Unsettling Wonder and other stories

Friends of faerie, one and all—enter the wood with me, and see what came into being with the turn of the season!

Speaking practically, from the creature's Originator, whom you all know as Mr. Pond:

The new Unsettling Wonder is a publishing imprint of Papaveria Press that includes both an online journal and various print publications. It lives at www.unsettlingwonder.com, and the website will have not only the journal, but regular posts from the editors and guest writers about folklore and fairy tales—including artist and author interviews, book reviews, and so on.

From one of the co-makers, gifted author Katherine Langrish:

Unsettling Wonder has only just been born, and in the way of fairytale parents we, its founders, are still looking it proudly, scratching our heads and wondering what it will make of life. Has it been born in a caul, or under a lucky star? Will its godmother be the Fairy of Good Fortune, or the sinister black-cowled figure of La Muerte?  Is it even a child, or just a bristly half-hedgehog? Anyway, do come to the christening!

And from the creature itself:

Do you remember the first time you read a story that meant something to you? A story that whisked you away to another place, another time, another reality. Not just a place full of everyday things and happy endings—though they were there, of course, and important. But an unsettling place of strangeness and peril and wonder, like a river you couldn’t see across or a forest spreading away into shadows.
Unsettling Wonder is about going back to that place, that troubling, entrancing glimpse into story.

From me, another co-maker... or, more technically, the web journal's Associate Fiction Editor... what this means is that my fellow writer and blogalectic sparring partner Mr. Pond, also known as John Patrick Pazdziora, has started a publishing imprint and fairy tale magazine. I'm helping. There also, mmph murf mumble, might have been an exchange of ink over a certain little rewritten fairy tale, but that's all I'll say for now. At any rate, there will be stories—there will be talk about story—there will even be poetry, though not from me, because I suck at poetry unless I'm allowed to set it to music.

Do come join us in the revelry!

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Did I say something about the turning of the season? Yes, well. That happened.

It's hard to tell from the shot, but it's currently raining.

The day before the wind and rain blew in, I had a sudden apprehension. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are made of crazy, but I knew that if I didn't get the beets and potatoes dug and the pumpkins in, wet fall weather would make it much harder.

The tomatoes came in on Saturday, when a windstorm ripped their plastic covering off and refused to let me put it back on. All the fruit that looked like it might ripen, with time and help of course, wound up on the table for several hours, drying out.

Maia thought that she'd never seen so many cat toys gathered, but she could tell by the way her human slave was stalking around and making huffing noises that looking out of windows would be a more satisfying use of time.

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Writers' link of the week: I liked Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing so much that I copied them off the web and pasted them at the top of a reference document.

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Music of the week: The Lonely Forest made it onto a Vampire Diaries soundtrack! Way to go, Anacortes boys!! I've never seen the Vampire Diaries, but I always liked this song.



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Random amusement of the week: Reader Shaming. Brand new website, but it looks like it could be fun.

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The publishing of this post was delayed due to the immediate necessity of making beet soup. Which is currently boiling away on the stove. We'll see how it tastes. I needed something to do with a 1 1/2 pound beet.

Happy weekend!