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Reposted by Memento Morlys 🍉

M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 22h

You should read this, it's a cup of hot chocolate for your Friday evening 😊

Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

...if you wanted you could read the only retelling I think I've ever published? a what-if/unpacking of easy of the sun west of the moon. it's much softer and nicer than I usually am and caught on more than most of my writing, so I feel it gives a slightly off impression? but I still kinda like it

A Princess With a Nose Three Ells Long - PSYCHOPOMP.COM

In a castle flanked by fjords, so very far from everything that the winds rarely raised its banners, there lived a troll princess. Her mother was a troll queen, by virtue of a castle and a bad temper,...

psychopomp.com

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 2h

thank you! it definitely came out as sensible fantasy, and it was fun to play with. all because as an 8 year old reading the blue fairy book, i didn't know what the fuck an "ell" was

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 2h

i was just mulling over how, wicked notwithstanding, i'd expect there to be more oz stuff than there is (thanks for fighting the good fight). feels like there's more narnia with the serial numbers consciously filed off. is it just a shade too weird? too of its time? overshadowed by the movie?

Reposted by Memento Morlys 🍉

M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · 23h

I wrote a retelling of Blodeuwedd from Blodeuwedd's POV, leaning into the fact that she's not human - I initially thought of it as presenting the case for the defence, but then I realised I had a furious wood-wight on my hands, not a wronged woman.

bsky.app/profile/mjj-...

M.J. Jones @mjj-writes.bsky.social · Nov 29

@gwyllion.bsky.social Issue 7 (originally in Noctivagant Press, whose website is down)

A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING

"I am still the face of flowers; I am still the silent wings. And men can call me what they like. I will scream until they die."

gwyllionmagazine.com/issues/

Shop – Gwyllion

gwyllionmagazine.com

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 2h

love a chance to get into an alien mind. i should really know my mabinogion better. i've only internalized bits and pieces through retellings

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 23h

also wondering if this also applies to public domain novel retellings and where the line falls? is shakespeare functionally folklore? oz? don't know, just poking ideas with a stick, see if they move

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

if anyone wants to stalk each others' reading my reviews are definitely coherent and not pretentious and also I definitely don't read 25 books at a time

Sign In | The StoryGraph

app.thestorygraph.com

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

yeah it's fine to find out while you write but if you get to the end and don't know, it prolly isn't very good. and I suspect the act of retelling can kinda obscure that. it's about beauty and the beast, so obviously it's already about something!

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

actually I lied I get one great benefit in the form of a distant acquaintance with terrible taste. every time she gets incandescently angry at a book I know it's gonna slap

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

anyone else a storygraph person? I love to generate data, but I've never really got the hang of the social part. just stalking people's choices in books? I mean, kinda fun.

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

really lucky for me most drama recap youtubers are dreary black holes where charisma goes to die or they'd be really addictive.

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

anyway chime in with examples (self promo encouraged) and any broad categories of retellings I missed

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

I am not generally a writer of "everything works out for some nice lesbians" kinda stories (no shade to those who are) but at least I finally exorcised my childhood obsession with the troll princess with this one

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

...if you wanted you could read the only retelling I think I've ever published? a what-if/unpacking of easy of the sun west of the moon. it's much softer and nicer than I usually am and caught on more than most of my writing, so I feel it gives a slightly off impression? but I still kinda like it

A Princess With a Nose Three Ells Long - PSYCHOPOMP.COM

In a castle flanked by fjords, so very far from everything that the winds rarely raised its banners, there lived a troll princess. Her mother was a troll queen, by virtue of a castle and a bad temper,...

psychopomp.com

2 2

Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

don't think it matters if you change the story a lot or a little, it's all about intent

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

most successful if you combine it with one of the first three. I also considered parody but parody overlaps so much with subversion I don't think it stands alone

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

5. the "what if" is risky because it's not enough by itself, but so common I think it should be included. what if we heard the story from someone else's perspective, what if the inciting incident didn't happen, what if we were in space or 15th century japan

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

only irksome if it's billed as a liberatory act of feminist rebellion. be honest

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

4. for fun. honestly I won't read it but there's nothing wrong with fluff. I know enough people in romance and mystery space to see the edges of this, and if you wanna read gay cinderella meets war and peace in the style of newsies all power to you

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

second bluebeard retelling on my list, can think of many more. that one lends itself well to dissection

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

3. {hey pretend I didn't mid-thread typo the number 2 up there) unpacking. the other side of subversion, what does it mean to tell this story straight, with a modern eye for meaning. natalia theodoridou’s sour cherry fits here.

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

nothing wrong with miller's homework but she had nothing to say, just look at how the gods are dicks and my heroine is better than everyone

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

but it wasn't all weak scholarship. this is why circe left me cold (and irritated).

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

a lot of those girl power greek things land here. people with a shallow understanding of the story setting out to tell the women's story in myths that already had women and also they frequently just... didn't

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Memento Morlys 🍉 @aardwyrm.bsky.social · 1d

gennarose nethercott's thistlefoot extracts the essence of baba yaga to power a ruthlessly painful journey into generational trauma in a Jewish immigration story. BUT this is also where we get those half-baked ones nobody likes, because if you're weak on themes or setting, this lands with a splat

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