Snow White and Rose Red - The Dragon Shifters Hoard

 Do you remember the story of Snow White and Rose Red?

Jessie Willcox Smith
Public Domain

It's one of the fairy tales that really spoke to me. I think it was because it was originally written by a woman and the two girls simply had more agency than in most fairy tales. They got to go out and do things, look out for each other, make mistakes and live happily ever after. 

So of course Eileen Mueller and I wanted to write their story...but different. first things first. No old-school characterisations of dwarfs.  TBH in the original story the dwarf is more like a gnome, but that also seems problematic. So that character is now a...no, of course I'm not telling you that. It would be a total spoiler. :)

It's a total re-imagining of the story—with the girls having powers that need to be kept hidden as they're brought into a world of dragon shifters, mages and deadly fae. 

Red brings the fire. The quote is from Dante's perspective. Think of him as the prince...except he's not stuck in the form of a bear. He has other problems that revolve around the dragon-shifters hoard and his family. So those plot points are in there, with the girls unwittingly helping the villain of the story. 

Just saying, because it's hard to pick up.

If you'd like a sneak preview of Snow and Red-book 1 of the Dragon Shifters' Hoard check it out my website here. 
 

Snow brings the cold. The quote is what Zephyr thinks when he sees her. Yes, both "princes" are in this story. No point having the extra one turn up at the end, is there? 

In fact both Zephyr and Dante feature in their very own prequel...The Draki Twins, and it's absolutely free. And it has nothing to do with the Snow and Red fairy tale...but it does give a little background for the beginning of the series. 

Check it out at your favourite ebook retailer here:  https://books2read.com/DrakiTwins

So, now I've told you mine, what's your favourite fairy tale? 

Have fun reading (& retelling fairy tales)
A.J. 

Free

Snow White

There is a god

not The God

but worshipped

nonetheless

"...as we bow low

and break our brittle bones

and grind them with our bread

let us give thanks

"As we walk across the sand

as we crawl over the mountain

as we eviscerate the sacrificial lambs

let us give thanks

"As we flagellate our bodies

and fill our minds with sweet opiates

and forgetfulness

let us give thanks..."

Yes, there is a god

wealthy beyond compare

powerful beyond knowing-

so bow

and scrape

and worship

and shun the unbelievers

for your god is mightier than mine

a physical presence

a rod, a cage, a red hot poker

no son, but a soft white daughter

to feed your intoxicated soul

I must be the evil queen

to hate her so,

let me pick up the burning slippers

and dance.

A. J. Ponder 

 All right - was going through a hundred and one poems to try and find some work on Eastbourne - there's surprisingly little in my collection - mostly just the beach poems or complaining that I'm too busy for the beach.  It's quite sad really.   So is the fact that I have a fairy tale portal and still don't have all my fairy tale poems up.  Not that this is so much your traditional Grimm's version, but a little sidestep away from the traditional poison apple.  Think of it, if you will, as a rail against the worship of the artificial prettiness so prevalent in modern tales, after all that is as true as anything else.

...BTW this is my hundredth post.  I'm now an old hand with over 13,000 views, .  It must be almost time for a break :)  My most popular poem is still "Sex Sells" - which does rather prove the aphorism I guess.  Also I'm rather pleased the rather traditional "Stolen Time" has hit the top ten.  I'm hoping this means that others also like the rather deadly romance of fairy-tale poetry, where dancing is not always the harmless occupation one might think - and even songs and sight are dangerous...

A.J. Ponder 

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

The Portal to Fairy Tale Poetry

As a bit of a late birthday bash I decided to do a little Fairy Tale Poetry Portal this week - So here are a few links to Fairy Tale poems (alphabetical), and the portal poem is below

A Cloak for a Fairy by Anonymous
"Spider, Spider what are you spinning?"  An old favourite that might not precisely be a fairy tale, but still...

A Pict Song by Rudyard Kipling

To be fair, this may not be so much a "fair folk, or "little folk" poem, so much as one celebrating the power of the powerless

A Sonnet to the Muse by A.J. Ponder Are demons fae? Are the muses fae? Probably. This sonnet to the Muse is a little darker than some of the others. And all sonnet-y. Click on it if you dare. 

Elegy for Jabber, by A.J. Ponder
Lewis Carol got it wrong... a science fiction take on the original fantasy.
 
The Fair Folk/The Fairies, by William Allingham
Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen... need I say more?

 Fairy Land, by William Shakespeare; If You See a Fairies Ring (Anon); and I'd Love to be a Fairy's Child by Robert Graves.

Fairy Tale, by Katherine Mansfeild

I'm not entirely sure how to describe this poem, but it's worth a visit.  Even though I'm not sure I've managed to wrap my brain around what exactly she was thinking when she wrote it.  

Fairy Song by John Keats
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year....

Fey by Helen Lowe 
This careful poem starts with an open door...

Frozen by A.J. Ponder
A poem referencing Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen and C.S. Lewis' White Witch as much, if not more than the Disney adaptation, Frozen.

Happily Never After parts one, two and three - 
Where the narrator and the characters of a play have very different ideas.

The First Chorus: by Catherine Bateson

Inspired by the little mermaid

In the Wood of Finvara, by Arthur Symons
"I have grown tired of sorrow and human tears..." 

Jabberwocke, by Charles Dodgeson (Lewis Carol)
Absolute favourite.  What can I say.  Utterly charming and brutal. 

 

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, by Roald Dahl:

A famously twisted Little Red Riding Hood tale.

Not my Best Side: by U. A Fanthorpe
The Dragon the Princess, and the Warrior Saint all have a turn to talk in this witty poem. 

 Rapunzel’s lesson: by PS Cottier
 Rapunzel's story turned sideways

Robin Hood and Alan a Dale: Anon
True loves course ever runs, well let's just say this is a very sweet traditional ballad

The Sleeping Beauty by Sir Alfred Tennyson, telegraphic really.  
A sweet image of Aurora sleeping.

Snow White, by A J Ponder
Snow White always seemed too sweet to be real, (although I admit I preferred Snow White and Rose Red, at least she wasn't just waiting around for some male to rescue her - she was too busy rescuing the male - and that's how I remember it even if it's not exactly true - so please no contradictions). So anyway this is the whole beauty and the beast side to the idea that white and pretty and sweet is good and we should not be seduced by such fantasy. Ask any diabetic.

The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats
WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake...

Stolen Time, by Alicia Ponder
...And twenty years, they rushed by
The night I passed that way...

Truths and Fairy Tales, by A J Ponder
Or should that be lies and fairy tales?

 

Tuesday: A Poem:
While some might argue it is not exactly a fairytale, it is a legend to celebrate Tyr, the Norse God of Tuesday, and left handed god of the sky. My lines were: "but the righteousness of battle; a sinister champion of single-armed combat, under the sky." - because of course, I couldn't resist the double meaning of the word "sinister" and was hoping like mad nobody else would put it in first.

This Way to Grandma's, by A J Ponder The wolf is taking you up the garden path, run along now.

The Portal

I hold the world in my hands

A portal to forgotten lands

Where prince and princess

Kind and able

Welcome the pauper to their table

Where Knights are brave and true and free

And lies are guilded falsity

Come open your Window

Of links and code

To discover a long forgotten Ode

A palace great and glittering

A magic bird upon the wing

And dare to stride

the forest dim

To save all that was lost within

Go now, I say, while you are able

Enjoy the rhyme or hate the fable

See picts and pixels,

Take my hand,

And come explore this wondrous land.

A.J. Ponder 

To me fairy tale and fantasy are almost synonymous, although of course the traditional legends and fairy tales are of marked importance because they have survived, and they have survived for a reason. They say something about life that is important, so important that it is best couched in metaphor, or in an enhanced setting. There is a romance attached to these pieces, but more than that they speak to the soul in a way that facts and reality so rarely do.

Find my stories and support my writing on ko-fi 

And tell me which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024?  

https://ko-fi.com/ajponder