I Took My Nieces to See 'Maleficent' (Spoilers)

If you're any kind of a Disney fan, I highly recommend you go see Maleficent, starring Elle Fanning and Angelina Jolie. I took my 8- and 10-year-old nieces on Wednesday, and they loved it.

Disney's Sleeping Beauty Castle, Anaheim, CA. Public domain image

I loved it, too. Although Maleficent is the villainous fairy who tries to kill the princess with a spell in the Disney cartoon Sleeping Beauty, she's the heroine of this live-action version (also from Disney). Sleeping Beauty/Aurora herself is...also a heroine! This movie doesn't pit them against each other, it makes them friends.

The villain is Aurora's awful father Stephon. Human Stephon and fairy Maleficent met as children. He showed goodwill at their first meeting when he threw away his iron ring - fairies can't bear the touch of iron. As they grew into teens, they fell in love, but Stephon didn't have an honest or loyal bone in his entire body. Maleficent grew nicely into her role as protector of the moors, while Stephon went off to court and secretly aspired to be king. She was innocent, open, and honest, while he was worldly, greedy, and duplicitous.

The presiding king tried to conquer the moors; Maleficent and her fairies repelled them. The king was wounded and promised that whoever killed Maleficent would be his successor. Slimy Stephon paid his "true love" a visit on the pretense of warning her, but instead drugged her and brutally cut off her wings. He brought the wings to the king as "proof" she was dead.

Stephon, subsequently made king, married and had a daughter, but slowly descended into madness. Maleficent got her bit of revenge by cursing the newborn Aurora to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday when she touched a spinning wheel. (We know this part from the cartoon.) We can't really blame Maleficent for this, because STEPHON CUT OFF HER MAGNIFICENT FRICKING WINGS.

"Sleeping Beauty" by Louis Sussman. Public domain photo by Mutter Erde

Stephon sent baby Aurora off to a cottage in the woods to be raised by three fairies (one of them was played by Imelda Staunton, best known to U.S. audiences as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter movies). These fairies are well-meaning but rather dim-witted. Maleficent looks out for Aurora, and gradually the two women become friends. Inevitably, Aurora finds out about the curse and forsakes the moors for her father's castle. Of course, the curse comes true, although Maleficent regrets it and tried unsuccessfully to lift it. Aurora falls into her enchanted sleep.

Maleficent comes to the rescue, though. Aurora's prince friend is ineffective at lifting the curse, but because Maleficent friendship-love for Aurora is true, Maleficent kisses her friend and breaks the spell.

Then the really happy ending: fairy and wings are reunited, Stephon gets his comeuppance, and the violent old patriarchy is replaced with a peaceful matriarchy under Queen Aurora.

This movie is visually beautiful and well-written. Angelina Jolie's acting in the title role is perfection.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest published account of Sleeping Beauty is Charles Perrault's 1697 version. That article (linked above) doesn't say much about the European folklore that may have inspired it, except that the sleeping princess motif may have been inspired by "tribulations of saintly female martyrs in early Christian hagiography conventions" and the Germanic folk tale of Brynhild. Also called Brunnehilde, Brynhild was placed by Odin in a magical circle of fire, where she slept. The hero Siegfried rescued her and awakened her by removing her Valkyrie armor.

"Hagiography" is simply a fancy Greek loan word that means "holy writing." For an example of a female martyr story, see this post on the feast day of St. Lucia.

"Wotan's Farewell to Brunhilde" by Emilie Kip Baker. Public domain within the U.S. 

So, why a spindle or spinning wheel, of all things, as the center of the curse? If we read SparkNotes' Themes, Motifs, and Symbols page for Sleeping Beauty (the Disney film), we see that the spinning wheel might represent "the unstoppable revolutions of the years," signifying how time inevitably changes things. Clearly one of things time is changing is Aurora - on her 16th birthday, she's transforming from a girl into a woman. This is certainly another example of the Dangerous 16th Birthday trope.

I've read elsewhere - and unfortunately I can't remember where - that the spindle on which Aurora pricks her finger may be a stand-in for another type of "prick." In other words, the thing the king and queen wish to keep her away from is her own awakening sexuality.

If you'll recall from the Mother Night post, the Germanic mother-goddess known variously as Frigga, Frigg, and Freya has a spinning wheel, which was known as the Wheel of Fate. Fate or Fortune seems to be an underlying theme of the Sleeping Beauty legend. Wikipedia will tell you that in some versions, the princess doesn't fall under a curse at all, but falls into an enchanted sleep simply because it's her fate to do so. The three fairies who raise her represent the Fates, who in Germanic mythology are called the Norns.

Public domain image of the three Norns. 1895

The Norns are also collectively called the Weird Sisters (cf. Macbeth, and also Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), the Women Who Write (because they wrote the Book of Destiny), and the Three Mysterious Beings. Their names were Fate, Being, and Necessity; or Become, Becoming, and Shall-Be; or Urth (Mother Earth), Verthandi, and Skuld. Skuld lends her name to "skullduggery," the doings of witches. As depicted above, they lived in a cave containing the root of the world-tree Yggdrasil and the source of the Fountain of Life. (If you're a fan of Marvel movies, you'll be somewhat familiar with Yggdrasil. The image of the tree first shows up in Captain America, I believe.)

It's probably not a coincidence that when a bitter, vengeful Maleficent decides to make herself queen of the moors, her throne is located in a grotto with a waterfall, and a tree grows out of it.

The Fates are also the Triple Goddess: maiden, mother, and crone. This is clearly depicted in Maleficent. The eldest of the three, played by Staunton, wears pink and represents the crone. (Imelda Staunton isn't actually very grandmotherly, in my opinion. She's younger than 60 and rather young-looking for a Caucasian woman of her age. She has good skin.) The fairy in blue who wishes happiness on Aurora is the mother figure, and the green nature-fairy with wild blonde hair is the childlike maiden.

The ancient Greeks pictured the fates as weavers, weaving the thread of life and cutting it at the time of death. What do you make with a spinning wheel? Thread. You spin thread from flax. The Greeks also envisioned the Fates as standing over the cradle of newborns, determining the child's destiny, according to Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.

Clearly, the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty has some roots in very old Indo-European mythology, some of which was common to the ancient Greeks and the Vikings. How cool that we're still adapting and telling this ancient bit of goddess-mythology. How cool that Angelina Jolie makes such a cool goddess figure.

This is an affiliate link:

Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1 - 24 by John Howard Reid. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Another essential book for a film buff's library, this one is packed with information and reviews. Some of the entries are quite extensive. JHR provides all the information you need, including complete cast and production staff. I find JHR's information invaluable. I like to read not only who acted in a movie, but who made it, both top-billed and lesser mortals. -- Ross Adams in DRESS CIRCLE mag.

Oh How Pinteresting: Summer Fun

The only theme to today's pins is "summer." I haven't even been to the beach once this summer, but I can pretend.

This is a mellow, relaxing song, yet hard to listen to without moving your body.

I like a little vintage illustration every now and then. 

Fairies? Elves? These are surely some of the fair folk, frolicking in the midsummer woods. 

The beach is not the only place where a good book is an essential summer accessory. 

Nothing is quite so summery as an ice cream cone. 

#ParanormalRomance #BookReview: DemonFire by Kate Douglas

DemonFire is the first book in Kate Douglas's 4-part DemonSlayers series. Based on the series name, you might expect the heroine, Eddy Marks, to be the tattooed, leather-jacketed, tough-as-nails heroine typical of urban fantasy. Actually, she's a reporter in a small northern California town near Mount Shasta. Her life is pretty normal, expect for the fact that her father, Ed, believes in a lost continent of people who live not under the ocean like the Atlantians, but inside the mountain.

In accordance with The Legend of Chekhov*, which states, "When the heroes of a story are told a legend, myth, or fairy tale, you can almost guarantee that the story is true and that the heroes will have to deal with it at some point," the Lemurians who live in Mount Shasta are real. When you think of the Lemurians, think of the elves from the Lord of the Rings books/movies. They're a tall, placid, beautiful people with long, flowing hair and are immortal. 

Although the Lemurian crown prince, Alton, is a major character in this novel, he is not the hero. The hero is Dax, a fallen demon (not a fallen angel, but a born-demon who has rejected The Abyss to become good) who must prevent the escape of the other, much more malevolent demons, which threatens not only the earth but also the paradise dimension, Eden. Dax is able to take on human form for seven days only, and borrows the body of a young American man killed in France in World War II. 

Although they know they can only have one week together, Eddy and Dax are destined to fall in love. 

Note the unflattering haircut on the female cover model. It looks like she had a cute pixie cut, and then someone badly Photoshopped longer hair in behind her head.

I enjoyed the "we only have one week together" twist on the traditional paranormal romance; it helped make this novel more suspenseful. The final chapter is especially suspenseful. It was one of those books that had me flipping to see how many pages were left to see if the story could be wrapped up before the pages ran out. 

Thus far, the DemonSlayer series is not nearly as sexually charged as Kate Douglas's ultra-erotic Wolf Tales series, although this book is an erotic romance.  Eddy and Dax are reluctant to have sex at first because their impending separation will be so painful, but their bodies are drawn to each other. A common theme in many of Kate Douglas's works that I've read is the healing power of love - and, yes, of sex as well - and this book is no exception. It's a nice twist that Dax has never been in a human body before and is really discovering physical pleasure for the first time, which makes for some really hot and emotionally charged sex scenes. I did enjoy those parts of the book. 

The next book in the series promises to introduce a potential romance for Alton, with Eddy's friend who's a 9-1-1 dispatcher. 

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. 

The Folklore: Dax's true, demon form is sometimes a six-limbed, dragon-like creature, sometimes a snake-like creature, and sometimes a black mist. His human body has a living tattoo of a snake in which his demon powers are stored. The tattoo seems to be alive independent of Dax, and sometimes it tries to attack him. Eddy has the power to calm and soothe it. 

Dax has as his earthly companion Willow, a name that stands for Will O' The Wisp. Also called a sprite, she takes the form of a small blonde woman with blue wings who sparkles with blue energy. Her job is to pull energy out of her surroundings to funnel to Dax. With the energy Willow provides, Dax is able to shoot fire and ice from his human hands, an ability he'd normally have in his demon form. 

The will o' the wisp is a fascinating feature of Northern European and other world folklore. (Rural Argentinians have a strong folkloric tradition of them - they're called Luz Mala in Spanish - as do aboriginal Australians.) You can read quite a bit about it on Wikipedia. That encyclopedia entry associates the will o' the wisp with the hinkypunk of English legend, which of course we all know from the Harry Potter series. Professor Lupin taught Harry and his classmates to battle hinkypunks - which Rowling describes as having the appearance of smoke - in their third-year Defense Against the Dark Arts class. 

The appearance of "ghost lights" or will o' the wisps in graveyards and marshlands is explained scientifically by photon emissions produced from the oxidation of methane and other gases produced by decaying organic materials. The Enlightenment-era physicist Alessandro Volta, for whom electrical volts are named, was among the first scientists to study the phenomenon. 


Literary Aside: Volta is credited with discovering methane. As an interesting literary aside, Volta was a vocal opponent of anatomist Luigi Galvani's theory that electricity was what made living things alive. Galvani could show experimentally, using a rudimentary battery cell, that electricity could cause muscular contractions in dead frogs. His experiments are some of what inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein - sometimes considered the first science fiction novel. But I digress. If you want to know more, you could read An Entertainment for Angels: Electricity in the Age of Enlightenment by Patricia Fara.

What I'm Reading Next: The third book in Jackie Kessler's Hell on Earth series, Hotter Than Hell. 

Disclosure: I purchased DemonFire with my own funds - I believe I bought it several years ago while Borders was still in business. I was not compensated for this review in any way, shape or form. It represents my own honest opinion. 

*You can thank, or blame, Jinni for introducing me to TVTropes.org. 

Blue Monday ~ El Dia de los Muertos

Hopping by from the Coffin Hop? See THIS POST.

Okay, El Dia de los Muertos and All Soul's Day are still almost a week away. Still, in place of Blue Monday, I present a collection of pins from my Skullduggery board, all appropriate for the Christian holiday honoring all the souls of the departed. Here in North America, it's been grafted onto native ways of honoring deceased loved ones - the Day of the Dead.

A good source of basic information about Dia de los Muertos comes from The Pagan Book of Halloween: A Complete Guide to the Magick, Incantations, Recipes, Spells and Lore by Gerina Dunwich. (It's only 175 pages, so I'm sure it's not completely complete, but it's a good start.) It says:

"In Mexico, the Festival of the Dead begins at midnight on November 1...With skulls and skeletons as its motifs, this holiday honors the dead and is celebrated as a joyous fiesta...



"Bread of the Dead (known in Mexico as panes de muertos) is a traditional food served on this holiday. Shaped like people or animals, these curious little loaves are decorated with brightly-colored icings and sprinkled with colored sugar, and beloved by both children and adults. According to tradition, each loaf represents a dead soul.

"It is a custom for Catholics in Mexico to prepare special suppers for the spirits of their deceased loved ones. The food is set out as ofrendas (offerings) and blessed by prayer. After the dead have appreciated the honor and partaken of the food in spirit, the family happily feasts on what remains...

"Each year on El Dia de Muerte (the Day of the Dead) celebrated on November 2, Mexican fairies known as the Jimaniños...are said to come out of hiding and take to the streets, where they dance merrily and delight in playing harmless pranks upon unsuspecting humans. They can also be found roaming through graveyards where they travel in troops...

"Many Witches of Mexican heritage invoke the Jimaniños on the 31st of October when they celebrate their annual Sabbat of Samhain and perform rituals designed to pay homage to their ancestors. Many Wiccans south of the border believe that these playful, seasonal fairies assist their Goddess and Horned God in the turning of the Wheel of the Year."

How will you celebrate the end of harvest season? Perhaps you'd like to rock this sugar skull-motif dress.



Need a handbag to go with that?



Maybe the neon colors are a little loud for you, though. Maybe you'd rather have an accessory that's a bit more understated.



And finally: let me call you street art

Blue Monday - Once in a Blue Moon

These pins come from my I've Got the Blues board on Pinterest. On Mondays I hook up with Pinning! at A Night Owl Blog/Baxtron{Life}. On Wednesday, it's Oh, How Pinteresting! at The Vintage Apple.

This beautiful goddess image is of Diana in the ancient Roman pantheon, or Artemis in the Greek pantheon. The Lady of the Wild Things, a bow-wielding huntress who controls human access to game animals, is a common goddess manifestation in European folklore. Her literary descendants include part-veela Fleur  Delacour in the Harry Potter novels and Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games trilogy. 

This is my favorite lunar image. It's just so pretty and sparkly.



The moon doesn't always appear by herself. Here she is with the planets Venus and Jupiter. 



Sometimes she appears with Britney Spears.


The moon can be very inspirational. This could be the inspiration for an urban fantasy heroine. It comes from author Bonni Sansom's wonderful blog. 

The full moon is equally beloved by the sidhe as by goddesses and urban fantasy heroines. 

Find Me on Smashwords

Eminent Domain, the second crime thriller I co-penned with my hubby Tit Elingtin, is now available in paperback and e-book. You can find the e-book for Kindle and Nook, or get it from Smashwords and download it in any format you like. Through October 10, 2011, you can get it FREE on Smashwords with coupon code FG99J.

Visit my Smashwords profile and you'll see I've put out three books. One is Midsummer Night (Pagan Spirits Book 2).

The other full-length book I have on Smashwords is The Erotica Anthology. It's a bit of a teaser for Beltane (Pagan Spirits Book 1), but it also contains some of my previously published short stories, and the exclusive short story "Herbert." I was giving the anthology away free for a while, and I may do so again in the future, but for now you can download it for $0.99.

My other $0.99 e-book on Smashwords is the short "Josephine Baker in Berlin." An aging, lonely Josephine Baker has one last chance to dance across the stage, but only if she accepts an invitation to visit Berlin. The destination unlocks long-buried memories of the decadent pre-World War II Berlin, and of a beautiful young woman who reached out the star and eased her loneliness.

My short stories also appear on Smashwords in several anthologies listed under the incomparable erotica author and publisher Selena Kitt:

Happy Endings - Contains "Bat Mitzvah," a m/m romance in which the bat mitzvah's Uncle Mark rarely goes to temple, but has a revelation when he lays eyes on the gorgeous new cantor, Ilan Kauffman.

Wonder - Contains "Butterfly Boy," a f/m paranormal featuring good fairies and a very bad fairy.

Divine Matches - Contains the f/m paranormal "Black Bear Skin," a Norse myth-inspired tale featuring Freya, the naughty queen of the Valkyries.

Popsicles, Icicles and Other Not-So-Little Mermaid Songs

Earlier this week, I wrote an article for SexIs about Scarleteen and some of the other websites young adults can turn to for accurate sexuality advice. Today my writing mission, should I choose to accept it, is to start a scholarly-humorous piece about the association between fish and female genitalia. One of the research materials I've gathered is A Mermaid's Tale: A Personal Search For Love and Lore by Amanda Adams.

I've had this book from the library before, and I recall that it contains several versions of the European fairy tale of Melusina. I first heard of Melusina in 1999, when I was a college student taking a course on women and religion. One of the texts I read was Sexes and Geneologies by the French feminist Luce Irigaray, which introduced me to the half-fairy princess considered to be the mother of some prominent French families and the architect of a number of castles. (I'm thinking she's associated with Brittany, but that could be wrong.)

Melusina, whom I remember best as Melusine, was cursed by her fairy mother for the crime of imprisoning her human father. Once a month she turned into, depending on your source, either a mermaid or a snake-creature. Like the bean-sidhe (Gailge for "woman of the fairy mounds," appropriated by the English language as banshee), Melusine's cries can be heard to foretell the deaths of her descendants.

I found this fairy tale fascinating and stored it away in my brain for a decade. (Writers, in case you didn't know, are like walking encyclopedias.) Finally I wrote my own version, "Melusine's Secret," which appears in the Hearts of Tomorrow anthology from Melange Books. In my version, Melusine's transformation has less to do with fish or serpents...but I won't spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say there's magic and sexual exploration.

In the Disney version of the The Little Mermaid, Ariel loses her voice in exchange for legs to walk around on land. In the Hans Christian Andersen version, the mermaid gets her legs but must suffer terrible pain when she walks. In the midst of my dual crush on Indiana Pacers Reggie Miller and Rik Smits (see "Pairs of Really Big Ones"), I remembered this aspect of the fairy tale at the tail end of Rik's career, when he was having ongoing foot problems. Putting two and two together, I determined that the big, blond Netherlander was, in fact, a merman.

That's what I know about men and fish tails. Now I must be off to discover the secret behind women's tails and fishes. P.S. "Popsicles and Icicles" is an oldie pop hit for a singing group called The Murmaids, in case ya didn't know.

Celtic Languages 101: Welsh for Halloween

Yes, I'm Irish, but I can't help but be fascinated by Welsh, the Celtic language so unpronounceable to English tongues. All the best Welsh words and phrases come into play this time of year, when Irish Celts and neo-Pagans everywhere get ready to celebrate Samhain.

The Welsh expression for Halloween is Nos Calan Gaeaf. Nos Calan Gaeaf is one of the Teir Nas Ysbrydion, Three Spirit Nights. The other two are the traditional Celtic holidays of Beltane (May 1) and Midsummer Night (June 21). These are the times when the veil between the seen and unseen worlds is at its thinnest, when spirits are most likely to break through.

Calum Hutchinson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

One of those spirits, in Welsh folklore, is the hwch du gwta. She is a spectral black sow, a bad omen similar to the Grim in English folklore (famously appropriated by J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

If you want to avoid visitors from the spirit realm, it's best to leave some bwyd cennad y meirw outside your door. Bwyd cennad y meirw is food for the dead.

Without a tasty bribe, you might get a visit from the Welsh equivalent of Ireland's sidhe, the fairies. The Welsh call them tylwethtag.

"Melusine's Secret," based on the French fairy tale

Raymond opened his eyes. His head stung, his mouth was dry, and he was thankful the servants had the sense to draw the thick curtains the previous night. He half suspected if he groped around under the covers long enough, he might find one of his servants there...perhaps the young kitchen maid with the long braid of golden hair down her back. Or, if he was particularly lucky, he’d find the new stable hand, the one with broad shoulders and large hands who, despite his size, was incredibly gentle in the way he handled the horses.

His morning-after fantasies were rent asunder by a knock at the door. “Enter,” Raymond said, sitting up to assure himself he was truly alone in bed.

The door slowly opened. Gustav, Raymond’s trusted man-servant, stepped into the room. “Sir, I am advised we have a guest due to arrive today.”

“None that I know of,” Raymond grumbled.

“No, sir. We’ve only this morning been apprised of her impending arrival.”

“Her impending arrival?” Mentally, Raymond ran down the short list of females who might make a surprise visit to see him. “Good God, it’s not my mother, is it?”

Gustav chuckled slightly as he shook his head. “No, sir, though her visit may portend something just as ominous.”

Raymond was tempted to pull the covers over his head and pretend this day had never started. “Why don’t you just tell me who’s coming, Gustav?”

Gustav nodded. “The Lady Pressina, sir.”

Raymond brightened at the sound of her name. True, Pressina was one of the most powerful women—one of the most powerful beings, really—in western France. True, Pressina’s word was as good as law, and every noble worth anything bent over backwards to see that Pressina was pleased and that her wishes were followed. True, going against Pressina was like bringing a curse down on your lands. None of this meant that Raymond had anything to fear. He hadn’t done anything to anger or wrong Pressina.

“The Lady Pressina pays me a visit, and you call that ominous?” Raymond said. As he got out of bed, Gustav handed him the clothes left in a pile from the night before. Ever the discrete one, Gustav pretended not to notice the extra set of breeches on the carpet. “If anything, I’m honored with Pressina’s presence. Have the manor cleaned thoroughly, and send the girls to the woods to gather flowers.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and tell the kitchen to prepare the most light and delicate meal imaginable.”

“Of course, sir.”

Raymond personally oversaw the preparations for Pressina’s visit. He didn’t want to risk offending her. When his legion of servants had finished preparing, the manor house was spotlessly clean and smelled of perfumed, fresh air and fine delicacies. Raymond took a bath and put on his new clothes at the same time the servants welcomed Lady Pressina and her maids to the manor.

“The Lady Pressina,” Gustav announced formally into Raymond’s receiving room. Raymond stood as the lady entered. Pressina was a tall, thin woman with large eyes but delicate features. She wore her hair loose. Its color was a silvery white-blonde, though in certain light it gave the distinct impression of being tinged with the same ocean blue as her eyes. She moved with an almost unearthly grace. Perhaps this was why when the common folk spoke of Pressina, they said she was descended from the fairies.

Her rosebud-pink lips smiled as she was introduced, filling Raymond with anticipation of blessings to come.

He held out his hand, and Gustav announced him formally. “Raymond, Count of Poitou.”

Pressina shook his hand. “Greetings, my young noble.”

Raymond kissed each of her cheeks. “And the same to you, Lady. You honor me with your visit to my home. To what do I owe such grace?”

He wasn’t expecting anything like her following words. “It is you who will honor me, Count of Poitou, by marrying my eldest daughter, Melusine.”

Stunned, Raymond said nothing. Pressina continued. “As you know, good Count, the region of Poitou is central to the lands under my protection. I’ll arrange for my middle child to marry a lord of the north, and my youngest child will marry a noble of the south. Yours must be the strongest link in the chain, of course, and this is why you must marry the eldest.”

The course of true love never did run smooth

Were the World Mine is a thoroughly charming film. It's a musical with a great rock soundtrack with the lyrics based on William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Midsummer Night's Dream happens to be my favorite of all of Shakespeare's brilliant plays. I cross-dressed and played the workman-actor Peter Quince in my fifth grade school production of it. I took my husband to see it live on stage when we were first dating. I adore the 1999 film version, and not just because it has a young Christian Bale as Demetrius. Heck, I named my last book Midsummer Night, and in one scene the characters are watching the Shakespearean film.

Were the World Mine is not just a new adaptation of the play, though. Its central character is Timothy, a gay teen at an all-male private school. He has an unrequited crush on Jonathon, who happens to be an uber-jock rugby player. Enter Miss T, the English teacher. She insists on casting the macho rugby players in the school play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Everyone knows that English teachers possess magic, and in this case, it's literally true. She casts Timothy as the mischievous fairy Puck, prompting many "fairy" jokes but also teaching him the magic formula for making the play's love-inducing flower.

With the magic pansy that can make people fall in love with each other at first sight, Timothy gets Jonathon to fall in love with him. Unfortunately, he makes a mistake and accidentally also gets his heterosexual friend Max to fall in love with him. Then Timothy goes a little wild and turns most of the town gay. But this is a comedy, and like the Shakespearean version, all the star-crossed romances and rivalries will be straightened out (literally, in this case) by the end of the film. I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that when all the magic is reversed, it turns out Jonathon's feelings for Timothy are genuine, and the two live happily ever after.

The music is great, the characters are adorable, and Miss T's glam production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is gorgeous. (Adam Lambert could easily star in this, if it were adapted as a stage musical.) Lovers of theater will appreciate the play within the play. In fact, only the crustiest homophobe could dislike this disarming production.

Excerpt from 'Midsummer Night:' Imbolc

Welcome to PS! When you're done here, please check out my guest blog post, "The Ten Best Jobs For Men in Romance Novels," at The Best of Everything. Now, enjoy a brief excerpt from Midsummer Night!

Zen completed the circle of candles around the two of them. She held up the candelabra with the white, red and black candles in front of Allie. She offered Allie the lighter in her other hand. “Would you like to do the honors, oh daughter of Brigid, goddess of fire?”

Allie nodded her head graciously and took the lighter. She lit the white candle as she composed an impromptu prayer. “Oh Brigid, our mother, goddess of fire, we dedicate this sacred feast of Imbolc to you. At this dark and gloomy time of year, when it seems winter will never end, we know the days are actually getting longer and warmer, and spring is coming soon, thanks to you. Care for us, mother, and do not neglect to give us your light and your heat so we may live. Give your light and your heat to the earth so the springtime crops grow so we may have food to sustain ourselves and our children. Let the young be birthed and plants renewed so that fresh breath is given to life. So let it be.”

“So let it be,” Zen echoed her. She set the lighter aside and placed the candelabra in the circle. She used its black candle to light the candle next to it, and then used that candle to light the next, until she had gone all the way around the circle. As she did, she added her own prayer. “Goddess, if it is your will for Allie’s son to be born today, on your sacred day, then please grant that she and the baby be safe in childbirth. And please don’t let us fall asleep and burn the house down. So let it be.”

“So let it be,” Allie said. “Now, what do you want to watch?”

“Since it’s just the two of us, how about Thelma and Louise?"

Allie shook her head. “How about something a little less tragic?”

“How about Romeo and Juliet, the Leonardo and Claire version?”

“Zen, that movie is tragic in every sense of the word. Since you want to be all Shakespearean, how about A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Rupert and Michelle version? There’s nothing like Midsummer to get your mind off a long winter’s night.”

“Good call. Romance, magic, fairies, and a young Christian Bale. Yummy.”

“Down, girl!” Allie laughed. “Is it possible my pregnancy estrogen is screwing with your brain?”

“It’s almost certain, and yet knowing this does nothing to diminish Christian Bale's deliciousness."

She gave Allie a satisfied smile, then went to the entertainment center and looked through her sister’s movie collection until she found the right disc. The costumed fantasy, with its star-crossed lovers and mischievous fairies, distracted them from Allie’s discomfort. When the movie ended, they started it up again.

The candle light aided the mood, and soon Zen almost forgot they were waiting for Kameko and Melissa. The headlights of Melissa’s ancient, battered Volkswagen outside of Allie’s house snapped Zen back to reality. She got up and opened the door for them.

************

Midsummer Night by Erin O'Riordan, new January 2010 from eXcessica Publishing. In print, e-book and for Kindle.