I'm Rewriting The 'Three Little Pigs' like an 18th Century economic textbook. Struggling for ideas, or literary gold?

May 24, 2025 4:47 am

Hello again!

How have you been? What have you been reading lately?

I'm still working on my notes for Book 3 of the Elixir of Power trilogy (title TBD), and some of the ideas and possibilities are pretty exciting! I'm not short on ideas—it's more a case of trying to somehow choose the best ideas and leave the rest behind. I can't include every single thing I hope to be able to include, and I don't want to do that annoying thing of making the series longer and longer to fit my ideas in, so it's going to require a bit of discipline on my part.

I am researching different historical figures from the time period, which is extremely helpful in both generating ideas, but also making sure the general story can stay within reasonable limits of 'realism.' (To the extent you can have realism in a story with elves, magic, potions, and giant tortoises.) Those who've read their history might recognize a few familiar moments, but with a quirky little twist!

Other than that I've been continuing to warm up my writing muscles with some parables, short stories, and essays. In particular I'm working on a satirical re-imagining of The Three Little Pigs with the working title 'The Political Economy of the Three Little Pigs.' It's stuff like:

'The pig who built with straw went on to invent a steam-powered baler, and this would transform the export economy for decades to come. The military of the Big Bad Wolf immediately began research into incendiary weapons. If he couldn't blow their houses down, he might well manage to blow them up.'

Did anyone ask for that? Is there a market for that kind of thing? No! I don't think so, at least. But it's nice to stretch the creative muscles and get the juices flowing precisely because I don't have to think about whether people will like it.

Until I have something more solid to report or share, I'll leave you with the links to some books. Some are free, some are discounted, all are (potentially) your next favourite. So browse and peruse the links below from myself and authors like me and see what you think!