Oct 23 2012

Who Would You Be Once Upon A Time?

From Author’s collection

VS: From the Archive. If you remember the TV series Once Upon a Time as Fondly as I do, here’s a post I wrote in 2012 on who I’d want to be if I had a role on the show!

The underlying plot idea of the show was: “The Evil Queen casts a spell trapping classic characters in time in the modern town of Storybrooke, Maine. The only hope of breaking the spell rests in the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming,”

One of my favorite TV programs is ONCE UPON A TIME and I particularly enjoy the way many fairy tale characters and people from other fantastical stories are introduced – they’re never quite what you expect. The fun starts there!

I’ve thought long and hard about which fairy tale character I’d be, if I popped up suddenly in OUAT. My decision is – (blare of trumpets and drum roll) – Elisa the Wild Swan Princess from Hans Christian Andersen. No, not THE Swan Princess from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the animated movies. Not even the lady from Swan Lake. Elisa in Hans’s version was an ordinary princess with eleven brothers. The inevitable wicked witch who married her less-than-observant-Father turned the boys into swans. They could only be human at night.

Next the witch tried to turn Elisa to the dark side….um, I mean to be evil, but our girl was too strong minded for that, even at the age of 15. So, the brothers flew her to another land for safekeeping. The Queen of the Fairies advised Elisa to gather nettles in graveyards at night and weave them into shirts for her brothers. (Can’t you just hear Mr. Gold whispering “All magic comes with a price, dearie?”). Elisa can’t utter a single word the entire time she’s making these shirts, or the brothers will die. (I’d say all magic is kinda convoluted too!)

The Archbishop of the land decides this activity means Elisa is a witch herself. The king falls in love with her but somehow lacks the power to commute her sentence and save her. Hmmm. She keeps knitting those nettles into sweaters right up to the last second. (HOW does one knit a nettle??? Time for research!) The brothers swoop down and save her from burning at the stake, she gives them their shirts and they transform back to handsome young men (ah, the sequels)….but the youngest brother is left with a swan’s wing for one arm because she didn’t have time to finish his shirt.

Elisa faints from all the stress (into the handsome-if-a-bit-ineffective King’s arms, I HOPE) and the brothers launch into the complicated backstory. While they’re talking and the townsfolk are oohing and aahing (and the bad guy is creeping away presumably), the logs piled around that nasty stake burst into flowers. (I demand roses!) The king plucks one rose and asks Elisa to forgive him and to marry him and you can guess the rest.

So that’s me, folks, and I feel quite sure that I’d be behind the dry cleaner’s counter in Storybrooke, and could do a mean set of alterations on shirts!

What fairy tale character would you be and who’s your counterpart in Storybrooke?

(VS: Oh and by the way, I’ve since written my own retelling of the Swan Princess fairytale. My daughter (who is also a published author) and I each did a take on the princess-who-is-also-a-swan and released them as a duology.)

THE SWAN PRINCESS REIMAGINED by Veronica Scott and Eli Donovan

~Two fantasy romance tales by USA Today bestselling author Veronica Scott and Eli Donovan~

***The Swan and Her Wolf by Veronica Scott
An exciting new novella from USA Today Bestselling author Veronica Scott!
Princess Mairi has been cursed by an unknown enemy, forced to turn into a swan at random times of the day and night. Desperate to be free of her affliction, she goes to the Witch Queen’s court to beg for help. An all important marriage of state is pending for Mairi, and her family is counting on the rich suitor’s bride price to fill their coffers. But the would-be groom would never marry her if he knew of the curse.

Wolf Shifter Cade senses something uncanny about Mairi when they meet at Court, and he’s fascinated by the charming princess. His attempts to learn her secret and then to help Mairi with her troubles bring the two of them dangerously close together. His wolf insists she’s his fated mate, and Mairi finds him irresistible…but her duties as princess stand in the way of any true happiness. Will the curse be lifted? And will the couple be able to achieve their Happy Ever After?

This is a Magic of Claddare novella and can be read as a standalone.

***The Swan’s Prince by Eli Donovan
An irresistible new short novel in the beloved fairy tale world of Eli Donovan…

On a remote island, the swan-shifter Odette grapples with her father’s dark schemes as he forces her to use her magic for his own ends. When he steals her power to sink a ship and kill almost all hands onboard, she resolves to thwart his future plans by any means necessary.
Meanwhile, Tristan, a nobleman from a neighboring country, survives the uncanny shipwreck and soon finds himself entangled in Odette’s world of mystery and danger. Odette is irresistibly drawn to Tristan, but she’s cursed to be a swan by day and a human only by night. How can they possibly be together if she’s living only a half-life as a human? As their bond deepens, they must confront their pasts, trust each other with their secrets and, hopefully, find their way toward a future together.

Amazon Apple Books Kobo Nook GooglePlay

Sep 17 2012

The Costume’s The Thing in This Amazing Exhibit

Any actor worth his or her salt can convey you to another reality with just a bare stage and the power of their thespian craft, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have the character’s costumes thought out in great detail!

“Costumes are not always designed to be seen. They’re designed sometimes to be a complete part of that character, so you’re accepting what they’re wearing without thinking. I don’t want everyone looking at the frock. That’s the hardest thing. Some of the costumes I’m most proud of are the ones you wouldn’t necessarily think about because the clothes naturally belong to the character. They don’t look like actors in costumes. They look like real people.” Susannah Buxton, Costume Designer for “Downton Abbey”. (From an interview at TIME Entertainment)

I spent a chunk of time Saturday wandering through the world of “Once Upon A Time,” “Downton Abbey,” Game of Thrones”, “Sons of Anarchy” and more – no, the actors weren’t there but the costumes – the “natural clothing of the characters” – were!

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) have their sixth annual exhibit, “The Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design”, in downtown Los Angeles at the moment. Featuring 75 costumes from 16 shows, mini-series and movies, the exhibit was amazing. There were costumes from all the shows nominated for prime time Emmys, as well as many other programs. There’s a slideshow with 38 photos from the exhibit here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/art-of-television-costume_n_1724939.html (Be sure to scroll down to find the photo slideshow attached to that article since we weren’t allowed to take any photos – these are the best I’ve found.)

I spent the most time about an inch away from the costumes for OUAT (watched carefully by the friendly but efficient security guards), peering at the details, oohing and ahhing. The exhibit has Snow White’s incredible, swan feathered white dress, her garb in the Enchanted Forest, Prince Charming’s dress uniform and his everyday leathers, one of Queen Regina’s dresses, Red Riding Hood’s fairy tale garb, the Black Knight….it’s hard to know where to look first as they were all wonderful and fascinating. The Genie’s costume was the most astounding, with all this incredible detail – beading and “gems” and designs you never see on the small screen, no matter how high def your TV may be. His accessories are to die for!

When watching the show last season, I wasn’t that inspired by Snow’s everyday garb in the fairytale world but having seen the clothes up close and personal now, I’m in awe of how the supremely talented costume designer, Eduardo Castro, made it appear to be a sensible set of clothing for a woman who was having to live by her wits in the woods. Definitely fits her “badass…bandit” situation, as he’s been quoted as saying on Zap2It. Red Riding Hood’s skirt and cloak have a similar, very believable, slightly rundown and worn air to them, as does Prince Charming’s wardrobe. His dress uniform actually looks less believable than the everyday clothing.

I used to sew all my own clothes in college and made all my daughters’ costumes, including the ones they needed for various plays throughout high school, so at this exhibit I took a tremendous interest in the small details that convey so much for a character, building up to a totally believable picture, even if the audience can’t see them. Let me tell you, Mr. Gold’s jacket has the most amazing fastenings!

Emma Swan’s red jacket, the Rainbow Fairy’s dress, Abigail’s brocade dress…

“Game of Thrones” was represented by far fewer costumes, again all extremely well done, looking as if they had been lifted from the characters’ closets or trunks just a few moments before.

“Downton Abbey” basically had one costume for each main character and the “Maggie Smith” dress was absolutely gorgeous.

It was quite imposing to stand in front of the “men” of “Sons of Anarchy”!

After one last trip around the OUAT display, and a wistful gaze at the “Henry” mannequin, clutching The Book (Yes, that one, with ALL the secrets LOL), my daughter and I ventured back out into the LA heat and traffic after a magical hour.

Someday I’d LOVE to see the characters from my Ancient Egyptian paranormal universe come to life in similar fashion. Well, an author can dream, right?

What show or move has your favorite costumes?