Wolves and Witches
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Witches have stories too.
By Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt
Fairy Tale / Short Stories / Poetry
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0615763231
Collection, approx. 100 pages
Also available as an ebook
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Wholesale: Ingram or direct: publisher[at]WorldWeaverPress[dot]com
By Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt
Fairy Tale / Short Stories / Poetry
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0615763231
Collection, approx. 100 pages
Also available as an ebook
Find it Online:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
Independent Bookstores
iTunes/ Apple iBooks
Kobo
Wholesale: Ingram or direct: publisher[at]WorldWeaverPress[dot]com
1 available
DescriptionWitches have stories too. So do mermaids, millers’ daughters, princes (charming or otherwise), even big bad wolves. They may be a bit darker–fewer enchanted ball gowns, more iron shoes. Happily-ever-after? Depends on who you ask. In Wolves and Witches, sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt weave sixteen stories and poems out of familiar fairy tales, letting them show their teeth.
ContentsFlytrap by Amanda C. Davis
The Instructions by Amanda C. Davis The Gold in the Straw by Amanda C. Davis The Long Con by Megan Engelhardt The Peril of Stories by Amanda C. Davis The Witch of the Wolfwoods by Amanda C. Davis Untruths About the Desirability of Wolves by Megan Engelhardt Bones in the Branches by Amanda C. Davis A Letter Concerning Shoes by Megan Engelhardt Her Dark Materials by Amanda C. Davis A Mouth to Speak the Coming Home by Megan Engelhardt A Shining Spindle Can Still Be Poisoned by Amanda C. Davis The Best Boy, the Brightest Boy by Megan Engelhardt Lure by Amanda C. Davis Diamond and Toad by Megan Engelhardt For Taylor, On the Occasion of Her Fourteenth Birthday with Love by Megan Engelhardt Questing for Princesses by Amanda C. Davis (New!) Book Club Questions (New!) Authors Spotlight & Interview Excerpts From "The Long Con" by Megan Englehardt:
I knew the girl would never give up her child. I knew before I asked. That is the sort of deal you only make if you’re young and naïve and facing execution and the idea of a child is so very far away that it is an easy thing to give up. But I asked her anyway, knowing that she would say yes then and say no later. How she wept when I came to collect! Oh, the tears that fell over that poor sweet babe! How she begged and pleaded that I spare him, that I release him from her promise! I thought the guessing game was a nice touch. It kept her busy for a few days, and gave her hope. And all the while, I was working. I baked and cleaned and made sure the queen’s messenger overheard me sing the naming song in the dark woods. She was so proud when she guessed that name! The triumph in her voice! The relief in her eyes! I put on a show for her and she ate it like it was porridge that was just the right temperature. “How?” I screamed. “How did you guess that name?” I stomped and ripped and shouted. I believe there was spittle, and I am certain my face turned red. And then I left. I went to my clean cottage that smelled of fresh bread and I waited. From "The Peril of Stones" by Amanda C. Davis: Hush, my petal. Hush, my gem. I’ll tell you a bedtime story. Listen. Once upon a time there were two people, and they were married to one another, and they had a little daughter. And all of them were terrible thieves. One day the thief family saw a golden mansion deep in an enchanted wood, and they decided to rob it. But the mansion was owned by a beautiful wise woman, and she caught them. They begged to be set free. The beautiful wise woman was going to punish them, but then she saw that they had a daughter with them, no older than a baby. So she said: “I will set you free if you give me your daughter to raise. She will be rich and well-taught, and want for nothing. I would give up a little justice to save this girl from the immoral lives her parents lead.” The thieves agreed without a second thought. They ran off and left their daughter with the beautiful wise woman, who fed the little girl, and gave her a dress of blue silk, and taught her letters, and made her toys, and built her a lavish bedroom in the mansion’s highest tower. And the two of them lived happily ever after. Of course it’s true, my darling. Sleep tight. From "A Letter Concerning Shoes" by Megan Englehardt: My princess. My love. I could not give you freedom, and so I made you shoes. Do you remember when we first met? I suppose you do not. We were children, you and I, and you came to my master’s shoe shop in the center of the city in the shadow of the castle. I was ten. You were eight. It was your birthday. I know because you told me. Your father, the king, burst into the shop, and you followed behind, looking at everything with wide green eyes. While the men conducted their business, you came over to me and whispered, “It is my birthday. I am eight today.” You were very solemn about it, and I wanted to smile, but instead I bowed again, also solemn, and I gave you a piece of hard sugar that I had in my pocket, because it was my birthday, too, and the candy was a present from my sister. You were so delighted with the small gift that you held on to it tightly, even as you told me all about the other rich presents you had waiting at the castle. I loved you from that moment. I loved everything about you. I had never met anyone like you—you were so free, so unconcerned with the cares and worries that weighed down everyone else in my life. You cared about people, though. You told me about your sisters—there were only four of you then, and the twins were babies yet, but you gave me their names and asked if I would make shoes for them and smiled broadly when I said that I most likely would. You asked me what was wrong with my leg, and when I told you that it had been broken many years ago and healed badly, you told me you were sorry, as if it were somehow your fault. You were every inch a princess, and you won over the heart of the cobbler’s apprentice. I was so young—I did not know how things worked then—and I thought that we would be married one day. I told my master so and he beat me for daydreaming above my station, but that did not matter. From "Questing for Princesses" by Amanda C. Davis: Prince Harold swore off marriage at the age of six, when his older brother Yancey came riding home with a new bride and a waterfall of half-healed scars along his right side that he called “the unexpected bonus for winning a princess from a fire-breathing dragon.” Harold eyed the puckered skin on Yancey’s neck and cheek. “Does it hurt?” “Sure,” said Yancey, tugging Harold’s earlobe until he flinched. “But finding the right princess is hard stuff. You have to take the risk if you want the reward. Anyway, just wait ‘til you meet Celiura. She’s amazing. Totally worth it. She’s going to be your new sister, you know.” Harold carried the ring at the royal wedding. Immediately afterward he ran back to the chapel, where he threw himself on his knees and prayed that he wouldn’t mind not getting married if it meant he never ever ever had to fight a fire-breathing dragon. “Not everyone has to fight a dragon,” said a girl’s voice from nearby. He turned. Behind him was a ward of the chapel, little older than he, sweeping up rose petals and dove-feathers and confetti left over from the wedding. Or at least, she had been sweeping; now she seemed content to watch the prince and thread an unbroken feather into her hair. “Are you sure?” said Harold. She nodded solemnly. “Sometimes it’s a giant.” Authors
Amanda C. Davis is a combustion engineer who loves baking, gardening, and low-budget horror films. Her short fiction has appeared in Shock Totem, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, and others. You can follow her on Twitter (@davisac1) or read more of her work at amandacdavis.com.
Megan Engelhardt is a lapsed librarian who lives in a crooked little house in northeast Ohio. She loves shows about Bigfoot. Her work has appeared inDaily Science Fiction, The Drabblecast, and others. You can follow her on Twitter @MadMerryMeg or visit her website at megengelhardt.com.
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Praise"Wolves and Witches is a fabulous collection of re-imagined fairy tales. I made the mistake of starting it late one evening and couldn’t go to sleep until I had read it all. With their dark prose and evocative poetry these sisters have done the Brothers Grimm proud.”
— Rhonda Parrish, Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine “It’s in the details that Davis and Engelhardt get you. I don’t know if it’s love or obsession or maybe just succumbing to the spell, but what stays with me is the tenor and texture of these tales retold — whether the fabric of a dancing shoe, the hollowness of bones in the wind, or the sharp critique of stereotyped social norms. Let yourself be enchanted and enjoy.” — Dan Campbell, Bull Spec “Sisters Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt are the female Brothers Grimm.” — K. Allen Wood, Shock Totem “Davis and Engelhardt’s Wolves and Witches: A Fairy Tale Collection is a joy, start to finish. At times eloquent, at times written in a bare-bones style, this collection of verse and prose takes familiar fairy tales and turns them into something darker, deeper, and delicious. My very heart was stolen by a cobbler with a bad leg. That’s good storytelling.” — Mercedes M. Yardley, Author of Beautiful Sorrows “Dark and delicious revenge-filled tales! I Highly Recommend this fun and small collection of short stories.” — Fangs, Wands & Fairy Dust. “In their collection of re-envisioned fairy tales, Wolves and Witches, Amanda C. Davis and Megan Engelhardt deliver an assortment of poetry and short fiction that entertains the ear and tickles the mind. The prose is assured, clever, and insightful, and the stories, which often experiment with perspective, dance from the page.” — Stephen Ramey, author of Glass Animals, and editor for the Triangulation anthology series from Parsec Ink “Once I began to read this collection, I couldn’t stop. Just as with those secretive princesses with their silken slippers gone to shreds, I danced among these pages until dawn!” — Terrie Leigh Relf, Illumen “Strong writing touched with sly humor.” — Lissa Sloan, Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine Bonus ContentBook Club Questions and "Authors Spotlight & Interview" conducted by Annie Locke.
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