Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for fairy tale] 

Today's Fairy Tale Fortnight interview totally makes my day. Because it is with the author of my number one most anticipated release of 2012 and will be followed by a review of the book! I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am that Alethea, author of the soon to be released Enchanted agreed to be part of Fairy Tale Fortnight! So check out her awesome interview and then enter the giveaway of WIN that she is donating!

What do you make of the resurgence in popularity for fairy tales? (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsmen, all within a very short time)? Do you see it as a trend that will sort of peter out, or is it just getting started?

J. R. R. Tolkien once said (and fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes agrees) that fairy tales were 100% guaranteed moneymakers. In these times of extreme economic crisis, doesn't it make sense to bet on a Sure Thing? Even Mama wouldn't disagree with that.

I believe this is a trend that started once upon a time in sixteenth-century Italy. We're definitely on the crest of a fairy tale tidal wave right now. I hope that wave continues for a very, very long time... or until we all live happily ever after. Whichever comes first.

What impact do you think fairy tales have on society (especially with the same tales popping up in various forms in every society)?

Over the years, fairy tales as a whole have been both teaching tools and "urban" legends at the same time. They are typically pro-cleverness, anti-laziness, and sometimes even end more realistically than happily. I think the more unadulterated fairy tales that children are read as part of their growing-up process, the more traditional values they will have, and the better off our society would be.

But we live in a world now where children are protected from such terribly, bloody things. Fairy tales are neutered and spoon-fed by Disney, and our children are reading Facebook news links before bedtime. Because THAT seems like the best way to mold our future society. *rolls eyes*

Book in a Tweet: Your fairy tale in 140 characters or less?

Every beloved fairy tale originated with the Woodcutter family. Enchanted is Sunday Woodcutter's story.

Favorite fairy tales: "The Goose Girl" and "Snow White & Rose Red."

Most underrated fairy tale? Every one that hasn't been made into a Disney film: "The Foundling," "Master Maid," "The Seven Swans," "The Little Match Girl," "Tom Thumb"...

Most overrated fairy tale? "Snow White." Every retelling of this tale concentrates so much on the evilness of the queen and not really Snow White herself. (The jury's still out on OUaT, but it's decidedly Regina-centric.) At the end of the Grimm tale, Snow White invites the queen to her wedding and makes her dance in red-hot iron shoes. Doesn't exactly fit the Lily White Mary Sue Princess she's always portrayed as, does it?

Last year we asked everyone’s fairy tale hero/heroine name; this year, we want to know your fairy tale villain name:

According to the online Fairy Tale Name Generator, I am EVIL STEPMOTHER. Ha! Is that even possible?

Using that name, give us a line from your villainous fairy tale:

"Once Upon a Time, a fairy godmother married a widowed prince with two lovely daughters. While the sun shone she was loving and kind, but when the sun set, she locked herself in the tower room and became THE EVIL STEPMOTHER."

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would they be?
1. That the Enchanted series continue on long enough for me to tell the stories of all seven Woodcutter sisters
2. That we all be doomed to a happy life
3. The genie's freedom (I am no fairy tale dummy!)

Best way to read fairy tales?

In bed, to a child. Fairy tales are all the more magical when told.

If one of your books was being turned into a movie and you could cast 1 character, which character would you cast and who would play them?

It's funny you should ask! I am a huge movie buff and a fan of many actors, not the least of which is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. I was writing the last half of Enchanted right about the same time they killed the character of Mr. Eko on the TV show Lost. I was furious! So furious, in fact, that I immediately resurrected him in my book... and thus, Jolicoeur was born. I would be tickled pink if someday a production company 1.) turned Enchanted into a film and 2.) cast Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Jolicoeur.
P.S.- — I kind of come off like I hate Disney in this, but I really don't. Well, okay..I sort of don't.
PPS — I didn't really get to mention THE WONDERLAND ALPHABET — it would be cool if perhaps you could find a way to sneak it in somehow. Stories like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan are very much fairy tales to today's generation, I think.
What a fabulous interview! Seriously! LOVE! And would that I were a genie that I could grant your first wish! I would love to read more of the Woodcutter sister's stories! I absolutely loved the allusions to the various fairy tales! ____________________________________________

Alright! GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Because Alethea is MADE OF WIN she has donated an awesome gift basket full of Enchanted goodness and Fairy Tale win.

She has donated a finished, signed copy of Enchanted to one lucky winner along with other fun swag and surprise gifts.

TO ENTER: Use the Rafflecopter form below. There are extra entries available for commenting on Enchanted related posts on Ashley's blog — Basically Amazing Books, Misty's blog — The Book Rat and Bonnie's blog — A Backward's Story. The Rafflecopter widget is the same on all three blogs. You can enter through any of our blogs, but you must visit and comment on each individual post for the extra entries.

Giveaway is US only. Ends May 7th.

Visit:
Ashley's Blog Misty's Blog Bonnie's Blog

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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With us today we have the lovely Elizabeth C. Bunce, author of A Curse Dark as Gold, a fantastic retelling of Rumplestiltskin (set in the Industrial Revolution! Brilliant!) and the "Thief Errant" series, which is about Digger, a spy and thief who unwittingly finds herself at the center of a magical rebellion. The first book, StarCrossed, is out now, and the second, Liar's Moon, comes out in November!
Make sure to stick around till the end of the interview for a chance to win your own copy of StarCrossed!
Without further ado, I give you: Elizabeth C. Bunce!

~What inspired you to set the tale of Rumplestiltskin in the Industrial Revolution?
A couple of things, actually. First, I wanted to set the novel in the time and place of fairy tales—that imaginary Fairy Tale Country—and thanks to classic artwork by Dulac, Dore, and others, for me that's the 18th century. Second, it was a natural extension of the decision to set the story in an ailing textile mill, because the social and economic changes of the Industrial Revolution presented an existing set of realistic obstacles and conflict for the plot. And, to be perfectly honest, I was in love with the clothes of the era, and just couldn't imagine Uncle Wheeler dressed any other way!

~What was the research process like for the story, both on the fairy tale front and the historical front?
On the fairy tale front, I read as many traditional versions of Name of the Helper tales as I could—not just early "Rumpelstiltskins," but also pieces like England's "Tom Tit Tot" and Scotland's "Whuppity Stoorie." But my goal was always to focus on the story of the girl who bargains away her infant son, so I did stick pretty close to the "Rumpelstiltskin" framework. The rest of the research—oh, mercy! I dug into everything from everyday life in the 18th century, to traditional folk magic and ghost stories, and, of course, a huge amount of research (both book learnin' and the hands-on kind) into the woolen textile industry. I have monographs on wigmaking, esoteric economic histories of individual mill towns, even the journals of period woolworkers. For me, research uncovers not just the things you know you're looking for—but almost more importantly, the things you had no idea you needed.

~Will we ever see more stories set in Charlotte’s world?
Yes! I have one published now, a ghost story called "In for a Penny" in the Scholastic anthology Bones, edited by Lois Metzger (July 2011). And I have a few more ideas—including more retellings—up my sleeve, as well.

~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?
As a reader, I'm even a bigger fan of retellings than I am of the original tales. I am fascinated by the ways authors expand and adapt the source material while keeping the stories fresh and accessible to today's readers. There's so much potential in the fairy tales, and I find it really comes to life in a brilliant retelling. I'm particularly drawn to the fairy tale landscape—the dark woods, the impenetrable briar hedge, the castles. But as a writer, I like the challenge of re-imagining those classic settings; expanding the borders of Fairy Tale Country, as it were!

~StarCrossed seems pretty different from Curse; did you feel it was a departure for you? How does StarCrossed’s Digger compare to Curse’s Charlotte?
I like to say that Curse was written for my adult literary and fairy-tale scholar self, while StarCrossed and Liar's Moon were written for my inner 16-year-old fantasy fan. So in that way, I can't say the series is a departure, although it did feel very different to write Digger's story than Charlotte's. As characters, Digger is a complete 180 from Charlotte. Charlotte thinks over everything before she makes any move, and Digger is very much more a Shoot First, Ask Questions Later kind of girl. Oddly enough, their goals end up being the same (saving the people they care about), but their methods are a little different. I have a feeling Digger would have taken one look at Shearing and Stirwaters, said, "To hells with this," grabbed everyone, and lit out of there.

~StarCrossed is a series, so I know you’re in the middle of that, but are there any plans to tell more straightforward fairy tale retellings in the future?
Definitely! The first novel I ever wrote was a retelling, I have a collection of short retellings that's been in the works for a while, and I've just started collecting research materials for a Victorian-era fairy tale project I'm excited about.

~What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?
I don't know! What a great question. Since we're talking about Curse, let's narrow it down some. I still think that book has some great scenes (I especially love the conjuring of Jack Spinner, the introduction of Biddy Tom, the crossroads, and the denouement)... but today I'm feeling romantic, so I'm going to say Randall's gift of the watch. There's something magical about those rare moments where you can capture everything about a story in just a few lines, and I think this scene between Randall and Charlotte tells us so much about both characters.

Lightning Round!

~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
Hopefully I'd get a name! But it would probably be something like Donkeyskin or Aschenputtel. Maybe Doghair. Hundehaare. That sounds about right.

~ Using that name, give us 1 line from your life as a fairy tale:
Hard by a great prairie, in a cottage surrounded by mud in all seasons, guarded by a pack of hounds, lived a woman known as Hundehaare, whose back was permanently bent from bending over her books, her fingers gnarled and pricked from the needle. But from her muddy cottage, Hundehaare crafted things of great wonder, and her work was sought by folk from distant lands.
(Ok, that's two lines!)
[The judges confer... Two lines is acceptable, since they are such good lines.:) ]

~Best fairy tale villain and why?
Well, see, I tend to take a longer, more sympathetic view of my fairy tale villains, so it's difficult to come up with a list of inexcusable baddies. The thirteenth fairy in "Sleeping Beauty" is awfully petty, but, then, who hasn't felt wounded at being excluded from a party? And for mismatched dishes? But after giving this some deep thought, I'm going to have to go with The Pea.

~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites?
My favorite always was and will probably always be "Beauty and the Beast." The least favorite one is hard to answer; it used to be "Rumpelstiltskin," hands down—but I feel kind of bad about saying that now, since the story has actually been very good to me!

~If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be?
Although it directly contradicts another answer below, I'm going to say I'd like to accompany the soldier as he follows the dancing princesses to Faerie.

~Would you rather:
- — eat magic beans or golden eggs?
Eggs

- — live under a bridge with a troll, or all alone in a high tower?
Tower

- — be forced to spin straw into gold for hours on end, or dance every night until your shoes are worn through?
Spin. Was there ever any doubt?

Thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with us, Elizabeth! For those of you who haven't read A Curse Dark as Gold (was there ever a better title?), Misty and Ashley both highly recommend it! And if you haven't read StarCrossed, here's your chance!

Misty's review of A Curse Dark as Gold | Ashley's review of StarCrossed ***GIVEAWAY*** Thanks to the awesome people at Scholastic, we have a beautiful finished hardcover copy of StarCrossed to give away to 1 winner!
To enter, answer this question: If you were to retell a fairy tale, what would it be and where/when would you set it?
Then, fill out this form.
International
Ends May 5th May 8th!

Today, I have Michael Mullin visiting us for Fairy Tale Fortnight! Michael is a writer who has two fun fractured fairy tales! He's written 8: The Previously Untold Story of the Previously Unknown 8th Dwarf, which is exactly as the title suggests and the story of the 8th dwarf in Snow White's tale and The Plight and Plot of Princess Penny , the story of a girl who gets picked on at school and decides to hire the witch from The Frog Prince to seek revenge. How fun does that sound?!

AND Michael has been generous enough to offer an e copy of each to one lucky winner! AND since they are e-copies, that means it's INTERNATIONAL!:) Details on that at the end of the post! And now — The interview!
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What do you make of the resurgence in popularity for fairy tales? (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsmen, all within a very short time)? Do you see it as a trend that will sort of peter out, or is it just getting started?

Studio trends are about competition and money. Keeping in mind movies and TV shows are in development for years before the public sees any billboards, it’s not too surprising that similar themes reach the public around the same time. If something is well received, similar projects in development are revised and hurried.

Personally, I hope the trend lasts; it’s a great marketing tool for my eBooks. As long as the executions maintain some level of quality, people will want to read and see retellings. My irrational fear, of course, is that at the moment of my big break, someone decides fairy tale retellings are “so last year”.

What impact do you think fairy tales have on society (especially with the same tales popping up in various forms in every society)?

I think the sanitized versions (Disney and the like) have the most impact, and not much of it is positive. Those princesses are terrible role models for young girls, but that argument has been made often and far better than I ever could.

As far as cross-cultural impact, I defer to Joseph Campbell, who tells us the symbols of myth (including fairy tales) tap into what Jung called the collective unconscious. The trouble is, who’s reading or hearing the originals these days?

Book in a Tweet: Your fairy tale in 140 characters or less?

I have 2 books, so I get 2 tweets, right?

An 8th dwarf named Creepy was banished to the basement for being a misfit loner. Yet he affected the Snow White tale we thought we knew.

A teenage princess hires the witch from The Frog Prince to get revenge on a Mean Girl at school. A troll she meets thinks it’s a bad idea.

Favorite fairy tale:
I’d say The Frog Prince, the early Grimm version in which the transformation comes not from a kiss but from the princess throwing the frog at the wall in disgust. Seems odd behavior to reward, but the symbolic images throughout that story are rich. And I love the King’s no-nonsense attitude about making his daughter keep her promises.

Most underrated fairy tale?
Godfather Death. Surprises me more hasn’t been done with this one. Maybe I’ll do it myself.

Most overrated fairy tale?
Sleeping Beauty. Aside from the ultimate passive heroine, I never liked the idea of the whole kingdom going to sleep to “combat” the spell.

Last year we asked everyone’s fairy tale hero/heroine name; this year, we want to know your fairy tale villain name:
Lincoln La Rogue (Linus, maybe?)

Using that name, give us a line from your villainous fairy tale:
Having been dead for centuries, La Rogue paid no attention to the so-called “life and death” matters with which the townspeople seemed so concerned.

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would they be?
I’m assuming I can’t ask for more wishes. (Standard caveat.)

1. Sounds superficial but I’d ask for success. With it comes money and influence that I happen to know I’d use for the greater good – not just on myself.
2. Sounds corny but I’d wish happy lives for my kids.
3. Some oddball superpower, like being able to stop time.

Best way to read fairy tales? (ie location, snacks, etc)
On the living room couch, glass of red wine or scotch in hand.

If one of your books was being turned into a movie and you could cast 1 character, which character would you cast and who would play them?
I think the young woman from the 2010 remake of True Grit would make a good Princess Penny. (Yes, I had to look up her name: Hailee Steinfeld.)
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Thanks so much Michael! I'm totally loving these fairy tale interviews! (Don't tell anyone else, but the FTF interviews are always my favorite!:) )

And now — To win an electronic copy of Michael's books, you need to leave a meaningful comment on this post, something that shows me and Michael that you have read the interview, or are genuinely interested in his books!
You can also get an extra entry by Liking the facebook page for 8 and for Following Michael's Blog. Just let me know in your comment how many of the 3 you did!

AND- make sure you have filled out the main giveaway form so that we can get you your prize! (So, don't be leaving personal info in the comments! Just fill out the form!)

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Author Bio: Jocelyn Koehler grew up in the wilds of Wisconsin, but now lives in a tiny house in Philadelphia that is filled with books, tea things, and places to read, sleep, and write. She has worked as a librarian, bookseller, editor, archivist, cubicle drone, popcorn popper, and music store clerk. Her books are available through Amazon or through her publisher, Hammer & Birch. Her new book The Way through the Woods, a collection of fairy tales based in the mythical land of the Nine Kingdoms, will be available May 1.

Interview:
What do you make of the resurgence in popularity for fairy tales? (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsmen, all within a very short time)? Do you see it as a trend that will sort of peter out, or is it just getting started?

There sure have been a lot of movies and TV shows with a fairy tales theme lately. Partly, I think that cynical marketing types do work in cycles. Ten years ago it was all angels, all the time. Then vampires got big. Then zombies stumbled in (I fondly remember a time when not every classic novel had a "zombie" version). So fairy tales might be getting a "what's next?" push. However, I don't believe that fairy tale retellings will vanish next year. Whether it's books, film, or TV, people like these stories, which means that there will always be a market for them.

What impact do you think fairy tales have on society (especially with the same tales popping up in various forms in every society)?

No question... the impact is huge. The themes and messages from fairy tales are absolutely everywhere. During March Madness, the sportscasters drool whenever they get to talk about a "Cinderella" team that makes it to the "big dance." I think it's clear that almost everybody wants to live in a fairy tale of some sort, whether they recognize it or not.

Book in a Tweet: Your fairy tale in 140 characters or less?
Cindrelle defies her stepmother to attend a mysterious ball, falling in love with the prince who gives it. But who is he? Can he be trusted?

Favorite fairy tale:
Picking a single favorite is impossible, but I have to admit that Cinderella is right up there. When I started writing my retellings, the first one I completed was Ashes, Ashes, which is based on the traditional (pre-Disney) Cinderella story, complete with the three-night-long ball and the wish-granting hazel tree.

Most underrated fairy tale?
East of the Sun and West of the Moon doesn't get the attention it deserves. Where's that movie? Come on, one of the main characters is a bear.

Most overrated fairy tale?
I won't name names, but it rhymes with "schmilight."

Last year we asked everyone’s fairy tale hero/heroine name; this year, we want to know your fairy tale villain name:
My best friend once drew a picture of me and titled it Baroness von Blissblok. I'd wear all black, of course.

Using that name, give us a line from your villainous fairy tale:
The Baroness von Blissblok appeared in a cloud of swirling grey mist. "Fools! My tea was lukewarm today. I had to put it in the microwave for thirty seconds. As punishment for slightly inconveniencing me, I vow no one shall smile again!"

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would they be?
1. the total extinction of centipedes
2. world peace
3. a long and happy life with my beloved (that one's half-granted already)

Best way to read fairy tales? (i.e. location, snacks, etc)
Think of all the things you should accomplish today. Write them down on a piece of paper. Burn the paper. Then grab your book of fairy tales and a fluffy blanket, curl up on your favorite couch or chair, and start reading. If you find yourself getting hungry, enchant a dog to be your servant (ineffective on cats, trust me). Have the dog make you a cup of tea or cocoa hourly, as needed.

If one of your books was being turned into a movie and you could cast 1 character, which character would you cast and who would play them?
I'd cast Tilda Swinton as the evil stepmother in Ashes, Ashes. Nobody does cool, competent scary like her!

Giveaway: Jocelyn has been generous enough to donate five copies of her book, Ashes, Ashes, to giveaway! It's only available as an ebook, which means that this giveaway is also international! Just leave a meaningful comment on this post and tell us what you liked best about the interview, or why you want to read her book! And, make sure you've filled out the giveaway form!

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Please help us welcome back Mette Ivie Harrison! She wrote us a phenomenal guest post last week that also includes a giveaway of The Princess and the Hound. Make sure you check it out!
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Although your Princess books may not be a direct retelling of any one fairy tale fairy tale, there is a distinct fairy tale feeling to each of them, which is different from the way a traditional fantasy reads. Was this intentional, or just something that happened as you wrote?

I studied German literature in college, and I have always loved fairy tales. I wanted very much to get the feel of a fairy tale in these novels. It's part never-never land and part Germany in the Middle Ages and part my idea of the perfect romance world all combined. I think I still imagine that the world is full of people who are trying to be heroes, wherever and whenever they live.

As to intention, I wonder sometimes how much of any creative endeavor is really intentional and how much of it is simply the unconscious being let out freely. I don't outline my novels and I just have an idea of where the story might go, then let things play out on the page. My characters don't seem to be the kind who do what I tell them to do. Or maybe my unconscious just has better ideas than my conscious mind has. I think that I may be one of those people who is often thinking about how the world used to be and comparing it to the way it is now. I don't wish for that back, but I believe that people have not changed much over the centuries. Evolution just doesn't work that fast. So my characters are people in the same way that a contemporary novel's characters would be. I probably have lots of anachronisms, though I try not to write modern people back in time. I try to think how modern people would act if raised in the past and given the limited choices that existed in the past. How would they grow up? How would they think? How would they find a way to be heroic?

There were moments in each of the 3 Princess books where each of our heroines feel uncomfortable in their skin. Is this an idea you included in the books intentionally?

I don't know that I thought of it quite like that, but I suppose the teen experience is very much about figuring out how to feel comfortable in your skin. I know I felt very uncomfortable in my skin as a teen. Physically, I always felt like I was that fat kid in high school who couldn't run a mile and felt ridiculously self-conscious in a swim suit, despite the fact that I was on the swim team. Psychically, I was trying to figure out who my "group" was, who I belonged to tribally. I think I eventually found a circle of friends who remain friends of mine to this day, but it was a long road and it took the courage of refusing to be false to myself. I showed who I was and that was the only way I could find my real people.

This story of figuring out who you are is a pretty universal one, and it's not just for teens, though maybe that's the first time it happens. In fact, The Princess and the Hound wasn't originally meant to be YA. I didn't know what it was, to be honest, and at least one editor rejected it because George was simply too old and he got married at the end of the book, which some YA novels shy away from. I think I write on the seam of YA and adult, which is why a lot of adults like my books, too. And really, aren't adults constantly reinventing themselves? I think if we aren't, we are stagnant. I have been taking adult piano lessons for the last four years, trying to reimagine myself as a musician (still not working). I also discovered triathlon competitions about 7 years ago and it turns out I'm really good at them. One of the things I do every day is yoga and I spend at least a minute trying to accept myself in the skin I am in, my body as it is, with all its flaws and its power.

You have a new book coming out, Tris and Izzie (that I'm crazy excited about), a retelling of the the German story, Tristan and Isolde. Is there anything about your new book that you can share with us?

Tris and Izzie is about a teen girl who doesn't know that she has magic. She has a boyfriend Mark King who is the basketball star and she thinks she is happy. But she tries to figure out how to make a love potion for her friend Brangane who obviously is in love with a guy who doesn't notice her. But it all goes wrong. She ends up falling in love at first sight with Tristan, the guy who was supposed to be Brangane's, and then she has to figure out how to be true to herself while the world around her is changing. There's a hidden magical world and lots of danger and a past she has forgotten and well, lots of other cool stuff.

I've been thinking a lot about what I hate about romance lately, and there's a certain irony in the fact that I hate love triangles and I hate love at first sight romances and I hate it when girlfriends compete for the same guy. But those are all important parts of this story. I hope that I use those old ideas in a new way that makes this story feel very contemporary. I spent many years reading only literary novels for grad school, and I read fantasy on the weekends, on the sly. I didn't dare to even check the books out of the library for fear my professors would find out. I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the distinction between literary novels and genre novels. But I think I have finally become comfortable with the reality that I like my stories to have magic in them of some kind. It's not just that the stakes are higher. It's that I feel like there are certain experiences in life that are magical, and we don't have the right language to describe those experiences unless we turn to the supernatural. Romance is one of those experiences. It feels like it is part of another world, like we become different when we experience it.

None of your characters have the traditional 'Happily Ever After'. Although the books may end mostly happy, or hopeful, that semi-generic 'Happily Ever After' feeling is missing. I've read some of your posts and discussions about romance in stories, and I have a pretty strong hunch that this was intentional. Care to expound?

You should have read the first drafts. These are actually much happier endings than the versions I originally wrote. My editor convinced me to be slightly more optimistic. For example, at the end of The Princess and the Bear, I originally wrote that the bear gives up the ability to be human and she has to live as a bear the rest of her life. It made for a very odd wedding scene. I guess I don't much believe in HEA of the kind where they ride off into the sunset. The funny thing is, I consider myself to be a fierce feminist and yet a failry traditional wife and mom. I stayed home with the kids, but I have a PhD. So there's lots of weird combinations in my stories.

I love romance and I write romance. I am a romantic. I love romance movies. I love Jane Austen. But I think the punch of the romance is taken away if it's too easy, if that makes any sense. Real romance is about choosing to be with the person you are with, not events overtaking you and you having no other choice. That's my opinion, anyway. The best romance is when both sides are strong characters who have important things to do in their lives unrelated to the romance. I didn't give up who I was when I got married and had kids. It can be tempting to let go of yourself, but I have trained my kids that I am a writer as well as a mom. Since they were babies, there was a strict nap time rule. If they weren't sleepy, didn't matter, I got some time to myself. I think the same goes for real-life romance. It is desperately important, but it's not the only thing that's important in the world.

Although the story is very much your own, Mira, Mirror is a retelling, of sorts, of Snow White. How did you decide to tell the story of the mirror and the Queen rather than have Snow White be your main character?

Mira, Mirror began as a sort of experiment. A friend of mine said that you can't write a novel with an inanimate object as the viewpoint character. I took it as a challenge and tried to think of the most interesting inanimate object I could. The mirror in the Snow White fairy tale came to mind fairy soon, and I knew there would be magic in it. It was one of my first attempts to write YA fantasy, and when I brought it to my group, they all said that I had finally found what I should spend my life writing. They felt like it was just so unique and no one else could tell a fairy tale like that. It's not a retelling really and it's not a twisted fairy tale. I don't know quite what to call it. But in this case, I never intended for Snow White or the Queen to be main characters. It was always about the set up to the fairy tale and then the aftermath. In the original version, however, the mirror had never been human. It had a face and could talk, but it had learned everything it knew about humanity from the evil Queen. To make her more relatable, I gave her a backstory and then a quest to be human again.

Having written both a retelling and a fairy tale-esque story, which do you prefer? What are the limitations and benefits of each telling? What are your thoughts about writing for each of these very closely related genres?
One of the advantages of a retelling is that there is already a certain shape to the story, almost as if you had a first draft written for you by someone else, and you only had to fix it up as a second draft. There is less fear of the blank page, if that makes sense. The blank page is always a terrible thing to face. Where does the story go? What happens next? No one knows except you, the author. This probably tells you way too much about what my first drafts look like. They are often not a lot like what the second draft is like. Maybe I should call those first drafts "exploratory" drafts. I get to know the general world and characters, but all of the events change and often not one word remains the same. Well, maybe one or two.

Ironically, I spent about four years writing stories largely in first person, some in present tense. The Princess and the Hound was the first story I wrote where I tried to do a third person point of view. I had no idea if it was working or not, but it has been really successful. There's a certain fairy tale style in my writing that has a distance and an elevated language that is natural to me after years in grad school in German literature. It's updated, though, with a really intense psychological depth that you often get only in first person YA narratives. I am trying to combine the two. My readers will have to say if I've done it successfully.

Silly/Random

~ Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
The number seven. I am obsessed with numbers and that is my favorite one. ~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:
"Once upon a time there was a girl named Seven. She lived with her mother and father, One and Two, and her older sisters, Three, Four, Five, and Six."

~ Best fairy tale villain and why?
It's always been the stepmother from Cinderella, because she has no magic and she still has all this power. I love the idea of writing a novel someday about the stepmother who refuses to even see the magic when it's right in front of her face.

~ Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites?
I loved Hansel and Gretel as a kid. I think the idea of a gingerbread house really appealed to me. I liked to eat. A lot. I think I hate that fairy tale now because the parents are so disturbing. I like what Adam Gidwitz does to the story in A Tale Dark and Grimm.

As an adult, my idea of "fairy tale" has expanded. Right now, I'm quite taken with the idea of retelling The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. Also, An Ideal Husband as An Ideal Boyfriend. I love Oscar Wilde. In fact, whoever is my favorite author at the moment is the author I want to do a retelling of. Oh, yes, Jane Austen is on the list, too. And Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. And Goethe's Faust.

~ If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be?
I think I'd like to be Jack the Giant Killer. It's interesting how girl-centered fairy tales are always about getting married and boy-centered fairy tales are always about adventures and killing people. But maybe Jack could meet a lady giant and fall in love with her? And that find out that if they kiss, she turns evil? Wait, that's Buffy, isn't it?

~ Would you rather:
- — eat magic beans or golden eggs?
As a vegan, I suppose I'll have to pick magic beans.

--style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers?
Long hair isn't so bad. You just keep it in a braid all the time. And I hate high heels. I own a couple of pairs for weddings, but almost all my shoes are flats. I think I have a strangely unfeminine dislike of shoes.

- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming?
I guess I'll say Prince Charming, because I think every girl should be her own fairy godmother, in the end.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
What a wonderful interview! It's always great to hear the stories behind the books! It makes for truly fascinating reading! Thank you again Mette, so very much for being a part of Fairy Tale Fortnight!

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.
You can find her online here:
Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Website Stick around to find out how you can win some Awesome, courtesy of Janette!

~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!

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.
Make sure we have a way to contact you!
+1 for spreading the word
US/CAN only
Ends May 5th! May 8th!

Bonnie from A Backwards Story has graciously brought us another fantastic interview, as always combining her great questions with our fun silly ones! Today she chats with debut author Victoria Schwab! Enjoy!

1) What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
I grew up with Grimm. Well, I grew up with the toned-down versions of Grimm, and then later discovered the originals in all their morbid glory. But what's always drawn me to them, and why I decided to write one, was the FEEL. Fairy tales have this archetypal quality. They SEEM simple, but there's so much at play, and we as readers are only glimpsing a small portion. We never get full lives, only moments, only days. But those glimpses are so chock full of culture and character, and usually magic, that I was and still am captivated by them. It's as much to me about what we don't see, what's already there, as what we do see.

2) Can you tell us more about your upcoming novel, The Near Witch?
The Near Witch is a fairy tale. It's also a ghost story. And a mystery. It is a glimpse into a world where there are no strangers, where there are shadows of past magic. It's a world that's asleep until a set of events--the appearance of a stranger, the disappearance of children--begins to wake it.

3) I would love to know more about how you came up with the story of The Near Witch. What gave you the idea?
It actually all came about from two sentences thought up about six months apart. One was "There are no strangers in the town of Near" and the other was "The wind on the moors is a tricky thing." I knew immediately I wanted to put them together. My first thought was, "Where's Near?" I started to ask questions and explore the village in my head. It was very exploratory at first, organic, just getting to know the place, as told through this girl's voice. Then the mystery began to form from those two sentences.

4) How did you come up with the nursery rhymes and all the back story told in bedtime tales?
Much of it came out of that early exploration. I love, love oral history, the way stories are passed down, so I knew that this would be a part of my fairy tale world. That's how people learn, and truths can be so relative and warped when passed down that way. There is no objectivity, and that was key to this story.

5) What, if any, lore did you use as a model/starting ground when weaving together your own tale?
I didn't really have a model, but I knew the world had to be small. The only way I was going to get the level of detail and believability I needed was if the physical size was confined. Doing that made it so the reader could really (hopefully) visualize, even with less description. Then, there was the issue of the magic. I needed to create a very intuitive system for it, something that felt natural in the truest sense but still had order, rules. So these were the guiding principles of Near--small, tightly woven, natural, intuitive. I knew if I could pull off that foundation, it would help the reader stay in the world, and hopefully, after finishing, cause the world to stay with them.

6) What other ideas are you working on right now?
Right now I'm getting ready to send the draft of my next book, The Archived, off to my editor! It's currently scheduled for next fall, and it is not set in Near. It is Buffy meets The Shining meets a library: p

7) Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building? How did you bring everything together?
YES. That was single-handedly the most difficult and the most exciting part of this project. I wanted to create a world that would read like it had decades, centuries, of folklore. Everything had to be nuanced and intuitive, and believable, and I wanted it to read like a fairy tale as opposed to a fantasy, which largely came down to tone and execution. It was very messy at first, with scribbled timelines alongside scribbled nursery rhymes, but in the end I hope it feels right and real to the readers. It feels real to me.

8) What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. One of my favorite novels of ALL TIME.

9) If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Little Red Riding Hood, without a doubt. I just love the idea of the big bad wolf (and apparently readers do too, just look at trends in YA), and, in many of the early versions, Little Red is pretty fierce herself. I wrote a short story once, about how MY Little Red would go.

Time for some fun, quirky questions!

~Best fairy tale villain and why?
Villains are my favorite archetypes. I'm going to say Maleficent, for sheer epicness of name.

~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult?
Again, Little Red. I can't help it.

~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
I think I would be named after a cloud formation, or the sky, or the stars, because I'm always looking up.

~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:
Sky goes for a walk while watching clouds and accidentally stumbles off a cliff into a land of magic and evil and magically evil unicorns.

~Would you rather:
- — eat magic beans or golden eggs?
Beans. I'm not really an egg person. Something about the texture. I wonder if golden eggs have a different texture than regular ones. I wonder if they taste expensive. But now I'm also wondering if magic beans cause gas, or if I'm going to end up with some trippy hallucinations or something...

- — style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers?
I'll polish those slippers. I can't even keep my own hair styled, and it only comes to my shoulders.

- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming?
Ohhhhhh. Yeah, I am going to have to go with the fairy godmother, because she can help me get Prince Charming, and all that other stuff I probably want.

In each of our interviews this Fortnight, Misty and I have been asking the authors a series of fun and silly questions. Then, we asked you the same questions in one of our giveaway (enter! enter!)
We thought it would be a great to ask each other the same questions. So now you get to experience the inner (possibly twisted) workings of mine and Misty's minds. Misty's answers are here, and you can hear what I had to say on Misty's blog.

So Misty, as you know, I got crazy excited when you announced Fairy Tale Fortnight. So now, I'd like to know why. ~Why fairy tales?

I could go on and on with this answer. I don't think it was until I started going through things for this event that I even realized the extent of my fairy tale obsession. I mean, I knew; I've always known. In my Adv. Comp. class in college, when we had to pick something to do a huge research project on, and were told to pick something we wouldn't get sick of, when everyone else around me was choosing a topic that would impress the teacher, I chose fairy tales. I've hoarded my fairy tale books from my childhood, and read essays and research on fairy tales for fun. They hold my fascination like nothing else.

But why?

I'm going to say there are many reasons, and I couldn't begin to touch on them all. But for me, the biggest reason is that they are communal and ingrained in our pysches as a result. Fairy tales are interactive. Yes, now you can read them all alone, curled up in bed. But for centuries (and beyond, if you expand "fairy tale" to include all original oral mythology), they were told in groups around campfires, or between parent and child at night before bed. They connect people, and they provide these common tropes for the rest of our lives. You say glass slippers and everyone knows: nothing more need be said. That's powerful.

Beyond that, I love the contradiction of them. They are thought of mostly as kids stories, but they can be incredibly dark. They show us people at their weakest and meekest, becoming something great. Nothing is ever what it seems, and yet you know just what it will be. I love the magic of that.

I love that your research project was on fairy tales! That's so awesome!

~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?

I haven't the foggiest. That's the thing about naming — we have no control over it. So I'm going to go with the name I almost had (in real life. Don't ask me how this was even a possibility): Blue. Forgive me... All I can think of is Little Boy Blue. (Come blow your horn...)

~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:

Blue sat tucked away as always in the tiny little garret room; she knew her wicked stepmother was looking for her, and that the longer she dallied, the worse it would be — so for now, Blue was content to stay curled up with one of her favorite books, her rat Faustus on her shoulder, both of them dreaming of a different world.

Aww. Poor little Blue. You should send the rat and his buddies into step-mother's bed at night... Teach her what it's like to be on the short end of things.: P

~Best fairy tale villain and why?

Tough one. I like the villains. (Or, I like to dislike them.) I like to try to figure out their motivations. I'd say Rumplestiltskin. He's just so bizarre and hard to understand, and that's always creepy. I always wanted to know why he wanted the baby? (???) And then, anyone who tears themselves in half when they're angry = serious cray cray. Close second would be Snow White's stepmom, who wants to cut out her heart and eat it.

I almost picked Rumpelstiltskin too! He's so creepy! But, cursing babies to die and eating the heart of young girls won out over dancing baby snatcher. (although, putting it light that, maybe not. Ugh.)

~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites?

As a child I was obsessed with The Elves and the Shoemaker and the 12 Dancing Princesses (and occasionally, Puss in Boots). I can't say why I loved the Elves so. I just wanted them, I think. And I wanted to make them tiny little clothes. The 12 Dancing Princesses is easier to say why: I had an absolutely beautiful
copy of it (still do!), and I just wanted to dress up in those gowns and see that underground world with the silver-leafed trees and the 12 princes and their boats. (And Puss in Boots had a kitty.)

As an adult, I tend to like the darker stuff. I have a fascination with Little Red Riding Hood (did as a kid too), but I really find myself drawn to the lesser known or seriously distrubing tales, like Donkeyskin or The Rose Elf (which I rewrote in poem form for a creative writing class. I think it's probably too long to repost for you guys, but it was fun. I'd love to do an actual story with it some day.)

Least favorites... I always had questions about some. Jack and the Beanstalk made me indignant. I mean, he's basically a thief. That is not his hen, and he had no business climbing that beanstalk anyway! Plus, what the hell was he doing with the magic beans? Who trades their cow, their only source of income, for beans? I always wanted to shake him.

Jack always did strike me as a bit of a skeeze.

~If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be?

I would be one of the 12 Dancing Princesses — I really want to see that underground world with the trees made of silver and gold and jewels. That was such a stunning image to me when I was a kid, so awe-inspiring, that I've been a little obsessed with it ever since. I'm not much of a dancer, though... (see answer to last question)

Misty, do you realize — if we are both among the 12 Dancing Princesses... We must be, sisters! Hello to my sister in fairy tales! Let us flee from the creepy Evil Queen together!

~Would you rather:
- — live under a bridge with a troll, or all alone in a high tower?

I bet that trolls got stories to tell...

I bet that troll really smells...

- — ride everywhere in a pumpkin carriage (messy) or walk everywhere in glass shoes (uncomfortable)?

Pumpkin carriage. Glass shoes freak me out. Unless they were the ones from Ever After, and then I'd have to reconsider.

Oooh. Ever After!

- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming?

Um... the prince, I guess. I find the godmothers a little dubious...

- — eat magic beans or golden eggs?

Eggs! I don't even want to know what eating magic beans would do to a person... O_O

I'm definitely with you on that one! And, you know how I feel about golden eggs... Makes the outside match the insides, if you know what I mean.;) (still humble...)

- — style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers?

I bet you could do some pretty awesome couture things with 50ft of hair. I wouldn't want to wear said hair, but style it?

Sure.

- — be forced to spin straw into gold for hours on end, or dance every night until your shoes are worn through?

Spinning and weaving fascinate me, and spinning straw what certainly be an interesting skill — and one hell of a party trick. Alchemy, anyone? And though I'm sure it'd be pretty mindless after awhile, I could listen to audiobooks or something while I did it. I'm not really much of a dancer (sober, anyway), so I think I'd have to go with spinning. Couldn't be much worse than most jobs, right?

Until creepy Rumpelstiltskin pops up, asking if you need help!! Uber creepy villain, remember? Are you going to offer him your first born?! Come to the enchanted ballroom with me Misty. I'll teach you to dance. (or ply you with liquor until you can't tell the difference!)

*Misty reconsiders*

I want to take a second to say thank you to Misty. I saw her post about Fairy Tale Fortnight, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it, knew I wanted to do as much with it as I could. So, when she asked me to co-host with her, I gave a very, very enthusiastic YES! I have had so much fun preparing for this event with Misty. We've had some awesome email exchanges, and some very definite Twilight Zone moments. I don't think there has ever been a time when we weren't on the same page about things, and our ideas for certain elements of the Fortnight were eerily similar.

It's been such a blast working with you Misty! You've been amazing! It's a little bit sad to see the Fortnight end, but this just means we get to start planning for next year! I can't wait!

Fairy Tale Fortnight is officially over! This is our final post, one last time to speak while you are all listening, and we wanted to take this opportunity to express our thanks. It's a bit bittersweet actually. It will be nice for us to have our days back in our control, rather than being consumed with magic and wishes, witches and trolls, but at the same time, we're sure going to miss it. It's been a huge part of these last couple months. We have had such an awesome turn out! There were so very many awesome people who expressed interest and made Fairy Tale Fortnight a part of their April.

This event has been a crazy awesome experience for me! I have had a blast spending so much time in this world of fairy tales and meeting, or getting to know better, so many awesome people! Whether it's my fairy tale soul twin (I'm looking at you, Bonnie) or my Fairy Tale Sister who seems to share my Fairy Tale brain wave length (cue Twilight Zone theme song, and enter Misty!) or bringing my Twitter friends into the Fairy Tale Fun (hello to Enna, Farah, Jayme, Lynn Marie, and Laura) But everyone who participated has made this event great! It really meant a lot that so many people were able to come together and share a love of fairy tales. I hope you all enjoyed this event as much as I did.

in my blog to fill out our survey for the event, and tell us what you thought!

And for all of you who participated, and all of you who read the posts and shared some fairy tale love, Misty and Ashley have one thing to say to you:

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you for joining us, for reading the posts, for writing your own posts, tweeting and spreading the word, putting our button on your sites, talking about it with your friends. Thanks to the authors who took time out of their busy schedules to answer emails and interview questions, write up guest posts and offer giveaway prizes, and generally make these two bloggers shake and shimmy squee. (be glad you couldn't see/hear it... it wasn't pretty) You are all wonderful people, truly amazing and this event would not have been this amazing without you. Again, thank you. Thank you, thank you, and we hope to see you all again next year.

What's that you say?! Next year? Yup! Fairy Tale Fortnight will return again next year. Tell all your friends.

Here is an alphabetical list of all the wonderful participants.
For links to each participants contribution, in my blog to be taken to the schedule

Alanna (giveaway [2], guest post [2]) Alex Flinn (author interview) Ammy Belle (guest post [2]) Andrea (photo guest post) Angelique (video clip) Bonnie (guest post, sent authors to us) Carolyn Turgeon (author interview, giveaway) Cindy Pon (author interview) CSI Librarian (guest post [2]) Curlypow (guest post) Danya (guest post) Diane Zahler (author interview, giveaway) Donna Jo Napoli (author interview, giveaway, video clip) Edie (giveaway) Elie (fill-in game) Elizabeth C. Bunce (author interview, giveaway) Emily (guest post [2]) Enna Isilee (giveaway, guest post [2]) Erika (guest post, video clip) Farrah (video clip) Heather Dixon (guest post) Her Royal Orangeness (guest post) Jaclyn Dolamore (author interview, giveaway, guest post, video clip) Janette Rallison (author interview, giveaway) Jayme (guest post, video clip) Jen (video clip) Jennifer (giveaway, guest post) Jessica Day George (author interview, giveaway, guest post, video hello) JG (fill-in game, giveaway) Khadija (fill-in game) Kristen (giveaway, guest post [2]) Kristen C (giveaway, guest post) Laura (guest post) Liz (video clip) Lynn Marie (video clip) Marissa Meyer (author interview, guest post) Maureen McGowan (fill-in game) Meghan Nuttall Sayres (giveaway) Mel U (guest post [2]) Mette Ivie Harrison (author interview, giveaway, guest post) Midnyte Reader (guest post) Miss Eliza (guest post) Nancy Werlin (giveaway) NoraBell (video clip) One A Day YA (video clip) Sara (guest post, video clip) (and her daughter) Katelin (video clip) Sarah Porter (author interview) Sierra (giveaway [2], guest post [2]) Sheila D (giveaway, guest post) Susan Fletcher (giveaway) Tia Nevitt (author interview) Titania (giveaway, guest post [2]) Tricia (guest post) Velvet (giveaway) Zoë Marriot (author interview, giveaway, guest post, video clip)

Bonnie from A Backwards Story is with us again today, bringing us another fantastic interview — this time with Carolyn Turgeon!

Carolyn Turgeon is the author of three novels, Rain Village, Godmother, and Mermaid. Her next novel, The Next Full Moon, is scheduled to come out in August/September 2011. Based on Te Swan Maiden, this will be Turgeon’s debut novel for young readers. Her novels tend to be twisted versions of fairy tales you’ve never seen before, such as The Little Mermaid from the princess’ perspective in addition to the mermaid’s or a version of Cinderella where the godmother is banished from the fairy realm when something goes horribly wrong... For a review of Turgeon’s work, please visit the above links. Reviews of her other titles will come to A Backwards Story later this year. Godmother and Mermaid are also featured in a FTF guest post titled FRACTURED FAIRY TALES.

1) What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
I can recall loving all kinds of stories, such as Thumbelina and The Princess and the Pea, with all their strange and wonderful images—the tiny girl floating along in an acorn, the princess with her stack of mattresses. I think my favorite fairy tales were by Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose… but my favorite was The Selfish Giant. It’s very sad and strange and beautiful—the ghostly little boy, the lush garden, the endless snow and frost, the giant who gets struck down, covered in white blossoms… I’ve always tended to like stories that are very sad.

2) What made you decide to write alternative versions of fairytales from unique perspectives?
I didn’t really start out intending to write alternative versions of fairy tales. When I started Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, I just wanted to tell the Cinderella story straight, with lots of wonderful, lush detail and full, fleshed-out characters and all kinds of weirdness and darkness, etc. That’s what I love about fairytales, by the way—that strange combination of beauty and darkness you find in all of them. After my first book, Rain Village, which took forever to write, I wanted to do something that I thought would be a lot of fun, something that I would really love writing. I only decided to tell the story through the perspective of the fairy godmother when I realized how limited Cinderella’s perspective was—back then I only ever wrote in first person—so I figured that if the fairy godmother was narrating she could be pretty omniscient, tell you what was going on with Cinderella and the other characters. Plus, she could tell you her own story, too, which I thought might be interesting. Later, I decided to set the book in contemporary New York City and only have the godmother remembering everything that had happened in the other world. The book is set half in New York and half in the fairy tale world (in flashbacks). I only decided to do that after joining a writing workshop and seeing that the people in the workshop didn’t seem to be responding to the straight-out fairy tale I was writing. I wanted to win them over and I thought maybe I could lure them in with a present-day story set in the city, win them over that way, and then plunge them into the fairy tale.
So the book only slowly evolved into this alternative version. Once I put the fairy tale in via flashbacks, I knew something had to have gone terribly wrong. Why else would the fairy godmother be an old woman in New York?
After writing the book, though, I felt there was something really powerful in taking a story as well known as Cinderella, a story that’s in our blood and bones, and telling the “real” story from a perspective you never think or care about.

3) Can you tell us more about your upcoming book, The Next Full Moon?
The Next Full Moon is my first children’s book, a middle-grade novel about a 12-year-old girl who’s being raised alone by her father in Pennsylvania and who starts growing feathers, which is totally mortifying and confusing for her of course. She then comes to discover that her mother, whom she thought died when she was an infant, was (and is) a swan maiden. The story’s based on the old tales in which a man steals a swan maiden’s feathered robe when she’s in her human form, takes her home, marries her and has children with her. One day she discovers the robe and flies away—there are various reasons for this, depending on the version you read. I wondered: what happens when those kids she leaves behind hit puberty? In my book, the man and woman had only one child, and now here’s the kid ten years later with feathers appearing on her arms and back, having no idea that her mother is still alive and, of course, no idea that she’s a swan maiden.
I like the idea of a 12-year-old girl, full of shame and embarrassment, slowly discovering that she’s magical and amazing.

4) What other ideas are you working on right now?
Well, I’m working on a few things right now. Because of Mermaid, I started this blog, I Am a Mermaid, where I talk to all kinds of people about mermaids. I’ve realized that there’s this whole mermaid culture out there that’s really fascinating and lovely. So I’m writing my first non-fiction (but still quite fantastical!) book. And I’m working on a new novel that has to do with Weeki Wachee and a YA novel about a drowning pool, and I have this half-done thriller that I hope to finish this year…

5) Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building? How did you bring everything together?
It was challenging for me to write about magical worlds, I think, in that I was afraid of making them too Disney-ish or corny. So with Godmother, at first I was very vague when talking about the fairy world; in fact in the first draft, the flashbacks start with the godmother meeting Cinderella and we don’t really see her in her own world at all. It was only after the book sold that my editors pushed me to make the fairy world more defined and vivid, to explain the rules of that world and the landscape of it and so on. So I added in the first couple of flashback chapters that are in the book now, and they were probably the hardest chapters for me to write, even though they’re probably the lightest ones in the whole book.
With Mermaid, I mainly had to explain the rules we see in the original Hans Christian Andersen story… like why the mermaids can only visit the human world once, on their birthdays, and so on. It was more like putting together a puzzle than anything else, trying to create the worlds in that book and make them adhere to specific points from the original story.

6) Which of the books you've written is your favorite so far? What makes it the most special to you?
Hmmm. I think that would always tend to be the latest one. Right now I’m very excited about The Next Full Moon and writing for this younger age group. I found it surprisingly easy to write as a twelve-year-old, which is possibly a little worrisome, and was able to draw on my own memories and experiences more than I have for any other book. Like the characters all go to the lake in their town, where there’s an old carousel and people sell lemonade and they can all go swimming or lie out on the beach. And I was just directly describing the lake my friends and I used to go to in East Lansing, Michigan, where I lived from when I was twelve to fourteen, and I hadn’t thought about that lake in years. We moved around a lot when I was growing up, and so I’m really distanced from some of those memories and places. It was kind of nostalgic and wonderful, writing that book and slipping into those memories and this old self. Also, I have to say, I think the trauma and awkwardness of being twelve mixes really well with the fairy tale elements in the book, and I like the idea that something magical is happening to you as you hit puberty and you just have to figure that out.

7) What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
I love Angela Carter and her weird, gorgeous visions. I love Alice Hoffman, Francesca Lia Block, Joanne Harris, Isabel Allende, Jeanette Winterson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino... They’re not all fairy tale writers and I don’t know to what extent they’ve all been inspired by fairy tales, but they all write in that vein I think, lush and magical. I really enjoyed Erzebet Yellowboy’s Sleeping Helena. And I also, by the way, really loved the way the Pied Piper story is used in the movie The Sweet Hereafter. It’s pretty brilliant.

8) If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Oh, I think maybe Thumbelina. I mean, who wouldn’t want to ride around in an acorn? For the most part, I think fairy tales are not the stories I would like to live out. Though I wouldn’t mind being the little mermaid for a day, before she goes and sees the sea witch and ruins her life…

9) What's your favorite Disney rendition of a fairy tale? What makes it so special?
I’m going to have to defer to my childhood self, who loved all those movies quite passionately. As an adult, I could barely even get through The Little Mermaid, which I was totally swept away by as a teenager. Probably my favorite, though, is Snow White. The old versions of that tale are really very shockingly weird and violent, and even the Disney version is incredibly creepy, with our semi-dead heroine lying gorgeously in a glass coffin in the forest and our hot prince having a thing for dead chicks.

FUN AND CRAZY ROUND!

~Best fairy tale villain and why?
Oh, the stepmother from Snow White. She’s a gorgeous witch with a magic mirror who has her stepdaughter murdered in the forest and then eats her heart (or lungs or what have you). Even though she’s betrayed by her huntsman and actually eats a stag’s heart, she believes she’s eating Snow White’s. It’s hard to think of a more perverse female villain! And I love the image of her skulking through the forest with her cloak and her basket full of poisoned apples.

~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
Oh, I love Rapunzel and the lettuce that is so delicious and addictive that Rapunzel’s mother craves it above all else and even makes her husband climb into a witch’s garden to get more for her. I mean, who pines for lettuce? Now I totally want some lettuce, now that I’m thinking about it...
I’d like to be something equally un-chocolate-y, if you know what I mean, some other pedestrian, unsexy vegetable with hidden powers of seduction. Like a rutabaga or a turnip. Turnip is kind of a cute word, not too far off from the delightful “tulip.” I’d like some fairytale character to be sitting in a room wasting away from a mad desire for turnips.

~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale:
She stared out the window at the impossibly lush turnips growing outside just beyond reach, their leaves shooting into the air like hands, their bodies dense and purple, as round as breasts. Her mouth watered as she watched the turnip leaves undulating in the breeze. As if they were bellydancing, she thought.

Meanwhile, Turnip was enjoying a large slice of chocolate cake at Jean Georges.

~Would you rather:

- — eat magic beans or golden eggs? Golden eggs. Don’t those sound delectable? A magic bean is just wrong.

- — style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers? I think polishing the glass slippers would be much more manageable. And I love things made out of glass, especially slippers and dresses. Are you aware of Karen LaMonte’s glass dresses? Look:

- — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming? Oh, a fairy godmother. Who wouldn’t want an endless supply of dresses and carriages? And let’s face it: Prince Charming isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.
Come to think of it, though… if we’re talking about the fairy godmother from my own book, then I’d really have to go for the hot prince, or even one of the coachman or mice. Anyone but the godmother, please!

-----------------------------------------
Okay, okay, here’s the part you’re all waiting for: The giveaway! Carolyn has generously agreed to give away three—yes, THREE—autographed copies of Mermaid as well as some fun mermaid tattoos! You know you want to win this contest and read this fantastic book.

To enter,. In addition, please leave a comment answering this question: What would you do if you could be a mermaid for a day? Also, what would you be willing to sacrifice in order to become a mermaid?

Entries must be received by MAY 5th. May 8th This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL!
Good luck and I can’t wait to see your responses!

PS from Misty: I love this picture! ----->

I am so excited that my first official Fairy Tale Fortnight post is with returning author Jaclyn Dolamore! She was a part of FTF last year (go check it out, yes?!) and she pretty much rocks. She's has written Magic Under Glass, the (very) recently released Magic Under Stone and Between the Sea and Sky (all links to Goodreads). Misty has some totally rocking stuff on her blog today from the lovely Jaclyn (awesome guest post, review, and a giveaway) so make sure you check out Misty's blog today too! But first, here's the interview!

What do you make of the resurgence in popularity for fairy tales? (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsmen) all within a very short time? Do you see it as a trend that will sort of peter out, or is it just getting started?

It seems to be one of those "collective unconscious" things that suddenly everyone started planning fairy tale entertainment at once. I don't have a crystal ball to know if it has legs, but I do think it's AWESOME and I won't complain if fairy tales are kind of "the next big thing." I think fairy tales tend to be hopeful, and I've never really taken to the dystopian trend because it gives you such a big swallow of strife with a tiny dose of hope, whereas fairy tales are my cup of tea, from the sweet Disney-ish kind to the dark, sexy kind. I love them served up any old way. (I don't know why I'm into this "eating stories" metaphor right now...)

Both of the Magic Under books and Between the Sea and Sky are very fairy tale-esque in the style and approach to the story, and in the stories themselves; any plans to ever “officially” tackle a fairy tale retelling?

I actually had this idea for a fairy tale/real world mashup like Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Fables, etc, but set in the early 1970s. I wrote the first chapter, but I don't have time to go any farther with it right now, so I probably shouldn't give any more details...

You’re known for doing little character sketches in your books — would you ever consider turning one into a graphic novel, or writing/illustrating a book or graphic novel?

I don't see that on the horizon, because graphic novels are just a crazy amount of work... like, in the time it would take me to draw a 22 page comic, I could write a quarter of a novel and you'd get way more story in the novel than in the comic. I think, for someone who is more a storyteller than an artist at heart, it's a painfully slow way to tell a story. I don't take enough pleasure in rendering the visual world to stick it out. The only way I think it would happen is if I just felt like I'd told enough stories in novel format and I wanted to stretch myself.

Magic Under Glass and Magic Under Stone are directly related, with Between the Sea and Sky being a companion novel, set in the same world — do you intend to continue setting your books in this world ala Discworld (every book set in the world, but independent) or do you have plans to tackle something new?

Alas, alas! Money dictates art more than I'd like sometimes... I do have more stories I could tell in that world, but I'm looking forward to my new series with Hyperion. I might self-publish some little novellas or something someday, if I have the time. I often think about what the characters are doing after the end.

I do have a story world I've been writing about since I was a kid. When I was a kid all the authors I liked best basically had this one "world" I knew them for, like Piers Anthony's Xanth, the Pini's World of Two Moons, Discworld is another good example... basically I had this idea that that was what fantasy authors DID. They came up with a world and wrote stories about it for their entire lives. It was practically their identity, in my mind, and the places were real. I'm sure a lot of people feel that way about Hogwarts too (I was a little old to get lost so deeply in it, but Hogwarts is definitely the kind of place that makes you believe it exists). So, whatever I might be paid to do at any given time, I still always write stories in this world. It is practically real to me. I am both excited and terrified for the day those books can go out into the world.

When you’re not putting your new house to rights (congrats on the move!), what are you working on?

The sequel to my 2013 novel, Dark Metropolis (which is supposed to get a title change), a dark fantasy inspired by 1920s Berlin and the silent film Metropolis. The sequel was inspired a bit by some stuff I was reading about magic in Russia, among other things. It was a struggle to get an idea for a sequel at first, because I'd only thought of it as a variation of Metropolis, which has no sequel and doesn't really suggest one either... And when I need a break I'm working on a middle-grade about witches and their familiars in a magical version of St. Augustine, Florida. (It isn't really much of a stretch to imagine magic in St. Augustine, Florida, anyway. Creepiest place I've ever been.)

What impact do you think fairy tales have on society (especially with the same tales popping up in various forms in every society)?

Fairy tales tend to have patterns: people who want things, people who take on great struggles to get the things they want, true love, scary things in the forest... It's easy to see why these stories resonate with people all throughout time and around the world. They speak to our desires and our fears. For most of human history they would have been spoken aloud, around cook fires, to children in their beds, as cautionary tales... I love imagining these tales traveling around the globe from voice to voice, from year to year, changing with distance and time. I love writing, no doubt about that, but sometimes I envy the storytellers of the past their ability to speak right to their audience and enjoy their reactions. Nowadays, though, we still share these stories and we still twist them in our own way, and I suspect this will always be true.

QUICKFIRE:
Favorite fairy tale:
The Seven Swans.

Most underrated fairy tale?
The Seven Swans? It's one of those stories that most people kind of know, but it never gets put in with the major canon.

Most overrated fairy tale?
Hmm. Hard to think of an overrated one because they can all be told well. Like, a year ago I might've told you I never liked Rumplestiltskin, but in Once Upon a Time he's my favorite character. Sure, it's kind of a mash-up of a few tales on the show, really, but I still think it's proven to me that it's all about execution.

Last year we asked everyone’s fairy tale hero/heroine name; this year, we want to know your fairy tale villain name:
I don't know if Disney names count, but I feel like you can't beat the way Maleficent rolls off the tongue.

Using that name, give us a line from your villainous fairy tale:
I must be desperate to ask this old crone for a favor, Maleficent thought, gathering more firmly about her neck the furs she'd had made for the journey north, and sniffing a bit at the very idea of a house held up by chicken legs.
(I think Baba Yaga is a great villainess too, so I can't help but imagine them teaming up.)

If a genie granted you 3 wishes, what would they be?
Seriously? Genie wishes tend to go awry a little too often. I'm not sure I want to mess with it! But I'll imagine I have a relatively kind genie like Ifra in Magic Under Stone... and if I truly had three wishes I'd probably think about them a lot longer, buuut...
1. I wish that I am always able to make a comfortable with writing and that the stories I love to write would also be the most financially sound.
2. I wish I enjoyed flying on airplanes, even through turbulence!
3. I wish to free the genie, because, I feel that's what you're supposed to do at the end. =)

Best way to read fairy tales? (ie location, snacks, etc)
In the woods, on a crisp cool night, around a bonfire, read aloud. At least, that sounds really romantic. In practice, it would be more likely to be curled up in bed with a cat and a chocolate bar.

If one of your books was being turned into a movie and you could cast 1 character, which character would you cast and who would play them?
I actually finished all the questions several days ago, except this one. I feel like I should be able to cast at least one person! But I can't seem to think of anyone. I really just want my books to be turned into anime. If it was a movie, I'd probably be mostly like, "yay, money, pomp, circumstance" but if it was an anime I would GO CRAZY WITH EXCITEMENT. (Or a good American animation as well, like Avatar: The Last Airbender.) I tend to see my characters that way anyway, and I usually prefer TV series to movies. Although my favorite movie is Marie Antoinette and I think it would be really awesome if Sofia Coppola took her lush, intimate, slice of life style and made a fantasy movie with a bunch of dreamy 80s new wave for the soundtrack. I feel like Erris could have fit right in to the Marie Antoinette world.

Thank you so much for participating with us again this year Jaclyn! I totally loved this interview, like, a lot!
Everyone else, if you have not yet read anything by Jaclyn, I suggest you go do that now! As of right now, I've still only read Magic Under Glass but I enjoyed it a lot (also reviewed last FTF) and Misty has read them all, and she is definitely a fan:)
And speaking of, don't forget to check out the awesome stuff Misty has going on today!

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The Sweetest Spell by Suzanne Selfors is a book that I hadn't even heard of until Misty and her magic fairy tale fortnight fingers managed to get a copy sent to my house. I read the synopsis and thought it sounded super... weird (escaped death because of a cow?! Churns milk into chocolate?! Chocolate conquers all?!) but then, I noticed at the very top, where it says "re-telling of The Ugly Duckling" and I was like, Oh! WIN!

This is quite a charming little book and I was actually quite impressed with much of the writing and the imagery and the feel of the story. It didn't quite have that magical something that makes you feel a fairy tale, but it was close and I found myself enjoying the story immensely.

Without giving too much away for fear of spoilers, I will say that the villian and the climax of this book were a disappointment to me. I don't think we need a detailed back story from our bad guy to make us understand why/how they are in a fairy tale retelling. But they do need a motive. Even if that motive is just — I'm evil and I know it... But in this book, I never really got the motive. I mean, I understood the superficial motive, but it didn't really... fit right to me. (It's really hard to explain this without just spoiling everything.)

There were a also few moments that felt rushed and a few characters that seemed to change halfway through, like the Peddler. Some of him I understood, but I felt like the author tried too hard to allow him to make an about face that wasn't really there. (You don't grin maniacally when you stab someone if you are really just a good person at heart...)

But other than wishing for a bit more character development in certain places and a slightly more sensical ending, this was definitely a book I enjoyed reading. Once I started reading, something about the writing was compelling enough to make me want to keep turning pages. There was never that insane rush to get to the end of the story because the action is so intense you just have to have to have to know what's going to happen next. Instead, it was just a gentle pull that kept me turning the pages, reading along. Which, considering how important cows are to this story and the way that cows move, feels like the absolute perfect pacing for this story.

I thought that most of the interactions involving Emmaline were done very well. The author really shows how deep rooted and damaging prejudices are and Emmaline has to face a lot of them, from the people in her village who scorned her, to the people in the rest of the kingdom who despise her and her people, to those so overcome with greed they see nothing of her except her magical ability to create chocolate, the thing they desire and crave more than any other. She is a strong character, one determined to remain true to herself no matter what happens and no matter what she's up against. And I loved watching her sense of self and purpose grow.

The story itself is full of the usual fairy tale fare — a damsel in distress, a quest, crimes again the King/Queen, lies, betrayal, false reports, true love, and etc. but Selfors always managed to infuse her own spin and her own touch to every part of the story. The basic fairy tale predictability was there, but nothing about this story felt like I was reading the same old thing. The fairy tale was buried underneath an original story and I truly enjoyed it. Is it the best book I've ever read? No. But it's definitely one I enjoyed and definitely one that's going to need to sit it beautiful hardcover on my fairy tale shelf.

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a book that has been on my radar since April, when Marissa participated in Fairy Tale Fortnight (linked for any of you who missed it). And I'll be honest, I spent a long time going back and forth on where or not I was really interested in this one. I was always interested, because it's a fairy tale retelling, and that always grabs by attention. But this is a futuristic Cinderella, a Cinderella who is a cyborg. I haven't read a lot of science fiction, and I'm always a little bit wary of it. So I went back and forth between — Ya, I'm excited (shrug, I guess) and Yes! Of course I'm excited!

And then I read the book.

No more debates for me! This book was so amazing. It freaking rocked my face! Meyer manages to take the Cinderella story and turn it into something new and unique and futuristic and different while still keeping that magical feel of a fairy tale.

Cinder is a great character. She's confused about her role in the world, because according to the rules and laws of their world, being a cyborg makes her somewhere between a second class citizen and a possession. So she knows that, according to the laws & prejudices of her world, she is less than human. But other than the metal in her hand and leg and a few 'upgrades' here and there, she feels human. And how do you reconcile something like that?! Feeling like a person but being treated as a machine. My heart so went out to Cinder, because that would be so hard!

I was also really excited, because we get to see some chapters narrated by Prince Kai. It made him more real to me, made him a much stronger character, and it gave me a reason to root for him. Kai is in a terrible position because of the story's villain — the proverbial rock and a hard place — and no matter what decision he makes, it's going to end badly. And we get to see him struggle over that. He desperately wants to do right by his people, but how can you really do right, when no matter what choice you make, bad things will follow. There is bad, and then less bad, but that might lead to worse. Hearing Kai's narration takes him from Love Interest to Real Character. I love seeing a love interest who is developed beyond why they are, or should be, in love with the main character.

The villains of this story are the Lunar's — The Moon People. And boy — are they a villain worth reading about. Creepy, bad nasties. And that's all I'm going to say about that. (Mostly, because in early January, I'm part of the Cinder blog tour and Marissa is going to give me a whole post about them to share:) )

I will say that the story was, to me, more than a little predictable. I had most of the major plot points figured out rather early on in the story, and only some of those were because it is a retelling. I've mentioned this before, but I am very forgiving of predictability in my fairy tale retellings. Very forgiving. So being able to predict parts of the story didn't bother me at all. Because watching the characters get their on their own, being there as they learned their secrets made it so worth while. Meyer is a talented writer. She's created characters I adore and want to get to know better and she placed them in this situation where they have to act and become strong or do nothing, and then she lets them choose! There were honestly moments when I felt like they were real people making their own decisions.

This is a book that has something for everyone. The threads of the original fairy tale are woven so perfectly into the story that you can feel the fairy tale but it isn't as blatant as other retellings. It is part fantasy, part science fiction, full or magic and mystery and I am so in love with this book. I'm probably not doing the book justice, but believe me when I say it is awesome. I am already eager for the remaining books in the series. I can't wait to see the end of Cinder's story, as well as meet the new fairy tale characters and watch their stories intertwine. Meyer is definitely an author I'm going to keep my eye on, and I highly suggest you do the same. If you haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend you work on remedying that as soon as possible. This is a story it would be a shame to miss.

Enna from Squeaky Books has returned this year to offer up another awesome Fairy Tale Fortnight post! Seriously folks, Enna is one of my favorite blogging people, and her posts always pretty much rock my face!:)

Hello fellow fairy-tale enthusiasts! My name is Enna Isilee from Squeaky Books and I'm SO excited to be back with FTF this year! Last year I posted about how fairy tales changed my life, and my top 14 fairy tale retellings. This year I'm back to talk to you about the 10 fairy tales that I haven't read and I just can't WAIT to get my hands on! Many of these have already been featured in Misty's "From the Vault" and "Coming Attraction" posts, but I'm going to put my spin on them AND give you a chance to win your choice of any of these books!

Let's start with some classics and then move into newer releases, shall we?

East
by Edith Pattou Release Date: 9/1/2003
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:I know, I know! How can I call myself a fairy-tale fan when I haven’t read East ? I ADORE Sarah Beth Durst’s Ice and I guess I have some kind of deep seated fear that one won’t be able to measure up to the other. I do plan to read this sometime soon, though. I need to get my hands on a copy for my library at least.

The Looking Glass Wars
by Frank Beddor Release Date: 9/26/2006
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:So Alice in Wonderland isn’t your typical fairy tale, but I’m still including it because I’ve heard this series is AWESOME (also, Once Upon a Time included Alice in Wonderland, so it totally counts). I got this book for Christmas, and hope to get around to reading it this summer.

A Curse Dark as Gold
by Elizabeth Bunce Release Date: 3/1/2008
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:I started reading this a few years ago, but wasn’t in the right mindset. The world and prose is really deep, and it’s certainly not a book you can read with half a brain. I’m afraid during the school year I have barely a quarter of a brain.

Sisters Red
by Jackson Pearce Release Date: 6/7/2010
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:For some reason I managed to check this out from the library, and forget about it until it was nearly due. I managed to read 20 pages and would have kept it past the due date (naughty me!) but my mother returned it! Since then I have purchased my own copy, but haven’t yet delved into it. I can’t wait! It’s about time that fairy tale heroines started kicking some werewolf.

A Long, Long Sleep
by Anna Sheehan Release Date: 8/9/2011
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:This one hasn’t been getting very positive reviews from what I’ve seen, but I still really want to read it. I mean, fairy tales IN SPACE?! Need I say more?

Cinder
by Marissa Meyer Release Date: 1/3/2012
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:Technically I’ve already read this book. BUT I’m still including it in this list because I LOVED it and I can’t wait for the next three books in the series. Scarlet (2013) features Little Red Riding Hood in France, Cress (2014) features Rapunzel on the Moon, and Winter (2015) features Snow White in the Sahara Desert! Awesome!

Princess of the Wild Swans
by Diane Zahler Release Date: 1/31/2012
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:What is it that makes swans so fitting for Fairy Tales? I just recently got my hands on this guy, and it seems like a short, sweet read. Perfect for a rainy day (I hope!).

Kill Me Softly
by Sarah Cross Release Date: 4/10/2012
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:I have just been LUSTING over this book for MONTHS. I’m on a very strict book-buying-ban right now, or else I would have this guy in my hot little hands instead of waiting for my library to finish “processing” it. We’ve heard of Urban-fantasy and Urban-paranormal books, but this is urban-fairy tales. I’m so there.

Shadows on the Moon
by Zoe Marriott Release Date: 4/24/2012
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:Also another book I’ve “technically” read, but I read the UK version. According to the author, the US version has some new haiku and things changed for authenticity! I have the audiobook for this one and I’m dying to dive in!

Princess of the Silver Woods
by Jessica Day George Release Date: 11/13/2012
Goodreads |Amazon
My Thoughts:Jessica Day George is a standard go-to for fairy tales. I loved the first book in this series (Princess of the Midnight Ball) and I’ve heard the others don’t disappoint! I’ve also heard you can read them out of order, but I could be mistaken. We’ve got a while to wait for this one, hopefully long enough for me to read Princess of Glass.

Giveaway time!
Since this giveaway is hosted by me, it'll be through rafflecopter and not the usual FTF form. Hope y'all don't mind! It just makes my life a little easier! Just follow the instructions below and enter to win! This giveaway is open INTERNATIONAL!

Psst! You have to actually come to the site to enter. You can't see the rafflecopter in a feed reader.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All review content © Enna Isilee, Squeaky Books 2007-2012

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Joining us now we have Bonnie from A Backwards Story interviewing Sarah Porter, author of the 2011 debut Lost Voices.
Check it out!

Sara Porter’s debut novel, Lost Voices, is the first in a trilogy... about MERMAIDS. While not directly re-telling any single tale, Porter weaves together mermaid lore from several places while creating her own world. The most creative twist is the fact that mermaids were once human girls, reincarnated after “dying” and have siren-like tendencies. For a teaser of Lost Voices and to learn more about the novel, please visit A Backwards Story. A full review is scheduled to post on ABS June 21th to celebrate the first day of summer. Lost Voices comes out two weeks later on July 4, 2011, so please add it to Goodreads and your TBR now!

1) What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
I grew up with this old book of Russian fairy tales that someone gave my mom’s dad when he was a kid back in 1911, and I adored them. They were long and dark and complicated and painful, and I think they’re very true to life. A lot of them follow a storyline where the protagonist betrays his or her magical beloved and has to go through a long journey and a series of ordeals to win that lost love back. In fact many of us do have to undertake a long (emotional) journey before we’re ready to truly love.
Those stories are embedded in my mind. I still see life through the lens they revealed to me.

2) What made you decide to write Lost Voices? What brought everything together for you?
It’s hard for me to say where it all came from. One source was a talk I had with a friend on the beach, where we improvised a story about a punk mermaid who lived apart from the others. And I wrote an earlier story in graduate school that used some of the same ideas as Lost Voices. In it, mermaids were orphaned girls who could swim through the earth and steal other girl-children away. When I actually started writing Lost Voices, I was unemployed and stuck on another book, and the story just kind of picked me up and carried me. I wrote a draft in four months.

3) Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building? How did you bring everything together? The mermaids felt so real!
Thank you. They feel real to me, too. The mermaid lore actually develops a lot more in the second volume of the trilogy, Waking Storms, when my heroine Luce begins to learn about the history of the mermaids and why they’re so driven to kill.
But I wouldn’t say it’s hard to come up with the lore or the world. The hardest part of becoming a writer is getting yourself to the place where the stories come to you by themselves. Once you’re finally there, it’s all a lot easier. I knew from the beginning that the mermaids were the lost girls who’d flowed away to sea.

4) Can you tell us more about your overall goals for the trilogy?
That’s hard to do without giving too much away! But Luce has a long way to go, and things will get much worse for her before they can start to get better. The trilogy is really about a choice we all face: we can stay stuck in our pain and keep repeating the same reactions to that pain, the way the mermaids keep sinking ships. Or we can look for creative ways to break the cycle and move on. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, but ultimately that’s what Luce has to accomplish.

5) What other ideas are you working on right now?
I only work on one idea at a time, because I can only live in one imaginary world at a time! But I do have a novel for adults sitting around half-finished; it’s sort of a horror novel about sentient objects, called Boudoir, and as soon as I complete The Lost Voices Trilogy, I want to get back to it. And I’m playing with the idea of a young adult novel based on some of those old Russian fairy tales, too.

6) What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
Well, it’s not YA at all, but I really love Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina. It starts out seeming realistic and then gets creepier and more fairy-talish as it goes along. The heroine’s boyfriend gives her a hairy black dress that eats into her skin, and that she can’t take it off. And Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was fantastic and really captured the odd logic of the fairy world. That’s a book I think a lot of YA fans would adore! Most of my favorite books have kind of a fairy tale quality about them even if they’re not directly inspired.

7) If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Hmm. Maybe I’d like to be the Frog Princess. She’s such a badass.
In fact I think we all live out fairy tales all the time, whether we want to or not. Not necessarily the happily-ever-after parts, but the struggling-to-make-our-way-through-forces-that-are-bigger-than-we-are parts.

8) What's your favorite Disney rendition of a fairy tale? What makes it so special?
Dumbodoesn’t count, does it? Then I think I’ll go with “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section of Fantasia. It conveys so much of the feeling of being overwhelmed by magic, caught up in a dream.

9) Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?
Sparrow. I totally identify with little hoppy, dust-colored birds.

Oh my goodness everyone! Can you believe it?! It's been almost a full year since last years insanely awesome Fairy Tale Fortnight! So now, it's time for Part 2!

I'm fully aware that I pretty much win worst blogger of the year award so far. My new job takes way more time and energy than I was anticipating, and I barely have the time to check my email let alone all the other awesome stuff there is to do online. (How sad it is that I don't even have time for all my old stand by time wasters?! Life is truly sad when you don't even have time available to really, truly waste online, ya know?!)

Anyway — Misty has pretty much been completely and totally made of win lately, being all proactive and boss and stuff. Seriously guys, I'm pretty sure she even bleeds awesomeness.

But anyway — I just wanted to post something to let you all know that it's coming (last 2 weeks of April!!) and that you should get excited for it! Things will be a little different than last year, but still awesome and still fun!:)

SO. What should you do?! Grab a button (fabulous, aren't they?! Like I said, Misty rocks my face) and get reading some fairy tales! We are going to have a place to link up your fairy tale posts, so get reading those fairy tales and retellings, watching those fairy tale movies and shows, and thinking up all kinds of fairy tale goodness!

And then get ready to let the fairy tale games begin!:)

This post is just me casting lonely puppy dog eyes at fairy tales, both released and announced that I'm itching to get my hands on. There's a lot of them, but this is in no ways an all-inclusive list. There are a lot of really great looking retellings that got left behind, simply because the post was so long. For that same reason, all that's included about each title is a tiny bit about why I want it so bad.

Shadows on the Moon by Zoë Marriot — If you haven't yet picked up on how much I want this book, I don't think you've been paying attention. I loved Zoë's previous novels and this retelling of Cinderella fascinates me. This is probably my most highly anticipated of all the books on this list.

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce — The companion novel to Sister's Red, which I loved (my review) , this is Pearce's version of Hansel and Gretel. But, just as Sister's Red was unlike any Little Red Riding Hood story I've read before, Sweetly promises to be just as original, and just as fabulous.

Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier — I loved Marillier's writing in Wildwood Dancing (my review) and Cybele's Secret. I'm eager to read more of the fairy tale retellings that she has written. Heart's Blood is the one that I used as my example, but really, any of her books I've no yet read would fit there.

Thornspell by Helen Lowe — I haven't read too many retellings of Sleeping Beauty but it's one that, in my experience, often does very well on the retell. I've had this one on my tbr for a while now, and can't help but think that it's getting time to take it off.

Dread Locks by Neal Shusterman — The first in his Dark Fusion trilogy, this promised to be a very unique and twisty version of Medusa. The series also retells Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling.

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab — The cover is beautiful and haunting, and the synopsis sounds like it comes from a fairy tale. But it is instead a wholly original story, a new fairy tale. And I for one, cannot wait to read it. (Thank you Victoria for the correction. My apologies for having it wrong before.)

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey — This is the first book in her Five Hundred Kingdoms series, and it's the one I've chosen to represent Lackey in general. I've heard a lot of great things about her writing in general and about this series in particular, and it is one that I am eager to read.

Birdwing by Rafe Martin — This is the book that has, perhaps, been on my list the longest without having been read. Birdwing is a retelling of The Six Swans (or The Wild Swans etc.) but it is the story of the youngest brother, the brother who was given the shirt with only one finished sleeve. What was his life like, with one arm and one wing? This idea fascinates me, because I've thought about that before, and I would love to see where Martin takes this story.

White as Snow by Tanith Lee — There is a whole fairy tale series where several writers grouped together and all (somehow) decided to tell their own tales. White as Snow is one of them, as is Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, which is definitely a book worth reading. I'd love to go through and read each of the books in this series. They all seem fascinating.

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson — I really enjoyed Tomlinson's The Swan Maiden and was excited to see that she had another fairy tale retelling coming out. I can't wait to see what she does with this story. It's a lesser known tale, and one that is a little bit... weird (gems or snakes falling from your mouth every time you speak?!) and it's one that could very definitely be fascinating on the retell.

So there it is — a very small grouping of fairy tales that I'm insanely anxious to read. Have you read any of them? What did you think?! Any you recommend more than others? Any you are adding to your own TBR?

This marks the last of our interviews conducted by Bonnie from A Backwards Story (for this year, at least). Today she is chatting with author Tia Nevitt, whose novella, The Sevefold Spell, is catching many eyes with it's pretty cover.
Check it out:

Tia Nevitt is the author of The Sevenfold Spell, an e-book novella centered in the world of Sleeping Beauty. The novel features a girl and her mother whose lives are destroyed when their spinning wheel is taken away from them and shows what they must do in order to survive. For a review of Tia’s book, please visit A Backwards Story.

~ What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
My favorite was Cinderella, mostly because of Leslie Ann Warren in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. They played it every spring while I was growing up for a number of consecutive years. The Disney version also hit the theaters when I was a girl, but I didn’t like it as much. Nowadays, I understand why—too much focus on the cute animals, and not enough focus on Cinderella. But really—there’s only so much plot to work with. I’m having the same difficulty now with my Cinderella retelling!
Later, when I was about ten or so, I discovered Beauty and the Beast, and that became my favorite. This was mostly because we had a beautifully illustrated version of it, and also because the story was more complex with a more admirable heroine.

~ What made you decide to write The Sevenfold Spell from a villager's POV?
I didn’t really. The Sevenfold Spell is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and I wanted to write from the point of view of the woman who owned the spinning wheel. Many readers have thought of her as a villager, but I actually envisioned her as living in a tiny neighborhood in the capital city—right where all the action takes place. But the reader is always right!
I wanted to explore the spinster’s point-of-view because I wondered what became of all the spinsters after the spinning wheels were banned. I was watching Disney’s Sleeping Beauty with my daughter and the plight of the spinsters seemed like such a good seed for a story. I wanted to show how everything in Talia’s life changed with the loss of her spinning wheel—her whole future was bound up in it. It happens incrementally, first the loss of an income, which results in the loss of her dowry, which results in the loss of her betrothed, at which time she begins to despair. I tried to put myself in the mindset of a fatherless young lady who is very unattractive, faced with a long life ahead of her with only a cranky mother for company. The only man who ever looked at her must leave… What would she do in search of happiness?
One of the ideas I had from the start is that Sleeping Beauty would actually be Sleeping Ugly. Therefore, I made Talia to be Aurora’s opposite. Where Aurora is beautiful, privileged, dreamy and pure, Talia is unattractive, poor, pragmatic—and sensual. I realize that’s a bit unusual, but a mousy and shy spinster would have been too much of a cliché, and besides, sometimes the character’s choices lead the author, which is very much what happened in this case.

~ Will future books in the Accidental Enchantments series be from alternate POVs as well? Can you tell us about what you're working on now?
Yes, they will all be from the point-of-view of people who are caught up in the magic. Right now, I’m working on Cinderella. It’s from the point-of-view of a dressmaker’s niece, whose leg is lame, and who is hounded by an unscrupulous moneylender. She makes a bargain with a certain fairy godmother, but trouble starts when one of the crystal slippers turn up missing. For my Snow White story, the prince is the one who is accidentally enchanted, so he is one of the point-of-view characters. But most of the story takes place from the point of view of one of the dwarves—who happens to be a woman. I also have some ideas for Beauty and the Beast, but they are too unformed to go into detail.

~ Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building for The Sevenfold Spell? How did you bring everything together, especially the way you created the Sevenfold Spell itself?
The Sevenfold Spell itself came straight from the fairy tale, except I believe there were originally twelve blessings, and they weren’t bound up together. Perrault only details a few of the blessings in his version of Sleeping Beauty. I settled on seven because I wanted a prime number. Five was too few, and eleven was too many. Why a prime number? It just seemed to me that if you were going to have some magical numbers, then there ought not be very many of them. Technically, there are an infinite number of prime numbers, but that infinite number is going to be much fewer than the number of ordinary numbers out there, even though they are both infinite. And since that dichotomy makes no sense at all, but nevertheless is, it seemed perfect for magic.
The rest of the lore came from the many plot holes in Sleeping Beauty. Why could each fairy only cast one spell upon Aurora? Why could the evil fairy’s spell not be undone? Why a hundred year sleep? And why would Aurora touch the spinning wheel?

~ What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
When I sat down to write The Sevenfold Spell, I didn’t go out and buy up a bunch of fairy tale retellings, like I probably should have done. I just sat down and wrote it. I wanted to write the retelling that I wanted to read. What I did do was read all the Sleeping Beauty versions that I could find, which is where I got Talia’s name. (I didn’t keep anything else from that version because it’s very strange.)
I did read Patricia Wrede’s Snow White and Rose Red years ago, which I kept for all this time so my daughter could read it one day.

~ If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Probably Beauty and the Beast, because nothing awful actually happens to Beauty! Cinderella would have had to live through either her father’s death or neglect (depending on the version you read), Snow White would have had to put up with the evil queen’s jealousy and abuse, and Sleeping Beauty was just so passive. Beauty gets to be heroic (in sacrificing herself for her father), but her punishment is to live in luxury in a castle while falling in love. I’ll take that one!
I certainly didn’t follow the fairy-tale formula in my own life. I didn’t really make an attempt to find a Prince Charming, which is probably why I found one. I left home when I was eighteen to join the military, where I ended up launching and recovering jets with my future husband. From that experience, you’d think I’d be writing military sci-fi or something. And although I had a few ideas along those lines, none were strong enough to engage me long enough to write a novel—or even a novella. Maybe I haven’t thought of the right plot yet.

~ What's your favorite Disney rendition of a fairy tale? What makes it so special?
Beauty and the Beast. It had all the right ingredients. The original story had plenty of plot, a self-sacrificing heroine, and a tragic hero; Disney added terrific animation, a great cast, and marvelous music. But the best part about it was Gaston. The original plot lacked a true villain, and the addition of an arrogant, handsome villain who had everything that Beast didn’t have was inspired. The guy who sang Gaston (Richard White, according to IMDB) was perfect.
The only flaw in the movie is that Belle actually called Beast “Beast”. Bleh.

~ What was your biggest surprise in your publishing journey?
That this story was accepted at all. This was my first attempt to submit this version of the story to a publisher. I had recently expanded it from a short story—which I had been unable sell anywhere—to a novella, and I sent it to my first choice publisher. I expected the same thing that had happened before—a rejection within a few weeks or months. I was really surprised to get a phone call, instead!

A very warm welcome now to Ammy Belle who has a great post for us today about How to Find Pixies in New Jersey. Not sure what them means? Then read on!!

And, don't forget to check out Ammy's first guest post over at The Book Rat about Tender Morsels!

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I suppose in some way, everyone thinks of the princess in the castle or the knight in shining armour when they think of fairy tales: your mind becomes awash in the grandeur of the Disney fairy tale – the white walls of a palace, the beautiful silhouettes of the old dresses, the magic of a time that caught somewhere in the fold of history we have yet to discover.

But the real magic of fairy tales is that they can adapt – and adapt well – to pretty much anything. The reason for this, is the plain fact that fairy tales are just moral tales – they are stories you tell people to warn them about life (especially the original ones, the ones I like to call dark fairy tales). Essentially, these modern fairy tales take the original magnetism of the stories from the olden days and attempt to fit them into some modern city or town.

Lately there has been a little bit of a trend on adapting fairy tales: one such series is the Tithe series by Holly Black. In this series (I have only read the first book, but my understanding is that the first is the best example of modern times and fairy tale) we are dropped into a fairy war, where dark fairy tales meet the New Jersey shoreline. It ‘s through the realm of faerie that Black creates, the use of iron as the boundaries between human and faerie, and the manipulation of the changeling narrative from old stories, that makes Tithe a modern faerie tale.

Kaye is our heroine. She’s a blonde haired, green eyed girl with almond shaped eyes and is pretty small for her age. She lives a nomadic lifestyle with her Mom, who sings for a series of bands. Her father isn’t in the picture, but when her mother’s boyfriend attempts to stab her, they pick up and move back to their home in New Jersey – to live with Kaye’s older, stricter grandmother, in her home near the seashore and the woods, where Kaye had imaginary friends growing up. The imaginary friends, are of course, faeries of different types, and they “play” along a little creek near her house. Little does Kaye know, they have been fighting a strange war for her whole life.

Tithe is a real faerie story – in the sense that, it has faeries. Like Tir Na Nog. In fact, very much like that: in the original faerie stories, faeries were not like Tinker Bell – they were actually untrustworthy. They guarded their own possessions jealously, and killed anyone who came at them from any which way. Faeries are manipulative and care very little for humans – and sometimes they are beautiful, but often they are gnarled and misshapen creatures that have a very scary sense of humour.

Black doesn’t hold back – she makes her story gritty and realistic, with a caffeine-addicted, chain smoking, strong willed protagonist, and her dismal nomadic background. Her friends are few and far between, and filled with jealousies. Her life is dangerous, but she doesn’t realize it, and coming back to New Jersey makes it that much worse: there in the industrial dotted river side, there lives a kelpie – a sea horse that collects young drowned girls. Black entwines the old with the new – mixing the harsh and lonely world of the kelpie, with the paint chipped world of the New Jersey boardwalk. It’s an amazing comparison, and the best example of it is when the kelpie and Kaye strike a bargain: for his boon, he requests the dilapidated old carousel horse to keep him company in the deep. This juxtaposition of old and new, on top of the contrasted faerie and human world, creates a blanket of intrigue that almost shows a compassionate side of Kaye’s world.

Such is the case with iron in Tithe: the faeries are cruel and out for themselves, their desires – whether they are actually good or bad – come before anything else – but they are nature, they represent a basic form of nature, that can be cruel and yet very vulnerable. This tension works within the New Jersey city limits – or at least, the New Jersey that Black paints for us – this urban wasteland where the shoreline is wasting away, and nature seems on the verge of making a comeback, as the water and grasses start taking over the boardwalk. Iron represents this hardline though, the thing that faeries cannot survive – they can be wild and dangerous – but put them in a car, and they’re toast.

I think that iron is an interesting choice for this. In an age where we see digital media and electricity and such as such big themes (see Steampunk), I think a return to iron is both interesting... and it makes sense – I mean, what do we have that isn’t made of iron? The whole human world seems to be a death trap for faeries, and in turn, the faeries are harsh and cruel – and they have weapons. Instead of guns, they have swords, but it works in the totality – the adaptation to the New Jersey shoreline works with the iron, the totality of the dangers for each world is balanced so well, it is almost as if New Jersey itself is a magical place.

Finally, there is the changeling aspect of the story: the changeling narrative is an old faerie tale, where faeries will steal into a nursery and switch a newborn baby with an old, dying – but veiled – faerie. There actually is no real reason, I think... or at least I have never found a common theme for all of it – though each story has its own unique spin. Tithe gives its faeries a reason for the changeling, but it changes the rules – the changeling doesn’t die, instead, the changeling becomes the story. The main viewpoint is through the lens of someone who does not quite belong and at the same time, is pivotal to everything that happens. The reason this works for the modern fairy tale, is the fact that it basically reminds us all of our awkward teenage years when we were confused about how the world fit together, but deep down inside, we knew we were special.

In the end, this is what why the modern fairy tale works – it pulls out the comparisons between the old and the new, and draws a line between these worlds... and then allows the characters to hop scotch between the lines, in order to draw the reader in. It works because we want the magic, and we recognize the setting – much like a dystopian, where the parameters of what we understand become hazy and fluxuate so that we can imagine ourselves in different situations.

Tithe was a great read, and I cannot wait for the next two instalments – not only because of weird way New Jersey becomes more magical, but also because the main love interest, Roiben – he’s awe-inspiring.

Anyways, that is my take on modern fairy tales and Tithe – go check it out, and keep reading those fairy tales – they can adapt to pretty much anything – can’t wait to see a cyberpunk fairy tale set in the future...

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt is one of the most unique and beautiful stories I have ever read. While not a direct fairy tale retelling, falling more into the category of fairy tale-esque, the book reads like a fairy tale, and elements from different tales and lore find their way into Keturah's story.

Keturah is the storyteller in her small village. She tells tales around the common fire each night, enthralling the townsfolk. There is a hart that haunts the forests around the town, a hart which the Lord of the realm, a renowned hunter himself, has long hunted, but never captured. This hart often finds its way into Keturah's tales, and it is ultimately what leads Keturah into trouble. She sees the hart watching her from the woods one evening and decides to follow it, just a little ways into the wood. As is often in the case with seemingly enchanted harts, Keturah finds herself following the hart deeper and deeper into the wood, unable to stop. When she finally regains her senses, she realizes that she is hopelessly lost in the forest.

After three days of being lost in the woods, Keturah is out of strength, and knows she is going to die. Sure enough, Death comes for her. She is surprised by him, because he appears as a handsome and aloof Lord, and he tells her it is time to go. She begs and pleads for her life, and those of us near death are wont to do, and Death takes pity on the beautiful young girl. He tells Keturah that she may live if she chooses one other from her village to die in her place. But Keturah loves all the people in her village and cannot allow them to die, not even if it means that she might live.

Instead, she asks Death if she might tell him a story. He agrees and she tells him a beautiful and magical story, about life and love, one that sounds familiar, but incomplete. When he demands the ending from Keturah, she refuses to tell it, unless he allows her to live. And so, she makes a deal with Death, returning to her village for three days on a mission to find her true love. If she can find her love in three days, Death will allow her to live. And if not, she must go with him to die.

This is one of my very favorite stories. I love the air of magic within the story, even though there is no magic beyond the meetings with Lord Death. I first read this book a few years ago, and fell completely in love with the characters. Keturah is reckless, fierce, and loyal. Her two best friends are filled with goodness and love. John, the Lord's son is another fascinating character, and you watch him as he desires to fit in among the people and learn to rule them well now that he might be a wise and just ruler when his father rules no more. Even Lord Death is a fascinating character. He is the most powerful force and he knows it. Nothing can stop death, everything must eventually fall to him and yet Keturah tries to defy him. She begs and pleads and offers her stories in exchange for mercy, for life and for time.

I knew that I wanted Keturah and her story to be a part of fairy tale fortnight, because it is simply beautiful and everyone should have a chance to read it. So I decided to reread it before the event, to make sure I did the story justice in my review, and the first thought that came to mine was to Sigh and think, Oh, how I've missed you. This is a story that feels like coming home. It is a tale that perfectly fills those wanting places inside when searching for those magical tales, and it is a story that will never leave you. I think about this book all the time, and I recommend it regularly.

The writing is effortless and vivid. It begins with a prologue that sets the story up with a fairy tale feel, right from the beginning, giving you everything but that actual 'once upon a time' and when the story itself starts, you are already enchanted by her words. You are in Keturah's world, you are living in that village, watching, waiting with bated breath to discover what the future holds for Keturah. Everything feels so very real and you can feel Keturah's pain and panic as her agreement with deal draws to an end and she knows she must soon complete her task or go to her death. She is fighting death for everything she loves or may come to love and it's not always an easy struggle to watch.

This is a story of love, of hope and of almost magic, the kind of magic that we can almost find if we search for it long enough. It is a story of understanding, of personal redemption and finding happiness with what you have. The risks Keturah takes for those she loves are huge and you love her all the more for what she is willing to risk to protect others.