I took a walk yesterday afternoon to refresh myself, since the day was warm and the sun shining brightly. Went to a place near the edge of town where I used to wander through a forested area and renew myself... Sadly, that won't be happening any more. It was bulldozed for a new housing development... 95% of the trees are gone, and a new batch of 'McMansions' going up. (A McMansion, by the wway, is my term for an oversized house -- usually in excess of 3000 square feet -- being put up on a tiny lot, shoulder to shoulder with the next ones.)

It was depressing rather than renewing, but by the time I got home again, the following had worked its way into my conciousness.

Fix It!

Urban, dark and gritty,

Country, green and bright

In between Suburbia --

A manufactured blight

Tacky look-alike boxes

On processed grassy lawns

Or oversized McMansions --

All drive away the Fauns

Nowhere are the Brownies

Nor any Elven folk

Not any type of Faerie --

Here, Mother Gaia's broke

Yet, there might be something

That you and I might do --

Plant trees and flowers and forests

To catch the morning dew

For if we encourage nature

To reclaim suburban blight

Then Faeries will return to play

And dance in winged flight!

First and foremost, let me give a HUGE "Thank You" to everyone who has responded! The interest shown in this project has been most gratifying!

Pages are now being assigned, so if you want to participate, and you have not yet done so, get your submission to me ASAP! Each book is set at a total of 100 pages, so space is limited for volume 1.

There is a nice little blurb about the project right on the front page (Bottom right, under the Frappr Map!) -- thanks to Be for that! (And Drew -- I know he's the site "Tech Genie"!)

One thing I forgot to mention -- when you send your photo, scan, or whatever, it needs to be at 600 dpi resolution,  at a size of 1800 by 2250 pixels, or 3" by 3 3/4" -- this allows us to enlarge to page size with minimal loss of detail (less than 2%).

Encourage everyone you know to participate, please -- it is for a very good cause! 100% participation -- every member of Enchanted Folk -- would give us sufficient material for almost 9 volumes!

All Members of Enchanted Folk are Invited to Participate in The Enchanted Folk Book of Faerie!  

Be it a One-of-a-kind doll, a painting,  drawing, short story, poem, or music lyrics and/or score, there is a place in the pages for YOUR work! This is an ongoing project, with additional volumes planned for the foreseeable future! So how do you get to see your work in print? Simply create your personal interpretation of any denizen of Faerie in any of the aforementioned media, doing the best you can! Then take a photograph or make a scan, and Email it to RdeHwyll at

 rdehwyll@yahoo.com,

along with the name and description of the Fae, your name as you wish it to appear in the book(s), and a statement that your work may be included. (Legal stuff pertaining to copyright -- you keep all rights, we just get to use your submission to help raise funds for The Fairy Box Charity!) Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Volume 1 is being prepared now, so get your submissions in ASAP if you wish to be included -- There is a limit to the pages per volume we can fill, so latecomers get bumped to later volumes!

You may have noticed the change in the name of the book(s) -- We dropped the 'S' to broaden the range of Faerie denizens so that the creative flow wouldn't be quite as constrained. You may now feel free to exercise your own imagination in creating 'your' Fae, but if you need some inspiration, the Fairy n\Name Generator is still a useful tool!

I'm very pleased with the response this project is receiving, but wouldn't it be wonderful to have 100% participation? That would fill EIGHT volumes, and give a start on a ninth! So please, please, PLEASE participate!

It is now official! With Be and Drew giving their blessings, we can now shift into high gear on producing The Enchanted Folk Book of Faeries to raise funds for The Fairy Box Charity! We have decided that our minimum participation goal will be 65 members, which should be sufficient to produce a 72-page volume. However, if more than that number wish to participate, all the better -- it is quite easy to add pages. If it gets to the point that production costs get too great, we will break the book up into additional volumes -- in other words, this will be an ongoing project for as long as members wish to participate, meaning that new members who join after the first volume is published can still donate thier contributions to Volumes 2, 3, 4, ad infinitum!

Be has also suggested that if any members know of youngsters who would also like to participate but are not old enough to join Enchanted Folk online (Their minimum age is set at 16 due to server regulations.), their participation would also be quite welcome and should be encouraged!

I would also like to add that ANY printable media would be welcomed -- Photographs, Drawings, Paintings, (Scans at 600 dpi are best!) Prose, Poetry, even Song Lyrics and Musical Scores are doable. If there is sufficient interest, it has even been mentioned that an Audio CD consisting of music and spoken presentation might be a future possibility! (I'll be looking into the details on that, but if any musicians out there wish to add their expertise, it would be most appreciated!)

So how does one participate in this project? Please read my two previous blogposts here on Enchanted Folk for the fast and easy details, then go get busy! You can send your completed participatory Projects directly to me via E-mail to: rdehwyll AT yahoo DOT com  I'll be collating and arranging the final presentation as my donation to this worthy cause.

Once everything is ready for publication, the volume will be placed with one of the 'Print on Demand' publishers, with all profits from the sale going directly to the Fairy Box Charity. We believe this is the fastest and most economical way for this project to be brought to the public.

So that's the scoop, ladies and gentlemen of Enchanted Folk! We would love to have 100% participation, so please do drop me a note if you are intending to participate -- the more, the merrier! Thank You!!!

Well, I guess it's time to make it official -- at least, for 2008, the NEPA Faeriefest is dead. The final nail in the coffin came today -- the city turned down my application for a permit to hold the event. Without the permit, I cannot get insurance for the event, without insurance, no place at any price will allow me to rent. This is particularly disappointing to me because I wanted to use the profits from the event to help fund both a local extension of The Fairy Box Charity and to donate to the original charity in Scotland...

However, there's always next year... Which means I'll have that much more time to plan and prepare...

In the meantime, the "Enchanted Folk Book of Faeries" project to raise funds for the Fairy Box Charity I proposed in my last blogpost is still viable -- several people have made 'kinda-sorta' promises to participate, and I'm hoping to have a conversation with Be sometime this week or next to help plan the workings of the project and put it into full gear.

To reiterate the basic outline of the project: As many members of Enchanted Folk as wish to participate go to the website http://www.emmadavies.net/fairy/default.aspx where the Fairy Name Generator is located, insert your information, and generate a name a d description of your personal Fairy. Then, in whatever medium you choose -- doll, sculpture, painting, prose or poetry -- create that fairy. Then either send a photograph or other copy of your work, along with the original information recieved from the Fairy Name generator and your own information (One paragraph bio?) to me to be included in a coffee-table book. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to The Fairy Box Charity, all contributors keep all rights to thier original work and can sell prints, copies, whatever.