Tag: grown-up fairytales

On Funerals and Fairy Tales

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

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I’m up in northern Wyoming for a funeral. Always good to see the Big Horn Mountains again, and to spend time with family. The one good part of sad events like these is that family from long distances come together and stories get told that people haven’t heard before. Something about a person’s death unlocks old memories, as if their passing has opened a window into all of their life.

Heart's Blood by Jeffe KennedyThis week in the Bordello we’re discussing our favorite fairy tales. Come on by and find out about my current obsession. 

The Real Reason I Like Fairy Tales

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

File Nov 20, 7 35 01 AMLook at the pretty!!! I got a whole stack of cover flats for THE PAGES OF THE MIND. I tried and tried to get a good pic that captures the truly gorgeous green. It looks olive on my screen, but it’s truly more of a deep emerald/light forest green. I love it so hard. Fortunately Past Jeffe was wise enough to save a pristine copy of each of the cover flats from this series. I’d like to get them all framed individually and create a wall collage of them. I hear the cover for the next book, THE EDGE OF THE BLADE, is another winner (according to my editor), but they’re still tweaking and I haven’t seen it yet.

[Open, open, open…]

So, I’ve started work on THE EDGE OF THE BLADE – none too soon, right? I should be on track to finish by the January 1 deadline, however. Up until now I’ve been working on a new contemporary/erotic novel that Agent Connor pronounced “wonderful” just yesterday and sent out on submission under the title FALLING STAR. (*happy dancing with crossed fingers*)

As I was writing on EDGE, a fairy tale trope blew through my mind and I considered weaving it in. Fairy tale tropes are great for that and, arguably, this entire series is essentially a fairy tale retelling, though the later books go farther and farther afield. (Books 4 and 5 are actually part of a new series called The Uncharted Realms, which reflects that.) But, because this and other stories of mine are rooted in fairy tales, I often get put on those types of panels at conventions, and a perennial question is why do I love fairy tales. I have any number of answers to this question, but the real one just occurred to me.

I was thinking about the story “The Red Shoes” – one I brought up at one of these panels, for the gruesome, punitive ending, which incited a discussion of the various endings. I was familiar with at least three that people mentioned. Then I realized that fairy tales were my first encounter with the idea that the same story could be told multiple ways. As an avid collector of fairy tale books even then, I quickly encountered the same story in different books. Finding there were various ways to tell the same story lit up something inside me.

Still does!

Happy weekend, everyone!