erin

flax-golden tales: the story trees

story treesthe story trees

They string histories and myths and fancies and fables together and hang them in the branches of the story trees.

The garlands of tales catch the light and shimmer in the branches, half-hidden in the leaves.

If you listen closely, you can hear fragments and quotations repeated by the wind.

They add new stories and old stories and retellings often.

Daydreams and nightdreams and wishes and lies.

Fairies rub story-shoulders with murderers and innocents and lawyers.

Happy endings lead to new adventures and lost loves and never-there loves and new loves and back again.

There are always more stories to add.

But the branches are strong.

There is room for them all.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

By erin, ago

vancouver in pictures

This is a much belated post. Remember when I mentioned I was going on proper vacation at the beginning of the month? We were in Vancouver. We’d been planning it for awhile, Adam hadn’t been out to British Columbia in a few years and I’d never been anywhere Canadian beyond Toronto, so we spent a few days in Vancouver city and then the rest of the week out in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

I want to go back to the city again to spend more time and eat more food. We had such good food there. (My must-go-back favorites were Hawksworth &  Salt Tasting Room.) Also apparently Vancouver is a magical land of gluten-free cookies because we kept finding fantastic ones everywhere, including in ice cream sandwich form. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium and saw otters and lots of jellyfish and we went to the Granville Island Market where we ate lots of delicious things and also watched a seagull murder a pigeon. I didn’t plan any book things because vacation but I did offer to sign stock at a Chapters because they had the circus everywhere and the booksellers were adorable and wonderful. Most things in Vancouver were wonderful, other than the murderous seagull.

Vancouver Island is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. All the trees are so gorgeous and moss-green, fairy-tale foresty. In Tofino we took long walks on the beach (we had remarkably good weather) and saw fat starfish. We ate more delicious food and drank tea and read books and I taught Adam how to play Clue. It was beautiful and calm and relaxing which is just what I needed & I’m sure we’ll go back someday.

Here are a few photos, all taken by Adam. There were so many lovely ones but I tried to pick my favorites.

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By erin, ago

flax-golden tales: sunset-colored death in a temporary cage

sunset-colored deathsunset-colored death in a temporary cage

I caught Death in a cage in the backyard.

It was mostly an accident.

The cage was supposed to be a trap for ghosts but it didn’t work the way I expected it to.

Death looks like a sunset that got torn up by the cat.

I thought death would be darker, or heavier. Bits of sunset float and curl around the bars and almost glow, but not quite.

At first Death was very quiet, then it started making a low humming sound but after awhile the humming turned into words that felt like music in my head though I could never remember what they said.

The cage didn’t last long since it was made of paper, the wind and a little bit of rain pulled it apart until it looked more like streamers than a proper cage.

I couldn’t tell when Death left exactly, it was there and then it felt like it was still there but it wasn’t anymore.

Even though Death is gone I can still hear it in my head.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

By erin, ago

odessa in photos

widget & poppetLast week I was in Odessa, Texas as part of their One Book Odessa festivities for The Night Circus.

It was a wonderful, magical, fantastic couple of days and I met so many lovely people. I am amazed and awed at all the work and attention to detail that went into everything, Chandresh himself would be proud.

Above are some of the decorations from the Ector County Library, silhouettes of mini Widget & Poppet in the children’s section. The whole library looked amazing, the stairs were the Cloud Maze! And I loved the Wishing Tree.

odessa globeThursday was the Night Circus Gala held at the grounds of The Globe Theatre. Did you know that there are replicas of Shakespeare’s Globe & Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Texas? I didn’t, so it was a delightful surprise and a gorgeous setting for all the circusy festivities, including magic and tarot reading (I got a very spot-on reading myself) and the most adorable contortionist and fabulous music by White Ghost Shivers.

circus cakeAnd then there was this cake which I was completely blown away by, photos can’t do it any justice because there was so much gorgeous detail from every angle. It was made by Brenda Ornelas and there are more photos on her facebook page.

The next day we were on the front page of the newspaper.

odessa paperOn Friday during the day I got to meet a bunch of wonderful high school students who had created their own circus tents that were all incredibly imaginative and fun. And that evening we had an onstage interview and q&a and book signing that was full of interesting questions and I apologize again for saying the name of the Scottish play (several times) in a theatre.

Then there was a beautiful (early) midnight dinner with exquisite little courses by Chef Alejandro Barrientos, which was extraordinary. (Also there was Night Circus wine!)

midnight dinnerDinner was followed by a special presentation of the dramatic reading of Part One of the book by Mark 10 Theatricals which was absolutely wondrous and so creative. This is me with the gorgeous cast & director:

reading castNow I’m home in NYC and it all seems like a lovely dream. I’m truly astounded by the thought and care and creativity on so many levels, and I feel honored to have had my book embraced by the community so enthusiastically.

And huge thanks and gratitude to Randy Ham, who was not only a gracious escort for our time in Odessa and a splendid interviewer but the ringmaster behind all the circusy festivities.

me&randyThank you, Odessa! Now I’m going to stay home and write and not get on airplanes for awhile.

By erin, ago

flax-golden tales: zombie lawn pirates

zombie lawn pirateszombie lawn pirates

We tried vinegar and baking soda and chili pepper and citrus, a whole grocery list of alternative pesticides and they didn’t even blink, not that they have eyelids. Some of them have parts of eyelids.

They seemed to like the limes.

There was some debate over trying something stronger but wine keeps them from causing too much trouble, even cheap wine. And they only show up in October, though once one shambled across the lawn in the winter, dragging a tattered flag and looking confused until it disappeared under a snowbank.

They’re annoying, but it’s a manageable sort of annoyance.

They flop out of the shrubbery and yell “Arrggghhh” and one of them sometimes says “Avast!” but other times his jaw falls off before he can get the whole word out and he slinks embarrassedly back under the leaves.

They sing songs we assume are supposed to be shanties but it’s difficult to discern any words so we can’t be certain.

They’re only really problematic on Hallowe’en, because of the trick-or-treaters.

We warn them that the pirates bite, but they don’t always listen.

 

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

 

By erin, ago