Watrous & Valmora is basically an adventure story following a young girl (costumed as royalty) chaperoning her younger brother, a werewolf, out for trick or treats on the night of Halloween. With its full title - Watrous & Valmora: Further Tales of Pumpkinheart - the story describe a Halloween chain of circumstance after a bit of candy greed starts the engines of unexpected havoc. What ensues involves a magical jewel, a weird scarecrow, a talking cat, a mournful ghost, armies of bats and ravens, as well as other oddities, and not to forget, a terrible witch.
You can actually read the story, in its entirety, here on the Bindlegrim blog. It was published here first during the week of Halloween 2012... see Watrous & Valmora (Part 1). And since the story is here, on the blog, I thought I would rather just offer a few bits of acknowledgement for some of the characters and scenes that appear in the tale.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:. Watrous and Valmora, New Mexico
Watrous & Valmora: In the spring of 2012, while finishing up this story, (during what turned out to be long Colorado / New Mexico road trips), I often passed this sign for two towns that screamed out to me as likely characters names in an Edward Gorey book. And I suppose, you might notice, the characters go un-named at the beginning of the tale, because as yet, they didn't have names. I adopted these town names Watrous and Valmora to the characters, yet I have to admit I still haven't been to these towns. I do hope, out of curiosity, to some day see what is there!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Carbon (right) and work by Kilkennycat
Carbon: And finally a big thank-you for the posting of this adorable photo by artist on flickr Kilkennycat that inspired a few things in part three. For beginners, I was very taken with this cute cat's name Carbon, which was the name bestowed to a very affable talking cat that helps Valmora on her adventure. That cat in the story lives on a farm owned by none other than the Kilkenny's (as another nod to the artist). Yet this also had me curious about the origin of Kilkenny cats which is terminology based on an older story from the old world. You can read more about that in this wikipedia article (Kilkenny cat), that in turn inspired a bit of the story where Carbon mentions singing the lyrics of an old song.
Bindlegrim books in need of a new home. PS - Cover art is by David Irvine
Well that's it for now, and next week will feature notes on the next to the last story in the book - another of The Pumpkinheart Tales. In the meantime,
thank-you to all who found their way to a copy of the book in either print (on Amazon or Etsy) or the Kindle/iPad e-book version which is available by loan (for a short time) or for purchase. And hope you are having fun during this giveaway...!
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1) From Feb 24th to Mar 2nd - leave a blog comment here about whatever you like... about cats, witches, memories of trick-or-treat, recommended reading...
2) For each author-notes blog entries, I will draw randomly at the end of that week to give the commenting visitor a signed printed copy of Tall Tales Shorter Days.
3) At the end of all six blog entries I will draw from ALL comments (more commenting visits, more chances to win) for one Bindlegrim lantern - The Horrid Decor (Orange on Ghost Skin) seen below.
Note - Bindlegrim encourages and hopes, but does not require, that readers might leave a Like or a Review on the Amazon pages for the book: print or e-book.
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Watrous & Valmora was my absolute favorite story in the book! It reminded me of Halloween as a child. I very much enjoyed the Pumkinheart Tales. Thanks! Wendy Kelley
ReplyDeleteThank you Wendy for the good words! I would love to do a collection of Pumpkin Tales in future...
DeleteHi WendyK! You are this week's winner of a free print copy of the book. You can contact me at bumble (at) bindlegrim (dot) com, and let me know the best way to get that to you! Thank you!
DeleteThese stories are so wonderful, this one really reminds of of how kids view Halloween, and how most adults still should.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Yes, I guess a few of still do. It should be a night of adventure. I don't see how trick-or-treating at a mall or parking lot could compare. And, btw, thank you for the returning visits to this blog!
DeleteI've noticed that a lot of parent's have gotten lazy and most kids don't even trick or treat anymore. It's really sad. When i was a kid we ran around the neighborhood until porch lights turned off and most other kids had gone home. Always an adventure.
DeleteAlso of course. This is a nifty blog and the entries are fun to read. Also I do sort of ant that lantern a lot to add to my small collection of awesome halloween things haha.
First a HUGE thank you to Morphine for frequent visits, who by my count has 4 weeks worth of comments, for great odds at winning a lantern! I will definitely consider a prize just for loyalty! :)
ReplyDeleteThis week I would like to congratulate WendyK as the winner of the book. I decided to flip a Bindlegrim card this week, designating one side to each comment, and it landed face-side up for comment #1.
I encourage all to visit the current week #5 - The Ballad of Papi Huesos! I have extra chances for instant winners for the first to name 1 of the 2 postcards that inspired The Ballad of Papi Huesos.
Never saw this comment but thank you for the mention!! Also I have found the PERFECT friend to give my other book too. They are known as "The Undertaker" a good friend, horror lover and entrepreneur (Who runs http://www.hauntedhotsauce.com/). We share gifts back and forth and it will be perfect. I'm loving the book, so thank you again.
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