Sleeping Beauty

Dagger’s Sleep Read-Along Week 3: Sleeping Beauty Original Tale

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Dreamy green color forest

Here we are in week three of the read-along already! As predicted, I am woefully behind on posting like I wanted to. Prepping for Realm Makers and getting Midnight’s Curse ready to release on time have been taking priority.

It is Realm Makers this week! For those of you who don’t know, it is the Christian conference for all things fantasy, sci-fi, weird, and speculative. It is amazing. This is my third year going, and I’m so excited. If I’m not able to reply to your comments in a timely manner, please know I will get to them as soon as I get back.

I’m super excited for this week in the read-along. Chapters 20-22 of Dagger’s Sleep are my favorite in the whole book and among some of my favorite chapters I have ever written. If I manage to get them scheduled before I leave for Realm Makers, I’m hoping to write a blog post or two on them. If I don’t, then I will probably use week 4 to talk about them instead. 🙂

Today, we’re going to chat a little bit about the original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Warning, it’s not exactly pretty or for kids. Prepare to have your childhood ruined.

The Original Fairy Tale

The Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is one of the tales I point to when people say that older writing is more moral or clean. Yeah, no. Sorry to break it to you, but just because a book or story is “old,” doesn’t automatically make it morally superior than books written today.

One of the earliest written versions of Sleeping Beauty was a tale composed in the 1300s called the Perceforest, which was a collection of courtly tales with loose connections to Arthurian legends. The Sleeping Beauty story in the book is about a girl named Zellandine who is in love with a man named Troylus. But her father doesn’t like Troylus, so he sends him off to complete tasks to prove his worth.

While Troylus is kept busy, Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep caused by a splinter of flax stabbing into her finger. When Troylus returns, he finds her asleep and, well, nine months later she has a child…while she is still asleep. Yeah. Not romantic at all. She only wakes up when the baby slobbers on her finger and draws out the flaw that caused her sleep in the first place.

Understandably confused, Zellandine figures out that the baby is hers and by the ring Troylus left her, figures out he must be the father. And they live happily ever after.

Yeah. Kind of icky.

The next major Sleeping Beauty tale recorded is from the 1600s by Giambattista Basile called Sun, Moon, and Talia. This story starts to take the shape of the traditional Sleeping Beauty tale where the girl’s parents are told by a wicked fairy she will prick her finger on an item (in this version, it is still flax).

In this version, the girl and the main guy don’t know each other. Instead, he is just a king who happens to wander by, climbs the tower, and finds the sleeping girl. Which makes it even more creepy when she gives birth nine months later, in this version to twins. While she is still asleep.

Once again, she wakes when one of the babies draws the flax from her finger. At that moment, the wandering king comes back (because being a creepy dude once wasn’t enough for him apparently). When he finds her awake, he takes her home to his castle.

Where his wife is understandably upset that he has shown up with this girl and her twins. Um, yeah, not only was the king creepy, but he was also already married. Double ick.

Not so understandably, the wife decides it is a good idea to have the girl and her twins killed, cooked, and served as supper (the old fairy tales have a LOT of cannibalism. Seriously). The castle cook hides the girl and the twins because, you know, killing, cooking, and eating people is more than a little wrong.

When the king finds out, he has his wife burned, then marries the girl instead. Not exactly a happily ever after. *throws up a little in my mouth*

Thankfully, by the end of the 1600s, Charles Perrault came along and rewrote the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale into the story we call Sleeping Beauty today.

His version introduces the seven fairy godmothers, the gifts, the wicked fairy who curses the princess with death, and the seventh fairy who modifies it with sleep. This is the first version where she pricks herself on a spindle instead of flax. Flax is a plant fiber that is spun, so it isn’t that far of a jump to go from flax to spindle. It still has to do with spinning.

This version is also the first with a hundred years sleep as well as a barrier of briars protecting the sleeping princess and all the castle folk while they slept (poor castle folk. Hopefully they had their families in the castle when the sleep hit).

At the end of the hundred years, a prince wanders by. He remembers the old legend of the sleeping princess and braves the briars because it sounds like a marvelous adventure. He finds her and wakes her with a kiss.

The prince and princess talk for a while, decide they like each other after conversing for a couple of hours, and get married in the castle chapel.

BUT the story doesn’t end there. The prince keeps his marriage a secret and for a while he and his princess are happy with frequent visits, and she gives birth to twins.

Then the prince’s father dies, and he becomes king. He takes the princess and his children out of hiding and brings them to his castle, where it turns out he had good reason for not bringing them home earlier since his mother is part Ogre.

Like in the earlier version with the wife, the mom-in-law Ogre decides that cooking and eating her son’s wife and children sounds like a grand idea. Once again, the cook saves the day, but the Ogre Queen Mother finds out and prepares a huge cauldron of snakes and other nasty critters and prepares to throw everyone into it. The King returns just in time, and the Ogre Mom-in-Law throws herself into the cauldron of snakes and dies.

By the 1800s, the Brothers Grimm include a Sleeping Beauty story that follows nearly the same story line as Perrault, except that they end the story when the prince and princess marry after she has been awakened by a delicate peck on the lips. They include the second half of the story as a separate fairy tale called the Evil Mother-in-Law, arguing that the two halves of the story were most likely two stories originally that got combined somewhere along the way.

From there, we have the scads and scads of retellings from the cartoon Disney version to the more recent Malificent, which brings in some of the darker themes and ideas from earlier Sleeping Beauty versions.

There is even a middle grade Sleeping Beauty retelling Sleeping Beauty, the One Who Took the Really Long Nap by Wendy Mass, that takes on retelling the second half of the story where the prince’s mother has ogre blood. Since it is middle grade, it takes out the creepiness and turns it into a fun story.

There are many, many directions to go with a Sleeping Beauty retelling. Retelling Sleeping Beauty can be hard, since it can appear like the Sleeping Beauty character has very little agency. Many writers from Gail Carson Levine to K.M. Shea and Melanie Cellier have done great jobs giving the Sleeping Beauty character wit and purpose. J.M. Stengl has a version where the Sleeping Beauty character is evil.

For Dagger’s Sleep, I decided to make the Sleeping Beauty character the prince. It was something I’ve heard of being done, though I haven’t personally read any books along those lines yet. It was interesting to explore how a prince would tackle being cursed this way, and he doesn’t take to it very well, lol.

So there you have it. A look at the original Sleeping Beauty tales and why it is a very good thing Charles Perrault decided to retell it as the fairy tale we know and love today.

 

Dagger’s Sleep Read-Along: Week Two or Battle with Poison Ivy

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Dreamy green color forest

I meant to write this week’s post over the weekend. I instead spent it itching.

As you probably guessed from the title of this post, I managed to get poison ivy. Actually, I got it two and a half weeks ago and it was more or less manageable on my lower legs. Then over the weekend, I ended up getting a second dose that flared the first batch of poison ivy to epic proportions.

I have seriously underestimated the torture possibilities of poison ivy. Forget the villain sadistically torturing the main character. All the villain really has to do is dump the main character in a patch of poison ivy, then withhold anti-itch cream until the hero breaks. And the hero would break eventually. There’s something about poison ivy itching that makes a person desperate to do just about anything if it will help.

If one of my characters gets poison ivy sometime in the future, you’ll know where I got the idea from.

On to business and the stuff you are probably more interested in than hearing about poison ivy.

Giveaway!

The winner of the giveaway for a Kindle version of Waking Beauty is Zoe B. who commented on one of the posts last week! If you could please contact me, we can work on sending out your ebook!

The next giveaway is going to run from today through next Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I get another post written. Next week is going to be rather crazy with Realm Makers.

Comment on today’s post here or on Facebook and be entered to win a Kindle version of Melanie Cellier’s The Princess Game. This retelling of Sleeping Beauty is book 5 in her Four Kingdoms series. It can be read out of order since each retelling acts as a standalone so don’t be put off by the fact that I’m giving away book 5 in a series, though I guarantee you’ll want to read the whole series!

The Four Kingdoms series is a series of fairy tale retellings that are all clean, fun, and absolutely hilarious. The Princess Game is one of the more inventive versions of Sleeping Beauty that I’ve read. Instead of the princess being physically asleep, she’s cursed to have her mind “sleeping” as it were so that while she has a brilliant mind, she can’t show it to other people without consequences.

Don’t forget to comment here or on Facebook to be entered to win!

Midnight’s Curse Update!

I got my proof book for Midnight’s Curse this week, and it was surreal to hold the book in my hands. In some ways, holding that first proof book is more exciting to me than the actual release date. It is the moment the book becomes a real book, and usually by the time release day rolls around I’m in such a state of exhaustion I don’t have the energy to squeal and celebrate the way I do over the proof book.

Good news is, the book is on track for its release date. Bad news is, I am not going to have copies available at Realm Makers like I was hoping. There just wasn’t time to do a good job at editing, proofing, and order books with time for them to ship before Realm Makers while still having a product I felt comfortable selling.

BUT if you are going to Realm Makers, make sure you find me. I’ll have a printed sneak peek at the first two chapters of Midnight’s Curse that I’ll be giving away for free for those who find me and ask for it. And I’ll take the proof copy along so you can get an early glimpse of what the book is going to look like.

If you want to help launch Midnight’s Curse, please make sure you sign up by following this link. There are still plenty of spots available, so don’t hesitate, even if you don’t think you’ll have time to read the book before the release. Even a simple spotlight helps.

Dagger’s Sleep Read-Along

This week, I’m going to change things around and give my snippets and thoughts on the chapters today, then hopefully do a post about the origins of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale on Friday. Spoiler warning if you haven’t read the book yet or aren’t finished with all of these chapters yet.

Chapter Eight

This chapter is, in some ways, Alex’s first glimpse of the “real” world outside of his sheltered life in the palace. It is his first taste of traveling as a regular person. And he is absolutely annoying while he’s at it. Honestly, annoying Alex was a little too much fun to write, even if he was infuriating. He at least wasn’t a boring character, lol.

Chapter Nine

This chapter is something of a turning point. It is the moment Rosanna’s journey switches from a fun paddle up the river to something dangerous. It was a surprisingly hard chapter to write. I rewrote it several times, combined what was two chapters into one, and rearranged the placement of it in the book.

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten is Alex’s counterpoint to Rosanna’s chapter nine. It is the moment he first faces danger on his quest. It is also the moment we first catch a glimpse of who he could become if he would be nicer.

Fun side note about the rope bridges in the book: When I was little, my dad helped us build a fort complete with a rope bridge, though our rope bridge was reinforced with chains so that it wouldn’t break. We spent hours running back and forth while swinging our wooden swords, barely hanging on. While writing Dagger’s Sleep, I had the idea to add rope bridges into the trail system of Tallahatchia, something that made it different from the real life Appalachian Trail, Natchez Trace, and Warrior Path the Cheyandoah Trace is based on. But bridges seemed to fit the world, and I loved the way bridges in the book served as a simple of either a connected Tallahatchia or a crumbling one.

Chapter Eleven

This chapter was definitely inspired by the old Disney movie Davy Crockett and the River Pirates. Actually, you’ll probably notice a lot of the book was inspired by both that movie and the first movie in its two part arc, Davy Crockett and the Keelboat Race. Both movies were ones I watched a lot as a kid. Interestingly enough, they are both based on old Davy Crockett legends from the 1800s and weren’t something Walt Disney made up out of thin air.

Old legends blown out of proportion was something I wanted to hint at in Dagger’s Sleep. It is a world where legends become tall tales told around campfires, and someone like Daemyn can become a living legend the way Davy Crockett did in his own lifetime.

Chapter Twelve

I LOVE this chapter. Jadon’s family was so much fun to write, and I love the tension at the end between Jadon and his brother. It starts deepening the character development for both Alex and Jadon.

Also, the whole “mystery” meat thing is a bit of an inside joke. In Deliver, my editor commented how I kept having the characters eating mystery meat without ever saying what it was (oops). So in Dagger’s Sleep, I may have giggled as I purposely wrote in a mystery meat, then made Alex eat it.

Chapter Thirteen

More Rosanna and Daemyn moments! Also, I did a ridiculous amount of research about how birch bark canoes are made for this chapter.

Chapter Fourteen

Can’t you tell I have a lot of fun shoving Alex out of his arrogant comfort zone?

Also, more research. Buffalo used to live in the Appalachian Mountains, which is kind of mind-blowing since they are usually associated with out west. I did research on how they were hunted before horses and firearms.

And, once again, I love Jadon’s family so much! Especially Luke.

Writing their mountain accent was difficult. I’m not a native to Appalachia and even with research, I knew I wasn’t going to be 100% accurate. And writing full dialect can be more difficult to read. I went for a hybrid option, using a sprinkling of dialect words and focusing more on capturing some of the cadence.

What did you guys think of Jadon’s family? And is Alex driving you crazy yet with his annoying arrogance? Do you have any other questions for me on these chapters?

 

 

Fun Fiction Friday – Waking Beauty

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Today’s book Waking Beauty is one that I was excited to read from the moment I saw it in Enclave’s release line up. I was even more excited after I attended the Facebook release party that Sarah Morin and Morgan Busse co-hosted to celebrate their releases Waking Beauty and Heir of Hope.

About the Book

What would happen if the Sleeping Beauty refused to wake up?

This rescue isn’t going at all how he planned. Secondhand hero Prince Arpien intends to gain a throne and the Sleeping Beauty’s heart with a single kiss when he wakes her from the evil fairy’s curse. But kissing the princess is only the beginning of a series of unforeseen obstacles: man-eating bugs, deadly spindles, talking lapdogs, and fiery pickles. The Sleeping Beauty is the biggest complication of all.

Princess Brierly is Beautiful and fairy-Gifted, but also . . . daft. After one hundred years of sleep imprisonment, Brierly refuses to believe this rescue is anything more than a tantalizing but doomed dream.

Arpien is drawn to the vibrancy beneath Brierly’s indifferent exterior. Can they reclaim her kingdom? Do they dare trust in the Prince of the old tales to help them battle the evil fairy who cursed Brierly? What is the price of waking beauty?

This is not the story of an innocent damsel-in-distress or her cardboard rescuer. It is a full coming-of-age struggle in a world where truth shifts as often as dreams.

About the Author

SarahMorin0025

Sarah E. Morin has three great passions in life: God, books, and working with young people. She has written articles and poetry for local publications and international periodicals in the museum field. Her dramatic works range from a musical about Susan B. Anthony to fairy tale poetry. She enjoys performing her work, especially pieces that allow her to dress up in her queen costume.

Sarah E. serves as Youth Experience Manager (kid wrangler) at an interactive history park. Her 100 youth volunteers are her best consultants in the fields of humor, teenage angst, and spinning wheels (which, they assure her, are not hazardous to anyone but Sleeping Beauty).

My Recommendation

This book was not what I expected. At all. When it arrived, I opened the box to find a tome rather than a slim novel as I’d been expecting (if I’d checked the page count before hand, I would’ve realized it is 480 pages long).

This is an epic, not a quick, easy-read fairy tale.

The beginning was a little slow for me. The writing style reminded me a lot of Lewis Carroll (think Alice in Wonderland or the poem The Jabberwocky). There are a lot of made-up words and things that the reader has to figure out as they go along as well as a number of long strings of titles such as Peerless Prince, etc. It’s a style that evokes an older, whimsical style of writing. It is fun writing, but a little difficult to get into until you get used to it.

Besides the writing, the story also unfolded slowly. Each piece of the puzzle was revealed after the characters do a lot of character-stuff and character reflection. Overall, I’d rate this as a very, very character-driven novel rather than plot-driven. As a plot-driven reader, I felt like it could’ve been trimmed a little bit, especially in the beginning when (to me) it felt like the characters weren’t accomplishing anything for several chapters.

But once I reached the end? It was worth it. Totally. Once the action started happening, it drew all the pieces together. The three different POV characters all had their own role to play in the ending, and it had a few twists that I wasn’t expected (and a few I was).

While I liked all three characters, Nessa was my favorite. Probably because she is the most straightforward of the three POV characters. While the POV switched between Arpien, Brierly, and Nessa, I was never confused by whose head I was in. They all have very distinct voices.

My favorite part of the book was the theme of dreams vs. reality. While Brierly is the one that refuses to believe she is actually awake and not still stuck in dreams, she isn’t the only one who is stuck in delusions. In a way, all the characters have their own delusions, their own Dreams, that they need to wake from in order to find Reality. It made me think about what I might be deceiving myself with and what thorns I might be clinging to because I believe I’m strong enough to handle them on my own.

Have you read Waking Beauty yet? Or is it on your TBR list?