Away to Fairyland

My short story “Faerie Tithe” was inspired by L.M. Montgomery’s novel The Story Girl.

The Story Girl is an idyll of childhood, featuring children who are loved, protected, and supported, but who still encounter the typical challenges of growing up.

I suspect Lucy Maud Montgomery may have been reflecting on her own childhood while she wrote The Story Girl and realizing that in spite of the tragedy and darkness present in her young years (she was raised by her aunt and uncle, because both her parents died), there were many wonderful and special moments, too.

So, how did a golden idyll of childhood inspire a story visiting the darker side of Faerie?

In two ways.

Firstly, all Montgomery’s books include lyrical descriptions of the Canadian countryside that evoke a sense of wonder and awe. The forests, lakes, and meadows of Montgomery’s Canada might be fairyland.

And secondly, the character from whom the novel gets its name is a storyteller. Many of her stories recount the humorous doings of local people in the community or stirring events from history. But a few visit Faerie.

In chapter sixteen, “The Ghostly Bell,” is the merest sketch of the tale that inspired “Faerie Tithe.”

Accordingly, after tea we all set off, armed with jugs and cups. Felicity, thoughtful creature, also took a small basketful of jelly cookies along with her. We had to go back through the maple woods to the extreme end of Uncle Roger’s farm—a pretty walk, through a world of green, whispering boughs and spice-sweet ferns, and shifting patches of sunlight. The raspberries were plentiful, and we were not long in filling our receptacles. Then we foregathered around a tiny wood spring, cold and pellucid under its young maples, and ate the jelly cookies; and the Story Girl told us a tale of a haunted spring in a mountain glen where a fair white lady dwelt, who pledged all comers in a golden cup with jewels bright.

“And if you drank of the cup with her,” said the Story Girl, her eyes glowing through the emerald dusk about us, “you were never seen in the world again; you were whisked straightway to fairyland, and lived there with a fairy bride. And you never WANTED to come back to earth, because when you drank of the magic cup you forgot all your past life, except for one day in every year when you were allowed to remember it.”

“I wish there was such a place as fairyland—and a way to get to it,” said Cecily.

“I think there IS such a place—in spite of Uncle Edward,” said the Story Girl dreamily, “and I think there is a way of getting there too, if we could only find it.”

Well, the Story Girl was right. There is such a place as fairyland—but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.

It’s that last paragraph that makes me think Montgomery was appreciating her own childhood afresh.

But it’s the first and second paragraphs that formed my own inspiration. I wanted the full story on the fair lady with the golden cup and the mortal man she ensnared, which meant that I needed to write it myself.

Thus “Faerie Tithe” was born.

* * *

For a related post—on how a mortal healer enchants a faie knight—see:
A Song of Peace

 

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Cover Reveal: Faerie Tithe

Faerie Tithe will release very soon!

Initially it will be available on Amazon for purchase and in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscription service for free download.

On December 7, Faerie Tithe will leave the KU subscription service and be available for purchase on all major e-tailers, including Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Amazon, and more.

 

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Password for Silver

Everyone subscribed to my newsletter will receive the password at month’s end to unlock the mini poster created from the cover of my novella Blood Silver. The poster features gorgeous art by Frank Dicksee, so don’t miss out!

If you are seeing this post after August 28, 2022, you can still get the password.

Just sign up for my newsletter here, and then email me. I’ll reply with the password. (You’ll also receive a free short story: Crossing the Naiad.)

Happy reading, as always!

 

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Newly Released: The Kite Climber

An army poised for battle. A hamlet of innocent villagers in the wrong place at the wrong time. A young kite climber who seizes a ridiculous chance…

The troll-lord’s army abducts young Andraia and forces her to serve as a kite climber—a girl light and nimble enough to climb the tethers of the great war kites, and clever enough to relay the report from each scout stationed aloft.

But when Andraia sees her home village sitting squarely before the army’s intended charge, she knows she must lie and—more importantly—make the cruel officer supervising the kite climbers believe her lie.

Since at least one climber will tell the appalling truth, Andraia needs more than mere ingenuity to outwit him.

Amidst the brutality and violence of the troll-horde, Andraia must learn that even a vulnerable and frail ally can sometimes deliver the wining blow in a fight. If she fails, everyone she loves will die as the troll chariots crush her home.

The Kite Climber is a fairy tale of Old Giralliya brought to vivid life. If you enjoy appealing characters, fantasy worlds that feel real, and high stakes, you’ll love this story of a young teen mixing genius with daring in a desperate bid to save her friends and family.

Read The Kite Climber to claim audacious courage today!

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Hunting Wild, 2nd Edition

I re-read Hunting Wild as part of my preparation to re-release it. I originally published it in 2015, and incredible as it may seem, I’d forgotten many of the details! That was rather fun—reading my own story almost as though someone else had written it.

The result was that I did a touch of revision. There were some passages that I found confusing, so I clarified them. There were others that seemed to require grater emphasis, so I expanded them.

The changes aren’t huge—it’s still the same story—and there aren’t a lot. But the prose is not identical. I’d love to hear from a reader who has read both! What did you think?

When a king begs a dread boon, dare she refuse him?

Remeya—fosterling and maid-in-waiting to the king’s sister—worships the old and forbidden horned god alongside the princess.

Despite the centuries-old taboo, a few believers still perform the rites in secret. And the king quietly tolerates their heresy until Remeya retrieves a cursed sword from its watery grave and bestows it upon him.

As the king’s mind unravels into violence, no one near him remains safe, not even his best beloved. Especially not his best beloved.

Fearing for all their lives, Remeya frantically seeks a means of curbing the king’s wrath. Appeals to religious authority and personal displays of public piety prove fruitless, while leaving salvation to her god delivers no sign that he will act.

Unless Remeya learns to engage more deeply with her beliefs—beyond obedience, beyond devotion, and into surrender—the princess will lose her head and Remeya her soul.

Hunting Wild is the evocative second tale in the Blood Blade fantasy series. If you enjoy vivid characters, exotic worlds, and intensifying suspense, you’ll love this engrossing coming-of-age story in which a teen girl grapples with how to connect with her god.

Read Hunting Wild now to forge faith from desperation in the eleventh hour!

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Revised Cover for Hunting Wild

Hunting Wild has always been part of the Blood Blade series, but, BUT, BUT…I didn’t really tell anyone that it was! Crazy me!

Anyway, now that I’ve released Blood Falchion (Tale One), I’ve revised the cover of Hunting Wild to reflect its status as Tale Two.

That was tricky work—keeping the original art and making it work with the dress for the series!

 

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Newly Released: Blood Falchion

Once protected. Once beloved. Until a blood blade brutalizes his sire…

Young Caelan relishes the carefree days and friendships of boyhood despite his palsied limbs. He loves his aunt, the Lady Agace, who mothered him from infancy, and trusts his father, Lord Jekis, ruler of Castle Balazoron and proud to name Caelan as his heir.

But when a cursed sword enters his father’s possession, eroding Lord Jekis’ sanity and prompting him to evil, Caelan’s world falls apart.

Caelan plots to get the weapon away from his father, hoping that might restore him to reason and kindness. But…what will Caelan do with the blade, if he succeeds? Hide it? Send it elsewhere? Break it somehow?

As Lord Jekis’ madness escalates, he grows ever more angry, clashing with his sister until a complete breach divides the two.

When Lord Jekis decrees a horrific punishment for Lady Agace, Caelan must learn what it really means to leave childhood behind. If he fails, the only mother he’s ever known will die.

Blood Falchion is the riveting first tale in the Blood Blade fantasy series. If you enjoy high stakes, intensity, and the dark influence a cursed sword exerts over its wielder, you’ll love this story of a once-beloved son rising to heroism in the shadow of his father’s eclipse.

Read Blood Falchion to wrest trust from betrayal today!

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