What I’m Reading Now—Japanese Tales by Royall Tyler

I was pretty fascinated by E. R. Warren’s blog posts—not to mention her fiction available on Figment—so I asked her for a few book recommendations on Japanese mythology and literature, as I didn’t know where to start. You can find her recommendations post here.

I biked to my local library this morning to pick up Japanese Tales, edited and translated by Royall Tyler. It was in a modest section of fairy tales, folklore, and myths, and I grabbed a bunch of its neighbors off the shelves. Then I realized I didn’t bring a bag, and my bike basket isn’t big enough. So I could only take back Japanese Tales and Philip Pullman’s Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm.

Looking forward to reading the section on foxes—there are two!

Speaking of foxes…I miss Fox!

In other news: The Golden Key’s Issue #4: Hungry Things was released this week! It contains 20 hungry pieces from 15 amazing writers, all gorgeously illustrated by Jen Muir—a speculative feast, served up just in time for summer.

My first short story acceptance, “The Pocket Watch Prince,” has been reprinted as a podcast, and it’s up now at Toasted Cake!

Fairy Tales

Susan found Kellie Wells reading an excerpt of her upcoming novel Fat Girl, Terrestrial (and her short story “The Girl, The Wolf, The Crone”)—both of which she read when she visited. Listen to this! She has a great style of reading, and Fat Girl, Terrestrial is also one of the books I’m most anticipating in 2012. It comes out in the fall, I think.

I also just purchased The Grey Issue of The Fairy Tale Review and while I was at it (because I like to get the bang for my buck when it comes to shipping), Irlanda by Espido Freire and translated from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei. From the back:

“Sagrario died in May, after much suffering.” So begins Espido Freire’s haunting novel IRLANDA, with a sentence that is bright and troubled at once, just like its hero. After the death of her sister Sagrario, young Natalia has been sent by her mother to spend the summer helping her two teenage cousins (Roberto and the beautiful, “perfect” Irlanda) do minor repairs to the family’s decaying country house. Its fairy-tale “tower and chapel…stood crumbling, crawling with vermin.” Jealousy, displacement, and loss: these classic themes are twisted and laid bare in a pristinely told mystery story. This beautifully translated book is the first to be published in the English language by one of Spain’s youngest and most celebrated authors.

“Exquisite…fascinating…stunning. IRLANDA unfurls like a rose with a ring of gleaming white teeth inside, poised to snap.”—Stacey Richter

I included the little review quote from Stacey Richter because 1) I like Stacey Richter, 2) I find those pithy, quotable review bits really hard to write.

Oh yeah—my unbroken writing days count is back down to 8 at the moment. I hit 20 days and an especially crazy day and it went kaput.

Other links of note: Icons of the Avengers. Carlea’s new blog, What We Talk About When We Talk About Folklore, which is just PACKED with awesome. And The Art of Narrative, which is a compendium of beauty.