Tag: Sleeping Beauty

Free Kindle Short Story

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn fairy tales

My Kindle short story “Waking Plain” will be free on Amazon from June 10 to June 14.

You know the “Sleeping Beauty” story, right? A badass chick is hexed into an infinite sleep until a rich and handsome prince kisses her and wakes her up.

My “Waking Plain” short story is the other side of the coin.

What if a prince is hexed into an enchanted sleep until a queen or princess kisses him and wakes him up?

And, what if there’s a problem? What if he is just so coyote ugly that nobody wants to wake him up? That’s real life for you: some people are just better off left to slumber on and on for eternity.

Usually, these things happen because an evil witch is pissed off or a fairy is slighted. Either way, we end up in a “Sleeping Beauty” situation. In most of these stories, eligible kings and princes are clawing their way through briers and alligators and landmines in hopes of kissing a princess who looks like, well, pick your favorite singer or movie star.

But if it’s a prince and if he is ugly, maybe nobody will kiss him and wake him even if he comes with a castle, a country, and $100000000000000 in gold.

“Waking Plain” turns the old fairy tale upside down, and for the next five days, you can read it for free.

—Malcolm

 

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‘Waking Plain’ Free on Kindle December 14-18

On By Malcolm R. CampbellIn books2 Comments

WakingPlainCoverFor years, I wanted to take a famous fairy tale and turn it upside down. The result is my Kindle story “Waking Plain” which is a fairy tale while poking fun at “Sleeping Beauty.”

In “Sleeping Beauty,” like other tales, the woman is always beautiful, needs a man to rescue her, and that man is somebody who (after waking her up or otherwise saving her), sweeps her off her feet because he’s not only a rich king or prince, but is really handsome.

What if “Sleeping Beauty” had been a hag? Yes, she’d probably still be asleep.

What if the guy who kissed her was the castle janitor? Does she wake up and die of fright? Does the king give him a meaningless title so he’s fit to marry the princess? Or, maybe the janitor is thrown in the dungeon?

These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked.

But, more could be done. So, I made the sleeper a rather plain prince who, as the story unfolded, was more of an out of sight, out of mind kind of royal. Who’s going to wake him up? Maybe nobody, God willing.

Enjoy the story.

Malcolm