Storyteller's Perspective: Story Books and Story News

I always like to see folktale and fairy tale news on my feed. It gives me hope that people are still interested in them, and also shows how much is still out there, waiting to be re-discovered. Storytellers, professional or not, are always on the hunt for new stories, and if you are one of my kind, the kind that mostly works with traditional tales, every new folktale collection you come across is a potential treasure trove.

Christmas is... well, more than a month away, but this past week my Facebook wall has been so clogged with folktale collection news and reviews that I decided I might as well compile a Storyteller's Most Wished For list for the season (and beyond). Here are my Top 3 picks:

(Note: I have not read any of them yet, so this is not an endorsement of their contents. I am just excited as a puppy about the upcoming possibilities)

The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales
Remember the flood of "500 New Fairy Tales Discovered" articles on your news feed? I do. It was around for more than a year. This new volume contains a collection of them translated into English. There has been a previous edition of some of the tales, and they were really great, so I am absolutely looking forward to this one. Have you ever seen a title and thought "whatever it is, I gotta read it just for the title?" Well, that's me and The Dung Beetle Prince.

The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition
All the gore and none of the Disney. This has been all over my feed this week; I even wrote about the hype and why dark stories are important for children on my own blog. This is the first complete unaltered English edition of the first Grimm collection, including tales that have been censored or left out of later volumes. Yes, Rapunzel gets pregnant. Cheers.

Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange
The first English translation of the oldest known Arabian stories, from the 14th century. Like the Arabian Nights, except from an even older source. Apparently it includes stories about treasure hunts similar to the City of Brass, one of my all-time favorite stories in the world. I am shamelessly excited about this one.

In advance I wish you all a holiday season filled with the smell of new books and quiet reading hours!

You can find Csenge (@TarkabarkaHolgy) at
The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in Storytelling
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...

Why Blog, or "A Break From Blogging? What Is That?"

Why do you Blog? Do you ever take blogging breaks? How does that work? I remember the days when I didn't care about whether or not I blogged on a schedule or what I actually blogged about. I blogged whenever I found something to write about. It was MY blog, right? Now, going on my third year of blogging more diligently, I find other bloggers talking about frustration with their blogs. Numbers aren't high enough, or it's too difficult to find something to blog about, or it takes up too much time, and the like. Why do you blog? Have you questioned whether or not it is time well spent, or just a waste of it? I think that, as with anything done regularly, we all question the why of what we are doing and whether we're doing it because we have to, or choose to. I understand blogging burn out. I've been there. It isn't fun. But neither is feeling cut off from my perceived communication with a larger world. I regularly participate in at least five blog hops. I do this because each of these offers me something I like having in my life (and schedules I can keep up with!). I feel that each blog hop speaks to different parts of me, who I am and what I'm interested in. Plus I'm always finding out new things and "meeting" new people. How about you? What's in it for you?
This is my second post here on the A to Z blogging Challenge site and I appreciate the opportunity to participate. A huge thank you to all my teammates and their help in showing me the ropes. I hope to have something a bit more interesting to post in the months to come... 

Images From:
bonniegroessl.com
gabrielweinberg.com

Cookbooks Make Great Challenge Posts

Everyone loves a good cookbook. Even if you don't cook, I bet you can find someone who would appreciate knowing about the latest cooking trend. Perhaps it's time to gift someone a new cookbook to replace their tattered old favorite?

No matter the reason or the season, cookbooks make great challenge posts. Let's take a look.

Starting with the letter A you could feature:

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Then move straight to:

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

Meandering through the alphabet is easy; Jamie Oliver is cute and also works for letter J.

Jamie's Dinner

If vegetarian fare is more your thing, why not feature Yotam Ottolenghi's 

Plenty More

Ever have trouble finding a post for Q? This is where creative license is at it's best! You could try

Quantum Wellness

or even

Quaker Oats 

If you can't find a cookbook that starts with the letter Z you'll have to improvise. Perhaps the letter Z is in the title somewhere?

Chocolate & Zucchini

See? Easy peasy lemon squeezy! I hope I've given you some tips that will help you craft the most amazing challenge posts yet.  Good luck, you can do it.

All photos courtesy Goodreads.com 

This Week on Route AtoZ: Ghosts, Puppies and a Sparkling Anniversary! #atozchallenge #RoadTrip

There is a lot of activity buzzing in our A-to-Z Road Trip section of the blogosphere. If you haven’t visited new blogs on the 2014 signup list, now is the time to get acquainted with some of the sweetest, scariest and most sparkly blog posts you’ll read between now and the next Road Trip check-in. Don’t know where to start? Here is what’s going on at a few blogs worth visiting that you may have missed back in April.

Diana at PartTime Monster has a travel itinerary that includes thirteen fictional places where one can hang out with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a bunch of Hobbits. Safety is optional. After tearing some tendons in her calf and foot, Marianne at Adventures in the Ballpark is trying to figure out how we’re supposed to identify aches and pains that come from aging versus those that are the result of injury. Regardless, she’s content with handling the balls life throws at us as they come, and to that end, celebrated her recent 39^th wedding anniversary with ice cream and relaxation.

Guilie Castillo at Life in Dogs chronicles the unlikely and short-lived friendship between a puppy and crab who met on the beach while also paying tribute to her late street rescue named Frida in celebration of the Day of the Dead. Aside from doing NaNoWriMo and finding tricks to keep her face from looking extra shimmery, Lisa-Marie Jordan at this little life of mine added one of the coolest Owl light switch plates to her redecorating process, not to mention bedroom paint color choices with fun names including “Silver Screen” and “Twilight Grey.” The sounds of both names are reminiscent of the movies, which is fun. After Manzanita at Wanna Buy a Duck met another blogger in person, she shared an overview of their outdoor escapades, complete with bright Halloween costumes, mountain climbing and visits to ghost towns in Montana. 

What activities have YOU noticed the A-to-Z community blogging about lately?

Have you visited the 2015 A-to-Z Challenge Blogging Team yet?

A-to-Z Challenge Co-Host Nicole Ayers shares observations on films at The Madlab Post. She supports organizations that provide humanitarian aid in the wake of disasters. You can connect with her @MadlabPost on Twitter.  

The 2015 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Team!

And the 2015 A to Z Team is...

...okay, well, technically the team is already up and running right now in 2014, so telling you it's the 2015 team is kinda/sorta misleading.

So, it's actually the 2014/2015 A to Z Team.

Maybe I should explain...take too long...let me sum up. :)

As the A to Z Challenge grows by leaps and bounds each year so does the list of A to Z Team Members.

There's a lot of behind the scenes work, that I won't bore you with, but just know that we need lots of great bloggers to organize such an amazing Challenge.

So, without further ado, here is your new A to Z Team line-up...

The Founder
Arlee Bird

The Veterans
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Jeremy Hawkins 
Stephen Tremp
Nicole Ayers
Matthew MacNish (Returning)

The Staff Members
AJ Lauer
Pam Margolis
Heather M. Gardner

The Brave New Members
C. Lee McKenzie
S. L. Hennessy
Zalka Csenge
Susan Gourley
Lisa Buie-Collard
J.L. Campbell
John Holton

What a fantastic group of people!

Make sure to visit the A to Z Main Challenge Blog frequently to keep up with all the latest and greatest updates about our next Challenge and to meet some of these new members as they post on the blog!

Also, don't forget, all of these awesome people are going to need ambassadors/minions/helpers/assistants/teams/whooligans/alliances and/or sidekicks.

If you're interested in helping out the greatest Blog Challenge on the internet, stay tuned.