With us today we have Janette Rallison, author of My Fair Godmother and My Unfair Godmother, among many others. She has five children who keep her well supplied with plot ideas, sometimes even making cameo appearances in her novels. She likes to write romantic comedy because there is enough angst in real life, but theres a drastic shortage on both humor and romance.
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~In the Fair Godmother books, bumbling “fair” godmother Chrysanthemum (Chrissy) inevitably seems to send her charges off into the past, into fairy tale settings (Savannah gets sent to the Middle Ages as Cinderella and Snow White; Tansy finds herself dealing with Robin Hood and Rumpelstiltskin): are there plans for this to be a long-running series, tackling many different stories?
Series are always tentative things. They depend on how well the books do, but yes, there is at least one more Chrissy misadventure in the works. I mean, she’s got to get into fairy godmother school sometime. What I need to figure out is whether there will be just one more book, or a few more.
~Follow up: where did the idea for the series (and Chrissy) come from?
Authors get asked to write a lot of things for friends and family members. I’ve done my share of school talent show skits, camp skits, etc. My Fair Godmother started out as a half an hour skit for my daughter’s church group. In fact, my daughter was the original Chrysanthemum Everstar. I had imagined the fairy as a no-nonsense, cynical, over-worked person. (Think Florence the sassy maid on the Jeffersons) But my daughter played the part as a dingy shopping diva, and Chrissy has been that way ever since.
~Why fairy tales? What is it that calls to you, personally, as a writer, and why do you think readers connect to them the way they do?
Writing about fairy tales is great for a lot of reasons. We’ve all heard them, so we have a common frame of reference, but also, many of us wanted to be those fairy tale heroines. When I was little and people asked me what I was going to be when I grew up, I told them I wanted to be a princess. Alas, the whole royalty thing didn’t work out, but perhaps that’s for the best. When you think about Cinderella and Snow White, they had to do a whole lot of cleaning and cooking before they got to put on a tiara. I’ll stick with my dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, and hunky electrical engineer.
~What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?
That’s hard to choose, because I’ve written a lot of books. My Unfair Godmother is number 17, I have a dragon book that’s coming out this fall, and I have two other books I’m working on right now. The Snow White scene in My Fair Godmother is one of my favorites though. I actually laughed out loud when I wrote it, and that usually doesn’t happen. The trailer scene from Just One Wish is also a favorite. Not only do Steve and Annika square off in a very creative way, but I also get to insult writers in the process.
~Can you tell us about anything you’re working on now?
I have a dragon slayer book coming out in the fall, I’m polishing up a time travel/dystopia book, and I have about fifty pages left to write on a paranormal romance. The climax takes place in Egypt and so I had finally convinced my husband that we needed to go to Egypt for research. Yeah, I guess with all the political strife over there right now, that’s one trip we won’t be making.
Quickfire, Silly and Random stuff:
~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
Did they have pizza in fairy tales? (maybe only the Italian ones...) I’ll go with strawberries. I love them.
~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:
Strawberry was teased mercilessly as a child. “What sort of stupid name is Strawberry?” The other village children asked.
Strawberry ran off to find a tower to hide in. After all, it had worked out pretty well for Rapunzel.
~Best fairy tale villain and why?
The evil queen from Snow White. She had power, riches, and fame—yet all she cared about was beauty. That’s devotion to an ideal. The cosmetic industry would have loved this woman.
~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites?
Cinderella has always been my favorite fairy tale. Rags to riches, handsome prince, a ball where you get to wear poofy evening gowns—what’s not to love about that?
Rumpelstiltskin is probably my least favorite fairy tale. What sort of woman trades her firstborn child for a roomful of gold? What sort of King threatens to kill a woman twice if she can’t spin straw into gold and then says, “Hey, I’ll marry you if you can do it a third time”? Is that a match that is going to live happily ever after? I think not.
And why in the world does Rumpelstiltskin ask the queen to guess his name, and then stand around a campfire singing it out loud? Would that ever really happen?
I guess that’s one of the reasons I used Rumpelstiltskin in My Unfair Godmother. It was a challenge to make the fairy tale make sense. I think I did a fair job. (Pun intended)
~If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be?
I’d choose to be Beauty from Beauty and the Beast. She had cute little magical servants to do the hard work, and all she had to do was fall in love with a hairy guy.
~Would you rather:
- — live under a bridge with a troll, or all alone in a high tower?
A high tower—they have a better view. Besides, it’s hard to write with trolls around.
- — ride everywhere in a pumpkin carriage (messy) or walk everywhere in glass shoes (uncomfortable)?
I can’t walk in high heels, let alone glass heels, so I’ll have to go for the pumpkin.
- — be forced to spin straw into gold for hours on end, or dance every night until your shoes are worn through?
Dance, definitely. That’s my definition of a good night.
Thanks so much for stopping by and being a part of Fairy Tale Fortnight, Janette!
***GIVEAWAY***
Janette has offered a Prize Pack for 1 lucky winner, consisting of a signed ARC of her latest book, My Unfair Godmother, as well as a signed copy of How To Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend, which starts with the FTF-appropriate line "I bet you Cinderella didn't get along with Prince Charming's friends... ";)
To enter: leave a comment with some love for Janette, and let us know why you want to read these books.
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Ends May 5th! May 8th!