LINKDING

<blockquote>Fenella meets Queen Gold-tree on her wedding day, and meets the king at the same time. Gold-tree becomes a friend, and when she dies, Fenella and the king are left to pick up the pieces together.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The sorceress keeps her magic on the hearth, under a big, iron cauldron where its red glow can mix in with the always-dying embers. --- Days of a nightingale & dreams of her lover</blockquote>

<blockquote>Not every child is born knowing their fate.</blockquote>

<blockquote>There was a witch who lived up in the mountains, and I never heard but that she was a good one.</blockquote> ➤ apparently it's based on a folk story called "Raw Head and Bloody Bones" which I'd never heard of before! ➤ This is the story of a witch and her razorback hog familiar, and what happens after an unscrupulous man kills her hog. It's really good!

<blockquote>The twelve dancing princesses aren't going to a castle with princes. They have an entirely different destination.</blockquote> ➤ charming ➤ the bhangra au.

<blockquote>Do you know what it is like, she would say, to be twenty-nine years old and trapped in your childhood room? No, the curse came before and after the dancing, not during. The curse was a locked door every night; the curse was a father who would sell his daughters for an answer; the curse was a choice between strange men’s lives and our own freedom. The curse was a soldier who would barter a stolen secret for a kingdom, for my body in his marriage-bed.</blockquote> ➤ the stories of each of the 12 dancing princesses. WHAT A GOOD

<blockquote>On her wedding night to King Henry VIII, Katherine Parr discovers that a strange curse has been laid on all the queens of England...</blockquote> ➤ crossover of history with 12 dancing princesses - where there's a curse that all the queens of england will dance in hell until henry's line is ended. And it works so well! It's great seeing all these queens interacting with each other

<blockquote>Behind close doors, a mother confides a secret to her daughter.</blockquote> ➤ 12 dancing princesses: a monologue from the youngest princess to her daughter, much later in life. (in this version it's the youngest who married the suitor)

<blockquote>Once there was a little girl who tried very hard not to be born. Her father the king and her mother the king’s wife had six children already – all sons. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Mineappolis writer Abra Staffin-Wiebe brings us a new take on an old Russian fairy tale: the quest for a blessing from the elusive firebird. In this iteration, young Ekaterina celebrates her fourteenth birthday, and a rare firebird sighting sets in motion a chain of events that will change her life forever.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Death meets a poor woodcutter who's looking for a just man to be a godfather to his son. The new kid in Susan's class says he's going to be a great physician. The Death of Rats is just trying to do his job.</blockquote>

<blockquote>In which the robber girl encounters a dysfunctional royal family and makes the most of it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>However you tell the tale of Bluebeard, he always dies. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to kill him.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Private detective Marie Slade is landed with a strange case that just keeps getting stranger. Will she be able to solve the mystery before it's too late?</blockquote> ➤ a 12 Dancing Princesses noir au. not a happily ever after.

<blockquote>A retelling of the Prince Lindwurm fairy tale, Brother Prince Snake is a story of love, sibling rivalry, and how a monster became King.</blockquote> ➤ not quite sure what I think of this one

<blockquote>Child Ballad 32 is a loathly lady story. The only popular version I know of is Steeleye Span’s “King Henry,” on Below the Salt. I have had this album for well over a decade, and occasionally I found myself wondering about the monstrous lady in the story, and even more about King Henry, who agreed to kill his horse and hawk and hounds to feed her. I don’t know that I’d easily forgive someone who forced me to kill my dog. This had been kicking around in my head for the better part of a decade, and then I was privy to a very odd conversation in a bookstore about people with extreme forms of body dysmorphic disorder, and then I drank a lot of coffee and drove for about forty-five minutes and “King Henry” came on the CD player and I went home and wrote the story in one long jag, which probably explains a few things about it.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The wolf stalks her, and she hardens. The wolf eats her grandmother, and she hardens. The huntsman saves her, cuts her free, and Scarlett watches the old woman she loves so well beat him with a nearby walking stick, furious beyond the telling of it that they didn’t just let her go. She hardens. She grows up. She is not little anymore, though she will always be Red. She was born screaming. There are worse things in the forest than wolves.</blockquote>

➤ Little Red Riding Hood, Ursula style.. ➤ (click next entry to see second half)

➤ sequel to The Little Mermaid. Beautiful and haunting and tragic and RIGHT.

➤ the ugly Duckling as a character of colour trying to find her place in the world.

➤ An SGA au of Donkeyskin. Not nearly as creepy as that story CAN be, and well done.