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Happy full-on summer! We're in the middle of a monsoon-driven heat wave and I am absolutely melting. It's been a good summer so far, though: I quit my day job at the beginning of July and am now exclusively freelancing. It's given me so much more time to write, which is really all I've ever wanted. And I can still make ends meet all the while!
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I'm nearing the end of the first draft of my reimagining of Euripides' play
The Bacchae and am actually... enjoying it? It's not a chore to be creative when I'm not mentally or physically exhausted. Who knew?? |
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I did take a wrong turn in the plot last week while writing, which happens sometimes. Wrong turns can be hard to identify, though there are some yellow flags to help. For instance, when getting words down onto the page feels like pulling teeth, it means you're not into what you're creating. That, in turn, means your audience isn't going to enjoy it, either. |
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What really tipped me off, though, is how far afield I strayed from my notes. I don't do full outlines, but I do keep small handwritten notes around my work space as I draft. Reading my notes was more exciting than reading what I'd just written, so I spent a day and a half backtracking and trying to figure out exactly where I'd gone wrong. And it worked! There was a precise line of dialogue that fit the story, and the next sentence didn't. Identifying that split was epiphanic. |
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Now, buckle up, this BBM is a long one! |
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I suspected very early in the month what my favorite July read would be:
The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold by Francesca Lia Block. This is an older title than most of the ones I've reviewed here (originally published in 2000) and is, as far as I can tell, out of print. It's a tiny little collection of nine fairy tale retellings—the book itself is about 5" x 7", the margins within are at least an inch, and the print is quite large. It's a small jewel of a book. |
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It's a dark little jewel, though, and should be sipped at instead of drunk down in a single sitting. The author modernized familiar Western fairy tales like Snow White ("Snow"), Thumbalina ("Tiny"), and Little Red Riding Hood ("Wolf"), placing them in what is essentially contemporary Los Angeles, but she kept all the darkest parts of the original fairy tales that are often deliberately glossed over.
The Rose and the Beast features pedophilia, rape of grown women and teenage girls, drug use, serial murders, emotional abuse—honestly, if it's horrible, it's probably in one of the stories. |
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But there is also so much love within the pages. Love as a saving grace, love as a celebration of survival, love as a form of protection. |
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I first read
The Rose and the Beast as a child, within a year or two of the book's publication. I don't know how much of the subtext I understood, but I recgonized both the darkness and the light within the stories. They spoke to me in a visceral way that lodged up right against my heart for decades. They deeply influenced both my writing style and reading preferences. |
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I remember several years of actively searching for a copy while I was a teenager, but by that point I'd long since forgotten both the book's title and author. I remembered the cover, vaguely—a dark teal, or maybe green, color scheme, and a woman with blond hair—but eventually I came to accept I would probably never find another copy. |
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Then, in 2014 or 2015, I saw it on a shelf in my local library's bookstore. Completely innocuous, though it felt to me like a bomb had gone off in my chest. When I told the volunteer working the checkout that I'd been looking for it for 14 years, she teared up. |
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I didn't read it right away, though. In fact, it sat untouched on a shelf for years. It was enough to look at it and know I wouldn't spend the rest of my life wondering if I would ever find it again, but I also didn't want to know if the stories didn't hold up or if they couldn't deliver the same emotional punch that I felt as a ten-year-old. I was afraid they would let me down. |
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But I'm participating in a summer reading bingo challenge, and one of the squares is for a banned or challenged book. ("Challenged" is similar to being banned, except that a challenge is an attempt to remove a book, while a banned book is one that has been successfully removed.)
The Rose and the Beast appears on the American Library Association's list of "Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books" and was initally challenged in 2002 by a group called Parents Against Bad Books in Schools who wanted the book removed from Fairfax County, Va. elementary and secondary libraries. They wanted it gone because the book "[contains] profanity and descriptions of drug abuse, sexually explicit conduct, and torture." |
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Which, yes. It does. But that doesn't mean it should be kept away from children. I can personally attest to that. |
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And, I am pleased to report, that the stories by and large hold up. They're wrenching, hopeful, and deeply moving, and I get to examine them from an adult's perspective this time. It feels like holding a crystal up to the light and seeing new facets. |
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If you're interested in getting your own copy of
The Rose and the Beast, you'll have to turn to Amazon or Ebay, the latter of which is quite a bit cheaper. Amazon has used copies going for just over $30 USD, while Ebay has a few on offer for less than $4 USD. (And as usual, those aren't affiliate links and I don't make anything if you click on them.)
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Spiked by C.P. Rider — The beginning of an independently published contemporary fantasy series that takes place in the imaginary truck stop town of Sundance, CA. The main character has some serious telepathic powers but is trying to stay off the radar of other paranormal creatures. Well written and lots of fun.
Get Your Books Selling Wide by Monica Leonelle — This one is really only helpful for other writers out there. It's an excellent and thorough overview of what it means to spur Amazon's attempt to make self-published books exclusive to its Kindle Unlimited program, and the many, many avenues writers can take to create multiple income streams.
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