Vacation & What to Expect Soon from Pixies Don't Have Wings

This week I’m going to have to forgo my Saturday blog post.  And next week, it’ll be on Sunday.  I’m on vacation! 

While I’m away, I will be reading a collection of faerie stories, Faerie Tales, edited by Martin H. Greenberg.  It contains stories by Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff and Wen Spencer. Expect a review when I return.  I can’t wait to dig in. 

So I’m off to San Fran with 200 books loaded on my nook and my writing journal.  I hope I have enough to keep me busy on the plane.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging about the Wild Hunt, Pixies and my two WIPs.  I’ll also post my musings on writing erotic fiction.

The Dark King's Lover & Italian Faeries

Today I am reviewing a piece I was hoping to send off to Harlequin Cravings – a division of Harlequin that publishes shorts in electronic form.  I’ve never tried to write a short with an erotic paranormal bent before.  It will be an adventure.  They are looking for pieces between 15k words and 25k words.  I’m up to 5k. 

I started the project a few weeks ago.  I wrote the entire 5k over one weekend.  I felt inspired.  Then on Monday, I reviewed what I had written and felt deflated.  I’m trying to psych myself up again.  It really isn’t the worse thing I’ve ever read – some of it is inspired.

Along with working on the Dark King’s Lover (yeah, that names makes me burst out laughing too,) I am researching Italian Faeries.  There are dozens and dozens of books published on faeries, but I can’t find one specifically about Italian faeries.  I know they must be out there somewhere, but they are probably in Italian and of no use to me. 

The best article I found on Italian Faeries was written by Raffaella Benvenuto, “Italian Fairies: Fate, Folletti, and Other Creatures of Legend.”  It appeared in the 2006 Summer/Autumn addition of The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts.  The link to the article is as follows:

http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrItalianF.html.  If you have a few moments or a few hours, I would suggest that check out the Endicott Studio website.  They stopped publishing in 2008 but there is some fascinating stuff on their website.  It’s happily bookmarked on my computer at home and at work.

The two other resources that I am using in my research is Carol Rose’s “Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia” and Anna Franklin’s “The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fairies.”  In Rose’s book, she narrows down the creatures by geographic location in the Appendixes.  This is very handy but she makes no distinction between Italian, Etruscan and Roman faeries.  Franklin’s book is great with the exception of some creepy (but not in a fun way) illustrations and that she doesn’t group the faeries by geographic locations.  She has some creatures in her book that I’ve never come across.  I spend hours looking through that book.

Here’s the list of some of my favorite faeries in no specific order:

Fata – Italian faeries that are derived from The Three Fates and nymphs.  They are always beautiful women and are generally good natured.  They are often considered faerie godmothers and shape shifters.  They punish those who treat them badly.  The often marry mortal men.

Buffaradello – Italian faerie that brings nightmares to people.  I think I just like their name.

Folletti – Word means little butterfly.  They are short with their feet on backwards.  They look like mischievous children that are obsessed with sex and are known to rape and torture women.  Precious.

Surbiles – Vampire like creatures.  I can find only one mention of them. 

Ometti – Little men that mine the mountains for natural resources.  I’m thinking the seven dwarfs.

Sibille – Italian White Ladies that haunt linden tree groves and protect treasure.

Sumascazzo – Their appearance is a bad omen. They cause dust whirlwinds.

Bibliography:

Benvenuto, Raffaella, “Italian Fairies; Fate, Folletti, and other Creatures of Legend” in The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts Summer Autumn 2006

Franklin, Anna, The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Fairies, Vega 2004

Rose, Carol, Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia, W. W. Norton and Company 1996

New Favorite Song -- Tara Nevins, Stars Fell on Alabama

Permission

When I decided to start a blog, it wasn’t going to be a writing blog.  It was going to be a blog about faeries.  The only problem about that is I write about faeries.  The two go hand and hand in my mind, like chocolate and caramel.  They are fantastic on their own, but put them together and I can’t resist.  I’m a bit embarrassed that I’m only on my second post, I’m already about to blather on and on about writing.

I started writing again back in January of this year.  I decided in May of 2010 it was time for me to start writing again.  It had been too long and I was yearning to do something creative with my life.  I work in an office and that can sometimes choke the life right out of a person.  Like a buffardello, it can perch upon your chest and cause nightmares.

I’ve written roughly 300 pages in the past year on my WIP.  Most of it will need to be scrapped.  I know it’s all a part of the process.  You can’t ignore a craft for 10 or 11 years and expect to be good at it again.  Most of it is crap, but some of it, a few snippets of dialogue and a few paragraphs is description, is really quite good.  No great, but at this stage in the game, I’ll take good.

I’m addicted to writing blogs and writing workshops.  I have a few dozen writing books.  I’ve read thousands of pages on writing in the past year.  I think it has been more of a hindrance than a help at this point and it is stifling my writing process.   

I’m so caught up in making sure the first five pages are great that I keep starting over again.  I worry that I have too many characters or not enough characters.  My characters keep me up most nights.  They want me to tell their stories, but I’m so paralyzed by fear that I can’t.  I am letting them down. 

I sat down yesterday on my lunch break and came up with the following list:

For the 1^st Draft of my WIP, I give myself permission to:

·       Develop all of the characters I want

·       Develop all of the subplots that  I want

·       Write as much back story as I want

·       Write as much or as little description as I want

·       Believe in myself

·       Write Badly

·       Write Brilliantly

I’ve realized that if I can’t let myself do these things, I will never get to the next step—editing.  In the editing process I can make sure the first five pages are dynamite.  I can eliminate characters or subplots that don’t work for the story and maybe use them in another story.  I can cut or add enough back story so that the reader isn’t bogged down.  I can hone and whittle away at my descriptions.  

In order to be perfect, I must first be imperfect.  It really is as simple as that.  And it scares the hell out of me.

Why faeries?

I’ve been obsessed with faeries for over a year now and I’ve bought just about every book I can get my hands on on the subject.  My home office has quickly become the best faery library in Upstate New York (I have no proof of this but I dare you to refute it!)  I’ve been asking myself why I am drawn to faeries and faery stories.  Maybe it comes from my long time love the fairy tale and happy endings.  Only problem with that theory is that most of the traditional faeries stories don’t end happily.  Sure there are stories about helper faeries (like brownies or lutins) or ones that grant wishes (any crap that Disney can throw at you,) but most end with the poor human getting screwed-metaphorically in some cases and literally in other.  I’m pretty sure my interest is coming from someplace else.

When I was about ten, someone told me that the little circles in trunks of trees (you know that one’s from branches that have been cut off) were faery doors.  I can remember sitting in front of this tree in my grandmother’s side yard and waiting for something to come out of the stupid thing.  All I got for my troubles was a few bug bites and a dirty ass.  I decided right then and there that faeries didn’t exist and I stopped thinking about them.

Twenty-three years later, I’m back to thinking about faeries and wondering why ten year old Buffy was wiser than thirty-three year old Buffy.