'Twice Upon a Time: Fairytale, Folklore, & Myth Reimagined & Remastered'

Fairytales don’t always happen once upon a time. Fables don’t always have a happy ending. Sometimes the stories we love are too dark for nightmares. What if waking Sleeping Beauty was the worse thing the Prince could have done? What if Rapunzel wasn't in that tower for her own protection—but for everyone else’s?

Assembled by The Bearded Scribe Press, Twice Upon A Time combines classics and modern lore in peculiar and spectacular ways. From Rapunzel to Rumpelstiltskin, this unique collection showcases childhood favorites unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Both traditionally-published and independent authors will take you on a whirlwind ride through fairytale and folklore, myth and majick. Cherished stories are revisited and remastered into newly-treasured tales of hope and heartache, of adversity and adventure.

SM Bloodings' story -

Red survived a great deal on Earth; the first world war, then the second, the loss of her husband, and the deaths of her children. She didn’t, however, do so with her heart intact.

Upon her death, Dreamland swooped her up, dumped her in the Sea of Dreams, and began the process of turning her into nightmare, using her soul as a shining light of hope to those lacking it.

She failed.

Trapped in a strange place called Wonderland, Red must choose to live on as a nightmare, or to disappear back into the Sea of Dreams.

This is the story of the Red Queen of Wonderland told in a Dreamland setting.

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Meet the Author:

SM “Frankie” Blooding lives in Colorado with her pet rock, Rockie, and Jack the Bird. Jack has refused to let her to take up the piano again, but is warming to the guitar. It might help that Frankie has learned more than two strings. She’s added a few more Arabic words to her vocabulary, but don’t invite her into conversation yet—unless, of course, you’re willing to have a very . . . slow . . . conversation.

She’s dated vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers and US Government assassins. Yes. She has stories.

She’s also an investigator with a local paranormal investigation group, Colorado Paranormal Rescue!

 

Find out more about her at:

Facebook /Twitter /Website

Featuring stories from
Bo Balder, AJ Bauers, Carina Bissett, Rose Blackthorn, S.M. Blooding, Rick Chiantaretto, Richard Chizmar, Liz DeJesus, Court Ellyn, S.Q. Eries, Steven Anthony George, Dale W. Glaser, Jax Goss, K.R. Green, Kelly Hale, Tonia Marie Harris, Brian T. Hodges, Tarran Jones, Jason Kimble, Shari L. Klase, Alethea Kontis, Hannah Lesniak, Wayne Ligon, RS McCoy, Joshua Allen Mercier, Robert D. Moores, Diana Murdock, Nick Nafpliotis, Elizabeth J. Norton, Bobbie Palmer, William Petersen, Rebekah Phillips, Asa Powers, Joe Powers, Brian Rathbone, Julianne Snow, Tracy Arthur Soldan, C.L. Stegall, Brian W. Taylor, Kenechi Udogu, Onser von Fullon, Deborah Walker, Angela Wallace, and Cynthia Ward.

Edited by Joshua Allen Mercier. Cover artwork by Luke Spooner.

Watch the Book Trailer

Enter to win a Queen of Hearts coffee cup from Author SM Blooding

Ends 3/1/15 @ 11:59PM EST open to US addresses

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Interview with George Polley, Author of 'The Old Man and the Monkey'

Welcome to the virtual book tour for The Old Man & The Monkey by George Polley. He was kind enough to take some time to let us get to know him and his story a little bit better. 

What was the inspiration behind this story?

One morning in late 2006, I had a dream about a large Japanese “snow” monkey. Since I didn’t remember anything about the dream other than the fact that I’d had it and that it was about a snow monkey, I did what I normally do: I asked him what he was doing there. “Tell my story,” he said. So I got up, made myself a cup of coffee, went down to my office, sat down at my computer, and started to write.

I was curious about him. Why had he appeared, what did he want me to know, and what was his story? “The Old Man and The Monkey” is the result. He turned out to be a wise old monkey and one of my favorite characters. The story of Yukitaro (the monkey) and Genjiro Yamada and his wife Harue has become one of my favorite stories, and all because that old monkey appeared in a dream one night.

Why are myths and folktales still relevant today?

Myths and folktales are stories that teach about what is important to know about living in this often puzzling world. What is life about, what are true friendships like, why do we do things this or that way? The best ones teach without lecturing or hectoring, by involving their listeners and readers in interesting tales.

What is your favorite myth or folktale?

You know, I’ve read so many over the years that it’s no longer possible for me to pick one out that’s my favorite. They all kind of run together. In literature, it’s probably J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of The Rings”, “The Hobbit” and Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series.

What is your favorite genre for writing?

I’m grinning right now. “Why?” you ask. I have too many interests to have a favorite genre; instead, I have several, and here they are: Children: “The Old Man and The Monkey”, “Bear”, “Bear in Trouble” (to be published in 2013); literary (I know, I know, that’s thought of as so boring and passé, but the best literary novels are not); adventure. I plan to write at least one thriller in 2013, and have a humor book in mind. I do have rather broad interests. :-)

What other projects are you working on?

I’m working on a novel about Mexico City, where I lived for a time in 1973-74. The title is “The City Has Many Faces”.

I also have two more “Andy and Bear” novels planned: “Harl Lake” and “Graywolf”.

And I have a psychological thriller that I’ll write somewhere in there.

What is something readers may not know about you?

I have four wonderful children and ten wonderful grandchildren scattered about from California to Pennsylvania. I’ve been writing and publishing stories and poems since the late 1960s, all because my 7th Grade English teacher at James Madison Middle School in Seattle told me I had a lot of talent as a writer way back in 1947, and I never forgot it.

Thank you so much for your time!

 

About the Author:

George Polley was born in Santa Barbara, California and raised in Seattle, Washington. He has lived in California (Berkeley and Stockton), Illinois (Cooks Mills  and Villa Grove), Minnesota (Luverne, Marshal and Minneapolis), and from 1984 until early in 2008, in Seattle, when he and his wife moved to Sapporo, Japan so that she could fulfill her dream of returning to the land of her birth.

His work has appeared in the South Dakota Review, Crow's Nest, Expanding Horizons, The Enchanted Self, Community Mental Health Journal, Maturing, The Lyon County (Minnesota) Review  Wine Rings, North Country Anvil, North American Mentor Magazine, the McLean County (Illinois) Poetry Review, River Bottom, Tower Talks and Foundations.

He has also authored several booklets in the mental health field, two of them co-authored with Ana Dvoredsky, M.D. in 2007.

George's e-book 'The Old Man & The Monkey' poses one of the most elegant and powerful arguments against racism of all time, and his 'Grandfather & The Raven' argues equally compellingly against violence in all its forms. 

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The Old Man and The Monkey

George Polley

Genre: Adventure, Inspirational, Legend

Publisher: Taylor Street Publishing

ISBN: 9781451543773

ASIN: B003T0GJ4E

Number of pages: 60

Word Count: 7,267

The Old Man and The Monkey is about a village elder in Japan and the large monkey who became his friend over the last five years of his life. Since the villagers don't like monkeys, none of them approve of the friendship between the old man Genjiro Yamada and Yukitaro ("snow monkey" in Japanese).

But Genjiro refuses to give up the friendship, even when his wife objects to it. After all, monkeys are nuisances and thieves. But over time, both Genjiro’s wife and the villagers come to grudgingly accept him, especially when, on several occasions, they receive a special blessing from him.

'The Old Man & The Monkey' is a stunningly beautiful story of a relationship which develops between an old man and a creature which is regarded as a dangerous pest in Japan, a snow monkey, in George Polley's moving allegory of dignity in the face of prejudice and racism.

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'The Old Man and the Monkey' Book Tour & Review

The Old Man and The Monkey

George Polley

Genre: Adventure, Inspirational, Legend

Publisher: Taylor Street Publishing

ISBN: 9781451543773

ASIN: B003T0GJ4E

Number of pages: 60

Word Count: 7,267

The Old Man and The Monkey is about a village elder in Japan and the large monkey who became his friend over the last five years of his life. Since the villagers don't like monkeys, none of them approve of the friendship between the old man Genjiro Yamada and Yukitaro ("snow monkey" in Japanese).

But Genjiro refuses to give up the friendship, even when his wife objects to it. After all, monkeys are nuisances and thieves. But over time, both Genjiro’s wife and the villagers come to grudgingly accept him, especially when, on several occasions, they receive a special blessing from him.

'The Old Man & The Monkey' is a stunningly beautiful story of a relationship which develops between an old man and a creature which is regarded as a dangerous pest in Japan, a snow monkey, in George Polley's moving allegory of dignity in the face of prejudice and racism.

Read an excerpt:

 

Prologue

In a small park near one of the rivers that run through the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido, there is a bronze statue of an old man and a monkey seated side by side on a wide flat stone looking out over the river and the mountains. The monkey is bigger than ordinary snow monkeys; the top of his head reaches to the old man’s shoulder.

Looking at the bags under his eyes, one can see that the monkey, like the man, is elderly. Affixed to the base of the statue is a bronze plaque that reads: “Genjiro and Yukitaro.” These two old friends sit and warm themselves in silence as the years and seasons pass.

As Long as long as the statue has been there, people passing by have paused, wondering how a monkey and a man could become friends because, as everyone knows, monkeys are pests and can be dangerous when humans get too close. Some people tell each other that such a friendship is unnatural, and that because it is unnatural, is impossible. Others believe that Genjiro and Yukitaro are characters that the artist made up. But everyone agrees that the statue is appealing, because the two old friends have such an air of tranquility and peace about them that people come and sit down next to it to enjoy their lunch, or to just sit quietly and look out at the river and the mountains, later commenting on how peaceful the experience was.

So it is that the old man and the monkey receive a constant stream of visitors who sit and enjoy their company in silence and take something of them away to warm themselves.

No one believes the old man and the monkey were real; but I know that they were because the old man was my grandfather, Genjiro Yamada, and Yukitaro was his companion and friend for the last five years of his life.

Now is the time for me to tell their story and reveal for the first time how an improbable friendship like that between a man and a monkey happened, how it was good, and how it ended.

**My thoughts**

This story left me feeling warm and fuzzy and emotional, all at the same time. Despite our best efforts, we still tend to fear those who are different from us, when sometimes the different ones can make the best friends and blessings. 

I honestly thought that this was a folktale that had been passed down from generation to generation in a land overseas. I didn't realize that it was based on a dream that the author once had. It's language and Polley's storytelling make it seems like a tale as old as time.

As an adult, I loved the message of the story, as a way to remind myself to be more accepting. As a teacher, I love this story because of its lessons. I would definitely use this in the classroom.   

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