Dreaming of the Sea is Now Available!

ABOUT Dreaming of the Sea:

Years ago when her mother traded her to the Sea Witch for a love potion, she became the witch’s apprentice. Now Gia Chantal must find her own apprentice. If she doesn’t, the Devil won’t take her soul when she dies, and she’ll spend eternity tormented for every spiritual crime she’s ever committed. However, it’s the 21st century, and Gia doesn’t know where to begin when it comes to finding her replacement. She’ll turn to social media mastermind Cole—an exiled mer prince—to help her.

Ten-year-old, Miriam, an orphan with visionary tendencies, sought refuge in a convent to escape a life on the streets. Now a young woman, the walls and rules that have kept her safe for over a decade feel constricting. When she comes across the ad to be the wealthy Gia’s caretaker, she’s never wanted anything more in her life… until she meets Cole.

Dreaming of the Sea is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid. In the original tale, after falling in love with a human prince, the little mermaid yearns to win his love—and gain an immortal soul—thus her bargain with the sea witch…

In this contemporary retelling, after refusing to heed a merman's warnings, a young woman will make a different kind of bargain with the Sea Witch...

~ EXCERPT ~

She was seven years old when the first mermaid came to their lair—a devastating encounter never to be forgotten. Gertrude had never fathomed herself as hideous, until she gawked at the mermaid’s silky hair, smooth complexion, and glimmering fins. In a blink, happy oblivion deserted the sea witch’s apprentice.

After the young girl took the potion that would transform her fins into human legs, Gertrude was full of questions for Beulah.

“Why are we so ugly?” she asked.

“Witches must be fierce creatures.” Beulah nodded towards the graceful form of the retreating mermaid. “Who would be afraid of something like that?”

She had a point, but Gertrude had already decided the mermaid’s beauty was another kind of spell. Everything and everyone stopped to stare at her. Certainly, the power to garner such attention was no small thing. Gertrude began to wonder: If her hair was smooth and flowing, not snake-like, and her complexion was fair, not pocked and scarred; if her form was comely, not in the shape of a blob with crooked hands and teeth protruding… perhaps her mother wouldn’t have traded her in the first place.

It set Gertrude to dreaming.

Beulah, who’d been enticed into her apprenticeship by promises of power when she was a young, impoverished girl whacked Gertrude on the side of the head. “Be grateful for what you’ve got.” She smashed a handful of fried sea beetles into her mouth. “There’s lots of girls who’d be glad to take your place. Your mother did you a favor bringing you to me early on. You’ve got lots of time to study and develop your cunning. By the time I’m gone, you’ll be one of the most powerful sea witches there ever was.”

Gertrude wished the thought made her more happy. “Why did the mermaid want to trade her shining fins for a pair of legs?” she asked. “I could understand it better, if she had a black snake tail like you and me.”

Beulah cuffed her again. “Nothing’s wrong with our tails, girl.”

By now, the back of Gertrude’s head and her jaw smarted. “But why did she want legs?”

“She’s fallen in love with some human. Folks fall in love, they’re willing to sacrifice everything.” Beulah let out a belch. It came out as a yellow-green gaseous cloud that hung in the water between her and Gertrude. “If you ask me, the mermaid wanted to make the trade because she’s stupid.”

“But she gave you her beautiful voice. What are you going to do with it?”

“The day will come when its best use will become clear to me. Until then—” Beulah ran her finger over a pile of bottles filled with rays of fluorescent gold, blue, green, and pink. “I’ll just be hoarding it, because I don’t like to let go of anything. You never know when it might come in handy.”

Once Upon a Time Today

Thank You

Thank you to every reader who has read and reviewed and fallen in love with The Queen of the Realm of Faerie series. Your encouragement and support has meant the world to me. In the almost eighteen months since the first book was released,  I've learned so much, and as I've prepared to release the next installment of the series, I've reviewed some of the original publishing decisions we made. As a result, all the books have been currently unpublished. I know that's a little crazy, but I really believe the changes we're currently making to the series will make it better!

Sometime around April 1, we're hoping to release Half Faerie, Daughter of Light Book  One. Although the story will essentially be the same, there will be some new scenes, especially at the beginning of the book, and the entire book will be re-edited. We'll also have new covers.

We'd like to offer anyone who's purchased Nandana's Mark and/or The Flower of Isbelline gift copies of the new single edition. However, we'll only be able to offer the free books for a limited time, tentatively the week of March 23-29th. So if you've purchased Nandana's Mark and/or The Flower of Isbelline and would like to take advantage of this offer, please email either a receipt of one of the books or a picture of one of the books on your reading device to heidi _ g @ comcast . net with your preferred digital format, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or other android device.

Soon after Half Faerie is published, we'll be publishing Half Mortal, Daughter of Light, Book 2. If you've purchased The Dragon Carnivale, we'd like to offer you a deep discount on this book when it is published, as Half Mortal will include the story originally told in The Dragon Carnivale along with the next installment in the series. If you'd like to be notified of the time period when you can purchase Half-Mortal at the discounted price, please sign up for my newsletter or send an email directly to heidi _ g _ @ comcast . net.

This entire project has truly been a labor of love. Daughter of Light is inspired by my beloved grandma, and if it weren’t for my desire to create something that would leave readers feeling the way I felt whenever I left her home—eyes brighter, heart open wider—I suspect I would have been content to leave the original published version alone. But she, and everyone who invests their time in reading the series, deserves the best, and for that reason, I'm very excited about these upcoming releases.

Sincerely,
Heidi

The Girl Who Dreamed of Red Shoes

Synopisis:
In A Short Story: The Girl Who Dreams of Red Shoes a young woman searches for something to feed her deep spiritual hunger. Bavarian Kreme donuts and M&Ms only make the void worse. After weeks of binging, she dreams of her spirit floating through a large mansion, disconnected from her body. When she comes across an audiobook exploring an old fairy tale, she can’t resist buying it. As she listens to story of The Red Shoes, she experiences inner shifts that awaken her to the possibiliy of a renewed spiritual life.

~ Excerpt ~

Once upon a time, there was a young woman who’d lost her way. She knew her home address, and she knew how to get there, so she wasn’t lost in that respect. At night, she would have dreams, and in those dreams she would wander a cream-colored mansion infused with golden light. It would seem as if she was floating or flying, more like a ghost than a person. When she would have occasion to look in the mirror, she would start, because the person in the reflection looked nothing like who she felt herself to be… and so her dreams showed her: her spirit was disconnected from her body, hovering close by, but nonetheless lost to her daily reality.

And you wouldn’t think this would be a problem, since she was aware of it. Perhaps it would be an easy thing to coax her spirit back into her body, but in fact, it was not.

The young woman and her spirit had been disconnected for years, so even though they were familiar to one another, they weren’t really acquainted. Besides, the girl didn’t want her spirit to return to her body. She’d decided a long time ago that flesh was a dangerous place for spirit to live, so she made sure her spirit never felt welcome or comfortable inside her.

Yet, the young woman suffered from longing. The longing persisted, even though she pretended that it didn’t…

Once Upon a Time Today

Symbols and Archetypes in Fairy Tales

Symbols and archetypes are powerful fairy tale elements. Both activate the unconscious and the imagination.

What is a symbol? It's an object that represents or stands in for an idea, belief, action, or something else. The glass slipper in Cinderella, the shard of broken mirror in The Snow Queen, Rumpelstiltskin weaving straw into gold.

What is an archetype? At its most basic, it's a role—one that we all grasp at an instinctual level, the King, the Queen, the Joker, the Thief.

By making use of symbols and archetypes, stories that might be considered simple become more complex, as they radiate through each individual in a personal way. Profound understandings and connections can be quickly sparked, through images that tap into deeper levels of consciousness. Because no matter how many times, nor how many ways, fairy tales are told and retold, we add our own inner details to Cinderella, the Evil Stepmother, Sleeping Beauty, the Wicked Witch, the Big Bad Wolf, and the Deep Woods.

Over and over, the relatable psychological symbolism of fairy tales, serve as a short-hand for bridging individuals with universal truth. Pretty much, in a way that other stories can't. I think that's why fairy tales are so enduring, why we tell them and re-tell them. And why they are so darn satisfying.

The Tarot is a set of cards that, like fairy tales, have been around for a long time. There are hundreds of different tarot decks, kind of like the many fairy tale retellings. An individual artist puts their personal spin on an archetypal image. The image isn't replaced, it simply wears a different set of clothes.

I thought it would be fun to show the tarot spread I created for The Girl Who Watched for Elves, one of the short stories that serves as a prelude to the Once Upon a Time Today collection. One of the things you might notice is that tenth card in the spread, the one on the bottom row on the far left, 'the elf card,' doesn't appear exactly as it's described in the story.

The Twenty-Card Spread in The Girl Who Watched for Elves ~ Hanson-Roberts Tarot Deck

That's because the story was written by combining the images from the above deck, with the most traditional and popular tarot deck, the Rider-Waite deck.

Now, take a look at the "Eight of Pentacles" in that deck. Ask yourself: If you saw that picture, would you see an elf? Possibly—probably—not! But during the tarot reading in the story, Heather was taking a trip down memory lane, and she knew the next chapter in her story was her reunion with her grandmother. She also know how much the story, The Shoemaker and the Elves, meant to her. She saw the card, according to her personal history. That's what we do with symbols and archetypal images. We personalize them. Because of their simplicity, it's almost impossible not to.

Transformational themes, symbols, archetypes—these elements contribute to the enduring and beguiling nature of fairy tales.

Fairy Tales as Tales of Transformation

If you look up fairy tales, in say, Wikipedia, you find such a mishmash of definitions and attempts at definitions that it makes you understand: What makes a tale specifically a fairy tale is hard to nail down. In cases like this, I resort to personal experience.

What is a fairytale to me?

First and foremost, for me fairytales, are about transformation. (I'm not cheating or anything, Hilda Ellis Davidson and Anna Chaudri consider transformation to be a key element of the genre too.) But aren't all stories about transformation, you say. I mean isn't the essence of any good story some sort of change?

In this regard, to me, fairy tales are concentrated. The essential nature of a fairytale is to capture that fleeting, ephemeral moment when the transformation of the little girl, little boy, princess, prince, orphan, servant, bird, or toad, occurs. The prince slips on Cinderella's shoe, with a single kiss the Frog Prince resumes his human form, and Grandma is revealed to be the big bad wolf. In one breath, characters have become something different than they were. Not just to themselves, but to the rest of the world. Even when they are restored to positions and places from which they were knocked down, stolen from, and betrayed, they do not return the same.

All fairy tale characters bring along with their new self an increase in wisdom and life experience.

Which, in my opinion, is the requirement for the Happily Ever After. Because, as most of us know, Happily Ever Afters can be tricky. So unless you've got some kind of new magic, ability, skill, or awareness up your sleeve, you're going to be in trouble.

Which is never to say that we're ever completely protected from the Evil Forces that want to crash our castles, but wisdom and experience… well, paying attention helps.

I believe in fairy tales, which one might extrapolate to mean: I believe in transformation. I do. In that regard, I've begun writing Once Upon a Time Today collection.

"In these stand-alone retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters."

I've imagined this collection for a long time, and after experiencing my own moment of transformation this summer, the wind whispered while we were riding the ferry, "It's time."

So, today, I introduce to you A Short Story: The Girl Who Watched for Elves. It's the first of three short stories that I consider a prelude to the collection.

Do you believe in fairy tales?

In A Short Story: The Girl Who Watched for Elves a young woman spends a transformational afternoon with a tarot reader. As the reader interprets the images in the twenty-card spread, the young woman experiences a deeper acceptance of where she’s come from and a more hopeful view of where she’s going. The traditional tarot images—representing the formative points in her past, the challenges of her present, and the promise her future holds—awaken the young woman to a sense of life’s magic.

~ Excerpt ~

On a crisp fall day, a young woman visited a tarot reader.

He shuffled his cards and proffered the deck for her to cut before proceeding to lay out twenty cards, in two rows of ten.

The young woman sat across from the reader in anticipation.

What secrets might he reveal to her about herself?

The reader gazed at the tableaux, then at her, then back at the cards. He adjusted his glasses, and settled one elbow on the table.

What did he see in the cards?

"The world you were born into was very hot," he said.

She nodded, appreciating this new way of looking at her origins.

Once upon a time, a girl was born into the heat of battle. This battle wasn't apocalyptic in the sense of the world at large, no, the battle she was born into was rather microscopic, when considered in relation to the billions of people who lived on planet earth and the problems that plagued them. But she was only an infant, with a newborn's limited ability to move, and no ability to leave the battlefield, so to her, it was like being born into Armageddon ...

The Once Upon a Time Today Collection Launch Party!

The Once Upon a Time Today collection launch party begins this weekend! To celebrate the release of the first novella in the collection, Beautiful Beautiful on November 15th, we'll be having freebies, videos, a blog tour, giveaways, and a final chat!

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Sign up for the Beautiful Beautiful IFB Blog Tour

Itching for Books is hosting a blog tour for Beautiful Beautiful, the first novella in my Once Upon a Time Today collection. In these stand-along retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters

On Writing Melia: The Freedom of Flight

When you write a story, when you create a character, what subconscious influences are at work?

I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that I grew up listening to the John Denver song The Eagle and The Hawk over and over and over again. Now, discussing the power and freedom symbolized by flight—specifically, the flight of the majestic eagle—with a reader, my memory offers up this song like a gift.

And as I listen to the rhythm like a heart beating hope, and the chords layering a known but impossible to describe revelation, along with John Denver's soaring vocals, I think…maybe…maybe this is why Melia is an eagle.

Maybe this is why she flies.

And maybe this is why choosing between freedom and true love is so difficult her.

And I find myself pushing play… over and over and over again.

Just like when I was child.

Just like when I hoped.

Just like when I dreamed… of so many things.

The Queen of the Realm of Faerie Book Blitz

Blitz Featured Blogs:

Krystal's Enchanting Reads
Kassie's Book Thoughts (Giveaway + Spunky Half-Faerie Interviews Heidi Garrett)
Fae Books (Giveaway + Excerpt)
The Book Tart (Giveaway + Fairytale Magic)
The Shadow Realm (Giveaway + Excerpt)

Tuesday, June 18

The Diary of an Engineer (Giveaway)
Bookwyrming Thoughts

Itching for Books

Wednesday, June 19

Why I Can't Stop Reading (Giveaway + Excerpt)
The Indigo Quill (Excerpt)
Mom With a Kindle (Top 10 TV Shows)

Thursday, June 20

Jany's Book Blog (Excerpt)

Friday, June 21 

Share My Destiny (Giveaway + Excerpt)

Nazish Reads (Giveaway + Excerpt)
Love in a Book (Top 10 TV Shows)

Saturday, June 22

The Rest is Still UnWritten (Giveaway + Excerpt)

alwaysjoart

Monday, June 24
Dee's Reads(Giveaway)
Deal Sharing Aunt (Giveaway + Spunky Half-Faerie Interviews Heidi Garrett)

Tuesday, June 25
Reviewing in Chaos (Giveaway + Excerpt)
The Fantastical World of Wonders (Giveaway + Fairytale Magic)
Darlene's Book Nook (Giveaway + Fairytale Magic)
My Life is a Notebook  (Giveaway + Excerpt)

Good and Bad Have Long Tails...

Of the three books I'm reading, Oscar Wilde's The Complete Fairy Tales feels the most prosaic. Qualification: I am not done yet. The allusion to christ in The Selfish Giant feels maudlin, while the inviolate boundaries drawn between good and bad in The Devoted Friend feel tedious.

Good and Bad have long tails. Tales that grab the middle, and attest only to the pendulum's extreme swings deny deeper truths. It's not so much that everything is relative....

It's much more that this leads to that and that leads to this, and addressing a partial continuum in moral absolutes feels hollow.

But Wilde wrote his fairy tales ages ago. Perhaps, I can forgive him for being a man, somewhat of his times.

When I was a child...

We had a Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tale collection (printed) and an LP of The Brothers Grimm. I wore that LP out. The book of fairy tales was more dangerous, and lingering. Things we were not allowed to discuss in my home--anger, envy, betrayal--laced those stories.

I kept quiet about those things. And held my breath.

Because those enchanted tales held out hope for a future where the truth might be set free, and I might be able to breathe.