Off the Bookshelf: FAIRIES: MYTHS, LEGENDS AND LORE, by Skye Alexander

Sometimes research can be fun. And frustrating. Especially when you're looking for books in the library, and the search function of the computer index doesn't want to cooperate. Most of the books I found on fairies, faeries, the fair folk, and such *sigh* were fiction, mostly romance, some kids' stories. That's not what I was looking for.

So when I found this one, as I prepare to start a new series of books, it was a major relief. And a treasure trove.

Dealing with fairy lore from around the world, it discusses different classes of fairies, legends, their functions within the magical realms as well as dealings with lowly mortals, and what was really fascinating, a discussion of how the legends have changed through the years, as society changed. This is one I really think I need to find in print, rather than ebook, so I can flag pages for future reference, because I can see going back to this again and again, for inspiration.

Realm Award Finalist!

I'm delighted to announce that MUSIC IN THE NIGHT, part of the Guardians of the Time Stream series (steampunk) published by Desert Breeze Publishing, has been named a FINALIST in the Realm Awards competition.

Winners will be announced at the end of July at the Realm Makers convention in St. Louis.

I'm so excited!!!

Ess and Carmen are childhood friends who only met in dreams. Orphaned and destitute, Carmen flees enemies she doesn't understand. Ess desperately seeks for her friend, knowing their enemies all too well.

Brogan is a creature of the darkness, his music stolen and his face scarred by tragedy. He leads an underground community of people left destitute by injustice and tragedy. Crystal in his flesh and bone allows him to hear Carmen sing in the night. When she takes refuge in his world of tunnels and shadows, she brings him hope that he isn't going mad after all.

Ess and Carmen finally meet, resolving puzzles more than twenty years old. A future of possibilities open before them, but only if they can defeat the Revisionists who will destroy them all to control crystal's power, the future, and rewrite the past.

Off the Bookshelf: A YEAR WITH ASLAN, C.S. Lewis

Start off every day with a short visit to Narnia.

Oh, if only ........

This book of daily readings from the Chronicles of Narnia is best when shared -- each selection ends with a question to ponder or discuss.

Instead of devouring each book of the Chronicles in one lump -- what Free Narnian can resist? -- the nibbles of different scenes offer a chance to consider aspects of Narnia and the adventures of the children who visited there from different angles. Pieces instead of the whole.

Of course, you can do like I did, and read five or six or ten selections at a sitting. Who can resist? This will have to hold us until we can step through the Wardrobe for ourselves. This is a great way to have daily devotions or just family time with children, and explore Narnia all over again.