BTW, if you're missing any of these stories and would like a copy, email me and I'll send it out (eventually). Feedback is always welcome, as I'm aware I write clumsily, and would love know where to improve my style.
THE FOX KING was based on "Mr. Fox" (traditional English folk tale), text adapted from that in Angela Carter's "Virago Book of Fairy Tales" vol. I, with a key variant borrowed from Peter Ewing's modern oral tradition (the escalating denials); use of the headhunting motif and twist ending (with King Sartar's involvement) were my own additions.
YINKIN THE SHEPHERD was based on Martin Crim's original story where using cats to herd sheep actually worked! Although I remembered an old Russian folk-tale about "Saint Peter and the Goose-Girl" while I was writing it, that turns out to have been completely different, after all. Still, it's jolly good as Christian stories go: similar to the "Jonat" tale posted recently. I'll look it up one of these days.
THE EMPEROR WHO HAD NO CLOTHES... is twisted from the traditional story: here the boy's recognition of the true situation is maintained, although the facts are almost backwards to the original. It borrows something in technique from Gene Wolfe's apocryphal "The Wonders of Urth and Sky"; the verbose title was based on a Wolfe short story from "Endangered Species". All the aetiological details at the end (where Tribunes came from, etc.) are my own conjectures, and I'm unaware of where their style came from. This tale practically wrote itself, and I'm still waiting for another one like it to come along...
ARGRATH THE STICKPICKER is based, loosely, on "There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Vinegar Bottle" and its many oral variants: a tribute by Chris Gidlow to our friend Geoff, "There Was An Old Man Who Lived In A Whisky Bottle", gave me the idea of doing it this way. A text of the original story can be found in the same Carter collection, which is a Good Thing. Stephen Martin added a last stage of escalation (in which Argrath becomes the Red Emperor!) when editing it for the published version.
My next story, for RQCon2, will probably be KING ARGRATH, based on "King Himerus", one of the excellent stories told in the course of Ian Dennis' "The Prince of Stars in the Cavern of Time" (one of my favourite books in recent years: don't rush to read it in advance!). Giving this story a Trickster slant is giving me a headache, though, so I may not use it for the "Trickster's Night Out". You'll see it here when it's finished!
I recently found (remaindered) a lovely collection of Siberian folk tales called
"The Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon", edited by James Riordan. Some very fine
stories there; outstandingly good was "Akanidi the Bright Sunbeam" (with a load
of nasty witches), which I imagine I'll convert for Pamaltela, one of these
months...
Another recent rediscovery was one of my favourite childhood books, by Peter Dickinson, called "Chance, Luck and Destiny" (1975): it made me the man I am today (that's a warning!). ISBN 0 14 047.105 7, if anyone knows how to make these numbers work: if you find an intact copy, let me know!
(Only four hours of Finals to go!)
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