Short Monday.

Short Monday: Where I work my way through my short story/anthologies/poetry books on my reading list; and talk about the individual pieces I liked.

Today's short story comes from The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance. (Edited by Tricia Telep.)

I was so excited to find this book, even though I still had some reservations about short stories, I just knew I had finally found a collection I would really like. (I LOVE regency romance.) After skimming over some of the authors and recognizing a few of them, I decided; what the heck. So I ordered it. I've only had time to get two stories in, but I loved both of them. I'm so happy I've finally found a niche of sorts for short stories, it feels good knowing I have something to turn to now when I don't feel like diving into another book.

Desperate Measures, by Candice Hern.

Miss Lydia Bettridge has decided to take matters into her own hands. On a rainy afternoon she concocts a plan with the help of her older brother and one of his friends, to inspire jealousy into the heart of a man she has been pining for for some time. But when her plans go awry when her brothers friend is detained, and the very object of her affection is to take his place, she has to think fast. In doing so, she ends up naming a notorious rake as the object of her scheme for attentions. But Lydia soon realizes, perhaps she can make good of her damaged plans after all.

Short Monday: Jane Austen's Nightmare.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday.

Short Monday #8: Jane Austen's Nightmare, by Syrie James. Part of Jane Austen Made Me Do It.

To Miss Jane Austen's horrific surprise, she has a nightmare in which her characters tell her they are unhappy with the way she has written them, except for four of them, that is.

I sort of wish I had waited to get this book from the library until after I had read the rest of her novels. But even though I didn't know all of the characters in this first story and didn't feel familiar enough to know what they were speaking about, there was enough of a background to keep this a short story, and not feel completely lost in it. This was an okay story. Though, at first, it seemed as though Ms. James was criticizing the characters Jane Austen had created. It turned out to be harmless enough in that light, as I got further into this short story. I began to wonder what they would say to her next and who she would meet. I also wondered more about the characters I haven't "met" yet, I am a little more anxious to get to their books and get to know them.
The story comes to a shocking climax and just as things look really bad for Miss Austen, it is over just like that. She wakes from her nightmare and confides in her sister Cassandra the horrible things she dreamt. Goodness, can you imagine? To be an author and have your beloved characters (and some not so beloved characters) come to you in a dream and say that they are upset with you for the choices you made for them? I used to write a little bit and I know that would simply horrify me.
Not a bad start for this book, but I still wish I had read her novels previously.

Short Monday: The Three Spinsters.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday.

Short Monday #7: The Three Spinsters, part of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

A lazy young girl has angered her mother by not working spinning flax into thread, her mother tires and goes to her daughter to hit her, just as the Queen is passing in the street. She hears the young girl's cries and thinks she has a solution for the mother and the daughter. She takes the daughter to live with her, and promises her eldest son to wed the daughter once she has spun the Queen's flax. But the daughter is vexed and cannot help herself and does not know what to do. When she is looking out the window in her angry (lazy) helplessness, she see's three women walking by. They each have one ugly feature about them: a broad flat foot, an usually large lower lip, and the last a very big thumb. The girl relays her trouble, and the women agree to help her. They spin the flax for her, and the Queen is so pleased, thinking the girl had finally done the work - the wedding took place right away. But the three would only help the girl on one condition, she welcomed them to her wedding. The girl of course agreed and went through with her promise. The Queen's son saw her three ugly "aunts" and asked them how they came to look that way, they replied, by treading, licking, and pressing the thread. The Prince was so appalled, he declared that his wife will never spin again.

Wow, who ever thought that a lazy girl could be so clever and fortunate...

Short Monday: The Twelve Brothers.

Short Monday #6: The Twelve Brothers, part of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

This has to be one of the battiest stories yet. But the strange thing is, I think it would have been better with more length. In fact, I wonder if parts of it could be missing..

Anyway. The king turns to his queen one day and decides that if she bears him a daughter, he will have his twelve sons killed. (Out of the blue, much?) He has twelve coffins made and stored in a room in the castle, and their mother, not being able to bear the strange-somewhat-dim-witted king's horrifying decision, cries so much that the youngest son pesters her until she tells him of his fathers plans for the twelve brothers. They wisely decide to leave the castle, each keeping watch for a safe white flag, or a deadly stay-away red flag to be flown from the castle. On the twelfth day, they see the red flag is flown, letting them know their mother gave birth to a girl. This angers them, being put-out by a maiden, they decide that the first maiden they come upon, she must be killed. (Perhaps they are angry at the wrong people here...) They venture off further into the woods and come upon a charmed house, where they decide to live.

The years pass, and a great wash takes place (from what I gather from the story, this is a massive laundry day.) and the brother's twelve shirts are hung to dry. The daughter asks who they belong to, and the mother tells her of her brothers. The daughter then decides to find them, which she does, and she meets the youngest brother first and tells him who she is. He hides her when his older brothers return home, and he makes them promise not to kill the first maiden they meet, and they agree, thus sparing their little sister, whom they immediately love greatly.

But one day, their sister sees twelve lovely flowers outside of their charmed house, and as she breaks the flowers off to take inside for her brothers, they one by one turn into crows and the house and garden disappear, leaving the girl alone in the woods. She notices an old woman standing near her, who tells her she should have left the flowers alone, and shares with her a way to bring her brothers back to normal.

She must be "dumb" for seven years - not speaking or laughing at all, if she speaks or laughs just once, her brothers will die. She does as the old woman says. One day a king comes upon her and seeing how beautiful the girl is, he asks her to marry him, she slightly nods her head yes and he takes her away to his castle. But his wickedly mother sees and thinks that the girl is not right in her silence, and so she eventually convinces her son to have her killed. And on that day, the very moments she is being burned at the stake, the seven years are ended, and her brothers swoop from the sky and turn back into men, and save their sister from death, finally allowing her to speak; and tell the king her story. All of them finally living together happily ever after.

Once again, I have no idea what the moral of this story is, but if I had to find one I suppose it would be to have perseverance...

Short Monday: The Musicians of Bremen.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday. (Please excuse me while I work out the kinks and find the right path for this.)
Short Monday #5: The Musicians of Bremen, part of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

In The Musicians of Bremen, an Ass (donkey, not some jerk, :p) is escaping his demise once he realizes his master is going to get rid of him as his strength has begun to weaken considerably. He decides to go to Bremen to become a musician, on his way there he comes upon a hound in the same position, and persuades him to join him. It goes so on with a cat and a rooster who are also destined to be killed.

When night falls they stop to sleep beneath a large tree. The rooster makes his way to the top branches and spies a light in the distance. He tells his fellow musicians and they move on to investigate. They see that it is a house of four thieves with a huge feast upon their table. the animals, seeing this decide to...play a song. it ends up scaring the thieves so much that they flee the house, allowing the old animals a chance to feast and rest indoors for the night. But the thieves come back at midnight, and they make the mistake of sending only (the dumbest) one inside to see what was the matter once they see that the light has been distinguished inside.

The poor thief gets such a shock of a beating after scaring the cat and all of the animals really, that he believes a witch and her companions have taken over the house. Upon telling his captain his terrifying experience, they decide to leave at once, never to return. Of course, leaving the animals there with the house to themselves.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what the moral of this story could be. I haven't really thought much on it, though. All I can really say, is that I'm glad the animals lived and nothing horrible happened to them after all. This being a Grimm fairy tale, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Short Monday: The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday. (Please excuse me while I work out the kinks and find the right path for this.)


Short Monday #4: The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, part of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

To be perfectly honest, I was dreading this book. I'm several stories in now, and, I actually like them. I guess I thought these would be a little more...horrifying. Not to high extremes of blood and guts everywhere, but, well my problem is that I hate even suttle horror. Horror is actually too strong a word here, gross, is more like it. I prefer not to think of it at all, avoiding it whenever I can...I simply hate being grossed out. It's not fun for me in any way, or even slightly amusing. I know it can never be completely avoided, especially in some books. But I digress.
Anyhoo, in this story a mother goat goes out to find food and leaves her seven little baby goats alone, and there is a wolf stalking around the woods that has been trying to eat them. She warns them about him and tries to teach them how to recognize him if he comes to their hut trying to fool them. Being satisfied her babies will be safe, the mother goat leaves and of course, the wolf shows up at their door shortly after. His first attempts do not fool them, but after disguising himself enough to get into the hut, he finds and eats all but one. When the mother goat returns to find her children have been eaten, the youngest one comes out of it's hiding place and tells her what happened. They both run off in sadness and they come upon the very full, sleeping wolf in the meadow. After checking him out, the mother goat notices that his stomach is stirring, believing her children to still be alive inside of him, she runs home to get scissors, a needle, and thread. She returns to the still sleeping wolf, and cuts open his stomach, and amazingly, out pop her six eaten babies. (Oh, boy!) She then tells them to collect large stones to fill his stomach back up so he won't know the difference. Once he awakes, he does know the difference, but he is so thirsty he goes down to the brook to get a drink. But being so heavy with stones, he falls in and drowns, and the goat family literally sings for joy.
I guess ultimately I'm more shocked than grossed out by this book. I'd heard things about these fairy tales that were really gross, but I haven't come across it (yet?). I just have this image of fairy tales in my head...sweet and happily ever after. Basically Disney-fied. (Nothing wrong with that.) But, when you think about it, those come from something that have gross original backgrounds, don't they? Or at least, sad and depressing backgrounds.
Not much else to say, at least until I do my own little history search on fairy tales and how much of a gross factor is usually there.

Short Monday: The Music of the Night.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday. (Please excuse me while I work out the kinks and find the right path for this.)

Short Monday #3: The Music of the Night by Amanda Ashley, part of The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.

Okay phantom fans, are you ready for this? Cristie Matthews is obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera. She manages to take a trip to Paris to visit the opera house where his story took place, and she ends up "accidentally" staying there overnight and, guess who she meets? Yes. The Phantom of the Opera. This is set in modern times, so how could she possibly meet him? He is not a ghost, he is not entirely a normal man (but was he ever?) He is Erik...the vampire. And he actually invites her to his lair to spend time with him for about a month if I remember correctly, because he is so lonely and he would like her to be his Christine, "if only for a little while." (Don't all gag at once, now.)

You would think that with my obsession for vampires and Erik, that Erik as a vampire would thrill me. This did not. I think it was the fact that this was a short story (I think that with a little more effort from the author and a longer length, this could have been good), and I am a picky phantom fan. Also, some things just did not make sense. The ending for example, really bothers me. She lives in the states, he is in Paris and a vampire. How did he manage to get to her in the end? It just bugs me. Also, he did not seem like Erik. He seemed like the movie-musical Erik. The only thing I really liked about that Erik was the way Gerard Butler swirled his cape and made a very attractive Erik. Not necessarily a great Erik, but a more...likable one (at least for a first time phantom viewer like I was).

I am tempted to go on and on about this but I won't. I didn't like it, didn't do a thing for me. Not so sure the author really understands who the phantom is. Personally I think he could make a wicked vampire, but he seemed all...mushy and appalling. I think Erik as a vampire probably depends on which version of him it is. I think I understand him at an okay level, but I can't help but have an image of him for myself. The image I have of him as a vampire is sort of a confusing one. I just can't decide if he'd be one of the worst, or...possibly like (book) Eric Northman or (TV show) Damon Salvatore really...maybe some sort of equal cross between the two. I think he'd be a little snarky but also a little mad (crazy), and maybe, with the right girl, kind of soft in private. Okay, my rambling is over.

Short Monday: The Righteous.

Welcome to short monday. Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday. (Please excuse me while I work out the kinks and find the right path for this.)

Short Monday #2: The Righteous by Jenna Maclaine, part of The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.

As I said last week, this weeks short monday has a better result. The Righteous really grabbed me and I am really looking forward to reading the series it leads to: The Cin Craven series. This story is Devlin and Justine's, set in 1675, where Justine; mistress to the king and vampire slayer, meets and falls in love with Devlin; a vampire. By the end of this story the reader learns that Justine's sister; Solange, has been kidnapped by the very vampires that she hunts and she must make a life changing decision to save her.

There is also another prequel to The Cin Craven series in The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance, which I have not read yet (but plan to). It is the story of Morrigan and The High Kings, whom are also (briefly) in The Righteous.

Liking short stories is looking up for me!

Short Monday: Fangs For Hire.

Welcome to the very first short monday! Where I work my way through short story books, poetry books, and whatever else that can be qualified for a short monday. (Please excuse me while I work out the kinks and find the right path for this.)

First, let me explain something about short stories and myself: I've never really liked them. I've never really given any a chance because they were never really part of my reading comfort zone. And I've never really actually sat down and spent time to read any. However, I have found myself adding collections of them to my TBR list, but managing to somehow just not get to them. Which leads to my short mondays, my venture to give (mainly) short stories a better spot in my reading tastes. I don't know if I'll ever do an entire book, since I'm having a hard time with The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance right now, I'll be doing the stories I talk about here as they grab me. That means going along as whether I liked them or just hated them...

Short Monday #1: Fangs For Hire by Jenna Black, from The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance.

Fangs For Hire by Jenna Black had a confusing ending for me. It was the very last sentence actually, did she kill him or not? Did she go to bed with him? (Am I supposed to even care?) It just felt so...unfinished. Maybe I just don't understand how short stories are supposed to work. I understand that sometimes the author just leaves it up to the reader, but this time I did not appreciate that. Especially since it is a short story. It left me wondering if this were a prequel, but after visiting the authors website (In fact I haven't even found a mention on her site of this collection.), it doesn't look like it is. Just an annoyingly left open to the reader short story. Which frankly, just gets on my nerves, especially since I had a hard time liking this one in the first place.

So there I have it, first short story that grabbed me was in a negative way. But, at least it was only a short story, and not an entire book. I promise next week will have a better result.