#fairyland september

[weathertheraine]

Some rare non-haikyuu content!! Nobody goes here, but this series is close to my heart and I’ve loved coming back to it as an adult ! I don’t think Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland residents would have much use for strict human gender binaries.

[comfort-devil]

Even if you’ve taken off every stitch of clothing, you still have your secrets, your history, your true name. It’s hard to be really naked. You have to work hard at it. Just getting into a bath isn’t being naked, not really. It’s just showing skin.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland, #1)

[waterfall-ambience]

toyed with the idea of drawing a perpetua parent-clone duo as frankenstein + the creature (like, as a silly halloween thing), but oops it works well with most of them.

minerva & avery - mad scientist and her son, most overt parent-child dynamic. minerva canonically likes the story, they would totally do this for halloween and it would be cute.

luna & damien - starts off as something of a creator/creation dynamic, has very frankenstein-y motifs (damien's lightning, necromancy, (initial) rage towards creator). depending on the adaptation you go off of*, pinocchio could also work well (damien wanting to be 'real', coming of age, etc. also i pitch you: luna as a very miserable geppetto)

icarus & newton - THE mad scientist and his creation. newton carries a lot of that anger towards his creator and tendency to vibe in the woods + classic literature. however newton is not organic, aesthetically he's closer to pinocchio, and i like to think he was more of a troublemaker to begin with, like in collodi's pinocchio.

*lets be real though the story elements & characterisation from the del toro adaptation work best for these purposes

[orangegreenbracket]

[vifetoile]

“I suppose you think you know what autumn looks like. Even if you live in the Los Angeles dreamed of by September’s schoolmates, you have surely seen postcards and photographs of the kind of autumn I mean. The trees go all red and blazing orange and gold, and wood fires burn at night so everything smells of crisp branches. The world rolls about delightedly in a heap of cider and candy and apples and pumpkins and cold stars rush by through wispy, ragged clouds, past a moon like a bony knee. You have, no doubt, experienced a Halloween or two.

Autumn in Fairyland is all that, of course. You would never feel cheated by the colors of a Fairyland Forest or the morbidity of a Fairyland moon. And the Halloween masks! Oh, how they glitter, how they curl, how their beaks and jaws hook and barb! But to wander through autumn in Fairyland is to look into a murky pool, seeing only a hazy reflection of the Autumn Provinces’ eternal fall. And human autumn is but a cast-off photograph of that reflecting pool, half burnt and drifting through the space between us and Fairyland.

And so I may tell you that the leaves began to turn red as September and her friends rushed through the suddenly cold air on their snorting, roaring high wheels, and you might believe me. But no red you have ever seen could touch the crimson bleed of the trees in that place. No oak gnarled and orange with October is half as bright as the boughs that bent over September’s head, dropping their hard, sweet acorns into her spinning spokes. But you must try as hard as you can. Squeeze your eyes closed, as tight as you can, and think of all your favorite autumns, crisp and perfect, all bound up together like a stack of cards. That is what it is like, the awful, wonderful brightness of Fairy colors. Try to smell the hard, pale wood sending up sharp, green smoke into the afternoon. To feel to mellow, golden sun on your skin, more gentle and cozier and more golden than even the light of your favorite reading nook at the close of the day.”

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship Of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

Imaging in September and friends (either before or post the events of The Who Raced Fairyland all the way home) were to meet Rose Dyson, or Laura Glue…or the Badgers…or anybody from CotIG…it would be neat. Fairyland (or at least a Fairyland) exists in CotIG so…very doable. Come to think of it…September grew up around the time Rose was in the Summer Country….albeit in Nebraska and Reading, England, respectively…..but still would be neat. Wonder what September would think of Archimedes…and of course….A through L in the Library at Tamerlane or the Great Whatsit? Bliss. Not to mention, September just has such…Messenger Energy? But mostly if September and Rose met…that would be neat. Saturday would likely somehow end up wrestling Hawthorne. Possibly Laura Glue….oh and of course I’m sure there’s a number of the Caretakers September would love to chat with…either with regards to her being a fan of their works…or alternatively September, along with Hawthorne/Thomas (the Troll) and Tambourlaine (pretty sure I spelled this wrong) having a few words with Spenser on the portrayal of Tanaquil/Gloriana….Wonder if September is more of a Jack fan or John. Or maybe…she prefers Charles’ Stuff? Hm…probably John’s

Oh! And there’s Names and Naming! Big things in both

To those of you who have read the Fairyland series by Valente I highly recommend The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A Owen. First book is Here there be Dragons

To any Scowlers who haven’t read the Fairyland series by Catherynne M. Valente, I highly recommend it . Probably my third favorite series behind CotIG and Discworld and just barely beating out the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness (another series for another time)…it’s first book is titled The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making. And each other title is about as long…so good!

Make of this what you will.

Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming.

[lovelifeanon]

HOWDY!

Have you been searching for a long YA series that gave you the same ecstatic experience as reading a novel under your covers with a flashlight? (While avoiding modern YA that’s rank with bad smut) (and also trying not to read something that’s made for fifth graders)

DO I HAVE SOME SERIES FOR YOU!

*whispers seductively in your ear*

“Four books or more in a series…easy to find at your local library.”

Straight fucking banger. Neurodivergent children infiltrate an oppressive school to take down a machine of misinformation and propaganda.

This book blows most autistic representation out of the water for me. It is absolutely phenomenal and so witty and funny to read. The whole series is AMAZING. The prequel series is genuinely a jaw dropping emotional experience about love and appreciation for the universe. Sci fi at its wittiest.

Fantasy that kills ACOTAR and Fourth Wing stone dead. A girl called September goes on an epic and absurd quest through Fairyland to overthrow its Queen. When I say the world building and mythology is good for this, you won’t understand. All I can say is Neil Gaiman fucking loves this book.

Historical fantasy that will make you froth at the mouth to wear a cloak in the wilderness. It’s a long series compared to these other two, I think about fourteen books in total? Maybe more. Will is chosen to become a Ranger, part of an elite group of the King’s men that serve as scouts and sheriffs in the effort to prevent war growing between nations.

Where most historical fantasy authors sort of throw vague descriptions of weapons and military methods at you, Flanagan will literally spend two paragraphs just describing the beauty of an English longbow in tender, loving detail. It’s witty, it’s fun, it has suspense and some top notch whiny teen with pissed off mentor moments. Plus short king rep.

In conclusion!

[literary-illuminati]

Grudgingly handing it to the spotify discover algorithim for pointing me at a whole filk album for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

[scribefindegil]

I know I mentioned this some years ago, so if it doesn't work for you no worries! I do at least need to suggest Catherynne Valente's Fairyland series, however. 5 books, all relatively short, that I think of as "books for the adults who dreamed of going on a fantasy adventure as a child." No sex, a very fun and whimsical writing style, and while the world is occasionally cruel or unfair (and called out as such) the narrator and ultimately the story itself are full of deep, deep love for the genre and characters. It's a deconstruction and whole-hearted reconstruction of the portal fantasy. It's about stories and the telling of them and identity and rewriting your own narrative, and I love it dearly.

A snippet from the first book:

The trouble was, September didn’t know what sort of story she was in. Was it a merry one or a serious one? How ought she to act? If it were merry, she might dash after a Spoon, and it would all be a marvelous adventure, with funny rhymes and somersaults and a grand party with red lanterns at the end. But if it were a serious tale, she might have to do something important, something involving, with snow and arrows and enemies. Of course, we would like to tell her which. But no one may know the shape of the tale in which they move. And, perhaps, we do not truly know what sort of beast it is, either. Stories have a way of changing faces. [...]

But a machinist’s daughter can be shrewd and practical. And can’t there be snow and enemies and red lanterns and somersaults? And at least one mushroom ring? That would be the best thing, really, if she can manage it.

There must be blood, the girl thought. There must always be blood. The Green Wind said that, so it must be true. It will all be hard and bloody, but there will be wonders, too, or else why bring me here at all? And it’s the wonders I’m after, even if I have to bleed for them.

Oooh, definitely checking these out!!! I adore the *concept* of "loving portal fantasy deconstruction" so so so much, but I've yet to find one that actually lives up to the concept. And you all know how much I love a narrative that's alive!

(Also never feel bad about repeating a rec, especially if a lot of time has passed. I will forget everything people tell me)

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Eric is heartbroken and doesn't know how he can go on living. He sleepwalks through his life and can't care about anything. But he is also growing stronger through that pain:

Out of that fiery furnace of agony Eric Marshall was to go forth a man who had put boyhood behind him for ever and looked out on life with eyes that saw into it and beyond.

Now there's several ways to take this, but the interesting one for me is that Kilmeny put girlhood aside and became a woman when Eric kissed her and Eric put boyhood aside and became a man when Kilmeny refused him. It's a clear vision of the distinction between men and women: girls become women when they discover sex and boys become men when they go through hardship.

There is a funeral and so school is closed. Instead of going to the funeral -- which is presumably why the school is closed? So people can attend the funeral and mourn together? -- Eric goes back to the orchard. He doesn't expect to see Kilmeny there, but still he can't keep away. Even when specifically ordered out of fairyland and told not to come back, he can't help trying to sneak back in the back way, just one last time.

He crosses Neil Gordon, who does not acknowledge him, and at long last we get the best line in the book, the one I have been so looking forward to: Eric had entered into a new fellowship whereof the passport was pain. Exquisite. Chef's kiss. 10/10, no notes. It's such a bad metaphor it has looped back into near brilliance.

Oh hey, it is September now! Official confirmation from the narrative. Eric and Kilmeny have known each other for three months, for the curious.

The orchard was very silent and dreamy in the thick, deep tinted sunshine of the September afternoon, a sunshine which seemed to possess the power of extracting the very essence of all the odours which summer has stored up in wood and field. There were few flowers now; most of the lilies, which had queened it so bravely along the central path a few days before, were withered. The grass had become ragged and sere and unkempt.

I do genuinely really like this bit. The orchard is withering away as its people are filled with sorrow. I really wish there had been more personification of the orchard like this. Definitely the best descriptions in the entire book are of the orchard itself. In those, we see the Maud who will make a career of description and tying her characters to their settings and breathing life into the physical environment.

Eric wanders through the orchard and falls into reverie, re-living all the good times he and Kilmeny had here. So deep in thought is he that he does not notice that Kilmeny has arrived, to do the same thing. She does not expect Eric to be there, since it's the middle of the day during the school year. Kilmeny, like the orchard, like Eric, is suffering physically from the pain and heartbreak. She is pale and diminished and a shadow of herself. We get a description that would not be out of place in a Victor Hugo novel:

Years seemed to have passed over the girl in those few days. She had drunk of pain and broken bread with sorrow. Her face was pale and strained, with bluish, transparent shadows under her large wistful eyes, out of which the dream and laughter of girlhood had gone, but into which had come the potent charm of grief and patience.

So Kilmeny spots Eric in the orchard and, before she can even come to terms with her feelings at seeing him again, disaster strikes!

Behind Eric Neil Gordon was standing tense, crouched, murderous. Even at that distance Kilmeny saw the look on his face, saw what he held in his hand, and realized in one agonized flash of comprehension what it meant.

Oh no! Neil is about to kill Eric! By the time Kilmeny closes the distance between them it will be too late and the axe will have struck! What can she do?

Kilmeny shan't marry the Prince!

[blorbo-adoption-poll]

The submissions will remain open for two more days!

Submit all your Penny and Penny Propaganda by Wednesday September 6th.

All of the currently submitted characters will be below the cut, if you don’t see your favorite Penny Send Them In!

In submission order.

1: Pennywise (It)

2: Penny Polendina (RWBY)

3: Penny (Stardew Valley)

4: Vanja Schmidt/ Red Penny Thief (Little Thieves)

5: Penny Crygor (WarioWare)

6: Penny Sanchez (ChalkZone)

7: Penny (Pokémon)

8: Henny Penny (Henny Penny)

9: Penny (SpongeBob)

10: Penny Lamb (Ride the Cyclone/ Legoland)

11: Penelope (The Odyssey)

12: Penny Gadget (Inspector Gadget)

13: Peni Parker (Edge of the Spider-Verse (comic))

14: Peni Parker (Into the Spider-Verse (Movie))

15: Penny (Papa Louie's Freezeria)

16: Penny (Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog)

17: Penny Pointer (Tangle Tower)

18: Penny Forrester (Bolt)

19: Penelope Park (Legacies)

20: Pennsylvania (United States of America)

21: Penny Farthing (Sylvanian Families)

22: Penny Fitzgerald (The Amazing World of Gumball)

23: Penny Lane (Almost Famous)

24: Penny (Bigtop Burger)

25: Penny Hofstadter (Big Bang Theory)

26: Penny Nichols (Ace Attorney)

27: Penny Spender (Paranatural)

28: Penelope (Hamtaro)

29: Monkey Penny (Spy Fox)

30: Penny (Miranda)

31: Penny (Currency)

32: Lieutenant Penumbra “Penny” (Ducktales)

33: Penelope Pennywise (Urinetown)

34: Penny Farthing (Fairyland)

35: the Giant Penny in the Bat-Cave (DC Comics)

36: Penelope Eckhart (Villains are Destined to Die)

37: Penny Proud (The Proud Family)

38: Penny Crayon (Penny Crayon)

39: Penny (American Girl Dolls)

40: Penny (Peewee’s Playhouse)

41: Penny Pig (Marks and Spencer’s)

42: Penny “Grams” Halliwell (Charmed)

43: Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)

44: Arthur Pendragon (Seven Deadly Sins)

45: Penny Royal (Trials and Trebuchets)

46: Penelope (Barbie as Rapunzel)

[iphigeniacomplex]

reread the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making last week. i used to carry that book around with me everywhere as a kid; still don't like being in a new space without it, but i haven't actually reread very frequently. very pleased to announce that it still makes me feel crazy in the same ways it did when i was nine and twelve and fourteen. i have to find my younger selves and scoop them up and tell them all. like you know what september singing her death to sleep with the lullaby her mother used for her as her body decays in the worsted wood WAS gorgeous! the house without warning WAS delightful and tragic! the repeated theme of the precise nature of the story being uncertain, culminating in the marquess being able to escape by altering the tone of the story and then using genre conventions concerning the archetype she would fill within the type of story she presents WAS insane and you WERE real as fuck for feeling an uncomfortable sort of identification with her! THE ENDING OF THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE WAS REALLY SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[iowriteswords]

So many projects going on right now, so I thought I’d do a quick update.

Shards of Glass: novel written under the name Jenny Prater, about a girl crossing fairyland in search of her missing friend. Based on The Snow Queen. Coming out September 26, preorders open now, working on lots of promo stuff.

When Pinioned Birds Take Flight: currently ongoing Batfic.

Who Shall Make the Clown Laugh?: upcoming fic, fully written, will be shared in a few weeks, 1ch, 11k, follows Earth 3 Talon!Dick and Duela Dent.

On that note, the Duela Dent blog series that’s sort of on hold for now, but will pick up again.

Bird and Bee: upcoming fic following Earth 3 Talon!Jason at his new home in Earth 11, currently working on chapter 4 out of an estimated 5.

Untitled Talon!Cass and Lady Shiva story, currently in very early planning stages.

The Shoemaker Prince: this short story collection came out 2 years ago, but I’m currently putting the finishing touches on a second edition. The plan was originally just to reformat and correct some errors in the text, but the reformatting dramatically decreased the page count, so I ended up adding 3 more stories.

When the War Ends: my current novel which I set aside at 65k to focus on Pinioned, but I’m definitely gonna get back to it soon.

Take Off Your Happy Face: fic following Harley and Tim in Joker Junior aftermath, was supposed to be my next fic project, after finishing When the War Ends, then Pinioned, then another novel, but somehow it’s happening now.

Silence: the aforementioned another novel, about a mermaid; I’m 12 chapters in but have set it aside until finishing at least When the War Ends and Pinioned.

Untitled Flightless Birds part 4: I’ve written a few scenes for this, but it’s mostly a project for later. However, I’ve had to do a lot of outlining for it already because it takes place in the main flightless birds world at the same time as Pinioned, so timelines have to match up since Tim is making phone calls into the Pinioned world. Currently brainstorming for titles including words flight, flown, flying, etc. Will feature new characters including Bart, Kara, and maybe Sin.

[orangegreenbracket]

[vifetoile]

“She liked anything orange: leaves; some moons; marigolds; chrysanthemums; cheese; pumpkin, both in pie and out; orange juice; marmalade. Orange is bright and demanding. You can't ignore orange things. She once saw an orange parrot in the pet store and had never wanted anything so much in her life. She would have named it Halloween and fed it butterscotch. Her mother said butterscotch would make a bird sick and, besides, the dog would certainly eat it up. September never spoke to the dog again — on principle.

...

“Such lonely, lost things you find on your way. It would be easier, if you were the only one lost. But lost children always find each other, in the dark, in the cold. It is as though they are magnetized and can only attract their like. How I would like to lead you to brave, stalwart friends who would protect you and play games with dice and teach you delightful songs that have no sad endings. If you would only leave cages locked and turn away from unloved Wyverns, you could stay Heartless.”

Two quotes from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente

[waitingforthesunrise]

1,4,15

Comfort characters: we could be here all week, but the main ones that spring to mind are all of the crows plus Nikolai and Zoya, Howl and Sophie (howls moving castle), the little prince, the entire Lockwood and co group, Ignifex and Nyx (cruel beauty by Rosamund hodge), Elizabeth bennet, Irene and Eugenides (the queens thief by Megan Turner) and September (the girl who circumnavigated fairyland by Catherynne Valente.)

4. what cryptid beings do you believe in: did I have to google what meant? Quite possibly. But I stand firmly against Tess that dragons aren’t myths and most definitely are around here somewhere. 5. parent? To several cats and a dog, most definitely.