Laura Christensen's Blog

Hello, friends and followers!

It’s my favorite time of year! Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Days are here! We’ve entered folkloric season (October, November, December). As such, I am aiming to launch a bunch of projects and make them shine.

Care to help me out? I am fundraising because doing everything yourself gets expensive…and, frankly, kind of impossible. Most famous artists/writers had a rich patron or three–or, at the very least, a spouse-creature who worked to pay their bills. Nothing is created alone, even if we might wish to be a true DIY-er.

As such, I’m asking for help.

Good karma and kind-hearted hobgoblins who love helping out with chores to all who do!

Deadline on the fundraiser is this Tuesday, All Saints Day, November 1st.

Link to the fundraiser:

https://gofund.me/8ba07fee

October to me is folklore season.

Up till now, my Patreon has been set up on a pay-per-project basis, and I’ve usually posted folklore about once a quarter or so. 

Starting this past equinox, I changed to a “monthly support” format. I have long wished to translate much more folklore from a wider variety of time periods, regions, and lengths. Being supported on a “monthly charge” basis will help me to sit down more often for the hours of research each tiny folktale takes and also to tackle longer tales that might require more than a few days of translation time. I’m eyeing folklorists like Adolphe Orain, for example, who, as far as I know at this point, never recorded a short folktale but who collected an array of fascinating longer tales. (I could be wrong, of course, I will need to do more research). I’m curious about how well I can translate some medieval lais that have sunk into my soul at this point, as well. 

Since 2014, I have only translated two fairy tales: Persinette and Fairer. I would like to translate more fairy tales, too, even if I don’t currently have the funds to produce more professionally edited e-books. (Production for the first cost $500 and the second cost $800). In the meantime, I might also translate fairy tales behind-the-scenes over the course of a couple months and then post them for you to enjoy without the extra gloss of multiple rounds and layers of editing. Or, if I receive greater patronage, another professional e-book could be forthcoming. (We will see what the fairy godmother says, but in the meantime, ash and soot and dreams of ballgowns.)

Two new tiers have sprung up out of the ether, as well, both related to merchandise. If, like me, you have always had a hankering to read a complete tale on a print, mug, or tote bag, then consider the new $5 and $10 tiers.

-Laura/folklore translator

This year is drawing to a close, but I haven’t stopped learning, growing, creating, becoming.

I am currently completely overhauling my folkloric fiction series. You may already be familiar with the novel I started writing back in January 2015. I detailed its epic length progress here on this writing blog, but went mostly silent about it when I realized I needed to hop backwards into prequels to get to know the characters better.

The results of my foray into prequels can be found at my new author website/hub, lachristensen.com

I posted my two short stories and short prequel novel there. Currently everything is an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) since I will do all final revisions once this novel is done and ready to go. But until then, if you enjoy ARCs, sneak previews, and supporting indie authors, feel free to take a look around.

(Anyone who purchases an ARC now will automatically get the final e-book when it’s ready.)

This past December, I started experimenting with various graphic design platforms, just to see what I could do. One Saturday morning, I logged into Canva and had fun making covers for my prequel stories, “Coming Home,” “With Sword in Hand,” and Fealty. A couple weeks later, I realized I could probably make a cover for “What She Saw by Lantern Light,” as well.

Today, I quickly put together a cover for a collection of all my folktale translations to-date, and also adjusted my previously-made covers to include their series title, The Crown of Seasons.

I am not pretentious enough to claim to be a fantastic graphic designer right off the bat. I definitely know these look nowhere near professional standards. However, it feels so good to give these stories some art to represent them.

I hope you enjoy a glimpse at these covers, as well!

You can find the Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) of the fiction stories on my Patreon. The folklore collection will be put together at a later date.

Tonight is the last night of 2020, and oh what a year it’s been. For me it’s the year that, back when I was fourteen, all my collaborative stories of the future were set.

I bet you didn’t expect me to say that, did you?

In real life, we have had a flu pandemic disrupt the world. We’ve watched toilet paper and food supplies disappear off shelves. There have been fires, hurricanes, and drought. We’ve had stay-at-home orders. Work places have shut down or pared down. Masks have become fashionable necessities. Virtual programming is de rigeur. In the USA, we’ve had protests, riots, and a major election.

Everyone we know has been affected, one way or another.

The 2020 I grew up with was completely different, yet in some ways eerily similar. It was a world of magic mixing with the mundane, of children being put in cages because they were Other, of giant sandworms, and abandoned diners, and learning to rely on each other.

In both versions of 2020, imagined worlds have been my refuge and my joy.

And strangely enough, I feel as if the 2020 we created as kids prepared me for the 2020 of today. The adventures, the hardships, the fear, the overcoming.

Normally, this is the part of the post where I’d list out my accomplishments, but although 2020 was a year of milestones for me, I feel like the greatest part of my journey has been internal, and I’m still in the making. Here’s to a wonderful 2021.

I have an uncomfortable relationship with traditions. I grew up as a child in one country, but I grew up as an adult in a couple others. Coming “home” again to the culture of my birth left me feeling at-sea. I wanted to feel comfortable in my own new skin, but I was surrounded by people insistent on one way to celebrate; one way to live and be. And if I dared to live or think differently, it caused defensiveness, anger, threats, and even abuse from others who treated my differences as a negative reflection on themselves.

Yet for some reason, traditions won’t leave me alone. There’s just something bone-deep about them. I may have shed a desire to celebrate Independence Day or Thanksgiving, but every year I celebrate Armenia’s Old New Year on January 13th. I may not be of Asian-descent, and yet somehow I keep coming back to the Mid-Autumn Festival. I mark time by the solstices, and for years now I’ve made sure to have folkloric gifts to give my followers.

And every year, on December 13th, I turn to my albeit distant Swedish heritage and quietly celebrate the light in the darkness.

The Crown of Seasons series is underway!

A tie-in short story was published in the Frozen Fairy Tales anthology.

The ARCs of both prequel short stories are now up on Patreon.

I finished the full rough draft of an extra prequel novel.

Now it’s time to overhaul my draft of One True Lie. I have a blank white wall and several pads of sticky notes. I’m ready!

Draft started: May 8, 2019

Draft finished: May 6, 2020 (irony not intentional)

Word count: 70,776

Passes: Two passes on all but last chapter and epilogue, 3 (or more) passes on chapter 5. -.-

Mostly written in: May 2019 (30k, lots of uninterrupted time out in the boonies), November 2019 (retype/fix pass), January 2020 (finished retype in prep for forward progress), April 2020 (covid-19 shut-downs).

Working titles: “Aromantic Masquerade story” aka “aro masq,” or The Prince’s Masquerade.

Tentative “final” title: Fealty.

References to the story on social media:

I am writing this MASQUERADE story and I am wondering all about your favorite masquerade tropes! Hit me with them!

I have some really good news!  Today is the day I move in to a new apartment.

This year has been extremely surreal. Aside from the pandemic which is surreality in itself, (yes, that’s now a word), this year so far I have

healed enough to accept a full-time work position
been hired full-time as a librarian’s minion
found a one-bedroom apartment and am finally moving out of living in other people’s homes

I have been disabled for ten years. I’ve been living in other people’s homes–either with relatives or via pet/housesitting–for all of that time.  But today is the day that changes. I am so excited.

To celebrate, I am giving away a free party-favor. Fairer will be free through this Friday.

Since I can’t actually hold a house-warming party, please enjoy a lovely reading session curled up in your favorite reading spot, sipping your favorite beverage.

If you would like to give a house-warming gift in return, I would love it.  After unwrapping gifts, we could sit at my low table on pillows and play card games and enjoy whimsical conversations full of folklore and our favorite books and writers.  What are you reading now? Have you watched The Mandalorian?

I’ll admit, the first two proper pieces of furniture I bought for my new apartment are a writing desk and chair. I can’t wait to assemble them and start using them! It will be great to have a workspace all my own again.

In 2019,

I wrote 3 short stories, 2 poems, and most of a short prequel novel.
One of the poems I wrote was published at NewMyths.com.
I translated and posted a folktale.
I finished and published Fairer , the next e-book in my French Fairy Tales & Folklore series, at long last!
I re-posted most of my translated folktales here on this blog, in preparation for moving them to a new home.
Switched hosts and moved littletranslator.com to a new home where it has a brand new look, theme, and folkloric feel.
Announced on Patreon a new $5 tier exclusively for anyone who’d love to support not only my translations of folklore and fairy tales but my folkloric fiction in 2020, as well.

 

This year’s new release:

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