Turning Your Life into a Fairy Tale: Oded Ron

As you  know, three people will get to have their lives turned into a fairy tale in the Tickling Butterflies universe. Anyone can win a ‘ticket’. Another way is to be approached. A few people who I thought were interesting have been asked to guest post and write a paragraph or two about their lives, something that can be turned into a fairy tale.

Each person contacted can invite three other people (and only three) to do the same. You just have to choose interesting people.

The following is Oded Ron’s story. When I asked Oded how he wanted me to describe him, he sent the following picture, and asked to add “with a moustache”.

The Legend of the Biker Who Rode on God

Here is what Oded writes:

The open road led us only one way… Chennai, Madras. Riding our old and dusty 1970’s Enfield bikes through the rural and wild midland of India, where few white men have been seen by local people. We had very little money, no way to communicate with locals and we were definitely way over our young, reckless heads. My best friend, who would later introduce me to my future wife, was in India for a year now, riding every back trail he could find. When I arrived to India we contacted each other and I was to join him in traveling the subcontinent on a bike.

I had purchased a 1974 350cc Enfield from a young, long haired hippie, who named his bike ‘BARAKA’ in a desperate attempt to persuade god into keeping him safe. Of course… as a devout and practicing atheist I had different ideas for a name. The word ELOHIM was proudly printed on the new LP I had made for the bike I just bought. And so we headed off, from India’s north end and southwards – me, my best friend and ELOHIM. And so started the hardest, weirdest, saddest and happiest and best 3 weeks of my life…

Thank you for sharing, Oded. Now your task is to find three more interesting people who are willing to tell their tales…

Turning Your Life into a Fairy Tale: Andrea Johnson

As you  know, three people will get to have their lives turned into a fairy tale in the Tickling Butterflies universe. Anyone can win a ‘ticket’. Another way is to be approached. A few people who I thought were interesting have been asked to guest post and write a paragraph or two about their lives, something that can be turned into a fairy tale.

Each person contacted can invite three other people (and only three) to do the same. You just have to choose interesting people.

The following is Andrea Johnson’s story. You may know her as The Little Red Reviewer. She writes:

There’s nothing like having someone say “tell me about something interesting and important that happened to you” to make me realize how boring of a life I live.  I’m a bit of a homebody, I don’t go looking for adventure. I just happily live my life.

But I don’t live my life alone.

This is going to sound cliche and old fashioned, but the most important day in my life was the day I got married.  Sounds cheesy, right?

I wasn’t one of those girls who was raised to “find a man who could take care of me”.  I was never told I needed a boyfriend, or a husband, or a life partner of any kind. I was raised to be self sufficient and independent. I think my Mom fully secretly hoped I’d be the first unmarried female President of the United States (or better yet, Supreme Court Judge, as that president job is just a four year contract gig anyways. No long term career prospects there!).

Just because a person is self sufficient and independent doesn’t mean they want to be alone.

We’d known each other for years before we got married and I wholeheartedly recommend a few years of living in sin to all young couples. You learn a lot about someone by raising a cat together and sharing a bathroom.

Being a strong independent woman and being madly in love with someone, those two things are not mutually exclusive.  How do I explain what I went through without sounding like a 1950s girl who has been convinced she needs a man to have any self worth?  I had self worth up the wazoo before I got into the relationship, and I gave up nothing to continue the relationship.  Family members and friends suddenly had lots of advice to give me, advice about how I was too young to make a decision like this, that he was much older and just taking advantage of me, that our different backgrounds (both class and religion) would be a hurdle our relationship wouldn’t survive. What can I say? I was young and stubborn. But that doesn’t mean I was wrong.

I was raised to be strong and independent, and I didn’t want to be alone. I am a strong adult woman, and I don’t want to be alone.  In this, I can have it all. Getting married was a promise we made to each other that we didn’t have to be alone. Yes, we’re that nauseatingly adorable couple who holds hands in the grocery store and kisses each other while we’re making dinner together.

We’ll be celebrating eight years of blissful married this autumn.  Most days I still feel like I’m on my honeymoon. And I’m still very close with all those people who said it wouldn’t work.

Strength isn’t always physical.  Kick ass women are only stronger when their life partner loves them back.

This is an easy fairy tale to write: lonesome princess finds understanding prince, and they all lived happily ever after.

Thank you for sharing, Andrea. There are actually quite a few fairy tales in there, most not about a lonesome princess at all. But I’ll leave that to the readers for now.

Now you need to find three more people, Andrea, who are just as interesting…

Turning Your Life into a Fairy Tale: Lisa McCurrach

As you  know, three people will get to have their lives turned into fairy tales in the Tickling Butterflies universe. Anyone can win a ‘ticket’. I was thinking, why not turn to people I find interesting and ask them about a day, a moment, an event in their lives that’s important to them, something that I could later turn into an interesting fairy tale? I approached  a few people, asked them to guest post and write a paragraph or two. Their names will be added to the tickets list. And we can share in their lives and the magic.

Each person contacted can invite three other people (and only three) to do the same. You just have to choose interesting people.

Our first guest post is from Lisa McCurrach from Over the Effing Rainbow. She writes:

 

I will admit, when Guy asked me if I’d like to write one of these posts (and after some much-needed clarification, blame my woolly-headedness there), one thing alone jumped right out at me. This isn’t so much an admission that I live a really quiet life (I do) as that the event in question is, in my mind, the most important one of my life so far. It wasn’t surviving the hell that was my time at school to walk out six years later and never look back, though that one came a close second. And I haven’t chosen to write about this to be bitter, though even now it’s a little bit tempting. The most important and memorable thing that’s happened to me was finally giving up and ending a relationship that spent about ten years being more or less entirely destructive.

 

Not abusive. I should make that clear. The key word is destructive, because we both made a mess of things and we were both too stubborn to clean it up, until we had absolutely no other choice. Oh, everything was fine at first. Good, in fact. These things usually are. But sell-by dates are a good thing for good reasons, and we both spent most of those years ignoring ours. It’s only now that I’m looking back and seeing all of this for what it was. No one was hurting me but me, because I believed that being single (read: being alone) was worse than not. Turns out, I was very, very wrong. The world didn’t end with that relationship. Far from it, thankfully.

 

So of course I feel better now that I don’t do that anymore, and I hope he does too. At the end of the day, I can’t be bitter. It was ten years I can’t take back, but I can make up for them now. And you know what? I’ll be damned if I spend the next ten (or twenty, or however many I have left) stopping myself. There’s too much awesomeness out here in the world.

 

Considering Guy’s goal in asking for this post, I don’t know if there’s a fairytale anywhere in here, but I leave that in his hands. I’ll continue kicking my fears in their tender places, I think. I’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for.

Thank you, Lisa. There are quite a few ideas for fairy tales there, but I’ll leave that to the readers for now.

‘Tickling Butterflies’ – The Second Vow

Tickling Butterflies is an epic fantasy, containing 128 fairy tales that together create one huge story.

Here’s the story so far. The story continues:

 

The Second Vow

(Containing a realistic tale of a world without magic.)

 

The following is Al the Average’s first tale of his second journey to the planet Earth.

John the Cute, Al the Average began, years passed between my first voyage to the mysterious planet and my second voyage there. Since I did not know how to get there, I returned to the wheat fields and waited and waited for hours, and sometimes for days. Sometimes I waited with my eyes closed, sometimes I waited with my eyes open; but always I waited without success.

Then one day, when I went to sleep, I closed my eyes, and recalled my first journey. I remembered Gladys and her son Charley and I longed to see them.

Suddenly, I heard a honk. I looked around, and I saw that I was no longer in my bed. I was lying down in the middle of a road, and strange steel horseless carriages they call ‘cars’ were going back and forth.

I was happy to return to this world, and once more I began to wander hither and thither. I enjoyed the sun’s different color, for it is much yellower in our world and much mellower in that world. This other world, John the Cute, has riches beyond imaginings. While we hardly have one or two dozen books that recall our tales, they have stores with thousands upon thousands of books. They have stores with books that have pictures. They have books for the young and books for the old. They have books for women and books for men. Their stores store food for hundreds. They have stores for sporting clothes, they have stores for braids. They have stores for curtains, they have stores for balloons. If you can think of it, they have a store for it.

When I was walking out of my one hundred and eleventh store, I accidentally bumped into a woman. I quickly saw that the woman was my old friend, Gladys. Holding her hand was her son, Charley.

“My goodness! Al! What a surprise!” she exclaimed. “Oh, how you’ve grown!”

We hugged and kissed, and she told me some of the things that have happened in her life and in Charley’s life during my absence. At the end, she said, “But how could you possibly have grown so much? Only a year has passed!”

“A year? Seven years have passed for me in my world,” I said.

“Seven years? Don’t be ridiculous, Al. It is true that you look seven years older, but time doesn’t pass differently for different people. That can’t happen.”

“Why not?” I said. “It could be magic.”

Gladys laughed. “Oh, Al. There’s no such thing as magic in the world. Magic doesn’t exist.”

“Gladys, where I come from, magic is something you see every day. Witches and spells, magicians and curses. I see magic at least five times a week.”

Gladys laughed again. “Oh, Al, Al, Al, you’re so funny.”

“Gladys,” I said, afraid that what she said about her world was true. “Last time I showed you that there are happy endings in this world. Will you not believe me that there is magic, as well?”

“Al, Al, Al. This world is dry and grey. There are strict laws here – laws of physics and laws of nature, laws of man and laws of state. And these laws cannot be bypassed. We must live by the rules and we cannot escape them. Magic does not and cannot exist.”

I was horrified, John the Cute, to think that there is no such thing as magic in that strange world. Horrified, absolutely wholeheartedly horrified!

And so I vowed right there and then to never rest and to never stop until I could prove to Gladys and to myself that magic exists in her world.

This has been the realistic story, John the Cute, of a world without magic. But it was only the beginning of my second magical journey. Shall I continue?

King John the Cute nodded. “Continue, Al the Average.”

 

 

(To be continued on Sunday…)

Win a chance to have a fairy tale written about you in theTickling Butterflies universe!

The Emoticon Generation

You Can Become Part of a Fairy Tale!

Announcing the Tickling Butterflies Easter Egg Hunt! Three of you can win the prize of having a fairy tale written about you and your life!

 

What Is Tickling Butterflies?

Tickling Butterflies is a fantasy novel created out of 128 fairy tales that together create one epic fairy tale. It is currently being serialized online for free at this website, with a new fairy tale every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

 

What Are the Easter Eggs?

An Easter Egg is an element that cannot possibly exist in a fairy tale. I’ve hidden 3 of those somewhere in the 128 fairy tales.

So far at least one such element (perhaps more?) has already appeared.

Check out the entire list of fairy tales here.

 

The Prizes

Three of you will get to have a fairy tale written about you!

Once your name has been drawn as the winner, you’ll get an email from me. I’ll ask you for a few details about your life, then write a fairy tale about you, a fairy tale that exists in the Tickling  Butterflies universe.

The fairy tales will be published in this website.

 

How to Win

One Way to Win: Search the fairy tales for an Easter Egg. Think you found one? Send an email to TicklingButterflies@gmail.com and tell me what it is.

For each Easter Egg you find, you get a ticket. If you find two or all three, you get the corresponding number of tickets. If your guess is wrong but a really good try, you still get a ticket.

When you send your email, I’ll tweet about you and add a link to your page.

The Second Way to Win: Spread the word. If you spread news of the Tickling Butterflies Easter Egg Hunt in your blog/Facebook/Twitter/Etc. – send a link or a screen capture to TicklingButterflies@gmail.com and you’ll get a ticket as well as a tweet with a mention of your name and a link to your page.

You’ll get a ticket for every single place where you spread the word. If you spread the word in many places and find Easter Eggs, you can get a lot of tickets, increasing your chances of getting a fairy tale written about you.

 

The Tickets

A week after the last fairy tale in Tickling Butterflies is published, I will put all eligible tickets in a hat and choose three names randomly.

The more tickets you have, the better your chances to have a fairy tale written about you.

 

Let the Tickling Butterflies Easter Egg hunt begin!