Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

 I need a legend.

I keep poking at legends I know of, trying to fit it in.  It needs to foreshadow the paths about the forest that aren't commonly known to outsider.  Also, it needs to fit the stories planted thus far without making the world too confined.

I think there is going to be a quarrel over it, where some people claim that birds were involved as guides, and others a cat.

What sort of fairy tales would wizards tell?  The tales of Beedle the Bard lack the true folktale ring.   (Though, I grant  you, are not much different from some other literary attempts at fairy tales I have seen.)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice would have obvious value in cautioning young wizards about their magic.  The young wizards might prefer "Master and Pupil" or "Farmer Weathersky" in return, though I ponder the magic in it.  Suppose the world doesn't have that kind of wild shapeshifting magic.  Perhaps you can only do one or two shapes, or only animate beings. . . but then, we tell fairy tales where we have none of the magic involved.

Could be interesting.

But, when the heroine is telling one, picked for its resonance -- "Maid Maleen" because there's going to be a war -- I'm pondering that perhaps it's a bit long for the purpose.

And then there's a boy telling a story about stealing treasures, so the heroine can both dislike the boy and think about the treasures. But I'm pondering its length too.

Maybe I'm just out of sorts.

The princess get dragooned into telling younger children a story.

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Much pondering of changing from falling into the river to being stung by a bee.

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The hero and his sister arrive at the witch's doorstep.

A cat assures them they can wait.

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Every time I write a novel, I learn half way through I should have taken notes on something that I missed.

Which fairy tales up the hero's family tree have I told already?  Snow-White in the Woods (it's Russian), yes, but I forget whether they've told any of the others.  (And I hadn't added that many considering that this a land where fairy tales come true (what a nuisance).)

Fortunately, I realize that I need a tale revolving about a heroine rescuing a hero.  And since the hero is royal, he'll know his ancestors for generations back.  (His wife will mildly suggest that it is wise for him to avoid the need for rescue in his journey ahead.)

So winter is passing and the hero and heroine amuse themselves by walking to, and in, the gallery of her father's castle.  Which is the occasion of the telling of past tales.

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It's winter.  A woman -- one of the minor villainesses -- is telling a story.  Being in a fairy tale world, it's a fairy tale, and seeing how she's one of the villainesses, it's not one of the nicer ones.

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So off and trundling along the revisions on a high fantasy tale.

The characters are about to talk about fairy tales.

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