Book Pile: Reading Slumps

Sometimes I miss the days when I could pick up just about any book and enjoy it. The problem with reading a lot is that you start to develop taste. There’s nothing wrong with taste per se, but once you have it you can’t enjoy a book unless it either lives up to your expectations or surpasses them. I’ve read some pretty good books recently, but now I’m having trouble finding new ones.

Plus, they’re certain times when I don’t feel that motivated to read--either because I’m doing a lot of writing and can’t stand the sight of more words, or because I’m having trouble finding stories that interest me. Right now it’s a bit of a combination of both. So here are some of the books I hope to/wish I could read. Hopefully one of them can break me out of the cycle.

Ross Poldark by Winston Graham

My sister has already read this and assures me it’s wonderful. I’ve been a historical-romance mood since I finished Outlander, and I liked the TV series, so I’ve already put this on hold at my library. At the very least I’ll get to imagine Aidan Turner as I read, so there’s really no way this could go wrong.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusack

I’m working my way through this one, and so far it’s been...okay. I feel bad because it’s very well-written and has all the elements I usually like in a book--big ensemble cast, lots of complicated relationships, an unexpected style--but so far I’m not wowed by it.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

My reread of the series stalled out at this one, and I need to jump back in.

Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen

Another hold. When it comes to fairy tales, I’m more of a Brothers Grimm girl--most of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories are very dark and depressing. (I don’t mind the dark; just the depressing.) They’re also a little too moralising for my taste. But this edition is illustrated by Kay Nielsen, one of my favorite artists, so I’m excited to give it a try.

How do you guys deal with book slumps? Do you have any book recommendations?

Publication News: "A Forest of Bones"

 

Back in November, I blogged about my short story Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, “A Forest of Bones”. Since then I’ve rewritten it at least four times, and went from liking it to loving it to hating it and back to liking it again. This story put me through the wringer, and I’m so happy to be able to say that it’s finally been published!

Quail Bell Magazine publishes both “real” and “unreal” stories. Some seriously talented writers have been featured on their website, so be sure to check it out.

I’ve already talked a bit about the inspirations behind “A Forest of Bones”--visually, it was very much inspired by Kay Nielsen’s illustrations and the whole baroque/rococo-type look. Starting out, I didn’t have a specific image or sentence in mind, just a feel--I wanted something pale, pretty, flowery, but also dark and spindly. The story really took off when I came up with the last sentence and the naming scheme. Each princess is named after a specific virtue, so you begin with Mild and end with Noble. I knew that Mild would be the main character, and I knew that neither she nor her love interest, the soldier, would be especially young or beautiful.

Here is the music I listened to while editing, and here is the Pinterest board. You can read the full story here.

Inspirations: The Secret Of Roan Inish

A little bit of background: The Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 film set in Ireland and based on a long out-of-print book called The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by Rosalie K. Frye. Both the book and the movie revolve around Celtic folklore, specifically the story of the selkie.

I think I was around five years old when I first watched The Secret of Roan Inish, and it’s stuck with me ever since. Maybe it’s the story, maybe it’s the gorgeous scenery (the movie was filmed on location in County Donegal), maybe it’s the eerie folklore, but this is a film that’s influenced me before and probably will again.

The Story

The story centers around Fiona, a 10-year-old girl sent to live with her grandparents in rural Ireland. Fiona badly wants to find her younger brother, Jamie, who was lost at sea when their family evacuated the island of Roan Inish. Jamie is a “dark one”, supposedly taking after their selkie ancestors, and has been raised by seals.

One thing that struck me on rewatching was how mystical and eerie it all is, while still being absolutely grounded in real life. Fiona believes in selkies, but also worries about her grandparents, who are about to lose their house. She wants to reunite with her brother and barely remembers life on Roan Inish. Wistfulness and homesickness permeate the first half of the movie, which makes the ending all the more satisfying.

The Selkies

The selkie in this story has a name (Nuala), but otherwise follows the original mythology to the letter: she marries a fisherman after he steals her skin, only to return to the sea years later, leaving him and their children behind. But she also has her husband build a floating cradle for their first child (floating cradles actually play a big part in The Secret of Roan Inish) and speaks incredibly antiquated Irish (since she’s MUCH older than she appears). Rewatching the movie, I can appreciate how small details like that make her story unique. Plus there’s the ways she influences her family over the generations…

 
Oh, and the selkie transformation scene is beyond beautiful. I wish I could write a transformation scene half as good.

How It Inspires Me

I love selkies, mythology, and the ocean. There’s a special kind of sea-swept atmosphere that I’d love to see in my own writing, mostly thanks to this movie. But more than that, I think it’s inspired my love for a certain kind of character: the outsider who’s mysterious and not quite human, and who has some sort of deep connection to nature. Characters like this have cropped up in a few of my stories--I even wrote a story specifically about selkies once. It was awful. Mostly because I was recycling the same old story without adding anything original, but also because I was scared of getting it wrong.

I haven’t found my own unique spin on the selkie story yet, but I hope that one day I will--and I really, really hope it’ll be even a quarter as good as The Secret of Roan Inish.

WIP Tag: A Forest of Bones

    Hey guys! I swiped this tag from Joni and modified it to fit one of my current WIPs, a short story retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I’ve been thinking of posting it on Figment once it’s done, but for now I thought it would be cool to share a few bits of the process.

How many words are you up to so far? How long is your story going to be?

The first draft is 3,024 words long. It’ll probably get a little longer once I flesh things out in the second draft.

What (if any) are some images you’re drawing inspiration from for your story?

I love the whole rococo/baroque type look, plus traditional fairy tale illustrations:

     

            

Music?

Not usually for short stories.

Do you have any other writing rituals/inspirations for this project?

Well, I wrote all but the first paragraph and the last two pages of the first draft in one day. I wrote the first paragraph at something like 12:30 the night before.

I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time—almost a year, I think. Very early on I knew the title and the last sentence, but it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that the plot finally started to come together. So you could say that the idea of finally being able to day, “I did it!” was a big motivator for me.

Pantsing or planning? 

Pantsing.

Share one prop from your draft:

A turnip-headed doll.

One character name:

Amity

And lastly, share one sentence from your rough draft:

When he asks where they've been going, Noble says, “Under the floor.”

All pictures via Pinterest

Artist Spotlight: Mabel Lucie Attwell

In some ways, Mabel Lucie Attwell’s illustrations remind me of Honor C. Appleton’s. Adorable children? Check. Pastel colors? Check. Dripping with nostalgia? Check. Absolutely whimsical and gorgeous? Check!

 

The Facts:

 

Born: June 4th, 1879.

 

Studied: At Heatherley School of Fine Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art, though she left both schools before she completing her courses.

 

Illustrated: Magazines, postcards, books like Mother Goose and Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales, calendars, and even crockery (she created a tea set inspired by her illustrations).

 

Known for: Cute and whimsical drawings of children and fairies. She was a household name in the 1920s.

 

Died: November 5th, 1964.

For this post, I want to focus on her illustrations of Peter Pan, which she created for an abridged version of the story published in 1921. There’s a childlike quality to her pictures that works just beautifully. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

 

 

 

 

 

Milk Tea Book Tag

  

    Back at the beginning of August, Alyssa tagged me for this amazing quiz. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to do this, but better late than never, right?

Tea: The foundation of your reading life

The Lord of the Rings. My mom read the books to me and my sisters when I was six-ish (right around the time the movies were coming out) and I LIVED in Middle Earth. I’m not exactly a Tolkien purist (in some ways I prefer the movies) but those books solidified my love of fantasy. You can’t ask for more than that.

Milk: A rich, smooth book

Most anything by Jane Yolen, but for today I’ll pick The Mermaid’s Three Wisdoms, which I just finished. It’s out-of-print and apparently very hard to find, but luckily for me our library still carries a ton of out-of-print books.  The story is about a mermaid and a deaf girl who become friends and communicate through sign language (according to some folklore, mermaids have no tongues). The language is simple, but gorgeous all the same. I got jealous reading it.

Sugar: A book you love but is controversial

I’m going to cop out here and go with Harry Potter. I don’t think this needs much explanation—it’s still pretty controversial in some circles.

Ice: A book just for fun

If a book doesn’t have at least some fun parts, chances are I won’t finish it. That said, Surviving the Applewhites is a ball to read. A juvenile delinquent is dumped into an insane family of artists and unschoolers who must all work together to put on their own production of The Sound of Music.

Silk Stocking: a book that’s much better than it sounds

I thought Entwined would be a pretty typical YA fairy tale retelling. Then I stayed up until after midnight to finish it. It’s whimsical, funny, sweet, surprisingly dark, and incredibly creepy. The characters are wonderful, the setting to die for (a Victorian fantasy kingdom!), and I can’t think of another story quite like it.

Yingyang: A book with foreign influence

Wildwood Dancing, another fairy tale retelling (same fairy tale, too—The Twelve Dancing Princesses), is set in 1500s Transylvania. There’s a lot of culture and folklore mixed in, which was super fun. The sequel, Cybele’s Secret, is set in Istanbul.

I Tag: Anyone who want to join in! What are your favorite books? 

Artist Spotlight: Warwick Goble

Gah! It’s been ages since I put together an artist spotlight. Today, I decided to showcase Warwick Goble. I’ve seen plenty of his pictures, especially around Pinterest, but didn’t get curious about the man himself until a few days ago. Here are the stats…

Born: November 22, 1862 in Dalton, north London.

Studied: At the City of London School and Westminster School of Art.

Illustrated: Children’s books with titles like The Book of Fairy Poetry and Tod of the Fens. You can’t get much better than that.

Known for: An interest in Indian and Japanese fairy tales.

Died: January 22, 1943 in Surrey, England.

…And here are the pictures. Enjoy!

The Water Babies (1909)

From The Book of Fairy Poetry (1920)

The Frog Prince

Folk Tales of Bengal (1912)

Urashima Taro

Artist Spotlight: Honor C. Appleton

Honor Charlotte Appleton was born on the 4^th of February, 1879 in Brighton, England. She studied art at the Royal Academy and went on to illustrate more than 100 books, including editions of Charles Perrault’s and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. She died in 1951.

…And that’s about all the information I could find online—Honor Appleton doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. I discovered one of her illustrations (the first one below) in Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, the same book that introduced me to Kay Nielsen. Her paintings have a very delicate style, and to be honest, sometimes it’s a little too sweet for my taste. Still, her Snow Queen will always be my favorite. 

The Snow Queen

The Princess and the Pea

Little Red Riding Hood

The Little Mermaid

P.S. Gobs and gobs of thanks to everyone who commented on my last post—your tips and encouragement were exactly what I needed.

Artist Spotlight: A Guest Post by Kelsey Hammersley

via

    Hey guys! For this spotlight, I thought it would be neat to get an actual artist’s perspective on what goes into creating fairy tale illustrations. I've admired Kelsey’s artwork for a long time, and I’m so happy to feature her here! If you like her post, be sure to check out her blog and her Tumblr. 

    

First of all, I'd like to thank Alex for inviting me to write a guest post for Third Star to the Right! I've never guest blogged anywhere, so needless to say, this a squee-worthy experience for me. I love seeing Alex's artist spotlights on here (plus all of her pretty fairy tale pins on Pinterest), so I thought I would talk a bit about the impact fairy tales have made on my art.

Oh, and just so you know, my name is Kelsey, I live in Ohio, and I am a Christian artist who's interested in going into illustration.

Fairy tales have been a huge influence and inspiration to me over the years. The first real artwork I encountered as a child was H.J. Ford's illustrations from the Andrew Lang Color Fairy Books. I actually picked out the fairy tales I wanted to read based on how pretty or intriguing their illustrations were. I discovered some of my absolute favorite artists while browsing through the illustration gallery of the fairy tale site Sur La Lune Fairy Tales--artists like Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, and Walter Crane. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about fairy tales that attracts me so, but I think part of it is their hopeful examples of perseverance through adversity, along with how the tales ignite the imagination.

The Enchanted Wreath by Kelsey Hammersley

For creating my fairy tale-esque illustrations, my ideas tend to start with a vague sense of the emotion I want to get across and the style I want to use. I try to hold onto that feeling as I work on the project. Emotion plays an important part in art for me; I want to create something beautiful, but I also want it to have meaning, something that people can connect with. The method that works best for me right now for creating paintings is to start off with an accurate pencil sketch as a base. Getting the drawing down right can be pretty tedious for me (the shading and the coloring are my favorite parts) but it helps me a lot in the long run by (ideally) sparing me from making big adjustments when I'm further into a painting. Once I'm done fiddling with the drawing, I clean up the pencil marks as much as possible so that the graphite won't mix in with the color too much and make it muddy. When adding in the paint, I tend to go through a lot of trial and error, playing around with the project and doubting myself--basically jumping from This is so much fun!!!! to I am a horrible artist. I can't finish this. But perseverance really does pay off. 

Lately I've really been inspired by the work of Albrecht Durer, particularly his woodcuts and engravings. I love how the subjects in his prints push forward into space. My linework is frequently inspired by Arthur Rackham, who's pretty much my favorite artist. My ambition in art is to both use my imagination and take inspiration from the beauty of the world around me--and hopefully inspire others in the same way that fairy tales and their illustrations have inspired me.

I'll finish off with a few tips for other aspiring artists, or basically anyone who wants to get better at drawing. Tip #1: Look at the work of other artists. Better yet, practice by copying works of the masters. You notice and learn so much about something when you try drawing it yourself. Tip #2: Take classes, or get lessons if you can. If this isn't an option, there's a wealth of online tutorials out there. I know plenty of completely self-taught artists have found success, but getting advice from other artists is a great way to encounter new ideas that you would be hard-pressed to happen across on your own. It's kind of like having someone else read your writing in order to figure out where you could improve. Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes, or a fresh set of ideas. Tip #3: Keep drawing! The best way to learn is to try. Even if you make mistakes (and mistakes are inevitable), with each attempt you make, you will see improvement.

Thanks again, Alex, for hosting me here! :)

Artist Spotlight: Elenore Abbott

“Elenore Abbott loves her fairy tales as one who never grew up, and no child who receives such a book will be disappointed. When twelve ravishing princesses go to the ball--twelve, each more beautiful than the last, will be found clothed in gowns that befit a princess of fairy land.”

--Eva Nagel Wolf

'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'

This time around, I’m spotlighting someone new--I've drooled over Kay Nielsen’s work for years, but Elenore Abbott is a recent obsession (as in about a week before I decided to write this post recent). Obviously, I haven’t discovered as many of her illustrations yet, but the ones I have seen are lovely. 

Elenore Plaisted Abbott was born in 1875 in Lincoln, Maine. She studied art in Paris (among other places), where her work was exhibited at the Academie des Beaux Arts. In 1911 she moved to Rose Valley, Pennsylvania with her husband, C. Yarnall Abbott. Elenore painted their house there Bermuda pink. She also sold several of her paintings to finance the construction of the Rose Valley swimming pool in 1928. She died in 1935. 

'The Wild Swans'

'The Goose Girl at the Well'

'The Little Mermaid'

'The Two Brothers'

'Cinderella'


The last picture is actually from Treasure Island, but I couldn’t resist including it. It still has a very fairy tale look. 

So, what have you discovered this week? A new book? Some gorgeous illustrations? As always, I’d love to hear about your favorite artists. And let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations for future spotlights!

Artist Spotlight: Kay Nielsen

'East of the Sun and West of the Moon'

 I've always loved fairy tales and fairy tale art, and over the years I've discovered a multitude of fantastic fairy tale illustrators. Their work has influenced my own imagination and stories, probably more than I know. Going into the new year, I’ll be putting together a series of posts showcasing some of my favorite artists and their work. I don’t have a degree in either art or folklore (point of fact, I don’t have a degree in ANYTHING yet), and these posts are more pretty picture appreciation than anything else. Hopefully, though, they’ll be inspiring…and a lot of fun. First up is one of my absolute favorite illustrators, ever--Kay Nielsen. 

   A little bit of background: Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) was born into a family of actors in Copenhagen, Denmark. During the ‘Golden Age’ of fairy tale illustration, he illustrated stories from the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, and Charles Perrault, among others. He also provided concept art for Walt Disney’s Fantasia and an early version of The Little Mermaid. 

I first came across his work in an edition of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales illustrated by multiple artists. Lately I’ve been unearthing even more, thanks to the wonders of Pinterest. Kay Nielsen’s illustrations have stuck with me for a couple of reasons, number one being that there's such a wonderful strangeness to them. Looking at them feels like looking into a dollhouse or a snow globe--you can’t help but study every detail. Here are some of my favorites.

    

'The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep'

concept art for the 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence in Fantasia

'Rapunzel'

'The Steadfast Tin Soldier'

    

'Brother and Sister'

    

'The Twelve Dancing Princesses'

 From a never-published edition of 'The Arabian Nights'. The pictures didn't come to light until years after his death

 Gorgeous, right? I had a ball writing this post, and I’d love to know about your favorite artists. Do you have any recommendations for another spotlight? Let me know in the comments!