Hrm. Stormy weather is officially upon us as of today, with Tropical Storm Conson (local name Basyang) fast approaching. Our only consolation is that she seems to be relatively fast at 115 km/h, which lessens the likelihood of another Ketsana-like flood. That one--- ugh. The weird thing is, the name Basyang means something to a lot of story-loving Filipinos. It was Severino Reyes's creation "Lola Basyang" or Grandmother Basyang, introduced to the reading public in Liwayway magazine in 1925, who told around 500 stories similar to folk tales and fairy tales (probably a lot of them were based on folk tales and fairy tales). To this day, Lola Basyang is thus the quintessential Filipino storyteller.

This makes me realize that I have been collecting books retelling folk tales and fairy tales, including Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series. However, the old story that I have the most books for would be Tam Lin. That includes Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock, which I once used for a teaser as well.

I wonder why?

All that I can think of is that probably it's because the gender roles are reversed in this story and it's the boy who needs to be rescued by the girl, for a change. What I like about these retellings of the story is the way they each contribute a different view, a different insight, a different twist to the old tale.


This week, I was lucky enough to find a copy of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin at my favorite secondhand bookstore, so that's where today's teaser is from. This is going to be quite a lot longer than two lines, but it wouldn't convey as much otherwise.

"She had red and black hair, the red like her cloak and the black like coal. On her broad forehead and high-boned face was no expression at all. She walked past Janet in a waft of some bitter smell like the ivy's only more complex. Janet opened her mouth as the woman walked right at the faded sign, and left it open. The red cloak, the long mass of streaked hair, mingled with the ivy and, rustling, disappeared."
-p. 23, Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, from the Fairy Tale Series created by Terri Windling

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!