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Fairies Giveaway & Contest!

Of course everyone is familiar with the famous photograph of the small girl surrounded by faeries, which caused such a sensation when it was first published in The Regular magazine in 1907. It inspired many imitations and was circulated around the world.

While some sceptics dismissed it as a hoax, it was hailed in many quarters as the final, irrefutable proof of the existence of faeries. However little was known about the young girl shown in the photograph...

July 7th 1895. I showed my faerey to Ettie but she sed Nanna wuld be cross bekaws my book is for pressing flowers in nor faereys so I won't show it to anybody. I am going to fill my book up with faereys so ther

Lady Angelica Cottington was ridiculed after her secret photo of the faeries became the latest gossip around town. These creatures were making her life unbearable! Just because her hobby was pressing faeries instead of flowers, does not justify the torture her friends, peers, family and those pesky faeries have put her through!

Join Lady Cottington on her journey into the World of Faery during the Victorian Era!



In 1995 Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book was released to an unsuspecting public. Called "an unstoppable phenomenon" by its publisher, it became an immediate international best-seller. Now 2005 can be named the Year of Lady Cottington with the 10th anniversary of the publication that first exposed the world to the science of fairy exploration.

This volume records in authentic facsimile the latest incarnation of this notorious book along with eight additional pages and enhanced artwork throughout, virtually overflowing with freshly flattened fairies. Former Monty Python member Terry Jones and artist Brian Froud provide a new introduction to place the book in its proper perspective, offering insight into the book's often maligned historic relevance. As a bonus, included is an incriminating DVD showing rare film footage of the elderly Lady Cottington in her garden demonstrating her fairy-squashing technique, as well as a photo gallery, desktop wallpaper, and screensavers.


The Cottington Archive reluctantly announces that more information about the infamous Lady Cottington has surfaced: a scrapbook compiled by the fairy smasher herself of her correspondence with luminaries such as Queen Victoria, Annie Oakley, Igor Stravinsky, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lang, P.T. Barnum, and more. All about fairies, these hilarious letters contain everything from wisdom to suggestions to chastisement. Lady Cottington has made notes in the margins not to mention smashed fairies throughout (will she EVER STOP this nasty habit?!). And the fairies...ah the fairies...they too have done their part, sprinkling magic and mayhem throughout.

17th February 1892

My Sweet Angelica,

You ask if, having written so many fairy tales, have I actually seen any fairies. I most certainly have.

Darling child, they are drawn to me like moths to a flame! If you should like to see some, then you must come to the premiere of my Lady Windemere's Fan where flocks of winged Ganymedes will be flitting about the lobby awaiting my descent. You are, of course, too young to fully appreciate this play and you will miss most of the cleverest bits, but you will be in excellent company.

Oscar Wilde

Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters, a facsimile reproduction of Lady Cottington's original volume, combines the nutty artistry of the first two Lady Cottington books with delightful novelty components. Containing "actual" letters, invoices for "spiritual services," a fairy Valentine, an invitation from Alice Liddell to tea, and more, this newest interactive addition to the Lady Cottington series is the most innovative to date.

I love Brian Froud first of all - Faeries, Good Fairy, Bad Fairy - but Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book is vintage Froud. Great illustrations, a little sick, a lot weird, with this strange sense of humor running throughout. I love the expressions of the pressed fairies like, "Oh, no!" Just so we're clear - no fairies were harmed during the making of this book. These are psychic impressions of fairies. Everyone knows you need to spray them with a de-magical solution to paralyze them before they can be captured, duh.

Lady Cottington's journal entries start out comical and sweet (like the above in convincingly childish scrawl) to batty as she grows older, then bittersweet in old age when the fairies come no more.

I Want Your Stellar Micro Fiction!

The short story isn't dead - at least not at Misfit Salon--

The rules:

1. 275 words maximum (You can weave a great story with 275 words. Look at what these guys did with 25 words!)

2. Theme: anything you like.

3. Previously unpublished material.

4. E-mail your entry to misfitsalon [at] gmail [dot] com. In the subject line of the e-mail put: MICRO FICTION SUBMISSION: [YOUR TITLE].

5. Please do not send attachments. Include your story within the body of the e-mail. E-mails with attachments will be deleted.

6. Please include a brief bio with your entry, as well a link to your blog/website/Facebook/Twitter page. I want to highlight the finalists' backgrounds when I post their entries.

7. Submissions close on December 14, 2009, 8:00 PST.

8. You need to be a Google follower to enter. Not a Google follower? It's easy to become one.

9. I will pick three submissions and post them on the blog on December 17, 2009, so that readers can vote on who shall win the prize: $15 AMAZON GIFT CARD.

10. Finalists who do not win the gift card will still have a chance to win the Misfit Salon Micro Fiction of the Year prize of a $25 Amazon Gift Card (to be chosen by me). You know what that means -- more micro fiction contests in the future!

11. All finalists will be published in the upcoming issue of Misfit Magazine (an e-zine still under construction). Misfit Salon and Misfit Magazine will retain the rights to the winning entry for 6 months from the date of publication, after which rights revert back to the author.

Good luck!

Hint Fiction Winner!

is

KATHLEEN A. RYAN

for

"Who's There?"

Who's There? got 6 eligible votes (There were 5 more votes but since the voters were not followers, they were ineligible, but that didn't affect the outcome.)

Cold Simmer by Jason Black and Descent by Nate both got 2 votes each.

Invisible Ghosts by Emily Barton and Live Well/Love Much/Die Often by Steve each got a vote.

Thank you all so much for participating and voting. This was great fun for me and very interesting to see what attracted people to certain entries. Hint fiction, because of its limitations is hard to pull off. The finalists and honorable mentions executed quite a feat!

Perhaps Kathleen can tell us what inspired her winning entry....?

Next: Micro Fiction contest!

Thank you, Maria!

One of the many, many things I am grateful for is the book blogging community I stumbled into soon after I first started blogging. I have met such wonderfully kind and lovely people who, through their blogs and book reviews, I have gotten to know - people like Kris at One Hundred Books who makes me laugh with every post and e-mail and the fabulous Brenda at My Spring Snow, as well as all the commenters and visitors to my little blog - I value the time you spend with me.



Yesterday, I came home and found this huge box of books outside my door which the awesome Maria from A Passion for Books so generously sent to me. As my friends and family know, nothing elicits more shrieks and giddy squeals from me than receiving books. Maria - you have made Christmas come early at my house.


THANK YOU!

The Eyeball Collector by F.E. Higgins

Although Hector Fitzbaudly has always lived a plush life on the posh side of the River Foedus, he’s yearned to slip away from his comfortable home and see the seedy side of Urbs Umida. Unfortunately, he gets his chance when a blackmail artist confronts his father with a terrible secret from his past, and Hector finds himself penniless and on the streets. He is determined to get his revenge against the man responsible, who has been a pauper, a gentleman, and an Eyeball Collector—stealing jewels from the wealthy to make false eyes to replace his missing one. He is a master of disguise, and a swindler who moves from place to place.

Hector trails the Eyeball Collector to the small village of Pagus Parvus and the foreboding Withypitts Hall, run by the eccentric Lady Mandible who has a strange taste for the macabre. He takes a job incubating butterflies for Lady Mandible, and places himself in the perfect position to take revenge. Hector is so close to the Eyeball Collector, but will he be able to go through with his plan?

Once again, F. E. Higgins takes readers into her world filled with grand balls and hairy-backed beasts, plotting nobility and clever orphans, and creates a spine-tingling story that is her most eerie yet.

Murder

Eyeballs

Puzzling riddles

Leeches

...and Butterflies?

The Eyeball Collector has got it all. A villain as dastardly as Count Olaf, with an eyepatch and multiple disguises. An orphan straight out of a Dickens novel with thieving compatriots reminiscent of the Artful Dodger and company. A cold and imperious noble, Lady Mandible, who has mysterious plans of her own. A spine-shivery, gothic atmosphere tinged with menace.

At first I saw nothing. The moon was behind the swollen clouds and the sheeting rain made everything blurry. but then pitchforked lightning split the inky sky and my heart faltered. In its white light, my disbelieving eyes saw a vast jagged silhouette stretching across a broad mountainous outcrop like a diabolical gathering of crouching devils. Their horns were the towers and the light burning in the windows their evil red eyes.

"Tatri flammis!" I breathed and could say not another word. This behemoth before me was Whittypitts Hall.

"This is madness!" shouted Solomon. "Come back with me. It's not too late."

Hector is a plucky and likeable hero, with a special gift of riddling which helps him survive after his father dies. Another gift, one for cultivating rare butterflies, lands him in luxurious Whittypitts Hall, close enough to exact revenge on the man he blames for his father's death, Baron Bovrik de Vandolin. However, these gifts and his desire for revenge also puts him in harm's way, for there are evil doings happening in Whittypitts Hall, centered around the enigmatic Lady Mandible. Hector plots to exact revenge on the night of the Mandible Midwinter Feast, but his plans threaten to go awry when Lady Mandible and Baron Bovrik's terrible secrets are revealed...

Every time I think I have seen the worst this abominable place has to offer, I am proved wrong. As for the despicable man who plays at Baron, I can hardly wait until the feast is over and my task completed. Then I shall be gone from here, for I swear, if I have to stay a moment longer I fear for my sanity and my character.

What goes on during the Mandible Midwinter Feast is memorable, not only because the plot climaxes at this point, but also for the truly awful feast that commences. I am specially attuned to food description in books and this one made me naseous. If I ever compile a list of the best of the worst food scenes, this will be the very first to come to mind.

The revelers, each and every one, ate as if there was no tomorrow. What a feast it was! ... As fast as a pitcher of wine or a plate of food was brought out, it was emptied and another was demanded. Up and down the length of the table gaping mouths and drooling, dribbling chins were the order of the day, and the beleaguered servers were grabbed by one fellow and tugged by another until their tunics were practically torn asunder.

He watched the guests feed, hand to plate to mouth, hand to plate to mouth, in a ceaseless repetition. Dormouse tails (apparently particularly delicious) dangled from their lips; entire sparrows dropped into their gaping maws; fat plums and cherries ready to burst were forced into their mouths until the juices squirted in all directions. This was not hunger, this was sheer unadulterated gluttony.

Although this is Higgins's third book set in Urbs Umida and apparently including some recurring character(s) from The Black Book of Secrets and The Bone Magician, The Eyeball Collector is a stand alone book. I haven't read the other two (but I soon will!) and I was not at all lost reading this one.

The Eyeball Collector is a well-written, intelligent book with gothic suspense for middle grade to young adults. Best of all, it has riddling conundrums sprinkled throughout like little treats (with answers in the back of the book). There is some violence.

I'll leave you with a riddle from the book:

There was once a kingdom where it was a crime to tell a lie, the punishment being death.

A young man traveled to the kingdom and heard about the crime of lying. "That is nonsense, he declared to the townspeople. "If I tell a lie I will not be put to death."

One of the king's guards overheard his boast and asked him, "Did you say you could evade punishment for lying?"

"No," replied the young man brazenly.

"That's a lie!" shouted the crown and he was arrested and thrown into prison.

The next day he was brought before the King and a jury of twelve.

"You have been found guilty of lying," said the King. "You may say one last thing before you die, but be warned: if your statement is true, then you will be given a strong sleeping draught and you will die painlessly. But if your statement is a lie, then you will be burned alive and die screaming."

The young man spoke only one sentence in reply and the King had no choice but to release him.

What did he say?

F. E. Higgins's website (full of goodies like research notes and creepy Halloweenish recipes)

Purchase The Eyeball Collector

Thank you very much to Caroline Sun at MacMillan Publishing for providing a review copy of The Eyeball Collector!