Today at 4:30pm EST my wisdom (such as it is) was posted again on Care2.com with 20,000,000 members. If you missed it in July, here it is again.Now keep in mind that I still consider myself a small town girl, stumbling through this life as best I can. But, if I reach out and touch just one other woman and make her life a little easier, I am content.
Offering a promotion to read “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon” for FREE August 10, –August 14, 2012. Go to Amazon.com’s Kindle KDP Select Don’t miss this opportunity. Go to Kindle’s “Lending Library” at the link above.
Synopsis: Stanley, a very young dragon, has run away from home. He feels that he is a failure. As dragons go, he probably is. He’s kind, soft spoken, a good friend and can’t for the life of him, breathe FIRE! The story is full of wonderful characters. A lady bug, named Persnickety is Stanley’s best friend and side kick. Emma, an earthling girl who lives on a farm and plays in the forest, with her magical friends. The loveable villain is a raven named City Slick, the Third. Thomas, the pedantic, sea turtle, and Cheets, the elf, are just a few of Stanley’s new friends.
One dark night Slick lures Stanley away from the forest and sells him to the circus. He is left chained, alone in a tent, until he breathes fire. The Queen of the Faeries gives Donald and Emma a quest; to go and find Stanley and rescue him.
While this is an adventure story full of laughter, it teaches children that no matter what, it is never a good idea to run away from home and is frequently very dangerous. The fable addresses bigotry, greed, loyalty and kindness to others. Ages: 2–12
So my series hasn’t even been on amazon.com for a week and I am experiencing sales. Why am I telling you this? Well, it was sort of an experiment; publishing a series of single one act scripts……..
The Brothers Grimm (January 4, 1785 – September 20, 1863) were German academics, cultural researchers, and authors who together collected folklore. They are among the most well-known storytellers of Europe. Their work popularized such stories as “The Frog Prince” (Der Froschkönig), “Hansel and Gretel” (Hänsel und Gretel), “Rapunzel“, “Rumpelstiltskin” (Rumpelstilzchen), and “Snow White” (Schneewittchen). 
Their first collection of folk tales, Children’s and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in 1812. During his life time the master animator, Walt Disney [1901-1966] adapted the ancient fables to film.
Through the centuries the stories have been ‘cleaned up’. For example in one of the earlier versions of Cinderella the glass slipper was filled with the blood and toes of the wicked stepsisters. Not really something we would want to read to our children today. I left it out of my fabled forest stories.
more about where our fairy tales came from next week…..please check back.
BookReview.com gave the first in the Fabled Forest series, “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon” a wonderful review. Head over to their site to see it, or read on below!
|
||||||
 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| Children’s Books Title: Stanley, The Stalwart Dragon Author: Trisha Sugarek Rating:  Must Read!Publisher: CreateSpace Reviewed by: Eric Jones |
  |
|
||
|
Trisha Sugarek is often known for her stage plays for children which take on a fun, but instructional tone and lend children an eye-opening narrative on the problems and decisions that come with growing up. Her first novel, “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon”, is an extension of her stage work. Fully illustrated by Mitchell Lamar Larkins, it is a collection of life lessons rolled into a single journey, with a loveable protagonist who finds friendship and hardship out in an unfamiliar world. Stanley is very different from other dragons because he doesn’t blow fire. No, he blows bubbles. This leads him to feel ostracized with the dragon community and in a fit of anger he runs away to the woods where he’s greeted by a band of mixed races; elves, pixies, animals, clowns, and faeries all gather to remark on Stanley’s mysterious condition. What’s remarkable about Sugarek’s fiction is in her ability to draw depth into what might have simply been cartoon characters. City Slick is, without a doubt, my favorite. He has the sly veracity of a huckster, but appears genuinely friendly. He’s also illustrated to resemble Woody Wood Pecker, and although he’s not quite the villain, he plays the role of a trickster who gets Stanley into his predicament by convincing him to join the circus. Stanley moves then from a nice group of misfits to a bad group of misfits, and learns a strong lesson in comparing the two. There is no shortage of fun and interesting characters to grab children’s attention and engage their imagination. Being a playwright, Sugarek comes from a medium that’s heavy on dialog, and that transitions well into children’s fiction, making “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon” a great book to read out loud to children. Parents can change voices to represent different characters, or they can highlight character’s lines that the children themselves can play. This is a novel, so there’s a slight issue of length. It’s best read as a serial over a number of nights rather than straight through, although the appearance of the book can be deceptive since it’s about the same height and width as children’s books like “Polar Express” or “Green Eggs and Ham”. However, Sugarek makes no bones about it being more advanced. She uses big words to stimulate her young readers such as ‘effervescent’, or ‘rhetorical’, which is a method reminiscent of the works of Roald Dahl. “Stanley, the Stalwart Dragon” is a captivating children’s novel from start to finish, a cartoonish romp through a fantastic world that’s full of jokes and lessons that will ensnare any child’s ear. |
||||
Welcome to my Blog! If you find yourself enjoying my posts, please take the time to go to my web site and on the right side of the home page you can add your email address.
Every time I post a new blog you will get an e-mail.
your address will never be shared with third parties and is secure on this site.
One of the most rewarding parts of being a writer (on the Internet) is the responses I have gotten from all over the world. India, Australia, Argentina, Great Britian, and now Spain. Tanya is a working actor and has become interested in Billlie Holiday as a way to fine tune her musical career.
I thought my readers might enjoy her letter,
My name is Tanya R. and I’m an actress interested in training and developing my acting and singing abilities. I came to find your play and I was very lucky to find it (Scent of Magnolia)
I’ve read it and I have really enjoyed it. I hadn’t really gone in depth in Billie Holiday’s life or music. My only objective is to do some training with the play. I was born in Colombia, raised in both Colombia and England and presently live in Spain. I try to develop and work on the characters I play from what is the most difficult for me from a humanistic point of view. I try to work on a basis of affection, humbleness as a person, tenderness and respect with no judging, and I know that can be very very hard. I just think your play is an excellent opportunity to grow as an actress, and as a woman. I find your play very beautiful because though Billie Holiday’s life was so difficult, what attracts me so much is the way the character can be so close to you as you see/listen to her telling her story, so close.
There’s is a lot in it, told with affection and respect. Not only that. I am Colombian, and accent, background, my god, my profile is far from the character’s, which makes it more challenging to work on. I have had a look at your material, and I am very interested in reading all of it. The play with the 4 women seems so interesting to develop such different colours to the characters. Also I work a lot with my son’s friends in creations in video and theatre, they love acting so we do simple things in english as well. You have some material on short plays for young actors which I will be using no doubt.
I am very happy to hear from you and your work. I will let you know about my process, of course. As I said, my aim is to be a better actress and person and your play has the perfect ingredients for it.
A warm hello, Tanya
You won’t be disappointed! This is just a darn good story based on real women and real events. And it opens a door on a subject that most of us women have never thought about….having to visit our man in prison.
Just as you are thinking that you know and like these three women, the story takes a dramatic turn with a shocking event. Changing the women’s lives and friendships with each other forever.
There’s humor, family, love, suspense and sex.
FreshFiction.com said, “This is an honest book, which means that it’s not always a happy book. It will touch your heart in ways that you wouldn’t expect and is a book well worth spending the time to read. You’ll come away with a new respect for women in this situation and a bit more understanding of why they continue supporting the men they love, no matter what.’
Click here to visit the on-line store where you can purchase this book! Be sure, in your order to mention if you would like an autographed copy.
Announcing the LAUNCH of my new and improved web site. A new and interactive look with an easy to use on-line store! You can buy my scripts, fiction, children’s plays and books, and my poetry.
Please leave a comment and let me know how you like my new look!
Best regards, Trish
PS: My web designer and consultant is: Leon Adato,AdatoSystems
Eric Jones, a reviewer on BookReview.com, just wrote a lovely piece on “Butterflies and Bullets”, my book of Poetry, Essays and Musings. Click here to read it on their site, or scroll down for a reprint.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
| Poetry Title: Butterflies & Bullets Author: Trisha Sugarek Rating: Must Read!Publisher: Trisha Sugarek Reviewed by: Eric Jones |
  |
|
||
|
I knew Sugarek’s work in the past from her collection of short children’s plays, “Ten Minutes to Curtain”, which involve the complicated dynamics of growing up. Flannery O’Conner said that if you live through childhood then you have enough material to write forever, and Sugarek has been there and then some. Her short work for the stage has put her in the perfect position to transition from play to poetry with her new book, “Butterflies and Bullets”. Even the title denotes the strange duality between innocence and loss, and that theme is prevalent throughout the work. Mostly in free form, Sugarek keeps everything in a minimalist range, lending focus to intimate moments like a man playing his Mandolin beside a fire, or the quiet landscape of the Serengeti just before rainfall. These truncated pieces of life feel like literary snapshots. These are Sugarek’s butterfly collection. Then, of course, there are the bullets. The bullets are also set in free form, however they deal with much more happenings and are more narratively set. My favorite poem is one of these. “Hair Cut… Two Bits” chronicles the return of a barber from war-torn Europe in 1934 via a freighter into the Mississippi from the Gulf. The story, though scarcely a few pages, manages to convey the loss, struggle, and triumph of war given a single, near microscopic, experience. Not to mention that it’s all the more topical today, given the current mess in off the shore of New Orleans. There are many that are like these, managing to say a lot with only a little. And given their accompanying illustrations by Lori Smaltz, which are printed small in keeping with the book’s minimalist structure, “Butterflies and Bullets” comes off splendidly. The collection feels complete and utterly whole, no piece of the pie excluded. Such close ups reveal that every place is connected. The ocean, if you look closely enough, looks just like rain on the blistering asphalt of your driveway. Shanty Irish curtains, at a certain scale, are indistinguishable from the sculpted wood of a Native American totem pole. This is the nature of Sugarek’s poetry, that when you pull back you see how different everything is, but when you put it under the microscope, a butterfly is really just a bullet with wings. |
||||
