes a self-indulgent and overly long review of the past year.

A change of direction

Gargoyles abound in my writing this year

I ended 2021 on a low note, writing-wise. I’d rewritten Penny Plain, a story I get drawn back to again and again, only to loathe it when I re-read it. At the same time, I wasn’t enjoying modern historical fiction for adults. But hadn’t I been writing historical fiction for years? I had three HF novels on my hard drive and a fourth on paper in a folder. I’d had more success with short stories, a mix of fairy tale and low fantasy, but there’s something satisfying about losing oneself in the world of a longer piece. The only novel I’d drafted that wasn’t in this genre was a children’s historical fantasy. 

But I’d really enjoyed the process and felt pleased with the first draft. Besides that, perhaps this was the way to combine two things I wanted to write about: the past, and magic. The seal on this decision was the fact I’d read and enjoyed a range of children’s fiction that year, including the gorgeous Ghost of Gosswater by Lucy Strange, a ghostly-gothic historical adventure for 9-12 year olds.

So this year I developed an idea that had nudged me for a while, particularly in Lockdown, those long months when we could only travel very locally, and always on our own. At night if I look out of my kitchen window I can see through a gap in the trees the lighted windows of one of the houses opposite. It probably isn’t the one called King’s Cottage – the alignment is wrong – and the one that is King’s Cottage probably has nothing to do with the tradition (likely) that King John hunted here in one of his many parks, or the tradtion (unlikely) that Maid Marion finished her life in Essex, but I like to pretend it is. And writing historical fantasy is tremendously liberating, because you can go any way you like to make a good story. So into the mix went another tradtiion that Maid Marion was the May Queen, and a few bones of a story I wrote in my late teens about the forest rebel in her latter years. The Plotstorming course from Writers’ HQ really helped me map this out, and I didn’t have the usual mid-novel crises where I wanted to tear it all up and start again. Our three-week summer holiday booking gave me a deadline to work towards and I had my first draft by mid-May.

Apparently, the genre I’ve chosen now is even harder to break into than historical fiction. It’s also the genre in which there’s been a stir this year, as children’s authors speak up about the lack of media attention for this section of literature.

My local church, which gets burned down in my new novel. Tradition links its destruction to Bad King John. Or maybe his enemies.

Castles and Unicorns

With lockdown measures put behind us this year, we had wonderful three weeks touring Scotland. We lost ourselves in coastal splendour, castles and kelpies. Searching for local traditions about the faerie, I came across an article by author Kate Macritchie that detailed the otherworldly folk of this country, from selkies to the ghillie dhu, and this enchanted me so much that I bought her first book, Fireside Fairytales, and devoured them as we continued our journey. I returned with a head full of dreams and unicorns, and struggled for a while with an urge to go back to writing short, fantastical pieces to try and use them all. To conflict me further, I returned to three encouraging rejections to some shorts I’d submitted.

Dunnottar Castle, one of many dreamy ruins

Fireside Fairytales, in its element

Encouraging rejections? My husband was amused and puzzled when I used this phrase to him. One editor liked my Arthurian/Victorian story but its setting was similar to another they’d accepted, so no thank you, but would I send in more? Another invited a rewrite of my tale of a house elf emigrating to New Zealand if I could be more head-on with the issue of the European-Maori conflict. A third email had slipped into my spam, and offered editorial help for a tale about a crow trying to resist his prophetic calling. These seemed like opportunities too good to be passed by.

So I sent a different story to the first press, I brainstormed the second story and took up the offer for the third.

In the end, the first press didn’t accept my second story either, but never mind. The second project was really hard. Over the years of trading critiques with others, I’ve adopted the idea that I should always be open to feedback and take it on board if it has any merit. And here was a respected journal that had taken the time to send me their thoughts. It was right to give them serious consideration. But it would have involved making my story much darker and less hopeful than I’d meant for, and would take me a long way from the tale I’d wanted to write, which addressed an inner struggle of my own. So the story was abandoned, and will sit in my hard drive for a long time, I fear. The third project, however, was different again. An editor worked with me to tighten up some story-line and clear up details. It was thorough, and the plot-line changed quite a bit, but it stayed true to what I wanted to write about, and I was very grateful for all of that. Finished, it went back to the journal editor and is, I understand, earmarked for a future issue.

Working on Feedback

Remember the historical fantasy for children that I mentioned at the start? I submitted the first chapter of that for the WriteMentor novel-in-development award, paying the extra fee for feedback from readers. I didn’t win an award, but the notes were very encouraging and helpful, from the point the adult reader made about the protagonist needing to be less passive to the child reader voting “yes” to reading further. Over the summer I used a course on Domestika on plotting a children’s fantasy, run by the very talented Ross Montgomery (Chime Seekers, Midnight Guardians) and covered a whiteboard with garish post-it notes. Even though the stick couldn’t cope with the notes being moved round (each morning I rose to another flutter of notes on the carpet) the visual element was very helpful for me. With the shape settled, I  put that Plotstormers course to work again and created a big document that outlined each chapter. From September to November I worked my way through a second draft, rewriting most of the first half of the bookand tinkering with or rearranging the second. In December I rewrote the synopsis, polished the first 4 thousand words and submitted them to another competition, hitting their deadline with hours to spare. Its working title is The Night Crawlers.

Short stories and a publication!

So, two novel drafts in one year isn’t bad, is it? I also wrote seven new shorts. The encouraging rejections mentioned earlier were part of twelve submissions made this year of short stories. Total publications — one! A story that was actually accepted last year. “Returning the Favor” (US publisher so American spelling) came out in the anthology Mothers of Enchantment in March. After the princess figure dominating fairy tales for so long, the fairy godmothers, or godfathers, got twelve stories of their own, some in classic settings and some right up-to-date. My own began as a riff on a tale where three toads help out a princess, but soon I found my toad godmother had a backstory of her own that took me back to the characters of “The Twelve Swans.” After I’d got over the excitement of having my name on the front cover (I realised soon that the reason for this was that they listed the authors of the first few stories inside, and that it had nothing to do with merit!) I enjoyed the process of marketing, firing off emails to a range of fantasy writers I’ve met online over the years to ask if they would do reviews for it. So many said yes, which was wonderful. And a reviewer who’d enjoyed some anthologies I’ve contributed to in the past spotted the book on an advance review site and also reviewed it. I know nothing about her apart from the fact that she reads voraciously and doesn’t hold back if she dislikes a book, so the fact that she enjoyed my story means a lot to me. As other reviews came in, many of them giving their views on the individual stories, I saw proof of the truth that a reviewer’s opinion on a story is just that – an opinion. A story that one reviewer didn’t connect with was considered the best by another reader, and so it went on, and my contribution had its own share of readers who didn’t like it.

Look! My name’s on the front!

Writing Courses

I’ve mentioned two really useful courses already, Plotstormers by Writers HQ, and Children’s Fiction: Write Compelling Adventure Fiction, and two more merit mention. The Writers’ HQ Five Days of Flash (fiction) course was thorough and enlightening and very useful. And author Elizabeth Hopkinson’s online, live course Transformations was very enjoyable too, pushing me to explore my darker side and plan a story I don’t feel ready to share with the world just yet! She is running it again in January and you can book it here. I thoroughly recommend it. 

Fantastical Reads

Elizabeth Hopkinson writes fairy tales too. This year I took part in her kickstarter for More Asexual Fairy Tales, a delicate collection of retellings of curious and fantasticals tales. 

I’ve already mentioned Kate Macritchie’s Fireside Tales. Her second book, Fireside Magic, came out this winter and I devoured that too. 

Other fairytale delights this year were After Ever, Little Stories for Grown Children by D Avery and Swedish Folk and Fairy Tales illustrated, enchantingly, by John Bauer. 

My reviews for all of these apart from the last are on Goodreads. 

Meanwhile I also discovered a stack of wonderful historical fantasy, of which the highlights, for me, are A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee (Victorian witches, sharp-tooted fairies in the cemetery and trolls in the sewers), Dark Angels by Katherine Langrish (elves in the Welsh hills and a runaway sheltering in a castle), The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh (a hob and rumours of angels in a monastery) and The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds( a gorgeously gentle-spooky story – think Elizabeth Googe with bite.) I also loved Stephanie Burgis’s Scales and Sensibility – Regency romance with dragons – and Simon Edge’s Anyone for Edmund, a comedy about the discovery of the bones of St/King Edmund and the chaos that ensues when a politician’s aide invents a few details about the life of the saint and Edmund himself gets very angry.

Not one of my top books of the year, but what a wonderful cover!

Folkish Makes

I struggled with low-level depression at times this year, a late-striking effect of the pandemic, I think, but one thing that helped was making things. On the edge of the local Common there’s a homestead in which a woman keeps animals, home-schools her children and runs workshops where she channels her Polish ancestry and her love of the woods around. They sell out very quickly but I’ve managed to get into several this year and made various goddesses in her magical cabin that should surely work its way into one of my stories. My favourite goddess, not least because it freaks out my family, is this one that turned into my protagonist from “Returning the Favor.”

Stories by Friends and other Fellow-Writers

This year my friend Sandra Hirons published her first story, and two more. One is fantasy, based on the tradtion of a wild man of the sea in nearby Orford, but it’s behind a paywall. For free, you can read “Daddy Facetime“, a wickedly funny short. Two writers in my local writing group brought out their first books this year. Alex Delve published The Elsewhere, a paranormal thriller which I was very impressed by, and Steven Rosen published Lost in the Babylon, his memoir about enlightenment after a life of crime, which I haven’t read but has been received very well locally.

Miscellaneous

There was an abundance of art festivals this year, which was very enjoyable. It was lovely to see art by friends, and I bought my first original piece, shown here, by Helen Davis. It’s part of a series inspired partly by fairy tale folklore. I love the hidden face, who must be a tree spirit, and the collage effect using text. You can find Helen on Instagram as Helendonline, to enjoy more f her work.

A detail of my acquisition. The photo I took of the hidden face hasn’t come out well, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

I probably spend too much time on social media but I’ve enjoyed the connections I’ve made there. For instance, A Gargoyle a Day on Instagram is fun to follow. Meanwhile on Facebook I was asked to become an admin for the Fairy Tale Forum group, and have enjoyed writing posts to get the discussion going. We take new members, but if you’re interested, make sure to read and answer all the membership questions when you apply.

Summing up (did you skip to the end to read this?)

Lots of really good courses this year have helped me change direction into children’s historical fantasy, and a deadline for a competition helped me focus.

Goals for 2023?

• Carry on creating.
• Polish The Night Crawlers.
• Review the story about Maid Marion and choose a decent title for it. 
• Revise a few of those short stories of mine that are lurking in my drive in need of attention.
• Avoid writing new stories just to suit calls for submissions, and use that time to try and find homes for some older pieces. 
• Read lots and celebrate the successes of fellow-writers.

Comparative titles for the novels I want to complete in 2023

The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters – an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London

“Bridge of Sighs”,  Georgiana Burned-Jones

Although the aims of the Pre-Raphaelite Society were to paint in a style reflecting art before Raphael, the main attraction for me is the subject matter – both the legendary material and the women who sat for the paintings and drawings. An exhibition, then, that promised to show how these women were often artists in their own right was going to appeal to me. And to hundreds of other women, too, judging from the crowds I rubbed shoulders with. A few men peered too at the small, framed sketches and information tiles.

I set off with expectations of undiscovered or overlooked paintings by Elizabeth Siddall, Annie Miller, Fanny Cornforth and their contemporaries. “Models, artists, makers, partners and poets. Discover the untold stories of the Pre-Raphaelite Sisters,” said the website. No, it doesn’t say painters. I find it interesting how we often remember impressions rather than facts, and in this case my impressions were coloured by my own interest in paintings over tapestry and ceramics. In fact, I came away feeling there were two types of women represented here: the wives and muses, who were also creative – I saw an embroidered purse, an unfinished tapestry, an unusual bodice, and lots of paintings of these women, by men– and the women who were more famous than their husbands, such as Joanna Boyce Wells and Evelyn de Morgan. At a quick glance, what divided them was class. The women painters had the money and the encouragement from family to take their art seriously. Perhaps also their class gave them the nerve to sell, not give away. And yes, dear reader, I am aware of my latent snobbery here, looking at embroidery and clothes-making as not real art.

I’m guessing that we want to remake the women involved in the Pre-Raphaelite movement into a model that fits early twenty-first century ideals and preoccupations. “Sisterhood”, for a start, suggests these women knew and supported each other. Some of them seem to have socialised together as one half of a couple, but others were less friendly; for instance, Rossetti’s sister Christina, and wife, Elizabeth Siddal, did not really get on, even though both were poets. There’s also the narrative of how dreadfully they were treated by the men who they modelled for – pulled from obscurity then thrown to the wolves when they got troublesome – and seen as tragic saints rather than talented beings. The radio play “Unearthing Elizabeth Siddall” (Radio 3) had Siddal climbing out of her grave and demanding, “Look at me” – as a woman in her own right, not just a muse. But this exhibition showed these women’s partners as supportive of their creative talents. Whether this support was undermined by flirting and infidelity  is another matter.

The thing I took away from exhibition, and from The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal by Jan Marsh, an acquisition from the shop, was this: how two people can look at the same thing and get quite different pictures in their heads.

Exhibit A: vaguely aware of the face of Fanny Cornforth from various calendars featuring Rossetti’s paintings, I was surprised to see that the sitter for the picture on the right here is the same as the sitter on the left. Rossetti’s Fanny has the same cupid lips as all his women, giving her the soulful he clearly admired, while Holman Hunt’s Fanny has a square, almost masculine forehead and a bold gaze.

“Thoughts of the Past”, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope  

Exhibit B: Here is Fanny again, this time painted by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope in “Thoughts of the Past.” The information panel tells us the title “invokes regret for lost innocence.” She certainly has an intense gaze, and her hands grip her hair and a hairbrush tightly. But that grip could mean a whole range of things. I rather thought she itched to brain someone with the hairbrush.

Exhibit C: a different Fanny here, Fanny Eaton. She was of Jamaican descent, daughter of a slave and a white man. Yet the roles she took in Pre-Raphaelite paintings make her, left to right, Indian, Arabian and Semitic.

I started reading The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal on exiting the gallery and am now a third of the way through it. So far it’s been fascinating. One woman, leaving little documentation of her own because of her obscure background, has been reinterpreted over and over in the decades after her death, each time to suit the obsessions of the age. Jan Marsh is quite clear that this is no attempt at a biography, rather a journey through the development of her legend.

I’ll finish this article with one observation and two pictures unrelated to my theme.

First, two designs by Georgiana Burne-Jones, called “Death and the Lady,” intended for a collection of Gothic stories that would be written and illustrated by Georgiana and by Elizabeth Siddall. They are delightfully macabre.

Death and the Lady, two designs by Georgiana Burne-Jones

Secondly, I loved this photograph of Marie Spartali Stillman and her son, Michael. That direct stare is neither Madonna nor Magdalen, just confidence in her right to look at the looker.

Last, a reflection on seeing “the real thing.” A quick Google search will bring up more works of art by these women than the exhibition contains, with no expense or travel. But there’s something special about seeing them face to face, so to speak. The cloakroom attendant told me he’d been most struck by the lock of hair kept from Elizabeth Siddal after death. For me, I replied, seeing a page of their own writing really brought home to me that these were living, breathing, imperfect, unique people. As are we all.

Charcoal Cats and Dragonflies

Extract from “The Charcoal Cat”, in Of Legends and Lore

This month I bring you an author interview, a chance for my readers to meet Julian Elliot, pen name J E Klimov, author of the Aeonians trilogy. It’s morning here, and Julian, you’re on the other side of the Atlantic and might still be asleep! It’s thanks to the wonders of modern technology that we can have this conversation. Julian, it’s lovely to have you on my blog. How long have you been writing, and what made you start?

J E Klimov, author of The Aeonians

Julian: I’ve been writing since the seventh grade. It was a huge year for creativity. I always loved spinning stories, although most were made in the form of hand-drawn graphic novels. Then, I played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and I just had to write a fan-fic of that! Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop!

Lynden: It’s a common theme – so many writers get the bug as children. I know you’re going to tell us later what you did with that fan-fic, so I’ll move on to my next question.  We ‘met’ when we both worked on the first JL Anthology. These are a series, all fantasy, put together by the Just-Us League, a group of writers who met online. I believe you have stories in several of these. Tell us more about them.

Julian: Joining the Just-Us-League was one of the most monumental experiences of my writing life! Everyone I met has been incredibly supportive and helpful. I can’t recall exactly how we came into starting anthologies, but I was 100% in from the start. Currently, I have four short stories published in these JL anthologies:

The Guardian’s Secret in “From the Stories of Old” (JL Volume 1): For my first fairy tale retelling, I wanted to dive deep into a Japanese folk lore. It challenged me because I was terrified of not serving the original story justice; however, I learned a lot through the editing process and am very proud of it.

The Fate of Patient Zero in “Between Heroes and Villains” (JL Volume 2): This is hands down my favorite. Keeping in the theme of superheroes (or villains), I wanted to create an origin story for a science fiction series that I will be working on soon. The characters are near and dear to me, and it was interesting to explore what would happen if humans played around with their genetics too much…

The Charcoal Cat in “Of Legend and Lore” (JL Volume 4): I decided to enter the ring once more with another fairy tale retelling. I wanted to steer from the main stream and found yet another endearing Japanese tale. It also had cats in them!!! The story follows a young misfit whose artwork literally saves his life.

                                   

Soul of Mercy in “Secrets in Our Cities” (JL Volume 6): Ah, paranormal/urban fantasy. I haven’t dabbled in this sector of the fantasy genre; however, I had a storyline tucked away in my to-write list that was worth trying out. It wasn’t novel-length, so a short story fit perfectly. This story follows a teenager named Gabby who flips out when she discovers she already has white hair. An angel with an unusual name pops into her life and bestows upon her the title “Soul of Mercy”. Gabby needs to put spirits to rest before they wreak havoc on the human world. I took a light-hearted approach when writing this, and I also channelled my inner Ghost Busters. It was a lot of fun.

Lynden: Wow, you really flexed your genre muscles there. I have a story in the first anthology too, and saw that several reviewers particularly loved your story.  Meanwhile, you published your debut novel, The Aeonians, which won the Purple Dragonfly award. You have two books out in this trilogy now, don’t you? What are they about?

         

Julian: Yes, I have the first two novels out, and fingers crossed that the final instalment will be released late 2019. Remember when I mentioned that fan-fic back in 7thgrade? Surprise! During my first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I chose to recycle that fan-fic and transform it into my own unique story. Silver Leaf Books picked me up and helped me work on expanding it into a trilogy.

In short, The Aeonians is a story of a tomboy princess, Isabel, who inherits an armlet containing four precious stones that possess the powers of wind, water, earth, and fire. As she struggles with her new responsibility that she never wanted, an ancient enemy labelled as the Aeonians breaks from their cursed prison to reclaim the country that they believed was theirs. Isabel runs into Bence, the captain of the Aeonian Army, whose questionable allegiance leads her into a cat-and-mouse game up until the very end.

The second book, The Shadow Warrior, came seamlessly as it follows Bence and the consequences that followed his actions from the war. He tries to run away from his problems while Isabel faces a new threat to her country.

Lynden: Congratulations on those publications – that’s a massive achievement. And best wishes with the launch of the final instalment.   I gather you’re branching out now into romance, is that right?

Julian: That’s correct. It seems like a far stretch from fantasy to romance, and it probably isn’t the best idea when trying to “build a brand”; however, the romance isn’t being written for my brand-sake. In my endless list of fantasy and science fiction ideas, there was always a desire to write one damn good romance. I’ve been through a lot the last few years, and this side project is a way to channel my new energy.

Lynden: I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a bad few years. I do hope the project really inspires you.

I remember you said another source of inspiration is your career – as a pharmacist. Can you give us an example?

Julian: I really couldn’t have gotten into a more boring career… or so I thought. I’ve spent many years working at a pharmacy before becoming licensed (about 12 years total?!?), and I’ve seen and dealt with a lot of things – things that make you say that cliché phrase: “Truth is stranger than fiction”. While I can’t give exact examples at the moment, it’s the unique interactions with customers and co-workers that really inspire my range of characters. Think of a pharmacy version of the famous television series, The Office.

Lynden: You’d better add that to your ‘to-write’ list!   Now, I understand you love travel and other cultures. What country or culture have you found most intriguing, and why?

Julian: I’ve found Chinese and Japanese culture the most intriguing. As a disclaimer, I am half Chinese and considered a first-generation Asian American, so I already was brought up with knowledge of Chinese culture. Growing up, I embraced it. I learned the language and looked forward to the Lunar New Year even more than the regular New Year!

In 2008, I was lucky enough to fulfil my dreams and travel to China. Since then, I’ve visited the Great Wall, Beijing, Hong Kong, my nana’s hometown, most of Taiwan, and finally Japan.

I appreciate the deep cultural history and fantastic architecture. Everything is so colorful and meaningful. I remember bringing a sketch pad to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The statues, palaces, and stories behind them were inspiring. I found this to be the same when I visited Kyoto. I rented a bicycle and must’ve visited at least a dozen temples, large and small. There’s just something so mysterious and noble about the East, from their perspective on life (including family and medicine), clothing, mannerisms, to music. Finally, I appreciate their love and attention to food. Real, authentic Chinese and Japanese food are prepared with love and packed with intense flavor.

Lynden: That sounds like a fantastic trip. I expect we could trace all sorts of details in your writing that were inspired by your travels. It’s been great to talk, Julian. All the best with the launch of your last Aeonians book, and with your new venture into romance!

You can find out more about Julian by following her on Amazon or her blog. If you sign up for her newsletter you’ll get regular updates and writer tips. You can find out more about The Aeonians here.

You can find out more about the JL Anthologies here.

 

Was Maid Marion an Essex Girl?

Matilda Fitzwalter?

I don’t remember now where I found the story that Maid Marion was buried in Essex. The internet is a wonderful, rich and unreliable source of information. I did however find various versions of the story online, and a photo of the church. With a husband who can find anywhere in this country with an Ordinance Survey map (no Satnavs for him!) I thought we had a good chance of locating the tomb. The biggest problem would probably be getting into a country church.

Surely this is a film set?

Little Dunmow is ridiculously pretty. Surely it’s a film set? We saw no-one in a bonnet or top hat, however, or indeed doublet and hose. A short walk following a sign-post brought us to this little building. What serves now as the parish church is part of the former priory, a small establishment but an impressive building from the information inside. And yes, it was actually really easy to get in. I’ve always felt too embarrassed to knock on a stranger’s door and ask for the key, even though the notice on the door of a church often says as much, but confidence comes with age, and the owner of an enthusiastic spaniel handed the key over with no questions asked at all.

Little Dunmow Priory Church

Inside, we found two tombs and one memorial. The memorial is to Robert Fitzwalter, leader of the baronial opposition to King John, one of the sureties of Magna Carta, and bearer of this wonderful title: ‘Marshall of the Army of God and Holy Church, and Founder of our Civil Liberty.’ 

Memorial to Robert Fitzwalter

The tomb nearest the door is identified as Walter Fitzwalter, who died 1432, and his wife Elizabeth, nee Chiddock, who died 1464.

Walter and Elizabeth Fitzwalter

Local tradition says the stone effigy lying with hands clasped and eyes staring at the roof beams is Matilda, the daughter of Robert Fitzwalter. In 1212 he was part of a conspiracy to kill King John, and escaped trial by fleeing to France, where he told the French king he’d risen up against his master because John had attempted to seduce his daughter. The local legend, recorded by Philip Morant, historian for Essex, says she lived at Dunmow, and was poisoned when she refused the king’s love.

Traces of the poison that killed Lady Matilda?

Meanwhile, we have an Elizabethan play written by Anthony Munday about Robert Earl of Huntingdon, whose alias was Robin Hood, and whose wife was Matilda, daughter of Robert Fitzwalter. The nineteenth century antiquarian Joseph Hunter identified these two as being Robert Hood, a yeoman from Wakefield, Yorkshire, and Matilda, who joined him in Barndsdale Forest after the Battle of Boroughbridge.

This claim on Robin Hood by Yorkshire will doubtless outrage the good folk of Nottingham. The rest of us will be noting that there are two problems here. Firstly, the Essex tradition has Matilda dying, and the Munday play has her fleeing to the forest. And secondly, the Battle of Boroughbridge was 1322, more than a century after Robert’s struggle with King John. Besides, the headdress and gown worn by the lady on the tomb are quite obviously late Medieval. A more likely identification is that she could be the mother of Walter, who lies on the next tomb.

It’s rather a dull solution, though, isn’t it? I wish there was more to back up the stories. We do have a King John tradition further south in the country. He apparently owned much of the land here as a hunting chase, and a local house is said to be his hunting lodge.

King John’s Hunting Lodge, Thundersley

St Peter’s Church, Thundersley

The parish church, according to an account which has more holes in it than a colander, was burned down Christmas Day 1215 for defying the Pope’s ban on services. The catchment school is named after King John, who I always think is quite an unsuitable role model for our young people. Even putting these traditions together, there isn’t much evidence.

But hey, I’m a writer, not a historian. I love the idea that Maid Marion was an Essex girl, part of the struggle for English liberty on several fronts. There’s a story here, I’m sure.