I&F - Fairy tales Issue – January/February 2012

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

fairy Tales

Managing Editor Neri Preslin

Assistant Editor Amanda Dominick

Graphics Editor Shaylynn Rackers

Column Editor Ciara Zaketti

Proofreaders Aubrey Heesch, Megan Dominick, Marie Jeanette, Mary Collart

C ontributers Neri Preslin, Mirriam Neal, Lilianna, Bethany McGean, Kevin Derby, Shaylynn Rackers, Lady Eulalia, Allison DeWolf, Megan Dominick, Jo Cromwell, Kendall Jameson, Ciara Zaketti, Amanda Dominick

C over Artwork Mary Sullivan

Illustrators Mary MacArthur, Mary Sullivan, Shaylynn Rackers

Photographers Emily Rounds, Elizabeth Hausladen, Neri Preslin, Shaylynn Rackers. Stock images: stock.exchng. and public domain photographs ---

Questions and comments should be directed to ask@inkandfairydust.com

Back issues and more information can be found at inkandfairydust.com

CONTENTS

Editors’ Note by Neri Preslin

Odds and Ends

The Importance of Fairytales by Mirriam Neal

Midnight by Lilianna

Once Upon a Time by Bethany McGean

Following the King by Kevin Derby

Shea and Bergen by Shaylynn Rackers

4 5 7-10 11 12-15 21 23

24-25 Faerie by Lady Eulalia

26-29 Fairy Party by Bethany McGean

All articles are the property of their respective owners and cannot be copied or redistributed in any way except for brief, properly cited citation.

All photographs, artwork, and graphics are the properties of their respecitve artists and may not be reproduced without specific permission.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

t h e m e : f a i r y t a l e s

30 31 32-33 34-37

Flavors by Allison DeWolf

Joy of the Imagination by Megan Dominick

Children Will Listen by Jo Cromwell

Fairy Tale Fail by Kendall Jameson

38 39

I&F Book Review by Shaylynn Rackers

I&F Movie Review by Neri Preslin

Once Upon a Time by Amanda Dominick 40-41 42-44 46-47 Finally, Not Another Medical Drama by Jo Cromwell At The Bottom of the Wishing Well by Ciara Zaketti

Grimm by Amanda Dominick 48-49

50-52

Bitter Food Makes You Mad by Ciara Zaketti

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

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It’s been a wonderfully hectic and whirlwind holiday season for us all here at I&F. We’re a little late in getting you our New Years edition of the magazine but we promise it will be well worth the wait. This is by far my favorite issue so far, our cover alone speaks to that end. Our illustrators have outdone themselves and I can’t wait to see what they come up with in the future. Once again I must applaud Shaylynn Rackers, Graphics Editor. Having previously held her position in our staff I know how overwhelming and demanding it can be. She has created a work of art, not only here but in other issues as well, I cannot thank her enough for her commitment to our magazine. Please let us know what you think, we are currently in talks about updating our website as well as the potential for a magazine blog. If you have any comments or ideas we’d love to hear them.

Happy New Year!

~ Neri Preslin

Managing Editor

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modern fairy tales novels for teens by Regina Doman

shealynn’s faerie shoppe pictured: stardust earrings

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“It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing, this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it’ll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien

The Importance of

By Mirriam Neal

Nowadays, it’s easy to underestimate the

importance of fairy tales. Skyscrapers have replaced

castles, concrete has replaced long dirt roads, and

shining armor has been replaced by baggy jeans.

It can seem like there’s simply no room for

fairy tales. Harsh reality has replaced the magic and

wonder of the days when princesses and dragons were

Fantasy has no place in reality, so people say.

But to me, this only increases their importance.

Fairy tales are not simply meaningless stories told to

entertain. They’re important. In a world that leeches

the color from everything, fairy tales spark that glint

of magic; that shade of brilliant blue in a cloudy sky.

We need stories. We need fairy tales.

Nowadays there is a greater need for them

than there has ever been before. An article written

shortly after the release of the blockbuster Avatar

discussed how viewers often fell into depression after

and colorless in comparison to the one depicted. And

I quote: “James Cameron’s completely immersive

spectacle ‘Avatar’ may have been a little too real for

some fans who say they have experienced depression

and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because

they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world

Pandora.”

People are spiritually thirsty. They want hope,

color, mystery. People are more in need of magic than

they have ever been before.

Just look around you. Movies, books, and

music all portray mystery, love, and magic. People are

longing for something beyond this world. C. S. Lewis

once stated, “If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for

another world.”

I believe that is exactly why we have this deep

hunger for things beyond our reach. God has created

in us a higher calling; a longing for something more.

Fairytales

we’ve ever dreamed.

He created in us a vision of Heaven; one which

we cannot help but try and fulfill on earth.

Fairy tales are important because they help

keep that spark of Heaven alive. G. K. Chesterton put

it beautifully when he said in Tremendous Trifles:

Fairy tales, then, are not responsible

for producing in children fear, or any of the

shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the

child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is

in the child already, because it is in the world

already. Fairy tales do not give the child his

first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the

child is his first clear idea of the possible

defeat of bogey. The baby has known the

dragon intimately ever since he had an

imagination. What the fairy tale provides for

Exactly what the fairy tale does is

this: it accustoms him for a series of clear

pictures to the idea that these limitless

terrors had a limit, that these shapeless

enemies have enemies in the knights of God,

that there is something in the universe more

mystical than darkness and stronger than

strong fear.

Fairy tales give us a glimpse of something

nobler and full of wonder. They give us a glimpse of

chivalry, danger, monsters, courtship, honor, valor, and

peril. In a world where black and white are blurred

into gray, fairy tales are full of villains and heroes,

good versus evil, where the good always wins.

I don’t believe that this is a foolish or

unrealistic view of the world. Deep down, people

Wars that seem to last for an eternity finally end.

Napoleon once said that the pen is mightier

than the sword, and he was right. With words, we can

craft stories that are representations of what we want.

We can create hope and bring light to darkness. Fairy

tales – indeed, stories themselves – are special things.

Neil Gaiman says in his work Fragile Things:

Stories, like people and butterflies

and songbirds’ eggs and human hearts

and dreams, are also fragile things, made

up of nothing stronger or more lasting

than twenty-six letters and a handful of

punctuation marks. Or they are words on

abstract, invisible, gone once they’ve been

spoken—and what could be more frail

than that? But some stories, small, simple

ones about setting out on adventures or

people doing wonders, tales of miracles and

monsters, have outlasted all the people who

told them, and some of them have outlasted

the lands in which they were created.

The written word is one of the most powerful

things on earth. Do we use them for good, or for evil?

Cynics say that fairy tales are for dreamers.

But I say, what’s wrong with dreaming?

“What are we holding onto, Sam?” That there’s some

good “ ” “

in this world, Mr. Frodo. and it’s worth f ighting for. ”

It seemed long ago that the last dusky petals of

sunset had drifted from the sky into the embrace of the

horizon. Now the warm winds caress the trees, which

cast no shadow in the inky darkness with only the stars

create pinpoints of light to guide the wanderers of the

night. A curious thing happens as shadows lengthened

in the birth of night; a thing which no one notices,

though it happens time and again. A shadow, curled

up at the foot of a willow tree, and rather than fading

into the coming darkness rested darkened, and now

awakes.

No shadow now, but a maiden who is tall

and slender, and carries herself in a graceful manner

that makes one think of a queen. Her skin is as pale

as milk and through it shines a soft light. A glow, as

if she was a delicate figurine of purest glass, which

had tilted its face towards the midnight sky and been

filled to bursting with moonlight. Her eyes peer out at

the world like two luminous orbs, twin moons hung

above a red mouth, gently curved into a shadow a

smile. Raven hair flows down her back like a river and

brushes the heels of her nimble feet.

From her hidden resting place she is still and

is everywhere. She is a watcher, a listener, a guardian;

she calls those who love the night her children, and

she loves and protects them in turn. But it is not those

in her heart. Those she hates with the bitterness of

a forgotten promise, and when she sees their deeds,

the coldness of winter’s heart becomes her own. She

turns away from the violators of her sacred night and

doesn’t let the light of the stars or moon shine on their

souls, but rather lets them wallow in the darkness

of their beings which they believe is the night and

there they waste away believing themselves complete

without the light.

Ah, but for those she loves, she is a benevolent

lady with a quiet laugh and a willing smile. These are

the wanderers of the night who lie in the damp grass

and listen to the whispers of the trees. Those who walk

with faces upturned towards the angels asleep in the

sky, who even in sleep shed light on the world and

watch over it. The people who drink in the purity of

the night like fine wine and understand the dreams of

the sleeping flowers are those who she blesses, so they

can enter even deeper to the mystery, be one with the

stillness, and converse with the silence.

When the first call of the mocking bird

awakens reality once more, she isn’t resentful. She

suffers her slow death calmly and with her ever patient

smile. She feels bittersweet enjoyment in the beauty of

the sunrise, which banishes darkness. It is with a brave

smile and mournful eyes she fades, like all shadows

Upon by Bethany McGean Once

a Time

artwork by Arthur Rackham, public domain

Once upon a time...

Since childhood, those words have transported us into the realm of faerie. We danced at midnight balls, faced the big bad wolf, and begged enchanted princesses to wake. Yet, sometimes, our belief in talking animals and forbidden enchantments falters. In the back of our minds, subversive thoughts niggle away at our childhood beliefs. Can I grow up and still love fairy tales?

Even as we seek to reassure ourselves that it’s

okay to read fairy tales, we still feel the pressure to

defend our passions to others. Often when we talk to

others about fairy tales, they give us blank stares or

rolled eyes that imply unasked questions. “You still

read fairy tales? Aren’t they for kids?”

Our response? Do we shuffle uncomfortably

under their condescending glances and falter as our

own doubts ebb away at our enthusiasm? Or do we

have a defense? We are not the first to wrestle with

the validity of fairy tales. In fact, the best defense

regarding faerie tales can be found in the writings of

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They believed in the

intrinsic value of fairy stories. While the critics often

level many arguments against fairy-stories, two of

their most prevalent arguments pertain to the belief

that fairy-stories are for children and they are escapist.

Lewis and Tolkien fervently defend against both of

First, before we can begin discussing their

may be misled by the first two chapters into reading

views and defense of fairy-stories, we must briefly

further, and then complain of his disappointment”

touch upon their definition of ‘faerie’. When Tolkien

(7). He defends calling the book a fairy tale because

and Lewis refer to fairy tales, they do not simply refer

he was “following the traditional fairy-tale. We do

to the folktales recorded by the Grimm brothers and

not always notice its method, because the cottages,

Hans Christian Andersen, but rather to stories “about

castles, woodcutters, and petty kings with which a

the adventures of men in the Perilous Realm or upon

fairy-tale opens have become for us as remote as the

witches and ogres to which it proceeds. But they were not remote at all to the men who made and first enjoyed the stories” (Lewis, Strength 7). In their discussions of fairy-stories, both Lewis and Tolkien broaden the definition to include any story that traverses the borderlands of the fantastic and through that journey the readers learn more about themselves and the world.

Children Both Tolkien and Lewis found the idea that fairy stories were meant its shadowy marches” (Tolkien 38). This definition does little to clarify fairy stories without defining the Perilous Realms, and Tolkien never directly states, “The Perilous Realm is…” Instead, he describes a realm where the mundane and extraordinary meet. And, at their meeting, truth is revealed. Tolkien goes on to say, “Faerie contains many things besides elves and fay, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, “Faerie contains many things besides elves and fay, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, moral men, when we are enchanted.”

water and stone, wine and bread, and

ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted” (38).

Also, Tolkien and Lewis considered some

of their own writings as fairy stories. Tolkien writes

Leaf by Niggle and Smith of Wootton Major, two

fairy stories that reveal the nature of Faerie, which he

only for the ears of children ridiculous.

Tolkien notes that fairy tales only entered the

nursery “because the adults do not want it, and do

not mind if it is misused” (58), not because of any

intrinsic childishness belonging to Faerie. He notes

the association between children and fairy-stories

meant for children, not all children enjoy fairy-stories.

Lewis says, “In fact, many children do not like this

kind of book [fairy tales], just as many children do not

like horsehair sofas: and many adults do like it, just

as adults like rocking chairs” (“Children” 26-27). In

regards to his own fondness of fairy tales, he states,

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would

have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now

that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became

a man I put away childish things, including the fear

of childishness and the desire to be very grown up”

(Lewis, Children 25). Sometimes the true value of

fairy tales cannot be appreciated until we grow up and

accepting this is a sign of this process.

Escape

Tolkien and Lewis take the charge of escapism

Tolkien finds the escape provided by fairy-stories

as positive. For him, this escape is the escape of a

captive and it is the critics who despise fairy-stories

for their escapist nature who “are confusing, not

always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner

with the Flight of the Deserter” (79). The escape

of the captive longing for freedom is desirable and

understandable; the flight of the deserter is cowardly

and fearful. The prisoner races towards reality, the

deserter flees from it. Lewis considers the “charge of

escapism” and finds “that fairy land arouses a longing

for he know not what. It stirs and troubles him (to his

life-long enrichment) with the dim sense of something

beyond his reach and, far from dulling or emptying

the actual world, give it a new dimension of depth. He

does not despise real woods because he has read of

enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a

little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing”

(Lewis Children 29-30). Instead of escaping from

the real world, fairy-stories offer us a greater

depth and appreciation to the world around us.

As we draw to the end of our discussion

on fairy-stories, we come to the Eucatastrophe.

Tolkien coined this word as he concluded his

essay On Fairy-Stories to describe the “the joy

of the happy ending: or more correctly of the

with the good news of the Gospels and declares, “Art

has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels and of

men--and of elves. Legend and History have met

and fused” (89). He brings together the joy and truth

found in these stories and reveals something greater:

may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give

them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike

the fallen that we know” (Tolkien 90).

If you’d like to learn more, here are a few additional resources.

-The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien

-Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien

-Letters to Children by C.S. Lewis

-Of Other Worlds by C.S. Lewis and On Stories by C.S. Lewis

-From Homer to Harry Potter by Matthew Dickerson and David O’Hara

-The Tolkien Professor podcast by Dr. Corey Olson

(http://www.tolkienprofessor.com/index.html)

Works Cited

Tolkien, J.R.R. “On Fairy-Stories.” The Tolkien Reader. New York: Ballantine

Books, 1966. 33-99. Print.

---. Preface. That Hideous Strength. By Lewis. 1946. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

7-8. Print.

Lewis, C.S. “On Three Ways of Writing for Children.” Of Other Worlds. 1966. New

York: Harcourt, 1994. 22-34. Print.

book reviews by Kevin Derby

Readers should be suspicious when writers turn back to past subjects. For example, Ernest Hemingway’s The Dangerous Summer simply did not live up to the same ground he covered before in Death in the Afternoon. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman created one of the best fantasy series in recent years in the Dragonlance Chronicles, and the Lost Chronicles tries to fill in some of the gaps of the original books. While they avoid major pitfalls and the Lost Chronicles do not take any luster off the original series, it must be conceded they do nothing to build on the glories of the first books.

Dragons of Dwarven Depths, the first volume of the Lost Chronicles, is the best book of the series. There is a certain joy in seeing beloved characters interact with one another and the writers send more than a few knowing winks the reader’s way since we know more about the plot than the characters do at this point. Some of the best parts of the Dragonlance series focused on the intimate moments, like when the companions seemed more concerned with their own survival and what was in front of them than the epic wars for control in their world of Krynn. Weis and Hickman are able to present some very good scenes when they can think small; when characters face dangers on their own. When Weis and Hickman try to show the bigger picture (for example, one of the characters leads an army of refugees or an in-depth take on dwarf tribal

politics), the authors simply lose the narrative and the reader loses interest. Still, while Dwarven Depths is the best of the Lost Chronicles, there remain some problems with the book. This book suffers from poor editing: poor copy editing and poor plot editing. One of the chief reasons Weis and Hickman split the Companions apart in the original series was the simple fact that the authors could not focus on character development when there were too many actors on the stage at once. That’s a problem here since almost a dozen heroes, not to mention a host of new characters and the villains, fight for page time. Tolstoy may have been able to pull the strings on so many puppets but Weis and Hickman simply are not up to that level.

The second volume of the new series, Dragons of the Highlord Skies, comes off as Hamlet without the Dane. Without some of the leading characters in the saga taking the stage, Weis and Hickman are able to bring other characters to the front. This works to some extent as they flesh out some of the more ignored characters in the series from a femme fatale to a spunky elven princess. They also include one of their most fascinating villains of the entire series who did not even appear in the original books. But again Weis and Hickman think too large. Instead of focusing on the lead characters, the authors spend too much time on the almost Byzantine politics of an order of knights. Having said that, the final battle at Icewall and the

various adventures keep the readers’ interest.

Dragons of the Hourglass Mage is the last, shortest, and weakest book in the Lost Chronicles trilogy. It feels rushed, especially the last quarter of the book. Even worse, in such a short book, the authors spend too many pages in having characters narrate and explain things that the characters they are speaking to already know. To be blunt, Weis and Hickman seem a little torn in deciding if this is a book that can stand on its own or is part of the greater Dragonlance tapestry. They did not decide and that is what proves so frustrating about the book. Characters, gods and magic are introduced and then removed from the stage without any real rationale. This is fine if you are familiar with the other books, but not if this is the only Dragonlance book you have read. On the other hand, familiar tales are retold (some more than once) which is fine if you have never read any of the other books but annoying if you have spent countless hours in Krynn. While one of the best characters in the Dragonlance bullpen gets most of the focus in the book, Hourglass Mage is helped with an interesting--if not, towards the end, convoluted--plot, which helps end the trilogy.

While not bad books, the Lost Chronicles would only appeal to devoted fans of the series. They really make little sense outside the greater framework of the other Dragonlance books.

shea and bergen

Fairytales are more than true not because they tell us that

dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons

can be beaten.

~G.K. Chesterton

Somewhere is a land, Not far away, Where a phoenix flies And Fairies play.

Where in forests dark Dwell merry sprites, Singing and dancing, On midsummer nights.

Where a princess dwells In tower tall, Who sings harvest songs As the leaves fall.

Where fauns trek across Shimmering snow. Winter lights dance. A pale moon glows.

Where new life sings To a spring morn Our risen Lord These fairies adore.

This land of wonder So pure, so fair, We can see only As through a mirror.

Until some threat should Come upon it. Then they may call In song or sonnet.

Then hear, distantly That gentle note Upon the breeze That bids us go.

Into those woods Shrouded in mist Into those woods We enter, in bliss.

Land of peril And beauty as well The mysteries there No one may tell

Enchantments spring From rock and tree In that land Of fair Faerie.

In that strange land, Not so far away Where phoenix flies And fairies play.

som e w h ere i s a lan d and fairies play

by Bethany McGean illustrated by Mary MacArthur

The land of faerie is a mystical place—a realm of enchantments and magic. Fairy godmothers grant wishes, youngest sons become heroes, and things aren’t always as they appear. The hideous hag at your door is a beautiful sorceress, the old beggar man with advice is the king, and the talking frog at the well is prince charming. From the seven swan brothers to the transformed servant girl, the denizens of fairy tales are rarely who they appear to be on the surface. Just as enchantments hide the true nature of fairy tale creatures, at a masquerade, masks hide the faces of the participants. In celebration of fairy tale month here at Ink and Fairydust, we donned our silk dancing slippers, magical ball gowns, and fairy masks. You can join in the celebration by holding your own faerie masquerade.

The Masquerade

With this in mind, invite your friends to dress in their best

fairy garb and slip on a mask. Creating a mask is one of the best

parts of a masquerade. Begin by sketching an idea for your mask,

then choose your base and have fun decorating. An inexpensive

half mask can be purchased at your local craft store. Papier-mâché,

fabric, and other materials can also be used for a base. Trim your

mask with ribbon, lace, paint, stickers, markers, glitter and any other

odds and ends you find around home or the craft store. If you choose

to make masks at your party, remember they will need time to dry

before you wear them.

After all the hard work of designing your masks, hold a

contest at your masquerade. Allow your guests to vote on the best design, most creative, and most colorful, for

example. You don’t need to stick to the usual categories; be as creative in your categories as the masks at your

With the invitations sent out, it is time to transform your home into a magical fairy tale. String fairy

lights (white Christmas lights) around the room so they resemble twinkling stars or the sparks of dancing fae.

Focus your decorating around your favorite types of fairy tales. Do you like stories about kings and queens in

elegant palaces? Or, maybe you prefer tales that occur in nature? Set a palatial theme with tapestries, swords

and pictures of castles. For a more naturalistic setting, make floral or leaf arrangements for the mantle and

bookcases and pictures of nature faeries. Or, you can mix and match from both themes. Set an elegant table with

jeweled goblets (past fake “gems” on plastic wine glasses), embroidered table runners and candelabras.

The Feast

Treat your guests to a fairy feast. Fairy tales often mention food and it

is often integral to the plot of the story. While the three bears’ pilfered porridge

might not make for the best party food, the little match girl dreamed of a

New Year’s feast. You can serve fish (the salmon of knowledge), green bean

casserole (Jack and the Beanstalk), and applesauce (Snow White’s apple). For

more ideas, check out Fairy Tale Feasts by Jane Yolen. For dessert, fill a basket

full of goodies (Red Riding Hood). These goodies can include pumpkin bread

(Cinderella), gingerbread cookies (Hansel and Gretel and The Gingerbread

Man), and fairy food candy (another name for sponge candy). For a fun activity,

decorate the gingerbread cookies with your friends. To compliment the fairy tale

theme, cut the cookies out in a fairy tale shapes, such as the three bears, houses,

c gingerbread men, and stars.

Activities

To entertain your guests, plan a few party games. The “Who am I?” game can be a fun icebreaker and

She’s not allowed to peek. Before your feast, your friend asks the other guests yes or no questions about the

character on their back until they figure out who they are. Be sure to

talk to everyone and not just ask one person all your questions. For

example, a series of questions about Red Riding Hood might be: “Am

I an animal?” “No.” “Am I female?” “Yes.” “Am I royal?” “No.” “Do

I have a fairy godmother?” “No.” “Do I have a stepmother?” “No.” “A

grandmother? “Yes.” “Do I interact with animals?” “Yes.” “Am I Red

Riding Hood?” “Yes.”

For more group activities you might want to play fairy

tale charades. Another game you can play is the story game. Have

everyone sit in a circle and take turns telling pieces of a story. Choose a “master storyteller” and she will begin

the story with “Once upon a time…” and a sentence or two to set the scene. Then, she points to another guest

to continue the story from where she left off. Your guests will need to pay attention because at any time—even

mid-sentence—the “master storyteller” can choose another person to pick up the story. When the story comes to

a conclusion, the “master storyteller” points to herself and finishes the story with “The End.” Take turns being

the “master storyteller” and create your own outrageous fairy tales..

Party Favors

You may consider giving party favors or prizes for the games. Rhinestone, butterfly, or flower hair clips

and bands are fun prizes. If you’re feeling crafty, you can make fairy bookmarks. Cut card stock into 1 ½” by

4” strips. Decorate the strips with fairy stickers or stamps. You can personalize the bookmarks with by writing

your friends’ names with sparkle gel pens. Punch a hole at the top of the bookmark and tie a piece of fun yarn

at the top for a tassel. Or instead of fairy stickers, make fairy tale theme bookmarks. Put bears on a Three

Bears bookmark, ballet slippers on the Twelve Dancing Princesses bookmark, and so on. Be creative. Let your

imagination roam.

Delicious Wintertime Cookies!

Last Fall, we had an “open house” in our dorm. My residence coordinator asked me to make these cookies... they were so delicious! I was pleasantly surprised to find them all gone within 30 minutes. This recipe is easy to double (which I did), and is also easy to adapt. I’ll give you the original recipe, as well as a yummy change. The original recipe is a chocolate chip cookie with a little twist – a packet of chocolate pudding mix! The pudding mix adds some extra chocolatey goodness along with the chocolate chips.

A couple notes:

-I baked my first batch for 10 minutes and they were pretty crispy. I’d start monitoring your cookies around 7 or 8 minutes to ensure that you don’t over-bake.

-You can also use vanilla pudding mix. It gives a slightly chewier cookie, which I really like. Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks butter, softened 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding (3.9 oz) 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until combined. Then add the pudding mix, flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix thoroughly (again, you can do it by hand like I did or use an electric mixer). Toss in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes (10 minutes for a gooier cookie, and 12 minutes for a more chewy effect). Enjoy!

Variation:

Joy of the Imagination By Megan Dominick

“Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. Your imagination is your power to create mental pictures of things that don’t exist yet and that you want to bring into being. Your imagination is what you use to shape your future. And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source, tirelessly churning out mental pictures of what you’ll be doing in the future.” - Rob Brezsny

Just like the child who plays by themselves in a corner, anyone can find joy in their imagination. As Rob Brezsny said in the quote above, our imagination is the most important asset that we possess and with it we can create such a multitude of things. The imagination is such an important asset because without it no one would be able to do very much with their lives.

Pretend that you are a famous author and you are about to start writing a new story, but you don’t know where to start. That is when you start to pull random ideas from your imagination. When authors come up with story ideas they can write about almost anything. Some of the books written range from vampire romances to retold fairy tales (though some of these kinds of stories are for more mature audiences). But no matter what story is being written, the authors have fun with their imagination while writing their current creation. Whether or not they are aware of it, the imagination that they put in their story can bring joy to others. As authors, they really need to get into the heads of their characters when they start a story. A book without any imagination at all would be rather boring and would put people to sleep within seconds! An example of how the imagination can be used is in fairy tales. In any fairy tale you read, some of the things are imaginative (though they can be a bit on the morbid side). Two that exemplify this use of the imagination are Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. In Grimm’s Cinderella, you see a tree that grew because Cinderella’s tears fell on it--a direct result of the imagination of the author. Later this same tree, with

two doves sitting in it, also gives her three dresses so that she can go to the three day festival the king is having. In the Disney version of Cinderella, you have the talking mice, the fairy godmother, and the magic wand. Readers need an imagination as well, not only authors. In Hansel and Gretel, there is the house made out of food--that requires imagination, simply to think about what it may look like.

In daily life you can use your imagination, whether you are writing a story or simply playing alone in a corner. You can use your imagination when you are just sitting there. When you are using your imagination to think up different things, it doesn’t matter whether they are stories or just things that are fairy tale like. Your imagination can even be used when you are in the middle of doing something and you see something strange. Though it may not seem like it, imagination can help you with many things. Without imagination, there wouldn’t be much joy in the world.

So whether you are an author, a child, or just someone who likes to find the wonder and magic in everyday life, you can use your imagination and find joy in it. When you use your imagination it can take you places that only you can go to. And when you go to the places in your imagination, you can have all the fun that you want there because no one else can get into your imagination. So no matter where you are or what the time or place may be, or even whether you are an author at work on a story or a child at play in some random corner, you can find immense joy in your imagination.

The Loveliest Musical Yo Children W and So

Have you ever thought about how much work would have to go into making a pair of real glass slippers? The delicacy, the intricacy, the shape and form so perfect it sparkles?

Well, if Broadway had a pair of glass slippers, it would be Into the Woods.

Perhaps the greatest musical that practically no one’s heard of, Into the Woods is one of Stephen Sondheim’s best, and densest, creations. It’s so dense, it fact, that I can’t go into the plot in detail here. At least half a dozen different fairy tales (including the tales of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood) are involved, each of them expertly intertwined with the other. Each of the characters has to venture into the woods to find his or her 32

heart’s desire, and they all end up happily ever after – at the end of the first act. Then a sudden misfortune unsettles their world, and they go into the forest again to try to set it right. Along the way, they discover that happily ever after is, perhaps, not so happy as it seems. Lyrically, Into the Woods is beautiful, practical, and a mighty tongue-twister. Sondheim, who also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story and Sweeney Todd, really shows what he does best here. The words are natural, yet magical – they drive the story along with a purpose, yet they pause to let us fully realize what their implications are. They range from the silly and alliterative – Cinderella, telling us of how the Prince smeared pitch on the palace staircase to trap her as she fled, sings, “Better stop and take stock/ while you’re standing here stuck/ on the steps of the palace” – to the concrete and contemplative – Little Red Riding Hood, experiencing a different, more guarded world when freed from the Wolf’s hungry stomach, tells us, “And take extra

care with strangers,/ even flowers have their dangers,/ and though scary is exciting,/ nice is different than good” – to the downright heartrending, when the Witch sighs, “Children can only grow from something you love to something you lose.”

Into the Woods is full of little gems like these, sparkling bits of glass in what appears to be an ordinary pair of shoes. This is the musical that teaches its audience that “wishes may bring problems such that you regret them,” that “sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood,” that “no knot unties itself” yet “every knot was once straight rope,” and that “sometimes the things you most wish for are not to be touched.” But it doesn’t take itself seriously all the time. Cinderella’s step-family, for example, cautions us to “never wear mauve at a ball… or pink… or open your mouth.” The prince pining after Rapunzel tells the prince chasing Cinderella that his “agony [is] far more painful,” because “you know she would go with you, if there only

ill Listen, and So Should You – u’ve Never Heard Of By Jo Cromwell

were doors.” And Rapunzel herself, in regards to living with her mother, says “our little world is perfect, if she just wouldn’t drool…”

Well. Enough about the lyrics. Time to geek out about the music. Sondheim also wrote the music for Into the Woods, as he did with Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music. For the die-hard fans out there, that should give you an idea of how tight-knit this music is. For example, the song Your Fault, an argument between five of the characters, goes at such a breakneck pace the singers are practically tripping over each other to get all their syllables out. Yet every word is perfect. The very first song, the Prologue, simultaneously tells three different stories and sets up the entire play, while also introducing much of the melodic and rhythmic motives that will hold the whole musical score together. I Wish, sung by almost all the characters, is just two notes going up by step, but as the play progresses it steps up higher and higher until all of its appearances have spanned almost a whole

chromatic scale. But the show isn’t just a musical mush for musicians like me to freak out over. There are songs that are just songs, like Last Midnight, the Witch’s last-ditch attempt to get what she wants, or the beautiful No One is Alone. It’s slow, and unassuming, but it packs the most powerful punch of the whole show.

Now, hopefully, you’re thinking you should probably go check this thing out. Good news, it’s not so obscure that you can’t find it anywhere. There are a few recordings of Broadway casts (both original and revival) doing this, and rest assured, these people know what they’re doing. There’s also a filmed version of the stage play (featuring Bernadette Peters) that’s pretty darn awesome. Be warned, it’s long – it runs over two hours. But it’s all so delicately woven together you won’t even notice. So please do get into it. You won’t regret it.

Into the Woods is lighthearted and serious, playful and weighty, and something that should not be missed, especially by musicians or lovers of

fairy tales. Let me leave you with one more thing:

“When going to hide, know how to get there… and how to get back… and eat first.”

Fairy Tale

by Kendall Jameson FAIL

old self. Now, if you were like me, you already knew

every classic Disney movie by heart and pretending to

be Cinderella or Snow White was what made chores

bearable. I was always very disappointed that friendly

forest animals never came to help me clean.

Imagine how traumatizing it would be to learn

that while Cinderella did have those animals to help

her, her family went so far as to attempt to murder her

to help the prince find her. Twice! There is a teensy

bit more blood in the original fairy tales. I guess Walt

Disney didn’t want to scare all the impressionable

children that made up his audience.

Cinderella

So everyone knows the Disney version of

Cinderella: a daughter mistreated by her step-family

makes it to the prince’s ball with help from talking

mice and a fairy godmother with time constraints. The

original Grimm’s fairy tale is slightly different. First of

all, her father never died. He was there all along and

just let his new step-wife turn his beloved daughter

into a slave. What I don’t understand is how he allows

her to be treated in such a harsh manner and then he

from the fair that he is attending. Anyways, it is from

this fair that Cinderella receives a strange tree branch

that somehow obtained magical powers because

Cinderella cried on it everyday. It became a genie tree

and when the prince’s festival was announced it gave

her a dress for the first ball. The ball was wonderful

until Cinderella had to hide in a pigeon house and pull

a disappearing act in order to avoid being chopped to

pieces by her father. The next night was similar, but

her father tried to chop down a pear tree to get to her.

Yes, Cinderella’s father was a crazy axe

murderer who knew full well that it might be his

daughter who would receive the next blow from his

axe. Again, she disappeared in a very convenient

and unexplained manner only to go get ready for the

next ball. This dance Disney got partially right; at

least the part where she danced with the prince and

he somehow ended up with her shoe. In the original,

he had to paint the steps with pitch in order to get her

shoe. As he is going around to the various houses, the

two step sisters cut off their toes and heels in order to

fit into the tiny shoe. I want to know how the prince

didn’t notice the gaping, bleeding wound on his fake

same as the Disney version: Cinderella is discovered,

they get married, there are happy birds flying all

around them, and then the birds go back and peck out

the step sisters’ eyes.

Snow White

Disney does fairly well with Snow White up

until the part where they skip over the evil queen’s

numerous

visits to the

dwarfs’ cabin.

The first time,

it was mildly

excusable;

Snow White

didn’t realize

that she had

to mistrust

every sketchy

looking

peddler that came to her door selling things. The

peddler queen tried to kill her with a corset and a

comb. The dwarves saved her by cutting off the

corset, in true Pirates of the Caribbean fashion, and

simply taking the comb out of her hair. I have a hard

time sympathizing with Snow White, because after

being almost-murdered twice by a peddler, most sane

again for a while: Snow White is an idiot and lets

the apple peddler inside. She chokes and appears

to be really, truly dead this time, since the dwarves

put her in a transparent coffin because they want to

watch her rot. I suppose the Heimlich wasn’t common

knowledge back then. After a long time passes,

wherein Snow White is miraculously incorruptible, a

handsome king comes riding through the forest and

basically

offers the

dwarves

his entire

kingdom in

exchange

for the

dead Snow

White,

who he has

never met

or seen

before I might add. That is slightly more creepy than a

Prince Charming waking up his true love with a kiss.

Disney also skipped the ending, where Snow White

wakes up when the apple gets dislodged from her

throat by the king and they marry. It’s all happily ever

after, especially as they watch the murdering queen

dance in red-hot iron slippers until she dies in agony.

First of all I want to point out that there is no

Flynn Rider in Grimm’s version. Instead, Rapunzel

was the daughter of some couple who promised her off

to a witch in exchange for cabbage. The moral of the

story: pregnant ladies get ridiculously strong cravings

for other people’s vegetables. In order that mother

dearest could satisfy her munchies, Rapunzel was

given to the enchantress and forced to grow up in a tall

tower. Around fourteen years later, a prince randomly

happens to pass by the tower and falls in love with

Rapunzel’s singing. While he was being a creeper, he

saw how the enchantress entered the tower and swore

to come back the next day to try his luck.

tower in despair, but instead of dying he was merely

blinded by thorns at the bottom. After many years,

he somehow stumbled upon Rapunzel and his twins

suffering a terrible life in the desert. One of the things

that was consistent between the Grimm’s and Disney

version was the fact that Rapunzel has healing tears.

However, Disney Rapunzel used them to heal the man

who sacrificed his life to save her, while Grimm’s

Rapunzel used them to cure the blindness that was

a side effect of an attempted suicide. In the end,

Rapunzel still became a princess, and supposedly lived

happily ever after.

Of course, she lets down her hair for him,

although honestly I don’t understand how she couldn’t

differentiate between his voice and the enchantress’.

In all of ten seconds, she loses her fear of this man and

promises to marry him. Now, I’m going to ignore the

fact that this is the first man she has ever met, as well

as the first stranger, and focus on how this is different

from the Disney version. Disney Rapunzel escapes

the tower to pursue her dreams on an adventure of

self-discovery. Her hair was cut by the man she came

to love, through quirky escapades, in order to free her

from the wicked step-mother. In Grimm’s version,

Rapunzel’s hair was cut off in order to prevent her

from ever seeing the prince again and then she was left

Here is my fairy tale:

Once upon a time, Disney stole the very basic

ideas from the Grimm’s fairy tales and proceeded to

murder the plots instead of the characters. The end.

Please note: I&F is in no way discouraging against Disney fairy tales. We love everything even remotely fairy tale-ish and have seen all Disney fairy tales in theaters and will go see all Disney fairy tales in 3D.:) -Neri, Editor

The Great Good Thing reviewed by Shaylynn Rackers

What happens to the characters in a book when the reader closes the cover? What if the characters are all actors, playing roles, who resume their ordinary lives between readings? The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley runs on this premise. As the opening line tells us, “Sylvie had an amazing life, but she didn’t get to live it very often.”

I first read The Great Good Thing in early elementary school. Of course, my mind was enchanted by the thought of princesses, magical beings, and adventures. Yet there was something about the story that stayed with me even after the memories of other “young children’s books” began to fade.

In the early 1900’s, a young girl received a book that she read, re-read, and loved so much that it practically became a part of her. Yet in the years since this First Reader last closed the cover, the characters of The Great Good Thing are left to pass the time uneventfully. Sylvie, a typical adventurous princess, hates waiting around for the next Reader. Finally, another young girl, the granddaughter of the first Reader, opens the book. The characters dust off their clothing and tell the story for Claire--but it doesn’t last for long. At the risk of giving something away, I’ll just say that Claire’s pyromaniac brother destroys their book, and Princess Sylvie leads the characters on a journey across the margins of the book into Claire’s mind.

This is where the story becomes far-fetched and extremely interesting. The plot itself takes some complicated turns, but the story develops a new dimension of depth. We travel with Sylvie through Claire’s subconscious, have daring adventures, meet the memories that live in her

mind, visit worlds within worlds, and watch Claire grow old...

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I now know that I loved The Great Good Thing because it is a philosophical reflection as much as an engaging adventure. It is primarily about the relationship between the reader and the book. When we read a book, how does it remain with us and change us? There is so much wonderment to be found in the magical act of reading, and this book truly awakened me to that wonder.

I recently read this book again, and I was surprised to find even more gems behind the story; things that I could never place my finger on as an eight year old but that stayed bright in the back of my mind, taunting me with timeless thoughts. The story plays with the borders between imagination and memory; it reflects on the pricelessness and briefness of life; it wonders at the profound relationship between the Reader and Author.

Although it is geared at the 9-12 age range, The Great Good Thing is a beautiful story for anyone. It has that special ability to touch the reader at different levels. On one hand, it is a fun blend of character, wit, and fairytale. Yet it is also an allegory about the power of stories and the mysteries of life. Thoughtful children will love the story and the intriguing questions it poses; teens and adults who don’t mind a “younger” writing style will love the whimsical approach to philosophical reflections.

Tangled reviewed by Neri Preslin

“At Last I See the Light” a Skeptic’s Love Affair with Disney’s Tangled

When Disney announced that they would be making a movie based off Rapunzel I was excited; when I heard they would be making it in CGI I was skeptical. Why change from hand drawn to CGI for presumably the “last” Disney princess movie? Why ruin a good thing? Then all of the questions began to build: How are they going to change the story? How good will the music be? I had every intention of hating this movie, until I actually went and saw it.

For someone so sure they would hate this version of Rapunzel I can honestly say it is my favorite of the Disney princess movies. After all the skepticism about the music, the animation, the fairy tale rewrite--it all worked, and in a surprisingly fresh way. Now I can’t imagine Disney creating the story any other way. CGI was the perfect way to create the backdrop of Tangled; the lantern scene alone makes the movie worth owning. The movie does lack some of the catchy/memorable lyrics found in other Disney animations, but it is forgiven by this audience member, because of the gorgeous orchestration and and wonderfully tuneful melodies. Aside from the lantern scene, the town dance sequence is both visually pleasing and musically impressive.

Likewise, the rewrite of Rapunzel from original to Disney was a happy balance of imagery from the original with a decidedly more uplifting final act, and a much richer back-story.

Equally impressive is the voicing for the characters. Well-known voices often take something away from the characters’ individual identity, however these actors only add to the characters they portray. Mandy Moore’s vocal

talents, as Rapunzel, only add to her characteristic innocence and spunk, while Zachary Levi’s Flynn Rider charms us with his his rough around the edges/good guy at heart routine. Like all Disney movies the animal sidekicks will give you the giggles whether you like it or not. Maximus, the military horse (who looks a little like Altivo, Cortez’s horse from Dreamworks’ The Road to El Dorado) intent on tracking down Flynn Rider for thievery, and Pascal, Rapunzel’s pet chamelion and henchman, offer an added layer of fun to the film. Not to mention the gang of lovable thugs who, like Rapunzel, have dreams that seem impossible to reach. Of course the role of the villain is also impressively voiced: Donna Murphy, an award winning stage actress, provides the over-the-top talent for Mother Gothel, the evil woman who stole Rapunzel and kept her hidden away in the tower for her own selfish desire to always be young. Possibly the most memorable song from the entire movie, Mother Gothel’s Mother Knows Best is both entertaining, and highly devious.

As you can see, I’ve gone from skeptic to believer when it comes to this retelling of Rapunzel, Tangled is one of the best. From Snow White to the present day its amazing how far animation and film have come, and all of this is culminated in Tangled. We could all use a feel-good movie once in a while, and this one doesn’t leave a sour aftertaste in your mouth. Check it out; you might be pleasantly surprised.

Finally, Not Another Medical Drama!

Fairy Tales on the Small Screen, and Why You Should Watch Them

By Jo Cromwell

Over the summer, as two of the major

television networks began advertising for two

different shows that were both concerned with fairy

tales in modern life, I thought, “Well. Now I have to

pick between the two of them.”

So not true.

I’m speaking, of course, about Grimm and

Once Upon a Time, both of which have turned out to

be pretty awesome. But for different reasons.

Let’s start with Grimm. Produced by some

of the same producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

and Angel, it’s a dark little thing. Nick, the main

character, is a detective who, it turns out, is part of

a family that just happens to be able to see fairy tale

characters (mostly bad guys) in their true, revealed

form. Of course, for a while he flounders with his

new identity, but he gets the hang of it. Mostly, it’s a

cop show like every other cop show, only with added

special effects and Germanic, Brothers Grimm-like

words for the perpetrators. But a viewer with a keen

eye and ear will notice that this is not your average

the color-scheme guy really knows what he’s doing.

And the music isn’t your run-of-the-mill “there’s

something dramatic going on what are we doing

what’s going on--oh crap *something jumps out at

character*.” Listen especially for the cello lines. I

hope that guy got paid well for what he did.

Granted, this show has flaws like every other

show. Grimm continues to lack a strong female

character in the forefront, and the special effects

look like they haven’t stopped reminiscing about the

1990’s. Not every bad guy is straight out of Grimm’s

fairy tales. And the text card before the credits is in

just about the most annoying font possible. But if

we can overlook its flaws, we can still appreciate its

strengths.

Now, on to Once Upon a Time. It’s from

the people who brought you Lost; it’s interweaving

its plot and characters pretty tightly, too. It’s a

straight-up retelling of the fairy tales we all know

so well, only if they’d been transported to our world

and placed under a curse that made the characters

day prison. Emma, the main character and Snow

White’s daughter (though neither of them know

it), is brought into the town by Henry, a little boy

with a book who believes he can reverse the curse

and send everyone back into their real, fairy-tale

lives. Though the story moves slowly, it’s thick and

hearty, like a steak dinner. You wouldn’t want to

scarf the whole thing down, anyway. Best to savor

Again, this show has its flaws. Emma is

supposed to be twenty-eight years old, but there’s

no way we’re swallowing that. Some of the

dialogue sounds like it was slapped on the page at

three in the morning before the script was due – or

maybe that’s just the level of cheesiness they’re

going for. A lot of things are repeated – the Evil

Queen/mayor has told Emma to stay away from

Henry about a trillion times now. It doesn’t have

outstanding cinematography or scoring, but it’s the

plot that counts for this one.

So. Two different shows, two different

genres, two different meals to digest in your brain.

It’d be unfair to pick one over the other. All you

have to do is appreciate each one for their own

specific sparkling pros, and laugh as you brush over

the cons.

And, bottom line, fairy tales are fairy tales.

At the Bottom

by Ciara Zaketti illustrated by Shaylynn Rackers

Note: The Grimm tales were indeed grim, and this story is somewhat gruesome. Consider yourself warned.

Once Upon a Time is a phrase that this

narrator hates. What time? It is indeterminate. It is

safe. But I don’t coddle. Just know that this is not

just a story; it is a warning.

Once upon a time, in some indeterminate

place, there was a small village. This village was

located at the edge of a wood so vast, alarming, and

enormous, that it was uncreatively named “the large

and scary wood.” In this wood, there were trees.

In this wood there were animals. But also in this

wood, there was a well. A large, cavernous well, so

overgrown by moss that it was nearly impossible to

tell that it was a well.

If anyone in this village was foolish enough to

also a concrete expression of irony. A well, naturally,

draws water, and water is equal to life, but this well

hailed only death. Certainly those who had ever

ventured past this well never returned. The village had

been around for centuries, always changing, always

evolving, but one thing did not change: to go beyond

the well was forbidden.

The narrator of this tale also dislikes the terms

“hero” and “heroine” especially when the terms are

applied to fairytale characters. Too often there is

nothing heroic about the main characters, rather, the

characters are more often extraordinarily stupid and

reckless and this stupid recklessness causes them to

stumble into situations a less reckless, less stupid

At the Bottom

of the Wishing Well

different matter altogether. But if I did, there would be

no story.

Who knows what drew them to the large, scary

forest that day, but that little matters. What matters is

that they went. Children, after all, are apt to do exactly

what you tell them not to. The brother was morbidly

curious, seeking adventure and, perhaps, the skeletons

of those unfortunate few who had gone beyond

the well and never returned; the sister chiding him

uneasily as they crept along the leaf-strewn path.

“We are going to get lost!” she hissed.

“We are not going to get lost,” he responded

tersely. “We are already lost.”

“I told you this was a bad idea!” the sister said

scathingly. “And I’m not the only one. Father did, too.

There’s a reason this wood is forbidden. If we don’t

get lost, we’re sure to get mauled by a bear, or trip on

a tree branch and twist our ankles, and then where will

we be?”

“Don’t be such a chicken! You always worry

about everything.” He adopted a mocking tone.

“‘Don’t run in the house, you’ll slip on some dust.

trip and decapitate yourself. Don’t start on a trip on

a Sunday because you’re sure to get lost. Don’t eat

facing east; you’ll be blinded by the sun!’”

“Someone has to worry about these kinds of

things,” she retorted. “It’s not like following your

advice ever got us anywhere!”

It was when he was opening his mouth to retort

that he saw it: the well. It was covered in moss just

like the stories said. Small patches of gray stone shone

through the moss, reflecting the silver moonlight that

was just barely shining through the thick foliage that

surrounded them.

His sister’s voice failed her mid-sentence as

she followed his gaze.

There it was, the object immortalized in her

mind, both by her brother’s ceaseless obsession

with seeing it, touching it, and the village’s fearful

acknowledgement of its existence. She was frozen,

unable to move, trapped by the terror that had so long

been ingrained in her consciousness. The brother was

moving away from her, towards the well.

“Wait!” she whispered.

only saw but touched the well?!” He could not hide

the enthusiasm in his eyes, the excitement in his voice.

Despite his excitement, she was uneasy. It

was stupid, stupid to come here. Once they got back

home she would make sure they never ventured into

the woods again. She was his elder sister; the smart

one in the family, or so Father said. It was up to her

to make sure this never happened again. That’s when

it happened. The silence. The eerie, deafening silence

that made her feel as if she would never hear again.

Something was terribly wrong.

She opened her mouth to call to her brother,

tell him it was time to leave, to run away and forget

they had ever come to this place. Movement. All

around her, like a rush of icy wind billowing about

her, ripping at her skirt, clawing at her hair. A scream,

working its way from her stomach all the way up to

her mouth, died in her throat. Too terrified to scream.

The brother was alerted by the nauseating

sound of a choked back scream. He turned to see just

in enough time to see the white figure leap at his sister

in a distinctly feral spring. It was upon her, a jumbled

mix of white and red; the white of the figure, the red

of his sister’s blood as it flowed down the side of her

neck, staining her clothes, speckling the leaves at their

The white figure was standing, his sister still

everywhere, trickling out of the corner of its mouth,

dribbling down its chin, flowing down its chest. It

stared at him.

In shock, he realized that the high pitched

shrieks that he had thought to be his sister were

actually coming from his own mouth. He knew

instinctively that she would never scream again;

the shriek that died in her throat was a disturbing

prophecy. He stumbled backwards, tripping over a

branch, crashed to the ground, sprawling in the dirt.

He scrambled to his feet as the thing turned away,

towards the well; the moonlight putting on display the

stark contrast between the white of its skin and the

scarlet of his sister’s blood. It leapt towards the well,

but he knew nothing else. He was running as he had

never run before, terror giving his feet wings. He did

not look back, even when he crashed through the door

of his home, a home where he once felt safe. But he

knew nothing would ever feel safe again.

Nothing was the same. Rules are there for a

reason. Guilt consumed him. Did he go crazy? Did the

ceaseless questions push him over the edge?

Where is your sister? Where is she? It was

your own fault. You know it. Now she’s with all the

others. At the bottom of the wishing well.

Special deals:

The entire

Fairy Tale Novel set

for $65!

The three JP2H books for $33.33

In addition to publishing Regina Doman’s Fairy Tale Novels, Chesteron Press is now also publishing the John Paul 2 High series which she helped to create.

JP2H Book 3: Summer of My Dissent, is now available for purchase!

www.chestertonpress.com

UPON A TIME

Everyone loves fairy tales, especially little girls. Little girls grow up

begging their parents to read them just one more story about the prince saving

the princess, and them both living happily ever after. These little girls dress

up and imagine themselves as their favorite character. When they grow up

by Rose Dominick

Once upon a time there was

an enchanted forest filled with

all the classic characters we

know. Or think we know. One

day they found themselves

trapped in a place where all

their happy endings were

stolen. Our world. This is how

it happened...

- opening lines,

Once Upon a Time

they still love fairy tales, watching countless film adaptations, reading novels

based on the stories they loved when they were little, and dreaming of the day

their own Prince Charmings might come in and sweep them off their feet. Fairy tale lovers young and old alike can enjoy a new outlet for their

love with ABC’s new television show, Once Upon a Time. The show can be

enjoyed by both boys and girls, but the strong focus on the princesses’ stories

will appeal most to female viewers. The show revolves around Emma Swann (the daughter of Snow

White and Prince Charming), the town of Storybrooke, and a powerful curse

cast by the Evil Queen. At the wedding of Snow White and Prince Charming,

the Queen threatened to curse them and everyone else who lived in the

fairy tale world, so that there would be no more happy endings save for her

own. She did not place this curse into effect until the day Snow White and

Prince Charming’s daughter was born – a girl named Emma. This child, as

prophesied by Rumpelstiltskin, would be the only one who could break the

Queen’s curse. Twenty-eight years later everyone is stuck in the town of

Storybrooke. Time does not pass here, and the characters have no memories

of their former selves, and no idea that anything about their lives is out of

the ordinary. The Queen is the mayor of Storybrooke and Rumpelstiltskin is

Mr. Gold, the wealthy owner of the town. Snow White volunteers at the local

is a lonely, single, bail bonds collector.

She is brought back to Storybrooke

by the son she gave up for adoption,

Henry...who was adopted by none other

than the Evil Queen. Part of the charm of Once

Upon a Time is the fact that it draws

heavily from the Disney adaptions of the

characters it highlights. Cinderella, Jiminy Cricket,

and even Pongo from 101 Dalmatians have all made

appearances, and there is promise of the future

introduction of other characters, such as Belle and

Aladdin. Much of the delight comes from seeing how

the costumes make the transition from cartoon film to

a live action show. The costumes are a strong point of

the show; they are creative and gorgeous, and not only

do viewers get the chance to see real versions of the

classic costumes, but they also receive the opportunity

of seeing how people like Little Red Riding Hood or

Snow White would dress if they lived in our world. A strong plot and well developed characters

provide two other bonus points for the show. The

breaking of the curse gives driving force to the

storyline, and the forgotten world of fairy tales

provides a unique and fascinating opportunity to blend

the fairy tale with reality by showing back stories

and most interesting back story belongs to The Evil

Queen, who is not quite so much the typical fairy

tale villain as one might think. As both Regina – the

mayor of Storybrooke – and the Evil Queen, it is easy

to hate her. There are moments, however, when it is

hard not to feel genuinely sorry for her, and wish that

her life had turned out more happily. If you are looking for another source to feed

your fairy tale fascination, or if you just want a good

show to follow and enjoy, give Once Upon a Time a

try. You won’t be disappointed.

Watch it on

abc every sunday or

for free online at abc.com the following week

Everyone loves fairy tales; even little boys are not immune to the magic

by Rose Dominick

“You saw him didn’t you--

you saw who Holda really

was. We have the ability to

see what no one else can.

When they lose control,

they can’t hide and we see

them for what they really

are. This is no fairytale.

The stories are real. What

they wrote about really

happened. You are one of

the last of the Grimms.”

-- Aunt Marie, Grimm

spell they cast. They will never admit that this is so, but what little boy does

not dress up as a knight or a prince charming and set off on a quest to save the

princess (if they have a sister who will play along) or slay the monsters (whether

they have a sister or not)? When the little boys grow up, they’ll let their sisters

or girlfriends talk them into watching fairy tale based films, or read books

like Regina Doman’s Fairy Tale Novels, which they may or may not admit to

enjoying. This fall NBC introduced a show that young men who enjoy fairy

tales won’t be embarrassed to enjoy. Grimm is a cop show, with your classic gun

fights and stake outs. The twist is each episode is loosely based on a fairy tale or

folk tale, primarily a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. The show centers around

Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective who discovers that he is the last of the

Grimms, a long line of hunters who work in secret to keep people safe from the

monsters that hide in plain sight. These supernatural creatures hide themselves as ordinary people, but

every now and then their mask slips and the Grimms are able to see them. Most

of these creatures are animal like, similar to wolves, bees, or goats in several

of the episodes, and one group, called the Reapers of the Grimms, are troll-like

creatures whose focus is on hunting down the Grimms. Nick discovers his family

heritage one evening when his Aunt Marie comes to visit and they are attacked

by a Blutbad, a ‘big bad wolf’. Aunt Marie manages to tell Nick about the

struggle he is now a part of before slipping into a coma. Nick struggles to keep

his secret knowledge from his fiancee Juliette and his partner Hank. The only

one he can turn to for help is Eddie, a reformed ‘big bad wolf’, and his reluctant

companion in solving the crimes. Character development is sadly not one of the strongest points

of the show. Nick is a fairly strong

hero, but he adapts almost too easily

to the knowledge that there are a)

supernatural creatures in this world;

b) he can see them when other people

can’t; and c) a lot of them are out

to hunt and kill him if they get the

chance. Hank works well as a side

character, but because he can’t see what

Nick sees, he’s not much more than a prop. Juliette,

the only constant female character in the show sticks

to the background and as of yet has not played a

substantial role in any of the plots. Eddie is the most

interesting of the group, because he is the most unique.

He’s a reformed bad guy, and where most of the

characters are consistently very serious, he prefers to

make snarky comments and poke fun at the situation. The series’ strongest point lies within the

fairy tale adaptations. A devoted fairy tale fan looking

for obvious parallels to their favorite stories will be

mildly disappointed with Grimm,yet the fact that there

are no blatantly obvious parallels is what makes them

so intriguing. Each show is based on a single story;

the episode begins with a quote from that story, but it

is not directly stated which story it is. Unless you are

very familiar with the tale being adapted, it will be

to fit a crime-based plot, and this fairy tale spin adds a

new element that without which, Grimm would be just

another cop show. Younger viewers should be cautious when

taking on Grimm: the show is darker and many times

the action and suspense become quite intense. Older

watchers should enjoy watching classic fairy tales

and folk stories come to life in a modern drama with

mystery and murder. Overall, while it does have

its weaker points, Grimm is enjoyable show worth

looking into.

Watch it on

Nbc every friday or

for free online at nbc.com the following week

bitter food makes you mad

chapter three

by Ciara Zaketti

illustrated by Shaylynn Rackers

It was very clean, almost anally so. That was the first thing Sam noticed when she stepped into Chief Madden’s office. The desk was completely dust-free. The desktop computer was smudge-free. All the file drawers correctly aligned and in place. This was a man that took his job seriously, Sam knew instinctively.

Objects in a room spoke to her about the person who owned them. A misaligned drawer might just be a misaligned drawer to a normal person, but Sam knew that the misaligned drawer could be the actions of an angry person who had not cared enough to take the time to shut the drawer completely. On the other hand, a perfectly positioned drawer could speak of an obsessively well-ordered mind.

Many people mocked

the work she did, but what she did was no different than what normal cops did. She found clues and developed theories that fit the clues. The only difference was that the clues she found were not hard evidence; they were based on human behavior. Knowing a victim might help the authorities understand the perpetrator, and knowing the perpetrator is what solved crimes. Normal cops did not understand that. They focused on the crime; Sam focused on the victim. She could already tell that would be the main issue between her and Detective Will Madden.

She could see by the tense muscles in his neck and shoulders that he was irritated by her presence. She was used to that. There was already the typical angst about territory between cops and Feds, but

she knew that her status as a psychology expert would only strengthen that chasm. The cold nod Will had given Charles Leger was enough to tip anyone off to that, not just her, a trained profiler. ~~~

Will wanted nothing more than to tell Special Agent Sam Bittner to stop profiling him. He could tell by the way her eyes rested on him that she was making quick work of the tenseness of his muscles, the scowl that adorned his brows. Well, let her. Let her have her hey-day. Telling her off would just make her profile him even more. Trying to relax, he leaned against the bookcase near the door of Gramps’ office, arms crossed. Jay glanced at him from the opposite wall as the door to the office opened and Charlie Leger walked in. Jay’s glance

was half an apology, half a “be nice” look.

“William; long time,” Charlie greeted him.

“Not long enough, Charlie,” Will grumbled back, to which Charlie smiled.

“So, I see.” Charlie glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings. He nodded. “Jay.”

“Hey, Charlie,” Jay grinned. “Have you met Special Agent Bittner yet?”

Sam Bittner looked up from the file she was studying and gave Charlie a brief smile before turning back to the papers.

Charlie gave her a stiff nod, “Nice to meet you, Agent Bittner. “

“Doctor Leger.” Her tone was quiet, controlled.

Gramps pulled a drawer open at his desk and took out a file, “Well, I might as well hand these out. We’re just waiting for Special Agent Feud.”

“Dryden’s always late; we might as well start.” Sam Bittner hadn’t even looked up from the file she was intently scanning.

Dryden? There was something odd about the way she said his name. The tone was tender, but stilted. What was it that Special Agent Feud had said last night? “You can call me Dryden, but the people who value their limbs call me Feud.” Sure, he and Jay never used their formal last names, they pretty much always called each other by their first names, but Will

knew instinctively that there had been something between “Dryden” and Sam Bittner, something more than “just partners.”

“Is there a problem, Detective Madden?” Sam Bittner’s tone was pointed, demanding.

Will started and looked away from her; he had not realized that he had been staring. Unable to help himself, he blushed, sensing Jay’s smirk. Fine, let them think I’ve got a thing for her. That’s better than her knowing that I know. That was awfully sloppy of her. Charlie would never have let something like that slip. Will mentally face-palmed. There I go profiling again!

Suddenly the door to Grandpa’s office was thrust open, and Special Agent Dryden Feud stepped inside. He peered around the room, caught sight of Sam, then turned and abruptly left.

Sam Bittner flushed and looked down at her lap.

Will’s grin was sardonic, wry. Love gone wrong? I think yes. ~~~

Well, that was weird. Jay Hume glanced at Will, hoping he wasn’t the only one feeling wrong-footed, but Will only had that awful sarcastic grin on his face, the one that said he was right about something that no one believed him about; the grin that usually made Jay want to punch him.

They were too good of

friends for that to be a problem between them, but that would definitely not be an appropriate response in front of the Chief, or Leger, or blushing Sam for that matter.

Blushing Sam? Now there’s a sight I thought I’d never see. The woman was cool, calm, and collected, not to mention remarkably pretty with her jet black hair and striking green eyes. Nothing about her would say that she would blush like a school girl in the presence of a man. But she had. It had been Special Agent Dryden Feud’s entrance that had done it, of course. Jay glanced at Will again, seeing the sarcastic smile still there. He’s onto something I’m not yet. Jay glanced at Sam Bittner again, then at the door, as it opened yet again, and SA Feud entered again. Suddenly the pieces came together and he looked at Will in wonder. That goof. Likes to pretend he hates psychology, but he profiles people even more than Charlie does.

“Sam,” SA Feud’s lips moved stiffly, as if they had no desire to say that name ever again.

Sam Bittner merely nodded stiffly in response. These two got under each other’s skin and never left, Jay suddenly thought. He knew that feeling all too well; he’d experienced it multiple times in his life, until he had finally settled down. It was the inevitable outcome of a passionate love gone wrong. Jay 51

had had his fair share of “first loves,” that’s for sure. What was remarkable was just how quickly the passion one felt while loving that person could quickly turn to a passionate dislike, or even hatred. His wife was his last “first love,” and now his only love. They had their ups and downs, that’s for sure, but the downs just made them cherish the ups that much more. But the tense air that hung between SA Feud and SA Bittner was nothing like that. It was an air that only remembered the downs; there was bitterness thick as jello, a bitterness that blamed the other for what went wrong, for having forgotten that they had had their good times too. This…is going to be interesting. Thank goodness I called Charlie Leger. ~~~

Charlie Leger surveyed the room, taking in Will’s sarcastic look, Jay’s mixture of anger and puzzlement, the bitter intense air that hung between SAs Feud and Bittner, the air thick with things left unsaid. He was sure going to have his work cut out for him. He took a deep breath, mentally pushing his research to the back shelf of his mind. He glanced at Chief Madden, who was still holding the file in his hand, but he gave him a slight nod. I’ll take that as permission.

Charlie Leger got to his feet and went to the door. Opening it, he said, “Will, Jay, Agents Feud and Bittner; follow me.”

A brief glance was exchanged between Jay and Will, and then Will glanced at the Chief, who also gave him a nod.

Without a word, Special Agent Feud walked out of the room, Sam Bittner stiffly following. Finally, Will and Jay followed them, a puzzled look on Will’s face. ~~~

“You have got to be kidding me.” Will’s facial expression stated exactly what Sam was feeling at the moment: a mix of “what the hell?” and an amused “are you serious?” at the same time.

“I rarely kid, Detective Madden,” Doctor Leger answered dryly. “Now, bat that over here.”

Jay was snickering to himself, “Will couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn if his life depended on it.”

Sam smiled. These two clearly had a history beyond the police force.

“Shut your face, Jay,” Will retorted.

“Or what?” For an answer, Will spiked the volleyball at Jay’s face, hitting him square in the forehead; Jay toppled backwards onto the gym floor.

“That is not the point of playing this game, Will! Now, help him up before I call your grandfather,” Doctor Leger said, irritated.

Will jogged over to help Jay up, saying sarcastically, “Oh, wait, so there is a point to

making us play volleyball?” He yanked Jay to his feet.

“Yes,” Doctor Leger said, stiffly. “To build teamwork skills, and to learn to play nicely.”

Dryden opened his mouth for the first time, “If we all hit Jay at the same time, does that count as teamwork building?” Sam opened her mouth and smirked, “If we pick out the ball together, does that count as playing nicely?”

Dryden grinned at her, wryly, and she couldn’t help but stare. That stupid, stupid grin. Don’t go making me love you again, Feud. Matters of the heart were never gotten over easily. And it’s not about Dryden and me, it’s about justice for the victims. Sam glanced at Will and Jay, who were casually batting the ball back and forth. But his only victims aren’t just the ones dead and buried… She glanced at Dryden again, taking in his height, his arrestingly handsome features. Our relationship was sabotaged by his evil, too.

upcoming issues

march/April 2012: myths from around the world

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september/october 2012: elections the history and morals

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janary/february 2013: the romantic six (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Byron)

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