Fairy Tales, Editing, Poetry and 15th Century England

ust look: the Whisky Trench Riders' Driftin' has passed the 1000 viewers mark!
Wonder how soon they can crack 2000?

There's a fun blogfest going on, all about fairy tales. Oddly enough, the Word Wenches recently featured a post on fairytales as well.

The What If? Blogfest, hosted by Morgan, Leigh, Mark and Cassie Mae, asks you to:

"Think of your favorite 'well known' fairytale and ask 'What If...!' Then, pick one of these four categories (be sure to mention which category you're joining, during your blog post!):

Best Plot Twist

Best Love Story

Best Tragedy

Best Comic Relief

Finally, write a scene(s) illustrating a new detail of the fabled fairy tale that changes our perspective."

I'm not actually entering the blogfest - if it runs again next year I might be ready then. Because... drum roll...

I've just finished writing the first draft of my own Beauty and the Beast tale!

Now I've got to type it all up. And return to Rome, Rhymes and Risk and all the editing I left behind...

Not just in Ancient Greece, but even in the last century, there used to be poetry at the Olympics! Unfortunately: "Today, lovers of poetry and sports must be content to ponder the rare survivors, like the Finnish wordsmith Aale Maria Tynni's 'Laurel of Hellas,' which took the gold at the 1948 London Games:

 Laurel of Hellas noble-born, / most celebrated tree,
gazing to your lofty crown / the mind must dazzled be.

This proved the last gasp for official Olympic poetry. Organizers began to doubt the quality of the offerings, as the gulf between the sports-related entries and contemporary poetry grew ever wider. Apart from the niggling amateur question, one official speculated that 'there are not enough artists who find occasion to study the beauty of the human body in motion or have connection with the world of sport.' In 1952 at Helsinki, literature was quietly dropped, along with the other arts contests."

But The Poetry Society kept the competition alive. And they've brought in other crafts, like knitting!

As for the editing... I've been looking at some of the photos I took in England back in April/May, all set in or near the time frame of Rome, Rhymes and Risk, and the next story set in that time (1470s to 1490s), featuring Santiago and Mawdlen (Magdalena) - Rosa's parents. The best part is that this story will be set in London!

 Canterbury

 Canterbury, along the river

 Panorama of Canterbury

 The church where Christopher Marlowe was baptised...

 ...and the plaque commemorating its bombing in 1942

 A Tudor building

 The oldest building in Winchester

 The Sun Hotel, 1503, later visited by Charles Dickens

 This gate is nearly a thousand years old. Look up at those windows...

...in the 17th Century, a husband, wife, kids and hogs all lived up there together

Which fairy tale would you change the ending of?