Ceallaigh's Blog
Greetings All!
This is a good news/bad news sort of post. The good news is that the Folklore & Fiction website has been moved to a new virtual private server! The bad news is that the Folklore & Fiction archive and newsletter infrastructure are taking longer to upgrade than anticipated.
Greetings,
I have been made aware of allegations regarding the plagiarism of my work; specifically, that my concerns are unfounded and that I have engaged in bullying and harassment of the guilty party. I am writing to reassure you that this is untrue. I have three years of receipts that clearly demonstrate idea mining of my work in the Folklore & Fiction project, and these have been reviewed by academic and legal professionals who agree with my assessment of the materials. I have also been offered the opportunity to pursue the matter in a public inquiry, but after consultation with those who made this offer, I decided to keep the peace. At the time, I was a graduate student with a heavy workload, and I preferred to keep the delicate detente where it stood. Both parties had exchanged letters through their respective attorneys, and I had demonstrated a willingness to defend my work, so I saw no reason to pursue the matter as long as the guilty party left that work alone going forward.
Delighted to be a speaker for The Folklore Podcast Lectures alongside an excellent lineup of fellow folklore researchers. All proceeds support the work of The Folklore Library and Archive and the podcast. You'll find more about the series at the link below.
"The play's the thing."
After a year of writing that began just before Christmas in 2020 and a year of production in the hands of the Odyssey Theatre in Ottawa, I am delighted to bring you my modern fairy tale audio drama, "The Belt and the Necklace," starring Chandel Gambles, Mark Huisman, Neta J. Rose, and Nicole Wilson. I hope you'll listen to it, and I hope you'll share it with friends. (Grab your headphones for this one. The soundscape is gorgeous.)
Learn more about "The Belt and the Necklace" on The Other Path website.
It's been a real pleasure writing for the Alphabet Anthology series; some of my best stories have come out of Rhonda Parrish's prompts. So I'm delighted to show you the cover for the next instalment of the series; G Is for Ghosts. Subscribers to the Folklore & Fiction dispatch and podcast will have already seen an excerpt from my story around the letter "C," but here it is again, in case you haven't read it.
Three dreams of sorrow were given to Serkleit, Goddess of Art and Fermentation, Keeper of Caves at the Heart of the World, before her deification.
Once in a while, I love to occupy that liminal storytelling space between poetry and fiction and tell a richly-phrased story in just a few words. When Rhonda Parrish invited me to submit a story for consideration in her tarot anthology Arcana, I did just that. "The Moon" is the shortest story I have ever written and an effort to apply the meaning and symbolism of the card itself to the experience of being a transgender woman. While I'm a natal woman, I hope it offers something gentle and poetic to that experience and to my friends in the transgender community.
About three years ago, Rhonda Parrish wrote to ask me if I'd like to submit a story for a tarot-themed anthology featuring a tale for each card in the major arcana. I was stoked and pulled the major arcana cards out of one of my (many) tarot decks to ask which card I should write about. I drew The Moon, so I wrote Rhonda and asked for it. She later told me she was at lunch when she received the email, said to her friend that she had never been asked for the moon before, and then replied to me that I could have it. Who knew it was so easy to actually get the moon?
Today, I'm thrilled to announce that Arcana is nearing publication, filled with a deck of stories by a host of talented authors. Rhonda herself writes that:
Tarot card decks have twenty-two major arcana, filled with symbolism and imbued with meaning. Explore the greater secrets and ideas behind those cards with the stories and poems of Arcana. Discovery awaits in tales such as a grasping king struggling with his legacy, an alchemist setting a golem out on a mission of revenge and a woman finding what she didn’t know she was looking for.
Each story is like drawing a card from the deck–you never know what it might reveal.
Featuring stories by Sara Dobie Bauer, Greg Bechtel, Beth Cato, Eliza Chan, Kevin Cockle, Sara Cleto, J.G. Formato, Chadwick Ginther, Joseph Halden, Gabrielle Harbowy, Jim C. Hines, Diana Hurlburt, L.S. Johnson, Dan Koboldt, C.S. MacCath, Susan MacGregor, Cat McDonald, Annie Neugebauer, Alexandra Seidel, Angela Slatter, Sarena Ulibarri, Brittany Warman and BD Wilson.
After a long dry spell, I am delighted to report that I have a new poem in print in the speculative poetry journal Liminality. Here it is, and please do take a moment to peruse the other pieces as well. It's a lovely issue.
http://www.liminalitypoetry.com/issue-25-autumn-2020/i-dreamed-of-a-woman
Please join me this Tuesday evening for a live Twitch interview and chat with author Laura VanArendonk Baugh about folklore: what it is, what folklorists study, how it relates to fiction, and how we can think like folklorists about culturally sensitive issues in our writing.
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Place: http://twitch.tv/laura_vab
You don't need a Twitch account to listen in, but you'll need one if you'd like to participate in the conversation, and they're free.
The Longest Road in the Universe: A Collection of Fantastical Tales, Second Edition, is now available for purchase and pre-order. If you're a paperback lover, you can buy the book now, which showcases Nancy Farmer's stunning illustrations of the titular story in full-page and two-page spreads. If you prefer e-books, the collection is available for pre-order and will be released on February 1st. You'll find the book here:
Buy the Paperback | Buy the Kindle Version | Buy Another Version