Posted by

Posted on

November 1, 2013

Posted under

Comments

Tricks or Treats?!

Happy Halloween, and to all my fabulous fellow fairy tale lovers, here are some treats (I’ll leave the tricks to the fae tonight):

Thanks to the blogs I visit, who have filled tonight’s cauldron with treats of many kinds. Some of my favorites, I got again and again! I love when that happens! 🙂

Thanks to Dear Kitty or Petrel41 for the Reader Appreciation Award!! Love her lore, wide-ranging from animals to current events to women’s issues. Hope you get a chance to visit her. 🙂

Thanks to lifebeinggirly for the Versatile Blogger Award. She is adorable, and I love that she is flying the girly flag high. We all need to love who we are, because we are pretty darn terrific!! Painttheworldwithwords then chimed in with another Versatile Blogger Award. Amreen is a poet, a designer and a talented blogger with a penchant for beauty. Here is a lovely poem by him:

The soul of my poems
define the tune of my life
singing my presence.
~~~
Amreen Shaikh

Thanks to In My Hands for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award! If you can’t get enough of black and white cat pictures and Chekhov, then you must check her out. Cats and great literature. Who can resist that? Then Bullying Prevention came in with another nomination for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award! He is doing god’s work, trying to make the world a better place for all. I’m delighted to see posts from both, they are always food for thought and very moving.

And a new and different icon for the Versatile Blogger Award from Chronicles of a Public Transit User. Oddly enough, we both almost died when we were four. We also both love Halloween. Kudos for a great award posting, too, worth a visit!!

I can’t tell you all how important all of you have become to me. I love to hear your comments, to see your likes, and to read your posts. I’m still here, spinning my stories, pairing photographs and verse, and trying to express my inner voice. Something crucial has changed, though. I feel more connected and less alone than I ever have in my life.

Together, through our words, I believe we can change the world forever. Make it a place where it’s okay to be yourself. I don’t have to look like Angelina Jolie (hey, I wouldn’t turn it down…) to write a good story. We don’t all have to be writing the same things. Viva la difference!! I cherish all of you, and I hope you all have fruitful, productive and glorious Novembers. Special hugs to those of you starting Nanowrimo, you go!!

I nominate these special trick or treaters to share my loot, please reach a hand in the cauldron and take any treats you like (or none if you don’t have a sweet tooth):

aCuriousGal
Tails from Paris
antilandcaper
Persecution of Mildred Dunlap
Dully Pepper

And some Halloween pictures to thank my readers and fairy tale lovers everywhere:

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 31, 2013

Posted under

Holiday, Poetry

Comments

16 Comments

For Caregivers on Halloween: Grandmother Tree

Young maples trees blossom with hectic autumn color
Where they shelter under the high arching limbs
Of the deep-rooted grandmother tree.

Lovely, steady grandmother tree, slow to change,
Thick bark insulates and shields her from the cold,
Only showing golden and claret touches high up.

One by one, her bright leaves sigh and let go,
Lightly drifting down to caress her young for a moment.
Finally on the earth, their leaves mingle and embrace.

This Halloween, be like the grandmother tree.
Gather the rain, slow the wind, your roots entwined.
Let your children bloom and thrive, safe in your care.

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 30, 2013

Posted under

Poetry

Comments

16 Comments

Hello Kitty Halloween Haiku

silent, flickering

the spirit of halloween

glowing in the dark

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 27, 2013

Posted under

Holiday, Poetry

Comments

28 Comments

Spellbook Haībun

“And then there are the times when the wolves are silent and the moon is howling.”

— George Carlin

Autumn leaves tapped the small windows. Elspeth blew the dust off the book. She knelt amidst generations of clutter and debris in the Martin family attic. She was looking for a costume, because Halloween was that night. On the leather book cover was burnt a full moon surrounded by a five-sided symbol. As the dust settled on old crocheted blankets and old-fashioned high chairs, she opened the book at random.

hidden in the trunk

voice rusty with disuse

still with much to say

“Scarab powder, dash of scaly rot, and ground bat bones sprinkled on seven squashed wolf spiders. Stir widdershins under a howling moon with a finger of oak. Stroke quarter over the main mast and quarter on the crow’s nest. Every particle that remains, seal in wax and burn until gone in the hold. Soon will come to you a strong headwind, fair weather and enemy bane. Beware shoal and reef, but raise proudly your flag, for safe port you will make, wise cargo making your fortune.”

seek the howling moon

sailing toward future fortune

magic within you

Fate had brought her to her ancestor’s spellbook, and fate denied becomes foe. Elspeth decided to be a witch for Halloween. She had no immediate need for a sailing spell, but perhaps it could be adapted for her car. Elspeth embraced the book, and put it back under the crocheted afghans in Grandma Demeter’s favored avocado and pumpkin colors. Grandma Demeter had always seemed to have a charmed life. Now Elspeth knew why.

hold close heritage

its magic will come to you

when fate brings you home

Prepared from the weekly Līgo Haībun challenge. Please visit them if you want to see some great writing!

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 26, 2013

Posted under

Holiday, Tales for Kids of All Ages, Young Fairy Tale

Comments

Crankypot Halloween

Friendly Fairy Tales is pleased to offer a Halloween story for Adventurous Fairy Tale readers, Crankypot Halloween. Here is an excerpt:

Through the house give glimmering light,
By the dead and drowsy fire;
Every elf and fairy sprite
Hop as light as bird from brier;
And this ditty, after me,
Sing, and dance it, trippingly.
First rehearse your song by rote,
To each word a warbling note:
Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.

— William Shakespeare
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene II)

The gray-haired man sat tapping his fingers on his knee, without noticing tiny flickering lights under drooping dahlias, but he was aware of the darkening sky. He did not notice three raven nests in the tree across the street. A little girl followed the flickering lights, crying the whole way, closer and closer to where the man sat in the dark.

He heard her weeping by the gate, and shouted “Take your tricks elsewhere! No treats here!” He had been guarding his yard from the pitch-black of his porch for 25 years, not letting any trick-or-treaters through the gate, all lights off.

The crying got louder. “Go away, you can’t trick me!” He shouted again, unable to see anything with the sun sinking fast. He heard hiccups, then even louder wailing. He flipped the floodlights on, against his usual policy entirely. In the wash of yellow light, all the flickering twilight fairies hid, and the ravens called out, restless.

He sighed and approached the gate for the first time in 25 years on Halloween. In the light from his floodlights, he saw a little girl with blonde curls stuck to her wet cheeks. Tears were rolling down from her eyes, and dangling on the strands of her hair like dew. The straps of her pink butterfly wings had slid off her shoulders, and she clutched a pillow case tightly in a fist. She looked just like his daughter, Ella Mae, all those years ago when he caught her sneaking out to trick-or-treat behind his back. He had yelled at Ella Mae, and now she lived on the opposite side of the country.

“What’s the matter, girl?” He asked gruffly.

To find out what happens, whether tricks or treats, please click on Crankpot Halloween.

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 24, 2013

Posted under

Holiday, Poetry

Comments

35 Comments

Cobwebbed Skull Haiku

Silly skull laughing;

Nylon spiders hard at work;

Halloween bones ready.

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 21, 2013

Posted under

Holiday, Poetry

Comments

21 Comments

Halloween Scene Haiku

Bats flying, silent,

Leaves rustle on windless nights

Silver moon hiding.

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 19, 2013

Posted under

Fairy Tale for Boys, Holiday, Tales for Kids of All Ages, Young Fairy Tale

Comments

9 Comments

Baby Coyote Scares Halloween

Baby Coyote lived in a den with his mom and dad, deep in a wood surrounded by the roads and houses of big folk. Mom and Dad Coyote hunted at night. In the early morning, they woke Baby Coyote. They fed him, played with him and kept him safe. They usually slept away the long hours the big folk were walking the trails, but sometimes they would hide and watch them pass by. The big folk seemed to see nothing at all that was not on the trails. Baby Coyote thought they were funny, especially when they would exclaim over dragonflies or poison ivy.

One morning, his mom and dad had to go visit the faraway woods. On the sunshine oak next door, hidden in the nasturtiums behind a round door, lived a happy gnome. His name was Iron Hair, for his stiff, spiky gray hair. Continue reading →

Posted by

Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

October 18, 2013

Posted under

Poetry

Comments

23 Comments

Changes Coming Haiku

This newest Haiku is dedicated to all of you, my readers, who have supported and encouraged me over the last miraculous seven months! I am redesigning the appearance of friendlyfairytales. I plan to use a more customizable theme, primarily to celebrate nature more. The new appearance will be more simple and clean, I hope. Please do give me feedback.

Also, I have two Halloween stories coming in the second half of October! Thrills and chills await you, should your path cross here again soon!

Without further delay, Changes Coming Haiku:

Grown no longer new
Something new comes from the old
New growth embraced, held.