The Mist and the Flame

Here’s a game you can play with friends, in a classroom, or even just by yourself if you need some creative inspiration. Write this phrase:

Romeo and Juliet, but…

And then finish it as a sentence. Romeo and Juliet, but … they’re robots. Romeo and Juliet, but … they are members of rival gangs in New York City. Romeo and Juliet, but … told from side characters’ points of view, and there’s magic.

That last one is how I came up with The Mist and the Flame.

People who go into Shakespeare’s original play thinking that Romeo was Juliet’s first love and vice versa are perhaps shocked to discover that this is only half true. Romeo was in love with someone else first: Rosaline! But who was Rosaline? She’s one of the main characters in The Mist and the Flame – and she’s learning magic.

OK, but who is … Susan? Telling you that would be a spoiler. You’ll need to read the book to find out.

Paperback, ebook, and audiobook available here:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Apple Books

Kobo

Praise

"St. Helen offers an enchanted tale that reimagines more than one of William Shakespeare’s plays ... A spirited and inventive concept."

— Kirkus Reviews

“I enjoyed The Mist and the Flame very much—Lumi and Freddi are amazing characters. This is a wonderful story to boost girls’ confidence in making their own decisions.”

— Cynthia Boatright Raleigh, author of Summoning the Winds: The Lanthorne Ordinary Witches

“A fresh and charming reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story, The Mist and the Flame joins a 21st Century sensibility with fidelity to the spirit of Shakespeare’s world. I love the way the magic in the novel grows organically from that world.”

— Mary Maddox, author of the Daemon World series

"This book is too smart for boys."

— Kaitlyn Armstrong, Ambassador for the New Bardiverse

"This is RAD! ... Beautiful and fun, this is joyous fantasy."

— Law Welle, Actor, Station Theatre

Welcome to the New Bardiverse

You may not realize it, but you’ve already visited the New Bardiverse. You’ve probably been here many times, in fact. Now you can call it by name.

Every song, every story, every movie, musical, or work of art that takes inspiration from a Shakespeare play – all of that forms the New Bardiverse. In other words, if someone sings, “It’s a love story,” and you chime in, “Baby, just sayyyyyy yes!” – you’re there.

You may wonder why this realm exists. Why keep 400-year-old drama alive only to completely change it? And should we even be giving Shakespeare this kind of attention? You can find racism, sexism, ableism, toxic masculinity, and all kinds of bad behavior throughout his works.

But we can also find humanity here – its passion, desires, and complexities, its rage and its tenderness. We can see where we have been and how far we’ve come. We can connect to the past even while telling the unique stories of our present and creating progress for the future.

Most of all, Shakespeare is about community. We need that, now more than ever.

Come join The Bardiverse and meet The Mist and the Flame!

The New Bardiverse Community – and you!

Here are some ways you can participate in the New Bardiverse community:

Start a book club. Begin with The Mist and the Flame, and then continue with any Shakespeare-inspired novel that strikes your fancy. There are so many of them! Feel free to send titles to me using the contact form below.
Have a flash-karaoke session of Bardiversian songs based on the original R&J or other Shakespeare plays. Send your favorites to me using the contact form and we’ll create the ultimate Bardiverse playlist.
See a movie version of R&J, either the original play or an adaptation. Even better, see two versions. Compare the Zef R&J with the Baz version, the older West Side Story with the more recent one. Which do you like better, and why?
See a theater production of an original Shakespeare play or an adaptation. Even better: be part of such a production yourself! Comment below with past and upcoming performances.
You can play this game with any of Shakespeare’s works (“Macbeth, but … Lady Macbeth lives and becomes queen.” “Hamlet, but … Ophelia dumps him and becomes a private investigator.” “Midsummer Night’s Dream, but … Titania gets revenge on Oberon”) – or any work of literature you choose. What was your favorite – or least favorite – book in high school English classes? Now consider it in a new light of your own choosing – from a different point of view, in a different era, with a different ending. And dragons. In outer space.

Go ahead: start exploring and creating, and be a part of the New Bardiverse.

Be an Ambassador for The New Bardiverse and The Mist and the Flame!

Are you, a friend, or a family member age 12-18 and enthusiastic about things Shakespeare-adapted and Shakespeare-updated? If so, you are already a citizen of The New Bardiverse, and you can become an ambassador for The Mist and the Flame. Our very first ambassador has a blurb featured on this website! Fill out the contact form below and get ready to spread some Bardiversian joy (as well as get some nice merch).

Events

The official launch party for The Mist and the Flame occurred on October 1 at The Literary Book Bar in Champaign, Illinois. Guests competed in a Bardiversian trivia contest, with Team Strange just barely defeating Team Demonic and Team Magical. Check back here for future Bardiverse trivia contest events.

Coral-Li St. Helen and Cantraip Press were at GalaxyCon in St. Louis on October 10–12 to meet with New Bardiversians!

Bob and Louise Belcher of Bob’s Burgers paid a visit and purchased their own copy of The Mist and the Flame.

Check back here for similar events in the future.

Coral-Li St. Helen visited Binghamton University in New York on October 23, for a reading and workshop with graduate creative writing students.

On October 31, she met with students at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois, to get them motivated to take on NaNoWriMo. If you are an educator and would like the author to meet with your students for a reading or workshop, fill out the contact form below and we can schedule a time and day.

Coral-Li St. Helen received an Illinois Arts Council grant to make The Mist and the Flame into an audiobook, now available for purchase.

Be sure to ask your local library to purchase this audiobook (ISBN 978-1-942737-39-7) so that it can be enjoyed far and wide.

On June 16, Coral-Li St. Helen was the guest speaker at Eastern Illinois University’s Summer English Studies Camp, where she premiered the audiobook version of The Mist and the Flame and discussed the craft of creative writing.

Photo by: Aldo Manfroi

About the Author

Coral-Li St. Helen is the pen name for a writer who lived all over the United States before settling down somewhere roughly in the middle. She loves reading and writing, hiking and napping, coffee, noodles, her spouse and her dog. She is not Artificial Intelligence – she likes to think she has genuine intelligence at least some of the time. The pen name is in honor of her late mother.