Bargain Ebook: Kill the Farm Boy: The Tales of Pell

Kill the Farm Boy: The Tales of Pell (The Tales of Pell Series Book 1) by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson is on sale for $1.99, but I don't know for how long.

Book description from the publisher:

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born . . . and so begins every fairy tale ever told.

This is not that fairy tale.

There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.

And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.

There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he’s bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there’s the Dark Lord, who wishes for the boy’s untimely death . . . and also very fine cheese. Then there’s a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar “happily ever after” that ever once-upon-a-timed. 

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Sunday Funny: Some Fairy Tales from Tundra Comics

Some fairy tale comics today from Tundra Comics. The Hansel and Gretel one above is by far my favorite of the three. How about you?

Sunday Funny: Cinderella's Slipper

From BerkeleyMews.com, here is this week's sobering Cinderella Sunday Funny. Moral of the story: Always leave a shoe behind...

Sunday Funny: Cinderella Party

Time for a Cinderella themed Sunday Funny. This one is all over the web in several permutations (granddaughter, niece, daughter) and I don't know who first thought it up, but this was my favorite image found at SomeECards. That's my kind of Cinderella party! Don't think the Kensie niece would enjoy it though.

And while we're here, here's an extra one also found at SomeECards:

New Book: Happily Never After: Volume II of the Charming Tales by Jack Heckel

Happily Never After: Volume II of the Charming Tales by Jack Heckel is now available, the sequel to Once Upon a Rhyme: Volume I of the Charming Tales.

If you'd like to read more about the series, don't miss my previous posts, New Book: Once Upon a Rhyme: Volume I of the Charming Tales by Jack Heckel and Author Guest Post: The Charming Tales by Jack Heckel.

Book description:

Once upon, once again …

The dragon has been slain, but the problems have just begun for Prince Charming.

Disowned by his father, the King, and abandoned by his only friend, William Pickett, Charming must find a new path in life—but he's going to need a lot of help. His love, Liz, barely survived an assassination attempt; his former fling, Rapunzel, is in danger; and William is under an evil spell cast by Princess Gwendolyn.

The fate of Castle White hangs in the balance as Charming tries to find himself, while finding new allies along the way—including an odd number of dwarfs (or is it dwarves?) and a reformed beast. But he's running out of time to stop royally ruinous wedding bells from ringing …

If Rapunzel's Hair Was Real - Studio C

Many of you enjoyed the Once Upon a Time... by Studio C I posted in the spring. Now they have a spoof on Rapunzel that had the SurLaLune hubby laughing. "Put it on the blog," he said. So I did. Enjoy!

Once Upon a Time... by Studio C

Studio C is a skit based comedy show on BYUtv. This week they had two skits inspired by fairy tales. The above draws inspiration from the Brothers Grimm, "Once Upon a Time..." The comments say it is Pythonesque. What do you think?

Warning: The skit is fun but it will also inspire you to play a round of "Guess the first line of famous books."

Below is another that certainly finds inspiration in Disney's Maleficent, "Our Wedding Day" by Studio C:

Gingerbread Man Humor

I've been spring cleaning a little--not enough! it's never enough!--and found this card which seemed appropriate for a Monday morning. I got it several years ago but it is still available from the producer, Uncooked Land.

It's says:

a lot of people probably wouldn't eat gingerbread men if the gingerbread men yelped when you ate them.

It's actually a holiday card and says "Happy Holidays!" inside, but we don't care about that here where the Gingerbread Man allusion is welcome any time of year. And we don't really expect me to remember this in December, do we?

What Is Your Library Saying?

Inspired by the Sorted Books Projects, Midori Snyder has been hosting a series, What Is Your Library Saying?, at her blog In the Labyrinth. Essentially you use book titles to create quasi-poetry, often quite funny.

I pulled out these books weeks ago and have been tempted to plunder my shelves even more, but have been trying to put away messes, not create new ones recently. So I can refocus on the blog and SurLaLune in general again. And prep for the upcoming Beauty and the Beast tales book release. And I just finally recharged my camera.

Here's my one entry so far because I just had to focus on fairy tale titles.

I was proud that all of these books are fairy tale titles excepting The Big Crunch which was simply too wonderful not to use here.

I could do more. But I would be tempted to reuse titles over and over. And most would involve mirrors, red, or fairies since those are the most usable folklore titles on my shelves. Move on to my largish mystery collection and we are in trouble for I will waste hours playing this game which reminds me of the refrigerator poetry magnets that were so popular several years ago. And I have a 5,000+ library to play with. I haven't even considered my picture book collection!

If you want to play along, you can submit a photo to Midori, post on your own blog, or if it is fairy tale themed and you want it here, send the photo to me and I'll add to the chain.

A Farewell to Porridge

Want a Sunday funny? This may work if you've enjoyed/suffered Hemingway often enough in your life.

Originally published by Dan Greenberg, as "Three Bears in Search of an Author," in Esquire, Feb. 1958, pp. 46-47. "A Farewell to Porridge" is Goldilocks and the Three Bears presented in pseudo-Ernest Hemingway's voice. And it is funny.

To get you started:

In the late autumn of that year we lived in a house in the forest that looked across the river to the mountains, but we always thought we lived on the plain because we couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Sometimes people would come to the door and ask if we would like to subscribe to the Saturday Evening Post or buy Fuller brushes, but when we would answer the bell, they would see we were only bears and go away.

Sometimes we would go for long walks along the river and you could almost forget for a little while that you were a bear and not people.

Once when we were out strolling for a very long time, we came home and you could see that someone had broken in and the door was open.

"La port est ouverte," said Mama Bear. "The door should not be open." Mama Bear had French blood on her father's side.

Read the rest of it here.

New Yorker Cartoon: Cinderella and Cop by Michael Maslin

"Would you mind stepping out of the pumpkin, please?"

Art.com has a new series of New Yorker cartoons with fairy tale inspirations available for order. I thought I would share a few over the next few days. This one is by Michael Maslin. Published October 18, 1999. A traffic cop with a flashlight has pulled over Cinderella's coach after it turns back into a pumpkin.

I think some of these also appear in Mother Goose on the Loose, which is out of print, but I haven't had the inclination to check. They are available individually from Art.com.

New Yorker Cartoon: Cinderella Makeover by Sam Gross

"I'll call you back. I'm in the middle of a make-over."

Art.com has a new series of New Yorker cartoons with fairy tale inspirations available for order. I thought I would share a few over the next few days. This one is by Sam Gross. Published March 19, 2001

I think some of these also appear in Mother Goose on the Loose, which is out of print, but I haven't had the inclination to check. They are available individually from Art.com.

Nathan Hale's Fairy Tale Humor

 

Back in February, Nathan Hale--illustrator of Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack--featured a Picture Book Marathon on his blog in which he brainstormed picture book ideas and created cover art for them for almost every day of the month. It was all in fun and a few were fairy tale related and my favorite wasn't but it was obviously children's book related, so I am going to show it anyway. The text is Nathan's and just as fun as the illustrations.

The Three Little Trilobites

The story of the three little pigs, told in the pre-historic Silurian sea. Instead of being chased by the big bad wolf, the three little trilobites are on the run from a nasty Mixopterus--a sea scorpion. First the trilobites build their homes from loose shells, then Crinoid stalks, last of all they build themselves a home deep in the mud, where they live happily ever after--they even end up as a fossilized display in a museum!

Don't confuse this story with last year's "One Trick Ponies," where the three Pleistocene ponies were on the run from the Giant Terror Bird. That was a prehistoric take on the Seven Chinese Brothers--this one is based on the Three Little Pigs. Similar, but different.

 

The Emperor-tron's New Mecha-Battle Armor

The story of The Emperor's New Clothes told with giant killer robots.

 

The Very Hungry Computer Virus

"On Monday he ate through an Apple computer, but he was still hungry..."

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Last year, he offered The Ugly Pterodactylus and Goldilocks and the 300 Bears.
 
If you're a fan of the Rapunzel and Calamity Jack books, do look for the Lego tie-ins on Nathan's blog, too, such as here and here. 

Fairy Tale Math Humor

SurLaLune Blog reader Lylassandra shared this in a comment earlier today. A comic about math and Cinderella and other fairy tales from xkcd.com. Yes, it requires some understanding of higher math but it is funny, especially on Pi Day. I didn't have a way to celebrate Pi Day and Fairy Tales until this. It's not Pi, but it is math!

Thanks for sharing, Lylassandra!

Frog Prince Comic by Nick Galifianakis

The comic is by Nick Galifianakis for The Washington Post. It appeared with an advice column about gender roles in dating which referenced fairy tale stereotypes: Carolyn Hax: No happy-ever-after with fairy-tale ideas on gender but not anything interesting enough to share here. The comic made me laugh though. It's not the perspective we usually get on the tale.

Fairy Tale Love and Some Wedding Anniversaries

Card exterior

So today is my 13th wedding anniversary. It's a special day for John and myself not just because we were wed on this date, but because we share it with both sets of our parents. To clarify, my parents were married on this day 40 years ago. John's parents were married on this same day 40 years ago, too. We lost John's dad a few years ago, so the day is tinged with some sadness, too, but it's a blessing to have come from two sets of parents married all that time ago who stuck it out and stayed married despite all the challenges inherent in any relationship. All this means we had to get married on a Wednesday night in late January or wait several years for a Saturday wedding. That day was perfect with a high of 78 in Nashville. Most January 28ths are very wintery so we also enjoy the few that get us snowed in like last year when we spent three days at home tucked away from the world, well not the internet world, but the rest of it.

A few weeks ago I was browsing through a Hallmark shop that was going out-of-business and discovered this card which has apparently been around for at least a year. I rarely shop for cards and mostly write letters to John, but this card was perfect for both of us. Not sappy. Funny, but pulling in some obvious themes from our life.  John also loves Hoops & Yoyo (really, he's been on their site which appears to be down right now more than once) so it wasn't just pulling in the fairy tale reference for me, but the goofiness of the characters for him.

Card interior

What you can't see here is that the card is a talking card that plays a recording of Hoops & Yoyo talking about fairy tale love. I found a YouTube video of a little girl playing with the card so you can hear the words. They are funny and made John laugh.

That said, if I hadn't married John there is a good chance SurLaLune wouldn't exist. I took that original HTML class a few months after our marriage so I could better understand his career choices and goals for he was just starting out as a graphic designer at the time. He has helped me with several design elements over the years--the most professional looking elements are his, like the banner on this blog, the rest is mine. I don't really have an artistic rendering bone in my body although I can work well enough with beautiful elements to make something pleasing, a skill taught me by my mother.

Happy Anniversary, John! I hope for many more decades with you at my side. Happy Anniversary to the parents, too.  Without them, we wouldn't be here either...

PS: Believe it or not, I had prewritten the two previous posts for today about fairy tale romance novels before I remembered that I had planned this post for today. My subconscious can be a scary, scary thing.

Rapunzel Comic

Found this via Children's/Fantasy Illustrations blog. Not hysterical, but humorous all the same...

Tweeting the Tales: Hans Christian Andersen

April 2nd was Hans Christian Andersen's 205th birthday which I completely missed thanks to other distractions. I didn't see many other mentions around the web either, so I don't feel TOO bad about it.

However, Sarah Beth Durst--author of Ice, Into the Wild, Out of the Wild and the upcoming Enchanted Ivy--posted Tweeting the Tales: Hans Christian Andersen as a salute to him. (She was a few days late, too, so again I don't feel TOO bad.)

Hans Christian Andersen created some of the most enduring characters and stories ever written. In honor of his birthday, I am now going to trivialize his monumental achievement by retelling his most famous tales as tweets...

TWEETING THE TALES: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (in 140 characters or less)

The Little Mermaid: Young mermaid gives up everything to be with man she loves. Dies after he marries less fishy-smelling bride.

The Snow Queen: Young girl embarks on epic quest through winter and woods to save annoying boy. Also, cool ice castle.

The Ugly Duckling: Swan suffering from case of mistaken identity learns that it's more important to be pretty than loved.

There are more on her site--I didn't copy them all!--so do click through to read the rest.

And I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again, don't miss her Obscure Fairy Tales.

This is from my list of miscellaneous fairy tale stuff from recent weeks which I am clearing off my list...