Ann's Blog

The Little Match-Seller, by Hans Christian Anderson.  (Image Information: Little Match Girl, Blogspot ) This is a tragic tale of a poor child who dies on a cold winter night because she is too scared to go home to her parents because she had not sold any matches. It's a heartbreaking story, which is kind of a talent of Hans Christian Anderson. In this post I will be focusing on the details that make this story so sad, other than the mere premise.  Details: The first description that the reader is given of the girl is "a poor little girl, with a bare head and naked feet." We learn that the little girl originally had a pair of slippers, though they were not her own and much too big for her, but she lost them when running across the street to avoid being hit by carriages. This all paints a pitiful scene that makes the reader's heart ache. The poor child! The author goes on to describe her feet as being naked and red and blue from the cold. These details real...

(Image Information: Old Witch, Maxpixel ) The Old Witch , By Joseph Jacobs. This story is about two sisters from a poor family who encounter a witch and her wealth. One sister is kind and helpful to strangers. These strangers later help her escape and she has a happy ending. The other sister does not help anyone and thus they do not help her escape. The moral of the story is that sometimes doing good things pays off.  One thing about this story that I found interesting is the scene where the witch is trapped in the oven. This seems to be a recurring theme in witch stories, and I wonder where it originated from. I tried searching for this trope on TvTropes , but I did not find an answer. I wonder if the trope originated in one story and thus became a trope, or if it just appears in different stories because they were all at one point the same story.  A question I had about the story is why does the girl marry a rich man if she already has bags of money? Did she need ...

The King o' the Cats:  By Joseph Jacobs I loved this story so much. This is one that I will forever hold dear and hold on to for late generations. I cannot believe I had never heard it before! It's a funny and cute story about a cat and his family. I love how the author captured the cat, Old Tom's, presence and personality. I think the author must have been a cat lover, or he at least must have been around cats a lot. I like how the husband refers to the cat as "our friend" and the wife refers to him as "Old Tom here." It makes the tale even cuter to hear them speak of him as a person or respected being, as one should. Growing up, my favorite book series was Warriors, by Erin Hunter. The series was told through the perspective of cats living in the wild, and it deals with serious matters like taking care of each other, dealing with conflict, being a kind and good leader, and losing loved ones. Having loved those books so much, I think it could be fun ...

(Image Information: TARDIS, Pixabay )  For this story lab, I read chapter 2 of  EmpoWord . The chapter begins with a Doctor Who quote, which is why I thought it appropriate to share this picture of the TARDIS. The quote, which is actually from Steven Moffat, writer of the show, goes "We're all stories in the end." You may have heard this quote before as it is pretty popular, and for good reason. As EmpoWord discusses, there are multiple meanings we can derive from this quote. The chapter then moves on to talking about narration. According to the chapter, an interesting, well-told story in writing needs description and deliberate choices.  This story lab was very educational and I think having read the chapter will make me a better writer. It talks about everything from plot shapes and form to writing from different points of view. One of my favorite things that I read about was characterization and how to use specific details to enhance your characters. Specifical...

Mr. Fox , by Joseph Jacobs I highly enjoyed this story. Finally, a story where the good guy wins! It's especially rare that the innocent woman escapes the wrath of her opponent. I was quite pleased with the ending of this one. (Image Information: Mr Fox, Blogspot ) This story revolves around Lady Mary, who sounds like a pretty cool woman. The tale begins with "Lady Mary was young, and Lady Mary was fair. She had two brothers and more lovers than she could count." I think that's a pretty badass way to describe the main character, and especially to start your whole story with. So I am totally a fan of Lady Mary, which I think would make writing a story based on this one super fun. I found the plot of this story interesting; We already knew the premise, so when Lady Mary finds dead bodies in her lover's closet, that is no surprise. What I expected to happen next, however, was for her to turn around and find him behind her, only to be killed and added to the...

The Rose Tree is about a girl whose stepmother hates her and tries to kill her. She succeeds and cooks the girl's organs in a stew and tries to feed them to her husband, the girl's father. He won't eat it, even though he doesn't know what it is. The girl's brother buries her body under a rose tree. The tree blooms and a bird flies from it singing a song detailing the wicked events. In the end, the girl/bird gets her revenge by killing the step-mother. The Rose-Tree  by Joseph Jacobs (Image Information: The Rose Tree, Blogspot ) I think this would be a fun story to rewrite. There are lots of directions which this story could go. It could be elaborated on, for example, adding more dialogue between the wicked stepmother and the daughter. It would be fun to write a modern version too. I think it would be so cool to write about a wicked stepmother and daughter in 2019. In fact, it might even work to make the stepdaughter the wicked one instead! I have lots of i...

The Fairy Bride At sixteen years old, Annie was pretty sure she was grown enough to know whether or not something was good for her. Her parents, evidently, disagreed. She was being forced to marry a man whom she had no love for, just because her parents wanted it. She was currently in the kitchen, trying to argue some sense into her mom, who was washing the dishes. So far, Annie hadn't achieved much.   "Honey, if you would just calm down and listen to us, maybe you'd understand that we are just trying to do what's best for you. We love you more than anything and we know what's best." Her mom said, drying a dish. Annie could feel a headache coming on already. "Mom!" she said, "How can this be what's best when I am clearly miserable? You know, just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm not a human being with feelings and opinions!"  Mom sighed. "Annie now you're just being dramatic. I know you are unhappy right ...