Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Time Just Keeps On Flying!

 I just can’t believe that it’s been over a month since I was last in touch. But what a month it’s been!

There is much to do and I enjoy doing these things so much that I lose track of time. But one of the things that I most enjoy is keeping in contact with everyone.

The deadline for the Ficta Fabula story submission has now passed. We received in a lot of good stories in varying lengths and genres. It was tough to cull it down to 25 to send off to the story selection committee, but they have them now and the results should be in shortly.

This is a really exciting part of the process because at this point I don’t even know which stories will be published and which ones won’t be. I know some people will be disappointed and some will be happy but all the efforts of everyone who submitted a story is appreciated.

I’ve taken a chance and sent off a couple of the stories to our uber talented illustrator, Dan Webster, to start coming up with ideas. I’ve seen one and he does a good job of picking just the right scene to draw out.

The mobile application is still a work in progress. I’ve recently discovered that having an IT background and using this new technology isn’t exactly the best mix. As I discover other features that can be added I want to try to incorporate them into the application, which adds to the time line. But I’m back on track now and this will be done within the next week.

I’ve also decided to join the ranks of authors as I’m writing a book. I’m not the one publishing it and I’ve got the good fortune to work with some very talented people.

The subject of the book is something I’ve had an interest in for some time and decided I’d really like to explore it. I’m writing about Fairy Tales, which have been around for centuries, but they started out life much differently than the final product we look at today.

Before the days of the Internet and televisions (hard to believe such a time existed!) and even before the days of the written word being common, stories were an evening’s entertainment told by very gifted orators. While many stories had some of the common themes that we have today, each story teller put his own spin on the story and with each telling it changed over time.

Both Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm took these stories and put them to paper. While they weren’t intended as children’s stories, many of the very graphic details were edited out in order to make them more appealing to children. Here’s a hint of what’s in the book: Rapunzel was pregnant.

My book is a light hearted look at the origins of fairy tales and how they’ve changed over time. In doing this research I knew some of the fairy tales that had changed, but I sure didn’t know the full extent of some of the original details.

 

Please feel free to send an email or comment on our blog or Facebook page (
Pages Of Stories FB page) about what you love to read or write.

Take care and happy reading!

Darlene Poier
Publisher, Ficta Fabula
Inspiring Creativity and Imagination
A wholly owned subsidiary of Pages Of Stories, Inc.