Do you want the good news first or the bad? The good news has everything to do with the image you see to your left, but I always would rather the bad news come first, so let’s get that out of the way. The 14th issue of Scheherezade’s Bequest (the one that was supposed to come out in September!) has been postponed until November. This delay is due to a number of factors that should not affect our future issues, so please bear with us until we get ourselves back on schedule. Now, the good news!
The above image is from our forthcoming special CdF chapbook, Cinderella Jump-Rope Rhymes, and is by the remarkably talented Adam Oehlers. Adam is an illustrator, a sculptor and has several titles available including the recently released Dear Little Emmie, a “wordless story told only through illustrations”. Cinderella Jump-Rope Rhymes is a fund-raising project, and we can’t thank Adam enough for this wonderful image as well as the many more that will be found inside the book.
The rhymes themselves are by a collection of authors who responded to poet Erik Amundsen’s collection of initial rhymes, such as this one which you see illustrated above:
Cinderella dressed in black
killed all the robots
WITHÂ HERÂ BLASTÂ ATTACK!
This will not only be a fund-raiser in support of CdF. While we do need funds to keep us going through the next few years, we also don’t need all that much. I decided at the very beginning of this project that half of the proceeds from the sale of this book would be donated to a charity of my choice. Contrary as I am, I have since chosen two charities, one in the US and one in the UK, both of which are concerned with the welfare of animals.
I’ll say no more about this chapbook now, but we do expect it to release within the next few months. We’ll share all of the details when it does.
The other good news is that I’ve seen the TOC for the next issue of Demeter’s Spicebox and the stories are a wonderful continuation of the experiment begun with Issue 1. Nin has done a brilliant job of choosing stories that reflect the beautiful diversity of cultures and countries in which fairy tales are found, and we salute those authors who have taken us up on the challenge of layered, hyper-textual storytelling. Where will those chappals and that teapot appear next?
See you in November!
Erzebet