The Twelve Blessings of the Two River Valley

I'm happy to announce that I have written another book (okay novella): The Twelve Blessings of the Two River Valley.

It's a retelling of the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses mixed with elements from various mythologies from the perspective of each of the twelve. Blessings because one of the characters is transgender so princess isn't accurate, and they have lives beyond the dancing. The novella is an expansion on a short story that I wrote in 2015…you know what, let me add some links and then talk about it a bit.

Amazon: In book form

Amazon in Kindle

Smashwords (if you want an e-book but not from Amazon)

For those not familiar, a short version of the original fairytale is there's a king with 12 daughters, each more beautiful than the last. Every night they are locked in their room. In the morning, their dancing slippers are worn out. Blah, blah, king offers a reward of marrying one of the princesses + inheriting the kingdom when he dies to whoever can solve the mystery. Meanwhile an old soldier meets an old woman at a ford, carries her bundle of heavy objects across it (always a good idea), and gets some magic dust that allows him to solve the mystery. To wit the princesses are going down a trap door into a magical world below where they dance with magic princes all night. The king boards up the trapdoor and the old soldier marries either the oldest princess (cuz it's more appropriate for his age) or the youngest. Variations of the fairytale show up in any number of countries.

The fairytale doesn't really explain what happens to the 11 princesses who don't marry the old soldier. The magical underworld is never explained. Some variations have the dancing princes (or demons or skeletons) showing up at the wedding to disrupt things, before they are promptly cursed to dance for all eternity. But it's an incredibly fragmentary story with so many openings, and I loved the idea of telling a story from 12 different people's point of view where some details will necessarily change (and somewhat contradict) based on perspective. Where motivations may be opaque in some places, which are then revealed by later stories.

12 of course made me think of Babylon, which gave us various base 60 numbering systems: calendar year, hours, degrees, etc. The names of the characters are based on Jewish/Akkadian/Babylonian month names with a free association for both the number and events/individuals associated with that month to define a second word for their name, which in many cases drove that character's arc.

• Nisan Premiere - Mar/April. I went with the old soldier marrying the oldest. Naturally, she has a queenly blessing. I wanted to both lean into her characterization in the fairytales, and the burden of being the oldest. Who remembers their mother, who, um...well, their mother certainly is not dead. Queen of the Night. Queen of the House of Dust. Queen of...something else, but not dead.

• Iyar Secunda - Apr/May. This is a time of year when I think of bird song and the charm of a plain sparrow. She's not the oldest. She's not the prettiest, but she has the burden of being charming.

• Siwan Terce - May/June - Terce is a liturgical hour chanted at 3am, which got me thinking about singing, and how bright the stars are at that hour. In, you know, places without electrical lighting, which this vaguely Tigris & Euphrates valley setting certainly is. Given I was thinking about Sumerian mythology, I thought about mythology about the Milky Way as a sky road. Cherubims and heavenly messengers in the book of Daniel sense. The way stories get told and retold.

• Tammuz Forte - Jun/July - Somewhat thinking about the mythological figure of Tammuz, who ends up on a hook in the underworld for half the year. The Number/Word fourth had me thinking of the French word forte, which means strong. So, a strong woman. A daughter of a hero, wanting to be a hero, and what does that mean in a mythological context. What kind of people end up heroes in most myths? This section was also highly influenced by a recently rediscovered portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh, which describes the forest of Humbaba with all the birds, monkey's and insects playing a wild and beautiful melody.

• Av Quintilla - Jul/Aug - Ab/Av makes me think of Ave Maria, which got me to thinking of a an often unnoticed middle child, who has a very open and loving heart. Like a river, and is therefore constantly giving, and the costs associated with that.

• Elul Sextilla - Aug/Sep - Ah, Elul Sextilla. Sextilla is latin for 6th. She's the character of bad, bad, bad romantic (and other) choices. Also, the one I perhaps enjoyed doing the audio (more on that when it's ready for distribution) for the most because I was bit over the top with her. Someone who had absorbed all the love stories and took all the toxic things from them and ran with it.

• Tishrei Kore - Sep/Oct - Sep/Oct being when the autumnal equinox happens, and when Kore goes down into the underworld to be Persephone for the winter. Also, a seventh child is supposed to be lucky. She may actually be my favorite character with the shortest chapter. Living a life of adventure.

• Cheshevan Edel - Oct/Nov - Eight makes me think of the eight fold path. So, she experiences a spiritual awakening when the secret of the dancing is revealed, and pulls a bit from some life of Buddha lore.

• Kislev Danielle - Nov/Dec - There's an association with this month and the prophet Daniel, so Danielle. Since he's associated with dreams and dream interpretation, I ran with living in the dream lands for this character.

• Tevet Esther - Dec/Jan - By the time I got to this character, I was thinking a lot about time, and the passage of it. Of blessings held tightly and blessings given away for the good of community.

• Shevat Heure - Jan/Feb - 11th child had to have the blessing of 11th hour rescues. While simultaneously having no idea that that's what she's doing, because after all youngest children have adventures not next to youngest.

• Adara Nocte/Adar Jour - Feb/Mar - In the fairytale, this character is always the one observing what's going on and being told to shut up by the oldest sister. So it made sense that this would be an additional barrier to telling his siblings his truth. Also, I have a real soft spot for medieval stories where an angel comes down and a miracle happens and Princess X is now Prince Y, and everyone lives happily ever after.