Christine Smith

The Snow White & Rose Red Fairy Tale Tag

Post published:May 17, 2021
Post category:Reading
Post comments:46 Comments

Good day, O’ fairies and fae folk! Today’s blog post theme is…fairy tales! (Lololol when is it not?) I absolutely couldn’t pass up joining in a tag that focuses on not just fairy tales, but one of my favorites! The beautiful and talented Kirsten Fichter, released book #4 of her Once Upon a Twist Tales novella series last month, The Bear of Rosethorn Ring, and as part of the release, she created a super fun TAG! (Am I joining in on the tag a month and a half late? Yes, yes I am. But wizards are never late.) The Bear…

Five Book Series That Shaped My Growing Up Years

Post published:May 3, 2021
Post category:Reading
Post comments:49 Comments

All us bookworms have them—those particular books that changed us, helped us grow, swept us away to a whole new world that shifted our perspective or simply introduced us to a genre that quickly became the One True Favorite. Those special few that became our stories. I definitely have those stories. Some of them may not even be my top favorite books anymore; there are plenty of other novels that I find more engaging and suit my tastes far more these days. But these are the stories that shaped the Christine you know today, and no other tales can replace…

Friends, Foes, & Fairy Wars // A Faylinn Short Story – #11

Post published:April 19, 2021
Post category:Prompts Writing
Post comments:20 Comments

The time has at last come in which I bring you the next installment of my ongoing fairy tale serial story, fondly called the "Faylinn" stories! So it's, um, been a while since I've given you a new Faylinn story. And by "a while" I mean SEPTEMBER. *hides in shame for eternity* Worse still, I left the last story on a prettyyy bad cliffhanger. I'M SO SORRY. NaNo prep, and then NaNo, and then holidays happened, and I had planned to get this story written for late February or early March but those months positively exploded on me. So...here are…

Book Review // The Bear of Rosethorn Ring by Kirsten Fichter

Post published:April 5, 2021
Post category:Reading
Post comments:29 Comments

The fourth book in Kirsten Fichter’s Once Upon a Twist Tales series is almost HERE! And I am thrilled to squeal about review it today. GUYS. This is a Snow White and Rose Red retelling which just— *FLAILS* We need more retellings of this woefully obscure fairy tale. NEED. When Kirsten said the next book in this series was a SW&RR retelling I may have nearly broke my face from too much grinning. I LOVE this novella series and ADORE that fairy tale, so putting them together? YES PLEASE. Oh, it also involves a circus. *cue me flailing eternally* Today…

A Change in Schedule

Post published:March 29, 2021
Post category:Life
Post comments:32 Comments

A most happy Monday, dearest elflings! Today I come to you to talk about life and the struggles of creativity and a few changes in plans on this here blog. I’m going to be entirely honest with you all: Keeping up with everything has been really, really hard lately. Between running this blog, the Fairy Tale Central site, Instagramming, tackling my own writing projects, keeping up with emails (which I have failed at miserably lately, so sorry!), and that whole, ya know, Life thing, I can’t seem to take a breath. The thing is, I LOVE all of these things.…

Why I Love Howl’s Moving Castle

Post published:March 22, 2021
Post category:Reading
Post comments:32 Comments

If you’ve been following me for, well, pretty much any length of time, at some point or another you’ve probably seen me flail about the novel Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. And though I break the sound barrier squealing about it every 0.7 seconds, I haven’t actually ever just sat down and talked about why this story so fully captures my heart and soul. Come every March is a delightful event called March Magics hosted by We Be Reading. It is a celebration of both Diana Wynne Jones’s and Terry Pratchett’s magical works. Every single year I always…

My 10th Blogiversary

Post published:March 15, 2021
Post category:Life
Post comments:60 Comments

On March 14th, 2011, I published my first ever blog post—and my world changed forever. Ten years. Ten years of being immersed in this little community of blogging. It kind of blows my mind, when I think of it. Somehow it seems like I’ve been blogging forever and at the same time I still feel like such a newb. Being as how it’s been ten years, I feel like I should do something extra special. Some big blog party or a giveaway or write a fun short story or something. I basically never do anything particularly grand for my blogiversary…

One Sentence Journals

Post published:March 8, 2021
Post category:Writing
Post comments:39 Comments

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in possession of a good collection of notebooks must be in want of a way to use them. I couldn’t help myself. NOTEBOOKS. I have them, you have them, we all have them. And, thankfully, in this day and age of creativity and Bullet Journaling, there really is an endless way of using these little aesthetically pleasing binded books of blank paper. When I was little I quite enjoyed journaling. Words have been a special thing to me all my life, and there really is something magical about permanently capturing memories…

Yet Another Fandom Tag

Post published:February 27, 2021
Post category:Fangirling
Post comments:39 Comments

I couldn’t let February go without joining in on one more fandom tag in celebration of February is Fantasy Month. Because, really, can there ever be enough fandom fangirling? So much alliteration. SO YES. You may notice it is indeed not Monday, and yet I am posting. What is this insanity??? WELL. I ran out of Mondays in February to do all the posts I wanted to. (Silly February, being so short.) Thus, you’re getting my usual Monday post two days early! (But really, who gave February permission to be nearly over???) If you missed it, the amazing Jenelle is…

The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Fairy Tale Tag

Post published:February 22, 2021
Post category:Reading
Post comments:34 Comments

It’s a month full of fairy tale goodness! Over on Fairy Tale Central we are celebrating all things fairy tales, and as part of the celebration there’s a super fun blog tag! Which I shall be joining in on today. All right, let’s be real. All of us at some point or another have dreamed of being a character in a fairy tale. I mean, a world of talking animals and brave princes and princesses and enchanted lands and magic sounds pretty fantastic, am I right? But what would it be like to really step into the role of a…