#thenutcracker

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I launched my podcast, Finding Faith in Fandoms!

This has been a passion project for me, bringing together my greatest loves: God, my friends, and stories. I’m so grateful to everyone who has supported and contributed to the podcast!

In just this first year, we were able to cover many of my favorite stories—some I grew up with, and some I only discovered in the past few years. Thanks to the flexibility and enthusiastic collaboration of my guests, we were able to release one episode per calendar month. I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep up that pace, but I do know this is only the beginning! I look forward to continuing this journey together!

My Childhood Barbies pt 3

— A Nutcracker Retelling

Genre: Fairytale retelling, adult fiction, speculative fiction.

Setting: Wintery, early 19th century Germany, Russia & other culturally-inspired fantasy settings with a touch of steampunk.

Summary: Clara Stahlbaum is forced to prematurely shelf her ballet career after a severe injury. Feeling lost and alone, the former ballerina leaves the comfort of her home in the countryside to visit the city and help her godfather run his toy shop while she recovers from her mental strife. After encountering a peculiar stranger with wooden hands who speaks of a fairy that can undo all injuries and ailments, Clara is pulled into a plot of curses, tragedy and lost personhood.

Themes: Identity & self worth, loss of humanity, defying fate, vengeance and repressed emotions, hints of unhinged womanhood if you squint.

Introduction & Context

Matryoshka Doll & Wooden Soldiers is a retelling and slight reconstruction of the beloved story The Nutcracker & the Mouse King, taking partial inspiration from the ballet, but is otherwise mostly based on Hoffmann’s original 1816 novel! I’ve been deeply infatuated with this story ever since I watched the animated movie by GoodTimes Entertainment (please tell me someone else watched this as a kid) and the Barbie version when I was little. I’ve since read the original book and been wanting to reconstruct the story into something new! Everything in this post is very much a WIP and subject to change as I develop the story, as it’s still in its first draft!

Inspirations & Vibes

Tchaikovsky’s music and the ballet (naturally), powdered snow, sweet Turkish delight, hot steam from the locomotive swirling in the crisp winter air, scent of gingerbread and mulled wine with cinnamon, winter wonderlands and peppermint candy canes, pastel baroque & rococo aesthetics, white marble with specks of blood, loss of humanity and sense of self, tragic romance, whimsical inventions, old fashioned toy shops filled with wonder, out of tune music box and other antique trinkets, freshly baked Berliner buns, the gritty and dark hiding beneath the prim and proper, prickling fingers on thorns while picking berries.

Main Characters

Clara Stahlbaum (23) she/her

Burnt out gifted kid filled with longing and passions she can no longer pursue, a romantic posing as a cynic to protect her feelings, loves messing with little trinkets and antiques and is kinda a nerd.

Hans Peter (25) he/him

Stoic, intellectualises his feelings, detached yet slightly vain, charming until you realise he’s not aloof for allure’s sake he’s just kinda socially awkward, but hey maybe that’s charming to some.

Godfather Drosselmeyer (52) he/him

Eccentric, mischievous, a bit sketchy but people brush him off as just a quirky old man, secretive, knows a lot and yet literally no one in the city knows anything about him he just showed up one day.

I might make a deep dive post about these characters to go into their psychology and development if that’s something people would be interested in! Deconstructing a character’s psyche is one of my favourite aspects of writing and I’d love to be able to share it. Also I know this seems very heteronormative as a story but I promise there are queer themes brewing beneath the surface here I would die otherwise.

✦ If you’d like to be added to a tag list for future writing updates/excerpts, please let me know! 

Story Tag; #md&ws

🎄Silvisper - The Nutcracker🩰