Just recently I learned that the writerly term for this is workinprogress, WIP. My WIP recounts the adventures, tragic and comic, of three fairytale heroines. As a writer I’m slow, a tiny caterpillar chewing on a large leaf. I love my little book and hope to finish it someday! It’s a joy to retell old tales and make them our own.
From watch-posts, pedestals, columns, they leapt to life – claws out, jaws wide – their roars not imagined by those dreaming in safety. Their strength pursued vagrants, who too were prowling – worse than any lion – bearing the image of the Eternal yet roaming the night to thieve and maul. One old guardian, full-maned but thin, awoke still half stone, claws clutching shining spheres of marble to menace and wield. At times the night, under the Italian skies, and the dim streets, were massed with legions of lions seeking vengeance for the corruption of their City. Out of love, they gave real lions – let loose from the Duke’s gardens – wide berth, making them think they were simply their own magnificent shadows.
“There is a special term to describe literary depictions of visual works of art: ekphrasis. Poems about pictures or paintings are, then, ekphrastic poems.” Dr. Oliver Teale, 10 of the Best Ekphrastic Poems about Pictures
Frederick Hall – Cinderella
Cinderella is one of my favorite fairytales. I’m writing a novella in which she appears.
Looking Glum
Cinder-girl, are you feeling sad? Let me be your Fairy Godmother offering advice you haven’t asked for! Isn’t it better sitting barefoot in a sunny barnyard filled with the flitting, scratching, and pecking of innocent fowl and fallout of downy feathers than sitting inside a wealthy house – too large for its occupants – littered with the fallout of wicked tongues? One day – though now you can’t see – you will wear, lose, and recover a slipper of unmatched beauty. Till then, I recommend, cheer up!