She talks to wolves...

Today's installment that, at first, seemed to want to be a poem then wanted to be prose again. I obliged it, fickle beast. I should note that I've finally managed to keep to my word count with this story, so hurrah!

Today's prompt was provided by quadrivium, a fellow Alabamian! I hope she enjoys it.

Read, enjoy, tip if you're moved, and comments are welcome!

(Psst, if you're completely confused as to what this Tales from the Wishing Well project is, click here to read an explanation.)

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Our Lady of Crows
A Tale from the Wishing Well

by Deborah J. Brannon

Mary tossed a coin into the well, and upon this coin was inscribed: Crow.

Inverted feathers, black to white slip sideways through a sky, ash-grey and breathless, all stopped-- the feathers explode in a shower of pale dust. A shadow clutches a burning brand and bears it earthward.

They say Crow stole light for us all, burned black when he set it in the sky. They do not say he was not alone or that his feathers were the color of starlight. His mate was the color of burnished gold in a westering sun, and it was her keen mind that prompted the act: stealing fire from the gods.

Some women remember the true tale: the women of dawn, with dew on their lips; the women of noon, with skin scorched umber; the women of midnight with eyes full of stars. These women of moment, perfect clarity, remember still how two crows took off in the nothing-dark, winged in tandem, together tamed the spark of life, and how it was she who first grasped the glittering brand.

( Read more... )

Please note: There will be a necklace inspired by this piece and it should appear by Friday.

I've updated my website to include my latest review as well as the Tales from the Wishing Well.

First a note: I apologize that this installment has appeared so late in the day. Also, I went over my self-imposed word limit again. This story came in at approximately 1150 words, when I keep meaning to cap these at 750. I swear, this is an experiment in getting me to write under word limitations as well as deadlines. 0_o

Today's prompt was given to me by my oldest little brother and I'm quite sure this isn't anything like he was expecting.

Read, enjoy, tip if you're moved, and comments are welcome!

(Psst, if you're completely confused as to what this Tales from the Wishing Well project is, click here to read an explanation.)

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The Brotherhood of Applied Sciences
A Tale from the Wishing Well
by Deborah J. Brannon

Douglas tossed a coin into the well, and upon this coin was inscribed: Brothers.

The men were brilliant, marvels and masters of modern science. All the papers would say so, would hail them as the conquerors of death and enhancers of life. Or would have done, if they'd ever heard of Dr. Henry Sexton and Dr. Adam Valincourt. The papers never would hear a whisper, though, and death would continue unchecked, blithely harvesting each life in its time.

Each life, that is, except for two.

Thanks to selling off some less advanced technology, Sexton and Valincourt had extensive financial holdings, a fully automated scientific facility, and a highly paid, tightly controlled security force. They returned to this facility every 60 years (a most sensibly-devised half life, given the times), downloading themselves into carefully engineered 25-year-old bodies which aged but slowly and bore faces of fictional descendants.

Each 60 years, their ritual was the same:

Once they finished with the less flattering conventions of their regular resurrections-- coughing up fluid, staggering about, eventually attending to hygiene and dress-- they met in a small, blue-painted room featuring a single mahogany table and two wing-backed chairs. On the table waited a tray bearing a decanter of aged brandy and two crystal glasses, carefully prepared by a discreet servant with financially-controlled muteness.

They greeted each other, sat, and talked about life.

( Read the rest of the story... )

My review of The Violet Issue of the Fairy Tale Review is up today at Green Man Review.

The Fairy Tale Review is an awesome venue for the contemporary literary fairy tale. Of The Violet Issue, I say:

"The fairy tale is not dead.

This has been proven by many authors across several genres, especially the mythic art movement until lately spearheaded by the Endicott Studio. And here, once more, the fairy tale is shown to be still a vital and formative part of many people's lives, thanks to Kate Bernheimer (well-known for Mirror Mirror on the Wall, wherein women writers explore their favorite fairy tales in essay form).

Bernheimer, with the assistance of the University of Alabama (where she currently resides, professionally), has initiated a new venue for the exploration of fairy tales old and new. She has founded The Fairy Tale Review, an annual journal currently in its third revolution, forging the way for a new crop of literary fairy tale writers.

Each edition of the Review is named for a color, evoking the Andrew Lang Fairy Books of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the third edition is The Violet Issue, the cover is understandably a violet shade. Each edition also sports the same illustration of Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother standing upon the gutted body of the wolf, an image entitled "Born," by Kiki Smith." [Read the rest of the review at this link.]

As always, this review is archived at my website (or soon will be).

Here concludes the first installment of Tales from the Wishing Well. If you've missed what's happening here, see this post for an explanation. If you've missed Part I of "In Extremis", you can read it here.

Read, enjoy, tip if you're moved, and comments are welcome!

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In Extremis
Part II
by Deborah J. Brannon

I have played the penitent before, mounted the ladder, wended the long way to Heaven on the heels of the Malakhim. Angels make climbing look effortless, but we earthbound demonkin grow fond of bodies with muscles that bunch and strain and skins that run with effort.

Thus limp and winded, I have thrown myself upon the mercies of my celestial counterparts, begging to be made new. Must I serve, only, and receive no surcease? Could not the tool of absolution be herself briefly absolved? The black eyes of my brothers and sisters have gazed at me, bowed and trembling with blood-stained hands and feet. Their gaze has swept over my taught skin, sallow by their own sacred glow. Their hands have twitched toward my ravaged wings, feathers tattered and torn through the passion of my calling and finally, with pitiless compassion, they have made me new.

Yet they would never let me speak: my words crowded behind my teeth, stymied by their holy hands that bid my words not profane such a sacred place. Though their hands were gentle and cleansed my skin, clearing away the sweat and blood; though their breath was refreshing, summoning new feathers from my beleaguered wings; though they clothed me in glorious raiment, they denied me further speech. So I learned that Abaddon's eyes could grow wet as rain-washed rust and still she-- I-- could not cry.

( Continue reading... )

Tales from the Wishing Well

Introduction
A couple of weeks ago, I invited all of you to give me writing prompts: one prompt per letter in the alphabet, in keeping with the Alphabet Meme going around Livejournal at the time. Originally, I planned to mix my responses to the meme, either writing a journal entry or a short essay or doing something more creative, however the mood struck me. My more creative responses could encompass flash fiction (up to 750 words), poetry, photography, or jewelry-crafting.

After pondering my current situation, however, I have decided that every reply to the Alphabet Meme-- or every installment in Tales from the Wishing Well, as the project is now called-- will be creative. Some installments may have a visual component (either photography or jewelry), but all installments will have a written component (mainly flash fiction and poetry, with forays into song-writing and essays possible).

My reasons for doing this are several. First, I'd like to encourage myself to start producing creatively to a schedule (no matter how busy I am otherwise). In addition to this, I'd also like to generate more interest in my writing. On the business side of things, I'd like to experiment with cyber-funded creativity. Finally, on a personal note, I am sadly in dire financial straits.

Schedule
As of 01/01/2009, the schedule is now once monthly to appear on the 15th of every month.

Topics, As Provided By You
( behind the cut )

Donations, or The Cyber-Funded Part
Each installment in Tales from the Wishing Well will have a Paypal Donate button located at the bottom of the post. This is a tip jar, an up-turned top hat, an open guitar case. It is not a bill, an invoice, or a demand.

I ask only that, if you enjoy the fruits of my labor, that you consider throwing a bill or two into the jar.

Those who do donate, however, will have first crack at purchasing any jewelry made for this project. Or window-box prints of my photographs, with the photo surmounting the text of the accompanying installment. There may be other incentives to come over the next couple of months!

Coming Up Soon
On Friday, you'll get a short flash fiction piece inspired by afterimage's prompt: Abaddon. Come back and read the story entitled "In Extremis" (or "Lady of Locusts" as it's been rattling around in my head). Brought to you by the phrases "place of destruction," "land of the dead" and "where the damned lay half in fire and half in ice." I hope to subvert your expectations.

My Plea
If you know some people who enjoy free short fiction and poetry, would you mind directing them here? They can check out the first installment of Tales from the Wishing Well this Friday (and read some other free fiction and poetry on my site) and decide if they'd like to hang around for the whole carnival.

Thank you!

(I would be remiss if I did not mention the local trailblazers in cyberfunded creativity: ysabetwordsmith, haikujaguar, and shadesong.)

Wow. Seriously: wow. The sale over at chimera_fancies was one of the most frenzied free-for-all sales I've seen outside of Christmas season retail. I could say that sale resembles a bone cleanly-picked by the finest pirahna in the Amazon and that wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Mia's work speaks for itself, literally: the poem-pendants are little sirens in the realm of wearable art. I'm so happy that something my friend loves to do is selling so well: she's even scored a feature on a fashion blog!

I threw myself into the fray with her today, gladly helping sort out who got what by virtue of their claims. And now that the furor has died down, I'd like to bring attention to a few pendants still in need of homes:



If you'll click on each pendant above, you'll be taken to the sale they were featured in. In some cases, there are a couple of other pendants still available as well. Browse around and see what beauty you can find!

Well, let's try this. Claim a topic from A-Z and I'll blog about it. If I'm inspired, I may even create some art for your topic: anything ranging from photography to jewelry to poetry to short fiction.

For each post that contains an artistic endeavor, I'll put a Donate button at the bottom. If my creativity brings you some joy and you feel like it, toss me a dollar. Or, y'know, don't. I'll be glad to share either way.

A: Abaddon (afterimages)
B: Brothers (blackspirit86)
C: Crow (quadrivium)
D: Desire (caudelac)
E: England (sarabystarlight)
F: Falling (mommiemilo)
G: Gallow's Humor (catwalk)
H: Hopeful (ellenmillion
I: Imperium (themaskeddragon)
J: Japan (copperwise)
K: Kitsune (jessicamelusine)
L: Lust (moonvoice)
M: Mythic (keilexandra)
N: Nebulous (sirandrew)
O: Obstinate (void_dragon)
P: Predestination (worshipper)
Q: Question that should never be asked (jackbabalon23)
R: Rain (mlion)
S: Style (roomette)
T: Tactile (ironed_orchid)
U: Underworld (lola_mcrary)
V: Virtue (sonicanimus)
W: Wistful (caelum)
X: Xanadu (tithenai)
Y: Yarrow (cadhla)
Z: Zombies (budclare)

Last week, the Mythopoeic Society announced the finalists for this year's Mythopoeic Awards. You can find out who the finalists are by going to the relevant page or you can see the list below the cut:

( And the finalists for the Mythopoeic Awards are... )

Note: Just for kicks, I have bolded the ones that I have read and italicized the ones that I've been wanting to read.

I would now discourse knowledgeably on the finalists and predict who would win in each category, but I can't. I just haven't read all these books and don't have the experience to make any well-founded predictions.

However, just for fun, I will put my totally random predictions as a comment to this entry. I invite you to do the same!

P.S. A possible note of interest for those who are interested in past Mythopoeic Award-winners and like random reading projects: the Foxy Writer has started a Mythopoeic Awards Reading Challenge, which sounds brilliant to me. (Mostly because it has tons of books on there that I've been wanting to read anyway! This gives me a good excuse to move them up in the to-read pile.)

P.P.S. And for those who were wondering, the winners will be announced during Mythcon XXXIX (held August 15-18, 2008).

This week, Green Man Review features three reviews by me:

Examining a recent example of successful cyberfunded creativity, I have the following to say about M.C.A. Hogarth's The Aphorisms of Kherishdar:

"It is remarkable to me that M.C.A. Hogarth is not more widely spoken of than she is, for she is writing some of the most imaginative social (and alien) science fiction currently out there. If I were forced to use one word to describe her as an artist and a writer, it would be -- ascending. If I were to use one word to describe her latest offering, The Aphorisms of Kherishdar, it would be -- illuminating." [Read the rest of the review at this link.]

Subterranean Press has been creating some lovely editions of Ray Bradbury's work and, this past February, they decided to publish Bradbury's The Golden Apples of the Sun in its 1953 format:

"It is well-established that Ray Bradbury is one of the finest writers currently working today, and that honor extends beyond the science fiction genre to distinguish him also in fiction, magical realism, fairy tales, and, really, the list goes on. Besides being one of the founding fathers of social science fiction, one could also suggest Bradbury to be a leading explorer in the interstitial arts, being a writer who has always done what creators did best: eschewed borders, ransacked the nooks of the brain and the crannies of the soul, and gave form to what came." [Read the rest of the review at this link.]

Recently nominated for a Nebula, Vera Nazarian also had a novella entitled The Duke in His Castle come out in hardback yesterday. I was privileged enough to receive an ARC and so was able to give you an immediate review:

"For years, I had nibbled at Nazarian's work, first through various Sword and Sorceress anthologies and finally through Salt of the Air last summer. I hadn't ever found the opportunity to sit down to a fuller feast -- until, that is, The Duke in His Castle fell into my grasping hands.

The Duke in His Castle is philosophy couched in a fairy tale couched in a murder mystery tinged with children's games. It's a kaleidoscope of thought and emotion, the howling winds of despair, and the sometimes soft, sometimes fierce flow of life. Not only is it quickly absorbing and a quick read, but it sits up and begs for repeat visits." [Read the rest of the review at this link.]

As always, I have archived all these reviews at my personal website.