A story for Valentine's Day


This is one of my favorite stories.
You could say it's a fairytale, you could say it's an allegory. There's a prince, there's a princess, there's an evil curse and an even eviler (is that a word?) witch. There's tons of water. There's kissing too, if you consider such things necessary for a good story (I do, for instance). There's death and there's miracles. Yeah, I'd say it's a fairytale all right.

To me it's just the story of love and sacrifice and learning to live. That's all.
Also, it's pretty funny, which helps too ;)

I decided to post it here, as a gift to all of you, my wonderful readers, who have supported me and surround me with your love and stories for such a long time.
Some of you may have read it before, since it's a classic, but if you're anything like me, you won't mind reading it again...






THE LIGHT PRINCESS


                                            by George MacDonald                                               






1.   What! No Children?

Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children.
And the king said to himself, "All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used." So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it. But she bore it all like a good patient queen as she was. Then the king grew very cross indeed. But the queen pretended to take it all as a joke, and a very good one too.
"Why don't you have any daughters, at least?" said he. "I don't say sons; that might be too much to expect."
"I am sure, dear king, I am very sorry," said the queen.
"So you ought to be," retorted the king; "you are not going to make a virtue of that, surely."
But he was not an ill-tempered king, and in any matter of less moment would have let the queen have her own way with all his heart. This, however, was an affair of state.
The queen smiled.
"You must have patience with a lady, you know, dear king," said she.
She was, indeed, a very nice queen, and heartily sorry that she could not oblige the king immediately.

(click *read more* to read the rest of the story after the break)

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A Writer's Prayer


A Writer’s Prayer
Let me forgive myself for the stories that are not perfect,
for the scenes rushed through and the plot points fumbled,
and the language less than it ought to be,
and the phrases that make me wince
even though no one notices but me.
Let me forgive myself for the stories I didn’t write,
didn’t finish, or didn’t let anyone see -
because I was too busy, too lazy, too tired, too frightened,
because I was living my life, or saving my life,
because I was falling in love, or falling out of love,
because I had run out of words, or room, or time,
let me forgive myself for all those stories
that live inside me
and not on the page.
Let me forgive myself for my failures, but also
for all those times when I tallied my shortcomings
instead of celebrating each small success.
Let me celebrate now:
not the life that I dreamed of, but the life that I have,
not the stories that I dreamed of, but the stories that I’ve made,
not the writer I imagined I’d one day be, but the writer that I am.
And then let me keep working.
                                                             - Terri Windling


reblogged from Neil Gaiman 


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