Woo~ Blog post!

I sent a blog post in to the Manchester Children's Book Festival Blog Relay and they published it today!

mcbf-relay.blogspot.co.uk/2015…

WOO~

It feels super corny now that it's up there for everyone to read, but I do mean it.  No-one should be allowed to tell you who you are. 

And oh... what's that noise... it sounds like... it sounds like a good excuse to write a journal about people who think they're the folklore police.

So I'm gonna do that X3

So.  Folklore.  It's a thing.

It's a thing that some people seem to think is this solid, unchangeable set of rules that no writer should dare stray from.  But that's silly.  People have been straying from 'established folklore' for hundreds, if not thousands of years.  Why stop now? 

For example~

I draw unicorns like this:



These unicorns, with the deer's head and legs and lion's tail are the 'traditional' kind.  Note the inverted commas.  They are are there because this sort of unicorn comes from heraldry, not the original descriptions of unicorns.  Mine lack the beard and all the fluffy bits on the hocks and tail, simply because I can't be bothered.  But the unicorn is not described like this in ancient bestiaries.  One account is probably a description of a rhinoceros; the body and tail of a bull, the feet of an elephant and one long horn sticking out of it's head.  The other description is even weirder.  It's described as looking like a wild donkey, with a white body and a purple head.  Its horn was red, black and white. 
Nowadays the unicorn is a symbol of purity and innocence and can only be tamed by a virgin.  But I have read that originally, it was a wild and savage beast and could be attracted and trapped by ANY woman.  Who knows why it switched from being an animal of lust to an animal of chastity, but such is the nature of folklore.  Things change.

Nowadays fairies are thought of as tiny, twinkly things that wear flowers and like children.  Oh, they liked children all right.  They liked taking them for any darn reason they could manage.  They also liked stealing brides and babies and playing time tricks on people, especially at weddings - basically, if you're getting married just... just stay in the church.  You'll be safe in there.  Probably.  Take some iron, just to make doubly sure.  And there is no guarantee even then - they might have drafted in some human schmuck to do their dirty work for them.  Strokes are so-called because it used to be called 'fairy-struck' - people thought someone had been 'stroked' by the fairies, making them deaf, blind, dumb or otherwise insensible.  It happens in some of these bride-thief tales. In the story Guleesh, the enraged fairies strike the princess he rescues from them, taking away her power of speech.  You shouldn't wear green or call them fairies or elves, they don't like it.  Instead people called them The Gentry, The Good Folk or the Little People.  They do not sparkle.  ...Well, okay, they DO, but it's a TRAP.

Mermaids are fairies with tails, but I think you can call them what you like. 

Sirens, though we think of them as mermaids that sing beguiling songs, are depicted on ancient jars as winged creatures, like harpies.  (You can thank QI for this one)

Werewolves?  They're barely even a thing in folklore.  Not in any coherent manner.  And their vulnerability to silver comes from vampires.  We get that from the movies, as we do most vampire folklore.   ...We'll leave vampires well alone, I've probably already ranted about them enough in the past.  They don't burn in the sun, though.  Dracula doesn't even burn in the sun.  Carmilla doesn't, Lord Ruthven doesn't.  Yet frequently I hear this complaint about vampires people don't like - 'They don't even burn in the sun!'.  Yeah, they never did.  Get over it.  Find something concrete to complain about, please.

Oh and.. I was once given the excuse, when I pointed out that people don't complain about twinkly mermaids and fairies, that we grew up with that and we don't know any better.  But we don't usually know any better about any other folklore creatures either, so I don't accept that at all. 

Now, I am not saying you are not entitled to your opinion.  You most certainly are.  If you don't like non-threatening vampires, then that is okay.  We all have our preferences. It's when people complain that the very act of changing established folklore is in itself bad that I get upset.  No-one should get told 'You can't write them like that'.  To be held back by convention and the past is to stagnate.  It's already difficult enough as it is without people insisting you essentially plagarise early books and movies. 

I'm never going to stop bringing this up, am I?

This is what I get for having 'Vampires Don't Belong in Fairytales' on all my stuff, I suppose.

(And they can, if they want to.  I'm obviously not for stopping them.  Unless they're being a royal jerkface, literally.)

Well, that's another pointless semi-rant over and done with.

Thanks for reading,

Alicia

---

Progress:

Tyrian's book:

Status: Redrafted.  Awaiting feedback. 
Version 8.


Joshua's book:

Status: Awaiting feedback.
Version 2. 



Word count: 46000

----------------

To-do list:

-Read and review The Medium
-Read and review Primal Storm - up to chapter 12

----------------

Booked conventions-

Manchester Comic Con - 30th-31st May

Wigan Comic Con - 13th June

Manchester Children's Book Festival - 27th June

Mancstercon - 29th August

-----------------

'I'll get a job', she'd thought. 'Earn my own ticket,' she'd thought. Lucinda's parents had agreed that it was a good idea. 'It'll teach you some responsibility,' they'd said.  

Lucinda was currently staring down a dragon, dressed as a man, on only her first day in gainful employment. She suspected her parents would not think it such a good idea if they knew.

~ from Miss Prince

You can read a sample here - tannbourne.com

On Amazon  - www.amazon.co.uk/Miss-Prince-A…
Amazon.com - www.amazon.com/Miss-Prince-Ali…

--------------
"Ambrosia. The Drink of the Gods. Thick, syrupy and vanilla flavoured, for some reason. It also contains enough calories to kill a mortal on the spot, so it's just as well that mortals are no longer mortals by the time they finish drinking it. Like Seralina, for example. She hadn't really meant to become a god. She hadn't taken the warning 'This will make of ye a god' seriously. It was her general policy not to trust any claim beyond 'It tastes all right, really'. She certainly didn't trust anything that sounded made-up or used words like 'dynamic'. Going round trusting words like 'dynamic' could get you into trouble. As it turned out, so could ignoring warning labels."

~ from Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster

You can download a sample chapter of EBSD here: tannbourne.com

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Butter-Sugar-…