We’ve been given a Kwikprint 86 to restore and to use to our heart’s content. The owner has had it in his shed for several years and never used it himself, so couldn’t really tell us much about it or if it even worked.

Kwikprint. Of course it works.

I’ve given it a good dusting and wiped it down, but haven’t really started to take it apart yet. All of the pieces appear to be in good, working order. There is rust, but it isn’t bad rust. A wire brush will take care of most of it. I am amazed at the engineering, at the weight of it, at the beauty of it. We also ended up with a UV light as well, for making polymer plates. Hadean and Papaveria are both going to benefit from our new toy.

Despite this distraction, I have made progress. I expect Chanteys for the Fisherangels to be wrapped up by the end of next week.

By special commission, a one-off copy of the poem Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll. This book measures 2 inches wide by three inches high and contains illustrations from the original Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There published in 1872.

I chose the cloth because it reminds me of an England obsessed with Orientalism, as it was in Carroll’s day. Fortunately I had one glass bead to match and a ribbon to tie into the spine. Signatures were sewn in and endbands were added and the final result was yet another tiny book with which I didn’t really want to part. Alas, I had to send it off as it was meant to be a birthday present for the lucky wife of a friend of mine.

Word on the street is that she loved it, and he who had it commissioned loved it, too. This is the best result any artist can ever hope for.

Goodbye little book! It was a pleasure to make you.

The third issue of Cabinet des Fées, with cover art by Charles Vess is coming soon.

While you wait, you might want to check out what Richard Horton has to say about the two issues we published online in 2009. (He also takes a look at Jabberwocky, the collection I co-edit with Sean Wallace of Prime Books.)

The current issue of CdF was also reviewed by Deborah J. Brannon here on her Livejournal:

Cabinet des Fées is one of my favorite fairy tale-oriented publications on the Internet today: between this webzine edited by Erzebet Yellowboy and then Goblin Fruit under the auspices of Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Paige Wick, some of the sadness left by the closing of Endicott Studio’s The Journal of Mythic Arts in 2008 has abated.

This is a high compliment indeed. We owe much to the Endicott Studio, so much that this issue of CdF is dedicated to Terri Windling, Midori Snyder and to JoMA and all of the contributors who kept us awash in fairy tales so for many wonderful years.

Progress on Chanteys for the Fisherangels continues with much folding and gluing of the interiors.

There aren’t enough pages to warrant sewing signatures, so this is a reinforced perfect binding. What the pages do contain are full colour spreads, so that should make up for the lack of thread.

I’ve got one test copy done, you can see it there covered in feathers and shells. I’m not happy with it, so the second test copy is there with a blank cover, waiting for inspiration.

In other fine news, Ekaterina Sedia has posted the full table of contents for Running With The Pack here and it an impressive line-up. You can pre-order a copy of your own here at Amazon.com or at Amazon.co.uk. Remember, this is the one in which my story Inside Out appears, and if you do click through to the ToC you will note that it is some excellent company.

Let us not overlook Sky Whales and Other Wonders, in which a story of mine shares a ToC with Tanith Lee, among other noteworthy folk. I’ve been reading Tanith’s work for years, and it is a real pleasure to find my work within the same pages as hers. Again, you can order a copy at Amazon.com or at Amazon.co.uk.

When I first read this story, the illustrations confused me. Snowdrop running through the forest looks suspiciously like Red Riding Hood and there is even a wolf looking hungrily on as her red cloak billows out behind her. It all became clear when the dwarfs made their appearance (or in this case, the garden gnomes). I love this set of illustrations. The colours are vibrant and consistent and the lines are clear and I adore Snowdrop’s rosy cheeks. I was also impressed by the fact that her coffin looks like a block of ice, which led to some interesting imaginative narratives in my young mind. The story of Little Snowdrop, otherwise known as Snow White, can be read here.

Snowdrop running through the forest.

The masters of the house were seven little dwarfs who worked all day in the mountains, digging for gold. When they came home and found Snowdrop in one of their beds, they looked at her in surprise and admiration, and let her sleep on in the little bed.

The old woman lacing Snowdrop's bodice.

The prince sees Snowdrop in the glass coffin.

There are many fine examples of Little Snowdrop/Snow White in art. Schneewitchen by Alfred Zimmermann (shown below) is one of the more interesting ones.

There was once a little brother who took his younger sister by the hand, and said to her: “We have never known a happy hour since we lost our mother. Our stepmother does nothing but beat or kick us all day long. She gives us dry crusts for our dinner, and treats us much worse than the dog under the table; for he often gets a nice bit. What would our poor mother say if she knew how ill we are used? So come, let us go forth into the wide world.”

And so many fairy tales begin, with the advent of a journey into the wild woods. Despite his sister’s pleading, brother finally drinks from a stream of magic water which immediately turns him into a fawn. Mischief ensues, sister ends up married to the king, is then killed and resurrected and the wicked stepmother is burned at the stake as a witch. Typical! You can read the full text of this story here; it begins midway down the page.

The sister warns her brother not to drink.

The king knocks at the door of the hut.

The King is prevented from seeing the false queen.

The queen visits her babe at midnight.

Little Fairy Tales opens with the classic, Cinderella. Look at how she appears to be quite contentedly fussing with her step-sister’s hair. Note the fairy godmother’s lack of a wand – she has a cane instead, which makes her a little bit scary. Cinderella looks as though she is saying oh no, not the ball, do I have to? Not long after, we see her horrified at the appearance of a pumpkin where her coach used to be. Or is she afraid of the mouse? Even when happily-ever-after strikes and the shoe fits, she still seems a bit underwhelmed by the whole affair. Maybe this is why the story of Cinderella was never one of my favourites. What if she didn’t want to become the princess?

Cinderella has to help her sisters to get ready for the ball, although they will not let her go with them.

As Cinderella sits sadly in the chimney corner, her fairy godmother appears to her.

Cinderella overstays her time, and her coach, horses and servants are changed back to their original forms.

The herald puts the glass slipper on Cinderella's foot, and it proves to be a perfect fit.

Sometime around 1902, McLoughlin Bros., New York published Little Fairy Tales, a slender volume full of illustrations of several of the well-known European tales. When Papaveria came onto the net in 2002, one of the first things I did was to upload the illustrations from this fabulous old book onto my newly formed site. For nearly 100 years this book had served as a source of delight and wonder within my family, and I was glad to share it with whoever came by to have a look.

Time passed and Papaveria became a .com rather than a .net, and silly me didn’t keep what was by then a thriving domain. The site changed direction, and much of the artwork on the earlier .net has not been seen since. Now there is only an erzebet.com (though this time I was smart and kept Papaveria’s domain) and the more I work with books, the more I think about that book, and the more I want to bring it out again.

And so, as time permits, I’ll be returning the Little Fairy Tales to the internet by posting images both here and at Cabinet des Fées, where the 9th issue has just gone live.

It’s all a bit hectic today, much like yesterday was and tomorrow will be. It’s all about Cabinet des Fées, which now has a Facebook page and a Twitter account and yet another new look. We’re sticking with this one. Nin and Aria have been wonderful about answering my questions, doing some hard labour and generally just being there for me all week as we’ve tweaked and coded and played about with the new theme.

Issue 9 goes up tomorrow. I hid the site behind an index page, but I’m going to bring it back within the hour and then spend the rest of today finishing up the issue. I’m scarce on the greater nets, and behind in responding to email, but once this is over I’ll have my life back and more book madness and photos will follow.

I hope the week is treating everyone well. And if it isn’t, hot tea with honey or hot coffee with scotch seem to do the trick.

A proper update on our adventures in Glastonbury will appear here soon, but in the meantime, this good news is just in. My short story Inside Out has been purchased by Ekaterina Sedia and will be appearing in the forthcoming anthology Running With the Pack, due out in May 2010.