Tag Archives: illustrators

Progress on my book of fairy tales, update

Sir Edward Burne-Jones The Rose Bower
‘The Rose Bower’ by Sir Edward Burne-Jones

April 2024

This month, I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo on my own, working as much as possible on my book, depending on the Lord, for:

The LORD will accomplish what concerns me. Psalm 138:8a

I hope to trim away the tangles from my thorny style just as the Prince cut through the terrible tangle of thorns to reach his Sleeping Beauty.

16 – 19 April – Sleeping Beauty slept – zzz zzz – hidden in a Castle surrounded by nettles and such.

20 – 24 April – I went back to the work of simplifying my style by slashing away wordiness and lack of clarity that hid the heart of my story.

20 – 24 April – I went back to simplifying my style, slashing wordy or unclear tangles grown up around the heart of my story.

The thorns must go!


Photo – Hunter Harmon, Pexels.com

Progress on my book of fairy tales

Beauty and the Beast, Walter Crane - 1901
Beauty and the Beast, Walter Crane – 1901

April 2024

This month, I’m doing Camp NaNoWriMo on my own, working as much on my book as life and my health allow, remembering that,

The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. ~ Proverbs 16:9

I hope to transform my beastly style through persevering love, just as Belle’s love transformed the Beast who’d been cursed with both ugliness and stupidity.

4 April – I edited to simplify my style, that is, to be clearer – the Beast lost a tusk!

5 April – Again, I edited to simplify, clarify – a claw broke off!

6 – 13 April – Family life and a solar eclipse really did get in my way.

Photo – Elizabeth Olson, Pexels.com

14 April – Back to simplifying my style. Though this is hard to do, I found a handful of Beast bristles in the wastebasket.

15 April – I worked on two pages of courtroom drama. Now they not only carry the story along but make sense – something important, right?

This beast must be changed!

An interesting kind of poetry

Ekphrastic Poetry

“There is a special term to describe literary depictions of visual works of art: ekphrasis. Poems about pictures or paintings are, then, ekphrastic poems.” Dr. Oliver Teale, 10 of the Best Ekphrastic Poems about Pictures

Frederick Hall – Cinderella

Cinderella is one of my favorite fairy tales. Its heroine appears in my fairy tale book.

Looking Glum

Cinder-girl, are you feeling sad?
Let me be your Fairy Godmother
offering advice you haven’t asked for!
Isn’t it better sitting barefoot
in a sunny barnyard filled with
the flitting, scratching, and pecking of
innocent fowl and
fallout of downy feathers
than sitting inside a wealthy house –
too large for its occupants –
littered with the fallout of wicked tongues?
One day – though now you can’t see this –
you will wear, lose, and recover a slipper
of unmatched beauty.
Till then,
I recommend,
cheer up!