A Beard Tangled in Dreams: The True Story of Rip Van Winkle($9.99Value)

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"Intriguing reimagining of the 1819 classic that explores the landscape of dreams" ~ Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize Mystery, adventure, and romance converge upon a path of twilight in this first-ever retelling of the oldest published fairytale in American history, Rip Van Winkle . The original Rip Van Winkle was a modest sixty-four pages. Quite short for a tale spanning twenty years. Why so short? None of those pages accounted for all the years that languorous legend spent asleep. There has never been a single published word of what Rip dreamt all those years, until now. Those wildest of dreams follow Rip from the furthest reaches of his mysterious past, through every enchanted forest of folklore, to a wedding without end in the future. This wonderfully strange sailing over the Sea of Dreams reveals not only the truth behind Rip Van Winkle and his notorious slumber, but the real meaning in dreams for us all. From author of the highly acclaimed  Fairytale Chicago of Francesca Finnegan  comes another thought-provoking and unconventional fantasy, sure to help readers of all ages rediscover their own inner dreamer. Wiley's intriguing reimagining of Washington Irving's classic tale gambols around Dreamland. Wiley is free to add in new elements to such a dreamscape: characters as various as Anubis, William Blake, and Morgan Le Fay, which makes for an entertaining read. As Rip sleeps, he disrupts the creatures of Dreamland, most notably the faun lighthouse keeper Deacon, who must find Rip before he destroys the fabric of dreams. Deacon is the most likable character in the story; his perseverance on this quest to find Rip will resonate with readers. Wiley brings in several disparate ideas and threads them together to create a wholly original, inventive tale . ~ Publishers Weekly Booklife Prize Novel excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Every lighthouse differs in appearance, but only one differs in purpose. It sits within the Sea of Dreams, a stone's throw away from Wakefulness, but not so far from Oblivion as one might guess. It stands closer to Yesterday than Tomorrow, because there is always more of Yesterday than Tomorrow in dreams. Far more. All have seen its beacon, illuminating those flickers of consciousness in the remnants of night, casting a light on all those puzzling visions and events, impossible to fully understand or recall. The beacon itself is a navigational aid, though not in the normal, nautical sense. The ordinary lighthouse beacon serves as a navigational aid for ships at sea. This lighthouse serves not maritime pilots, but dreamtime ones. Its function is to protect, guide, and in some cases rescue all those lost dreamers. The beacon marks hazards of the dream seas, subconscious shoals, nightmarish tidal surges, and more. The lighthouse offers safe harbor in the dead of night.   The principal lighthouse keeper was a dream. Not that he was dreamed by anyone in particular. Or that he was much of a dreamer himself. He was one of those who resides in dreams, like so many other sentient beings happened upon in the deepest of sleep, most mistaken for concoctions of the psyche, or imagination. Being a dream, the lighthouse keeper was nameless. You see, dream-folk are not ordinary people, bound by the cycle of birth and death. They are the symbols and manifestations of the collective unconscious. They are the wise old man before he was Gandalf the Grey. They are The Hero with a Thousand Faces. They are every villain that same hero overcame. They are the everlasting ideas we transform into all those mythologies which give sense to the world.   That said, it would not do to tell this tale without a name for this particular dream. He is far too important a character to remain a nameless archetype. We will call him Deacon, because that is an authentic name, and this lighthouse keeper was authentic as you would guess any lighthouse keeper to be. Deacon also happens to rhyme with that foremost instrument of his occupation — beacon.