Faerie Tales by Alex Jane Scala

The Girl Who Used to Dream by Meisje R.

...And the Door Will Open by Thia Odiorne

Evolution by Kenna Kettrick

Review: Pan's Labyrinth by Frances Nicole Rogers

Horizon by Taline Boghosian

In a Dark Wood - A heart-stopping rendition of "Beauty and the Beast." Beautiful little turns of imagination, paired with a beautiful command of words. It spins such an evocative atmosphere that it sequesters the reader in its own enchanted castle, surrounded by a forest.

Said Artemis to Mortal Men - "What divinity is this, that I should be mine own prison?" Poetry, especially mythic poetry, is difficult to tame and still sound authentic. This piece, lamenting Orion and misguided chastity, shimmers and flows with its goddess's apologia.

In the House of Dust - "The difference between men and animals is clay." Whenever I would study so-called Classical history in school, I was always frustrated by my teacher's cursory treatment of Sumer and Mesopotamia. This perspective on the Epic of Gilgamesh speaks potently of life in a harsh world with a harsh mythos.

Books - fiction
Tom Holt, Who's Afraid of Beowulf? (1988, St. Martin's Press)
I unearthed this comic fantasy romp at a remarkable used bookstore in Parkersburg, West Virginia, called Trans Allegheny Books. The building is a bibliophile's dream, constructed as a public library by none other than captain of industry Andrew Carnegie; it features all the best in fin-de-siecle wrought iron spiral staircases, cul-de-sacs, hardwood floors and stained glass windows. Who's Afraid of Beowulf? caught my eye for its wink-wink title, and it's no letdown once you get to the story. American archaeologist Hildy Frederiksen has always dreamed of discovering the next Sutton Hoo, a cache of undisturbed Viking treasure left behind by the people that sang the Eddas. She certainly doesn't bargain for stumbling on an enchanted Scottish barrow, its thirteen entombed Norsemen still very much alive. Tom Holt belongs in a school of British humor that champions forthrightness to the point of inherent absurdity. What does one do with twelve grumpy Vikings and a king with a thousand-year-old quest? Pile them into a van and drive through a McDonalds, of course. Lovers of Terry Pratchett and Discworld may delight in what might be the best-executed 200-page Monty Python sketch in print.

Music
Unwed Sailor, The Marionette and the Music Box - You're already walking a fine line when you set out to make a concept album. When your topic is a marionette who journeys into a forest to fall in love with a music box, it takes a remarkable talent, armed with artistic restraint, not to produce a self-conscious and twee monstrosity. Good news for us: duo Johnathon Ford and Nick Tse have a spare sensibility that largely avoids the realm of the precious. The Marionette and the Music Box blends the precise folksiness of Damien Rice, the toy instrumentation of Michael Andrews' Donnie Darko score, and the offbeat, Old World charm of Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack. The album features a painting by Jamie Hunt for each song; you can both view the storybook and listen to the tracks in their entirety on Unwed Sailor's website.