Systematic Student [Search results for question] 

Up for grabs today is a whole lot of awesome! Feast your eyes on these beauties:

Misty says: I'm not going to lie (and it wouldn't do any good, because everyone already knows) I am a sucker for a good cover. These are two that I want to just display prominently and treat like art. So beautiful! Both have been featured on The Book Rat before:
Friday Face Off | TBR Tuesday | First Pages: Extraordinary
You can check out our reviews, too:
Misty: Impossible | Ashley: Extraordinary | Misty: Extraordinary (coming soon!)

Want to win one of these delicious lovelies for yourself? We have 3 prizes to offer up, which break down like this:

• 1 person will win a paperback of Impossible!
• 1 person will win an ARC of Extraordinary!
• 1 person will win a prize pack of both books!

• Must answer at least 1 question in detail* to enter (at least 2 to enter for the prize pack); each additional question earns you another entry *ie no 1 word answers
• Make sure we have a way to contact you
• If you have a preference on which book you win, leave it with your answer
• +1 for tweeting
• US only
• Ends May 5th May 8th!
• HAVE FUN!

I recently read and reviewed Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure and it's sequel, Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country. (If you missed that, you can find my review HERE.)

I recently conducted an interview with the author, Allan Richard Schickman about his novels and am delighted to share his responses with you! You can also find out more about Allan and his books on this website. (in my blog.)
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First, I would like to thank Allan Shickman for being willing to answer some questions. I really enjoyed reading his novels and am excited to have this chance to talk with him. The pleasure is all mine. I find to my surprise that I just love to talk about myself and my work.
So, have you always known you wanted to be a writer? Or is it something that just kind of happened? You have it exactly right. It just sort of happened. As a student I liked to write, and tried my hand at it from time to time. As a professor I wrote scholarly articles, and most of those journals have very high standards. It was an honor to be published in any one of them. Only upon retirement did I attempt a fictional book. Once I wrote that first chapter I was hooked.
Because I am a reader and I love getting great book recommendations, especially from authors I enjoyed, what are some of your most favorite books? I have always been a lover and student of the classics. Once I find a book I like, I am apt to read it several times over a period of years. Dostoyevsky is my favorite. I read Crime and Punishment when I was sixteen, and I still reread it from time to time. Later in life I discovered Thomas Hardy. I love The Mayor of Casterbridge. Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was one book when I was young, and quite another, richer, book now that I’m older. One never really knows a book until he has read it three times. In that, it’s like a symphony or an opera.
What would you say has been the most influential book or literary experience for you and your writing? Hard question. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky taught me how complex, contradictory, and downright funny human beings can be. Shakespeare and Milton taught me that language can roar and thunder, and stir the imagination.
Your bio mentions that you were an Art History Professor for years. How did you end up writing a historical fiction novel about the Prehistoric era? That seems like quite the jump. It is not really such a jump. Prehistoric people produced art. I studied it and their possible reasons for producing it. Some of that was in the back of my mind when I wrote the Zan-Gah novels. But there is a lot nobody knows. For all we know, women, not men, did those famous cave paintings. So I mixed knowledge with imagination.
How much research went into writing these two novels? Some. I already knew a little about prehistoric art and life. I needed to learn about slings, and about fishing by hand. I researched twins in primitive societies, and discovered that such societies were sometimes terribly frightened by the birth of twins. They would kill them and their mother (never their father). I used that fear in my books. I also went to a marvelous cavern, Onondaga, in my own cave-rich state of Missouri. I was the only guy in the whole cave who was taking notes. Eyeless salamanders! Cool.
We met a lot of interesting tribes with very complex and different ways of life. Were each of these tribes something out of your imagination, or were they based on actual tribes from history? Mostly imagination. There were no wasp people that I know of, but I did not make up totemism—the belief that a clan is related to an animal and shares some of its qualities. Why not have a people that models itself after stinging wasps?
What sort of evidence and artifacts (if any) do we really have about this era? We have a lot. Whole volumes are written about cave paintings, petroglyphs, sculpture, etc. We have very fat, bulbous steatopygous figures assumed to be models of fertility. I hinted that Siraka-Finaka might have been shaped like the Venus of Willendorf (aw, go ahead and google it), but I didn’t push the idea very hard.
There were some amazing characters in these novels—really strong and well-defined. It made me really glad there was a sequel, because it meant I was able to read more about them. However, the first book does end in a pretty comfortable spot. Was it always your intention to write a sequel to Zan-Gah, or is that a decision that came later. Thanks for “amazing.” I like “amazing.” However, I never intended to write a sequel, but some of my teen friends and relatives encouraged me to do so. The thing is, you can’t write anything until you get an idea. Then you slowly develop it, and put leaves on the tree, so to speak. The second book gave me a chance to develop characters introduced in the first, and work on new ones too. It gives me great satisfaction to think that my readers take an interest in my fictional characters, and want to read more about them.
Any plans for a third Zan-Gah adventure? Yup.
Speaking of future plans, do you have a current work-in-progress? If so, are there any details you can share about it with us? I am working on a third Zan-Gah book, but I am reluctant to talk too much about it. The story continues with Dael's self-imposed exile, as he seeks some sort of redemption or resolution of his life. He will go to live with the crimson people (introduced already in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country). I think I will call it Dael and the Painted People. But first I have to write it.
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us today? I ask what an author has no right to insist on, that folks read the Zan-Gah books with a little care. It isn’t a race. If you don’t feel the books, you haven’t read them.
Thank you again for answering my questions today. I really appreciate it. Just one last question before we go (because I know which I prefer and it's always an interesting question) Do you prefer wearing shoes or going barefoot? I always shower, swim, and go to bed barefoot. Any other time, I am shod.
Thank you too. ____________________________________________________
How wonderful! I'm definitely excited for this third Zan-Gah novel. And, I totally googled that statue.:) Also, I am going to be offering a signed copy of each of these books to one lucky reader in the next few days so stayed tuned! Be sure to comment and let me know what you think!

Hey everyone, and welcome to my blog! I'm excited to have you here! I have a lot of great stuff happening right now, and would love to have you stick around and check it out! You can also follow me on Twitter! I only started tweeting last month, but already think it's fun and love chatting with bloggers over there! I'd love to see you!

If you are new to my blog, or if you aren't new, but want me to head over to your blog, leave me a comment and I promise that I will return the visit and check out your blogs. Although, my internet is going to be pretty spotty this weekend, so it will probably be my Monday project.:)

So, the most exciting thing I have going on my blog right now is an event that won't start until April. Misty from The Book Rat and I are hosting Fairy Tale Fortnight, which will run from April 17th through April 30th. What is it you ask? It is 14 days of nothing but fairy tale goodness! We will have reviews, guest bloggers, author interviews, giveaways, and some surprise content thrown in there as well. Basically, it's going to be AMAZING! If you have any interest in fairy tales at all you are not going to want to miss this!

So, other than reading the awesomeness that will be posted each day, what else can you do? Well, if you click this link RIGHT HERE, it will take you to my introductory post, where you can find buttons to include on your blog, and a google doc you can fill out with your favorite fairy tale information, and you can offer us a guest post, if that's something you think you would like to do, and really, we would love to have you! The more interaction the better!

As I mentioned, we also have authors who have agreed to answer some interview questions, among other things, and if you click THIS LINK HERE, it will take you to the initial author introduction page, which includes that authors that have already committed to an interview. If you have a question you would like to ask the authors in general or a specific author, leave us a comment, and we will get it answered for you! Again, the more participation the better!!

Then, as part of my Memory Monday guest feature, Alexa from Pages of Forbidden Love is hosting a giveaway of her Memory! in my blog for a chance to win Battle Dress by Amy Efaw.

There's more coming up soon, so I'd love to have you stay, take a look around, and check back in!:)

Jennifer @ Crazy for Books asked what books we'd like to see made into movies. My response — NONE! I do not do well with book to movie adaptations at all. Out of all the movies I've watched, I can only think of three adaptations I enjoyed if I had read the book first, Holes, because Louis Sachar wrote the screenplay, A Series of Unfortunate Events because I did not like those books, at all so the movie was an improvement and sort of cute, and To Kill a Mockingbird because it's hard not to love Gregory Peck. I kind of feel like a little piece of the book dies every time a movie is made from it. So, I vote for no more!

As to Parajnkee's question, I don't/haven't read a lot of Science Fiction, but I have quite a bit that I plan to read, to try and learn more about the genre. But, out of what I have read, I would say my favorite adult SF would be The Practice Effect by David Brin, and YA would probably be Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl. Both are great stories that I feel like I could read again and again.

It's Friday again, which means that both Parajunkee's View and Crazy for Books are hosting their weekly blog hops. I think it's a lot of fun to participate and love meeting new bloggers and finding new blogs! (And, I just have to say how totally excited I am that it's Friday the 13th. It's like... Awesome!)

If you are new, Welcome! Please leave me a comment with your blog URL so I can return the favor! And, please, enter my current giveaway for Samantha Bee's hilarious memior, I know I am but what are you?. You can find it HERE.

Jennifer asks us a question each week. Today's question is How many books are on your TBR Shelf?
Well, if it was a shelf of books that I actually own needing to be read? Almost 200. However, if it's all the books that I want to read and think, I need to read that someday? Then the number is actually closer to 1400.:) I love books!

Thanks again for dropping by!!

Hey everyone and thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to see you visiting from the hop! This week has been pretty crazy and I haven't posted as much as I would have liked, but next would should be lots of fun, so I'm pretty excited to get back to more regular posts. Next week I'm participating in the Once Upon a Read-A-Thon as well as focusing more time and attention to the Body Image and Self-Perception Month reading and reviewing I'm working on. (See details in my post here.) Feel free to include comments, encouragements, thoughts etc. and check back next week and later this month for more updates!!

To answer Jen's question over at the Crazy for Books blog hop, my favorite authors change regularly. I have several favorites from early childhood (Willo Davis Robers, Mary Downing Hahn etc) some from middle childhood/early teen years (Mary Higgins Clark, Robin McKinley, Cynthia Voigt, Ann Rinaldi etc etc etc) and now that I've reached adulthood, I don't think I can actually decide. I read so many great authors, and am exposed to so many more all the time, that I think my favorite authors are now defined by the best books I've read recently. Wow... Such a hard question! I just love books, which makes (almost) all authors great by association!

Please, feel free to check out my contest, details found here. Feel free to enter! Just write me a short sentence and have fun with it! Even if you don't want to win anything, or aren't interested in the dictionary, I love reading random sentences and would love to see what you can come up with!
And of course, leave me a comment to let me know how you found me, and leave a link back to your blog so I can stop by, check it out and say HI back! It's such a great way to find new blogs! Be reading you soon!

Father of Lies by Ann Turner is set in Colonial Massachusetts, just before the start of the Salem Witch Trials. 14 year old Lidda is struggling to find her place within her family and Salem Village. She's always been different. She's a dreamer who loves to dance beneath the trees and hates the restrictive garb she is required to wear but she lives in a time period that expressly forbids each of these behaviors.

As if her life isn't hard enough, Lidda has suddenly begun hearing the voice of a man inside her head. She doesn't know what's going on, but she knows it isn't good, and more importantly, she knows she cannot tell anyone. Especially when the charges of witchcraft start flying around. Lidda's new internal friend has enabled her to distinguish between truth and lies and her newfound insight is creating problems. She believes that these so-called 'afflicted girls' are nothing but bored and powerless girls spreading lies to gain importance and power for themselves. But, she also knows that if she says anything, the repercussions will be devastating.

As soon as I heard about Father of Lies, I knew I was interested. The Salem Witch Trials has always been one of my favorite periods of history to learn about, and I love historical fiction interpretations of the Witch Trials.

Somehow, when I read the description initially, I picked up on the Salem Witch Trials, and missed the fact that our main character is bi-polar. When I started reading the book, several of Lidda's traits struck me as strange, and I thought to myself that Lidda seemed Manic Depressive (the correct diagnostic term for bi-polar disorder) or in the early stages of Schizophrenia.

I'm going to interrupt my review of the book to make a comment about research. My Bachelor's degree is in Psychology. I found myself questioning the research Ann Turner did on Manic Depression. It wasn't that her information (the symptoms of Lidda) was wrong, exactly, more like incomplete. I felt like her research came more from a google search than legitimate, peer reviewed research. Her cycles of mania and depression were more what popular culture tells you should be happening than what current research says is what happens. I felt like much of Lidda's symptoms are pop cultural misconceptions, and not what is actual research tells us happens. I also felt that the symptoms Lidda demonstrates are more indicative of the beginning stages of Schizophrenia than Manic Depression. I don't want to take up my entire review with the current research on Manic Depression, so if you want to know more, shoot me an email and I'll discuss it with you in more detail.

Anyway, other than my minor annoyances with inconsistencies in Lidda's symptoms, I really enjoyed Turner's perspective on the Salem Witch Trials. I've always believed that the 'afflicted girls' were making it up. There are a lot of theories out there about why these girls made the claims they did, but what has always made the most sense to me is the idea that the girls made up the initial stories to keep themselves out of trouble, and things spiraled out of their control. Once things got so out of hand, the girls knew they couldn't stop it because they would be in even more trouble than the initial trouble, and they were, for the first time in their young lives, important, influential and listened to. These young girls, with ultimately no control over their own lives were able to control and dictate the fate and future of their entire village.

This is very similar to the viewpoint Turner takes, but the eyes in which she has us view that world is incredibly unique. Lidda really is hallucinating. She does experience many symptoms, that if mentioned, would make people believe she was either tormented by a witch, or in league with the devil herself. So, it was very interesting to watch a young girl who was 'afflicted' in the midst of the 'pretenders'. Her perspective and evaluation of the girls who claimed to be tormented by witches was very intuitive and insightful. At one point, while talking to Ann Putnam, long believed by historians to have been the ringleader, and driving force behind the accusations, Ann tells Lidda that she is afraid of what is happening, but her eyes and facial expression instead show excitement. It is the same with each of the girls Lidda talks to. They claim to be afraid, but each of them is clearly caught up in the drama and undeniably excited by the attention and newfound power.

Lidda's interactions with her hallucination are also intriguing, and are somewhat designed to make us question whether it is a legitimate hallucination, or an actual demonic possession. I felt strongly for Lidda. Colonial Salem would have been a difficult and frightening time to live for anyone, but it would have been made far worse by the addition of a disorder that no one understood, that makes you question your own sanity.

Overall, I did truly enjoy this book. As I mentioned, the examination of the afflicted girls by someone who truly did have a mental condition was fascinating, original and well done. I personally would have liked the story better for several reasons if the author had not labeled it 'bi-polar' but it worked very well as a plot device. The characters were strong and their relationships believable and well thought out. The descriptions of live in Salem Village were believable and well thought out.

This book boasts an original main character in a story that's been told before. If you are at all interested in the Salem Witch Trials, I do recommend this book.

(Note, this might not be the actual final cover, but I don't care — I like this one better, so I'm using it.:) )

*Disclaimer: This book was received through Around the World Tours.

Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe is a hard book for me to review. I want to start by saying I did honestly enjoy this book, and I will definitely be watching for what Steph Bowe comes out with in the future. And, there is nothing that I can pinpoint as to why I didn't love this book. But, something wasn't quite there for me. Let me try and explain myself.

Jewel and Sacha are the main characters, and each have their own unique set of problems that basically means they are both pretty messed up.

Jewel watched her older brother drown when she was 8 years old. Her father blamed her for his death, and told her she should never have been born, right before walking out of her life. Her mother, unable to cope, ODed several times on pain killers and anti-depressants, and finally sends Jewel from Australia to Canada to live with her grandparents, because Mom just can't deal. 10 years later, Jewel's grandparents have both died, and because she has no where else to go, she comes back to her childhood home to finish her final year of school.

Sacha was diagnosed with Leukemia as a child, and spent all of his elementary years in and out of the hospital. The Leukemia did finally go into remission, but his parent's marriage was never quite... solid after that. Desperate to regain the attention of her husband, Sacha's mom starts down a path that will eventually kill her. One year later, Sacha is still trying to deal with the death of his mother, his guilt over not being able to help her, the fact that his father is now dating his male art teacher, oh ya... and the Leukemia is back, and the prognosis is terminal.

Sacha decides life is no longer worth living and tries to drown himself in the lake where Jewel's brother died. Jewel often walks near there at night to clear her head, and she sees s boy in the water. Desperate to undo the mistake of her past, she jumps in and saves Sacha's life, something he's not so sure he's grateful for yet.

After Jewel saves him, their paths cross, and they realize they have an awful lot to offer each other. They start spending time together, and each

Now that Sacha has had a little more time to come to terms with his prognosis, he has an interesting view on life. He knows he's going to die, so he desperately wants to use the time he has left living. He struggles with whether or not it's worth it to keep going to school. He wants to tell the people he's closest to about everything, but is scared and doesn't want to be a burden to them. It's shown him that he needs to live life to the fullest, and he tries to do that. Things move faster between him and Jewel than they probably would otherwise, and he seems desperate to get in as much time with her as possible.

Although both Jewel and Sacha are supposed to be the main characters, and the story is told in alternating view points, I really felt it was Sacha who carried the story, Sacha would is most likely to touch my heart and teach me something. There is a lot to learn from a boy living out what may possibly be his final year of life.

Jewel does learn a lot during the week or so we spend with them. Her only goal in life is to be homeless in New York or London, and draw. She doesn't want to sell her art, or even show anyone. She draws for herself and that's enough for her. She decided a long time ago that she is going to be alone forever, and aside from periodic moments of staggering loneliness, she is content with the path she has chosen for herself. Until she meets Sacha. And then everything she has thought about herself and her future begin to change.

There were a few side 'issues' in the book that felt odd to me, and I think this is where my main disconnect from the book comes in. In the interest of avoiding any more spoilers than I've already given, I won't go into details, but there were some issues that felt like they were brought up, just to be issues, or additional conflict that didn't really go anywhere, like the phone call for her mother that Jewel answers at the end of the book. And, how easily Jewel resolved her conflict with her mother. I honestly felt that it was a 'kiss (or hug) and make-up' moment. Nothing was resolved, but life is suddenly grand.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this book, aside from the great characterization present in Sacha and Jewel was the ending. It's like a big question mark at the end of a page, but not in a bad way. The story resolved what needed to be resolved, but didn't spoon-feed us all the answers. It left much to the imagination and decision of the reader, and I think that was a wise way to let their story end.

Have any of you read this book? Did anyone else have a similar or completely different reaction? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

So, it's Friday once again, which means it's time to participate in the blog 'hop' at both Crazy for Books and Parajunkee's View. I have a lot of fun with this each week, meeting new bloggers and this week should be even better!

Jennifer asks us a question each week, and this week, she wants to know if we judge books by their covers. I have to say — Absolutely. While the cover doesn't often affect how I felt about the book itself once I've picked it up and read it, the cover is definitely a part of what makes me initially interested in picking the book up. If I think the cover is ugly or atrocious, I can't promise I'm going to try reading it.

What about you?! I'd love for anyone stopping by from the hop (or stopping by in general, actually) to leave me a comment, letting me know that you stopped by. And please, include a link so that I can return the favor! I love finding new blogs!

Also, this weekend, Becky at Escapism through Books is having a semi-personal read-a-thon and has invited us to join in. I need a little bit of motivation to actually start books right now, (I'm fine once I've started reading, but it's been hard for me this last week or 2 to find the motivation to actually pick up that new book to start. Hopefully, this will help!) She's trying to work through her large TBR pile (and I can definitely relate to that!) and is using Labor Day weekend to get some reading done! If anyone would like to join us, head on over to hear site and link up! If nothing else, encouragement is always welcomed!! My goal is to get at least 4 books read this weekend. It's not a ton, but I don't want to push myself too hard right now. We'll see how it goes... !

Thanks so much everyone for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend!

Full post to come and welcome. I'm in a rush I didn't think I'd be in when I signed up today for the hop, so I'll fill this out more later (promise!) but thanks for hopping by! Leave me a link and I'll head over to check you out!

;)

Ahem. Now that I'm back with a little more time, I can say Hello! properly. So, if you are visiting, thanks for stopping by! It's nice to have you. Please, feel free to click the right sidebar links and enter one or both of my current giveaways. It's always lovely to have lots of entries!:)

So, again I would like to thank Jennifer at Crazy for Books and Rachel at Parajunkee's View for hosting this hop. It's always a lot of fun, and I really like the chance to meet new bloggers and expand my horizons a little.

To answer Jennifer's question today — How many blogs do you follow — I say, not as many as I read, although I DO read every blog I follow. I add a few new ones every week through the hop and I like to see what everyone has to say.

So, leave me a comment and I'll come take a look at your blog!

Earlier today, we had a lovely guest post from author Zoë Marriott, in which we hinted at a delicious little prize pack for you that has Ashley and I drooling...
Check it out:

The Swan Kingdom

When Alexandra’s mother is slain by an unnatural beast, shadows fall on the once-lush kingdom. Too soon the widowed king is entranced by a cunning stranger — and in one chilling moment Alexandra’s beloved brothers disappear, and she is banished to a barren land. Rich in visual detail, sparked by a formidable evil, and sweetened with familial and romantic love, here is the tale of a girl who discovers powerful healing gifts — and the courage to use them to save her ailing kingdom. ~&~
Shadows on the Moon

Suzume is a shadow-weaver. She can create mantles of darkness and light, walk unseen in the middle of the day, change her face. She can be anyone she wants to be. Except herself.
Suzume died officially the day the Prince's men accused her father of treason. Now even she is no longer sure of her true identity.
Is she the girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother’s new husband, Lord Terayama? A lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama’s kitchens? Or Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands?
Everyone knows Yue is destined to capture the heart of a prince. Only she knows that she is determined to use his power to destroy Terayama.
And nothing will stop her. Not even love.

***Giveaway***
1 lucky winner will win a signed paperback of The Swan Kingdom AND a signed ARC of Shadows on the Moon!
To enter: AND leave a comment answering this question: If you could retell any fairy tale, what would you retell and why?
+ 1 for spreading the word and/or commenting on Zoë's guest post
Ends May 5th May 8th!
Open Internationally!

Please note: this giveaway is available on The Book Rat and Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing. Only one entry is vaild; multiple entries will be deleted.
Good luck!

Today's interview is with Zoë Marriott, author of The Swan Kingdom (read Ashley's review) , Daughter of the Flames (which Ashley also loved) and the upcoming Shadows on the Moon (which both Misty and Ashley are eagerly awaiting). Zoë has known that she wanted to be a writer since she was finished reading her first book; The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. She thinks she was about eight, but she decided on being a writer and hasn't changed her mind since then. And boy, are we glad that she didn't! Help us welcome Zoë to the blog today!!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Swan Kingdom is my favorite retelling of The Six Swans/The Wild Swans that I have come across. You talk about what inspired you to write this one down in your guest post. I loved what you did with the story to make it your own, but your interpretation of the ending to this story is largely responsible for how much I love this book. Without spoiling anything, can you talk about that? Can you share where or how that idea came to you?

So hard not to spoil!! Argh! Okay... well... basically, in the original version of the story, I didn't think the heroine really got a very happy ending. Or enough credit! She's clearly an extraordinarily brave and strong young woman, loyal the her brothers to the end despite all the suffering she's gone through — but she gets stuck with this prince who pretty much *kidnapped* her, and then was going to burn her because he thought she was a witch? That's true love for you, right? And she never gets justice for the wrong done to her family by her stepmother, or any closure, or even to see the land of her birth again! I suppose a few hundred years ago women weren't supposed to care about thing like that, but I was sure that for someone like her, the fate of the people she had left behind much have weighed on her mind very heavily. And then, it also made sense to me that in order to reverse such a powerful curse on her brothers through almost nothing but willpower and knitting, she must have had some fairly strong magical power of her own! So I wanted to try and bring those elements into the resolution of the story and bring everything full circle.

Did you have the changes you brought to the story in mind before you started writing, or were these things that came to you after?

Wow, that's a good question! I think some of them were always there, because they grew from the questions I had about the story — the questions that made me want to retell it. I mean, for example: just who was the mother of these royal children? In fairytales the real mother nearly always gets erased in the first line and replaced by a wicked plot-point. But it seemed to me that, particularly in The Wild Swans, where the father is pretty much a non-entity and yet the children are remarkable, that the mysterious, dead mother must have been remarkable too. So I always new that in my version the mother and particularly her death would be significant and happen 'on-screen' as it were.
In other cases, the changes to the story were due to things that happened to be marinading in my brain at the time. When I was working on the first draft of the story I was watching a BBC documentary series about British pre-history in which there was a lot of information about the hunter-gatherers who built all our long barrows and stone circles. The experts talked about ancestor worship, and about the way that cave art seemed to show animal and human spirts all together, as part of nature. But then as people started to farm and develop agriculture and a more sedentary life, the idea of ownership and kingdoms appeared, and there was a massive shift in the way people lived. Did the hunter-gatherers disappear? Or were they absorbed into the farmer population? So those ideas worked their way into the book, and gave me an interesting and, I think, unique magical system and backstory for the Kingdom.
Is there a fairy tale that you just need to retell, but are waiting to retell, or holding off for now? What are some of the other fairy tales you've considered retelling? Are there any fairy tales that you absolutely do not want to retell?
Sooo many! I've always wanted to retell Beauty and the Beast, but I'm horribly intimidated by Robin McKinley's legacy. I mean, how is anyone supposed to live up to THAT? And there are a lot of less famous stories, for example, from Japanese mythology, that I have ideas about. The one I've never really been interested in is Sleeping Beauty — there's so little for the princess to do, and the idea of falling conveniently in love with your saviour bugs me. But I'd never say never. I always hated Cinderella too, until she started whacking me on the back of the head with a pick-axe demanding I tell her story properly!
You've also written a non-fairy tale story, Daughter of the Flames. How does the writing and the research differ between the two genres? Which do you prefer writing? Do you prefer creating a completely new story and creating the world to fit the story, or taking an existing story at making it your own?

This isn't a very interesting answer, but I can't really put my finger on any significant differences in the process between writing an original fantasy and a fairytale relling. Possibly because I don't stick very closely to the specific events of my fairytale frameworks (as you may have noticed!) which means I still need to come up with my own plot, my own characters, my own emotional conflicts and arcs. Probably more importantly, I don't really think that writing a fairytale retelling is a get-out-of-jail card when it comes to setting. It's easy to slip into that non-specific, Eurocentric, Tolkien-esque world we all know so well. But that is a thin, bland sort place where I don't have much fun as a writer. Creating the world of Shadows on the Moon, for instance, required as much (actually, far more!) thought and research than the world of Daughter of the Flames.
Your most recent book, Shadows on the Moon comes out this July, and I'm crazy excited for it. It's a Cinderella story, but she is most assuredly not your typical Cinderella. You mention why you wrote her this way in your guest post, and I am dying to read about it. There are many fairy tales with rather weak heroines. Are there any other stories that you would like to retell to give the heroines a chance to be strong?
Actually, I think the female characters in fairytales tend to get a bit of a bad rep, overall. In a lot of original folk stories, young woman are cunning, resourceful, brave and loyal. Often men are the weak ones who need to be rescued. Look at Janet in Tam Lin, Kai and Gerda in the Snow Queen, the heroine of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, all those clever young witches and woodcutter's daughters! And the powerful, fearsome baddies are often women too. The problem, I think, is that the Victorians didn't approve of all these bold, adventuring women, and they cut their parts down and sometimes out entirely, in order to make fairytales 'fit' for their children. Not many years later, Disney carried on this process by producing a great many films in which being sweet, obedient and passive (and supernaturally attractive to forest animals) were the heroine's only traits. Later films, like Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, did allow the heroines to have SOME personality — but their number one desire was nearly always to escape from their fathers so they could find true love, and their princes were the ones with the claws/swords.
It's really only very lately that we're seeing books and films that give women back their original, strong roles (Tangled, for example!) and I'm very happy to be a part of that process.
Silly/Random Questions:
~Rapunzel is named after lettuce; what odd thing would you be named after if you were in a fairy tale?

Pencils, probably. I always have one on me somewhere! Princess Pen... now, why does that sound familiar?:)
~ Using that name, give us a line from your life as a fairy tale: "Princess Pen cracked open her stepmother's ribcage and cut out the woman's horribly blackened, twisted, yet still-beating heart; she then replaced it with an artificial one which she had grown within a local farmer's pig, and closed up the incision."
[Misty likes Princess Pen already... ]
~Best fairy tale villain and why? The wicked fairy from Sleeping Beauty's christening. She's really the only interesting character in the thing!
~Favorite tale from childhood? Favorite tale as an adult? Least favorites? Childhood favourite was definitely The Wild Swans, and I have to be boring and say it STILL is. Least favourite used to be Cinderella — now Sleeping Beauty.
~If you could be any fairy tale character, or live through any fairy tale "happening," who/what would it be? I wouldn't. Are you crazy? Those stories are full of utter loonies, and even Princess Pen isn't mightier than the sword.
~Would you rather: - — eat magic beans or golden eggs? Golden eggs. With a little smoked salmon, on toast points. Maybe they would finally allow me to get a tan. - — style 50ft long hair or polish 100 pairs of glass slippers? My hair is actually waist-length right now, and I'm about to have it cut off from sheer annoyance, so I'd have to go with the slippers! - — have a fairy godmother or a Prince Charming? Fairy godmother — and once you've read Shadows on the Moon, you will know why! [Ashley says — SO mean to tease us this way when you already know how badly I want to read it! :) ] Fill-in-the-Gaps, story 1: Three Wishes
The strange little man had offered Princess Pen three wishes. But what to wish for? The obvious answer was world peace , but that would never do, for obvious reasons. Princess Pen wasn't naive enough to think that people would ever stop fighting for long. And unlimited money for stem cell research was out of the question, since Princess Pen's wicked stepmother had outlawed it.

The Princess squandered the first two wishes on aiding earthquakes sufferers and cooling down some nuclear reactors, and really needed to make the 3rd one count. There was only one thing to do: he/she would ask her genetically enhanced pig, Francis.

So early in the morning, the Princess set off for her lab where the porcine Francine lived. It was no easy task getting there; Princess Pen went through three security searches and a full body CT scan, and nearly lost hope of ever reaching Francis and making her final wish before she had to go off and do her rounds at Mount Eraser Hospital. Her stepmother's security measures were really getting out of hand.

But in all good time, Princess Pen reached the door of the one person who could help. With great trepidation, (for Francis could be somewhat cranky in the mornings if he hadn't had his coffee) Pen knocked and waited. Finallly, Francis opened the door with one handsomely trimmed trotter and peered out. “Yes?” he said.

Pen launched into the story of the little old man and his three wishes, but Francis merely held up a hand and said “It’s simple, really. I’m surprised you wasted your time coming all the way out here — you must wish for your wicked stepmother to agree to heart surgery so you can change her blackened, wizened heart for one which is generous and free of bigotry and unreasoning fear.”

Pen was baffled. Wish for something so simple? Not magic League-Boots to travel the world, or a wheel to spin flax into gold so that she could set up an inoculation project in the slums? However, it wasn't long before Pen realized that if her government was run by someone who actually had a working heart all the other things might one day be possible. So the Princess did the only thing she could, and wished for her stepmother to finally heed her pleas to accept a new heart.

Whether it was the right choice, the world will never know, but for Princess Pen it meant freedom from a great deal of unnecessary red tape in the long run, and the increased well being of everyone within the kingdom. And with all of the wishes gone, Pen lived busily ever after.
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Thanks for stopping by Zoë!! We're so glad to have you!
Hope you guys liked the guest post. If you want to fill in one of the stories for yourself, see this post.
And make sure to head over to our awesome guest post from Zoë, and enter to win our prize pack of Zoë's books!

We all know that there are myriads of great (and not so great) books that have been turned into movies, plays, animated cartoons, TV shows and etc. etc. etc. I always roll my eyes at people who respond to the question — How did you like that book? With some variation of, "Oh ya, I loved it! The movie was so great!" Gag. Really?! You just said that?! You just smeared the name of literature by telling me a book was great because you liked the movie?! (Ahem...) Well, the other day I shamefacedly realized that I was guilty of this myself. (Insert horrified gasp here) One of my fondest memories of Christmas, most beloved childhood memories and in my top 3 favorite Christmas stories was missing something...

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is one of the most recognized, well known, and cherished Christmas stories in existence. There are numerous versions and adaptations for both children and adults, in animation, live action or produced live on stage. You can find it serious or slightly comical or even as a musical. Some follow the original script closely while others use only a loose interpretation of the story. Whatever versions you've seen, most people are very familiar with the plight of the Cratchit family and Tiny Tim, the cold, miserly heart of Ebenezer Scrooge, and the eerie spirits who visit him during the night of Christmas Eve.

However familiar we are with the story, how many of us have actually read the book? I imagine not very many. It's included on BBC's The Big Read and I wonder how many people include it because of the story rather than the book itself. So, to avoid this horrible reader faux pas, I decided to pick up this favored story and read it for myself. It's a short book, more of a novella than a novel, and I already knew that I loved the story.

I did really enjoy reading this book and I'm glad I can now say that I've actually read it. However, I must admit that I am more in love with the idea of this book than its reality. It's a wonderful story, with a wonderful message and wonderful characters, but I didn't have the same emotional connection to the written story that I do to the various productions I've seen. I know that this is more due to past experiences and the relationship it has to my childhood than anything negative about the book. I loved the book and will definitely reread it in the future, but it's just not the same as watching Scrooge, the Musical or The Muppets.

The book places more emphasis on the characters and the realizations they make than just the story of Scrooge. Most movie or live productions emphasize Scrooge's discovery of the Christmas Spirit, and becoming a more generous person. I love that, and it is a very important part of the story. However, I love that reading the book offers more insight into why Scrooge became the way he did and the relationships he had with those around him.

It is a great story to invite the Christmas spirit and remember the true meaning of Christmas, but it is also a cautionary tale. Be careful the emphasis you place on money and things. It is usually more important to focus on the people in your lives than the things in your life and this story, no matter how you experience it is a great reminder of that.

Photos courtesy of Gary Benson, a scenic designer. For more images and more information, you can find him on Webshots here and he also blogs at Bascombe Mania. If you are interested in his photography, please contact him through one of the links provided.

With us today, we have Mette Ivie Harrison, author of The Princess and the Hound, The Princess and the Bear, The Princess and the Snowbird, Mira, Mirror and the upcoming Tris and Izzie. Her bio tells us that her name, Mette is Danish and when spoken, rhymes with 'Betty'. She currently lives in Utah with her husband and five children. And, she tells us 'I write during nap time, or at 4 in the morning, or while the broccoli for dinner is burning. Whenever Ig et a chance. I love to write the kind of books that I love to read. And I love to discover what it going to happen next, just like a reader would.' As if being a writer isn't enough, she also participates in triathlons.

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I wrote the first draft of The Princess and the Hound in 1997, and in that version, it was a retelling of the story of The Princess and the Pea. Doesn’t sound likely, does it? What happened as I was writing the first scene, in which the bedraggled princess knocks on the door of the castle to escape from a rainstorm, was that she came in with this hound. This big, black hound whom she would not let anyone take away from her. It was obvious they were very close, that their relationship was not like any other hound and girl. And Prince George, who told the story from the first, could not stop thinking about this princess and this hound. He had to find out the mystery behind their relationship.

So, it was a mystery and a romance from the beginning, and it was based on a fairy tale. But as I rewrote it many, many times over the next eight years before it was accepted for publication, it took on its current hints of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, I thought of it as a new fairy tale, a story that would make the reader sure that this was a fairy tale she had missed reading from the original Grimm’s collections, but in fact was my own invention. It wasn’t until my editor pointed out the hidden Beauty and the Beast that I realized she was right. There are many fairy tales based on Beauty and the Beast, however, and it is only if you look for it that you will see that as a backstory.

Some readers have complained that The Princess and the Hound isn’t a retelling at all. Well, it’s not like any other retelling you’ve probably ever read. I think my brain is just twisty this way, and as soon as I hear a story, I start thinking of the way I would tell it, and by the time I actually tell it well enough that it could be published, it doesn’t look very much like the original. I got some of the same complaints from readers of Mira, Mirror. If you want a retelling of Snow White, you might not be happy with Mira, Mirror, because Snow White appears in one sentence and then disappears. It’s the story of the mirror and the evil queen before Snow White and after. It’s my own story, one only I could tell.

I remember an experience at a writing conference I went to in 2010. Candace Fleming was there and she was teaching a section on writing historical non-fiction. She had just finished writing The Lincolns, a wonderful biography of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, and she told us about a bit of historical fact. Mary Todd had been stopped by a night watchman while running by the streets of Atlanta in the wee hours of the morning. The night watchman thought she would only be running toward an elopement, but in fact, she was going to an early morning poetry class, held at that hour so that the oppressive heat of the summer did not bother the students. We were supposed to work on telling only the facts of the story, adding in no details we could not verify. This was something I could not do. Really. I just wanted to go off in all directions on my own. In fact, I started working on a novel called The Asylum after this workshop, using the idea of a girl sent to an insane asylum (as Mary Todd Lincoln was sent by her own son after Abraham’s assassination) for no reason other than that she would not do as she was told.

Tris and Izzie, which will be out in the fall with Egmont, is a project I have been thinking about for a long time, as well. I studied German Literature in college and have a PhD in it. I read Tristan and Isolde in the original middle high German in grad school, and also listened to Wagner’s opera of it. It’s one of the greatest love stories of all time, but it’s also very frustrating to me. It doesn’t have very modern sensibilities about women, and I object to the adultery scheme. Plus the ending is wretched, not romantic at all. And I hate love triangles. So why in the world would I choose to do a retelling of that story? Well, the challenge of it always gets me excited. I feel like I tend to retell fairy tales I hate more often than ones that I like, because I want to fix them. Tris and Izzie is my “fixed” version of the original. I get to play with a love triangle, but in a way that I don’t find objectionable.

I often find that when I read a standard romance with a love triangle, I want to smack all three characters around. What are those two hot guys doing, waiting around to be chosen? They need to get a life, both of them, and dump her. Plus, what is her problem? Doesn’t she know she can’t hold guys on a string like that? If she seriously can’t choose, then she’s too stupid and young to have a romance right now anyway and she should go to an all girls’ school until she grows up. So, in my version of the love triangle, you can imagine things are a little different. I don’t want to give it all away, but I hope readers like my modern take.

Tris and Izzie is also the first time I’ve had a chance to try out a humorous slant on a retelling. It’s not slapstick funny, but Izzie tells the story and she has an ironic twang to her depiction of events that I think works well. There’s lots of action and big save the world stuff going on, but she can also make fun of herself and what’s going on at the same time. It may not feel like it’s as serious a love story or a meditation on life as The Princess and the Hound, but there’s some serious stuff hidden in there, too. I mention how I feel about love triangles, about girls who can’t choose who they love, and about girls who are fighting over the same guy. Also, what secrets do to relationships. And what has happened to our scientific world in which we have no sense of magic anymore. Those are some of the big themes that I think are touched on, while the readers are having a good time reading.

I've got a new website up: www.trisandizzie. com which I’m trying to promote. There is a “Dear Izzie” vlog there, where “Izzie” answers questions for the romantically and magically challenged. So I will give a free book away to the best question posted here in comments, with the understanding that all questions can be used on my blog. Hope you have fun!

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What a wonderful post Mette! It was awesome hearing more of the story behind the book. And Tris and Izzie looks amazing! Can't wait to read it!! Isn't that cover gorgeous?!

Alright everyone! You heard her! Go to www.trisandizzie. com and come up with some questions for Izzie for your chance to win a copy of The Princess and the Hound!

Be sure to leave your questions in the comments section of this post!!
Contest ends May 5th. May 8th!

The Swan Kingdom by Zoë Marriott is one of my favorite fairy tale retellings of all time. I love it. Zoë has taken the old tale, The Wild Swans and made it completely her own. She wrote us an absolutely lovely guest post that talks about the book far better than I could, so I'm going to link it here.

Alexandra is the young daughter of a distant and disappointing father and a warm, loving and magical mother. Her father is disinterested in her life, preferring to spend his time and attentions on his three sons, all older than Alexandra. Her mother teaches her about the enaid, the life magic that flows through the land, the growing things and Alexandra herself. The kingdom of Alexandra's family is rich with the magic and flourishes, while outlying kingdoms have destroyed theirs. But then tragedy strikes, madness and evil take over and Alexandra must find strength within herself. She is no longer able to rely on her mother or brothers for strength, support and protection. Now, it is up to her to save everything.

Alexandra is one of my very favorite heroines in all the fairy tale retellings I have read. She is so real. She is strong, brave, intensely loyal, and loving. But, she also begins the story meek and accepting. She is told what to do, and she does it. Sometimes, this is a good thing. But not always. And definitely not when the great evil you believe killed your mother has taken on the form of a beguiling female, betwitched your father, destroyed your beloved brothers, ensnared the entire kingdom, and is now shipping you off to a neighboring kingdom to live with an aunt you barely know exists.

In her defense, Alexandra was drugged, poisoned and unconscious while she was being shipped off to a neighboring country, but still. Once there, she accepts that this is now the place for her, and she does nothing. She does not search for her brothers, waiting instead for them to come find her, she does not question her aunt's rule beyond sneaking out to the beach each night, and she does not try to return home to stop the evil Zella whom she knows is destroying her kingdom and her people.

While living with her aunt, Alexandra feels stifled. The enaid is not strong her, as it is in her kingdom and being indoors all the time wears her down. So, each night she slips out her window and walks along the beach, and each night she meets up with Gabriel, a young man vacationing on the coast with his family. They talk and laugh each night until dawn, learning of each other, and filling the empty spaces life has left within. Alexandra is one of my favorite heroines and Gabriel is one of my favorite love interests. He never tries to steal the show, never upstages Alexandra. This is her story, and she must live it, but her is there for her. He is her friend in a troubling time when she has no one, and they slowly grow from friends into the hope of something more while walking along the beach. When the day comes he must leave, and return to his home, your heart weeps with Alexandra's and cracks with Gabriel's. And you hope, oh you hope that they will be able to meet again soon.

The time spent with her aunt is somewhat a state of limbo for Alexandra. She knows that something must be done, but is content to wait for her brave and strong brothers return. But then Zella, her evil step-mother, sends people to collect Alexandra and bring her home. On the way, Alexandra realizes that she is enchanted and dying, and to return home would be to go to her death. And so, she escapes and begins the struggle to rescue her brothers and save her kingdom. And she leaves behind the meek Alexandra who follows orders blindly.

There is so many amazing sections of this book. There is so much to say about the enaid, the circle of the ancestors, the curse Alexandra discovers on her brothers, Zella, and, of course, Gabriel. I don't have the space here to tell you everything that I love about this book. There is so much awesome in this book that it would be impossible to fit it all into one review. I know that my review isn't doing the book or the characters justice, but I want you to know that it is truly a book worth reading. It is all the standard 'review' words (compelling, captivating, magical, stunning) but it is more than that too. It is a book that fills you up, that gives meaning to the mundane.

Do not all of us wish we were like Alexandra? That we had power far greater than even we understand? There is a scene in the book where Zella confronts Alexandra at the base of the mountain of the Circle of Ancestors. Zella is there to kill Alexandra and it is the first time we see Zella without the pretense of innocence and fragility. But Alexandra defies her. And in so doing, she realizes that she has power and that if anyone is to save her kingdom and her brothers, it shall be her. Watching her grow and mature, both in life and in magic is empowering, heartening and wonderful.

Do not let my lack of eloquence deter you from reading this book. Ignore my stumbling attempts to express how much I love this book and grasp the love and delight that is beneath them. And, then, go read this book! (in my blog for a chance to win a signed copy, along with a signed ARC of her upcoming novel, Shadows on the Moon!)

Zel by Donna Jo Napoli is a retelling of Rapunzel, as the name would suggest and this may very well be one of the most disturbing and dark rooted fairy tale retellings I have ever read. Part of what unsettled me so much about this story is that Mother genuinely loves Zel but it is an extremely unhealthy love. Her whole world is wrapped up around her daughter and she is willing to do anything to keep that close mother-daughter bond intact and keep Zel with her always. To me, abuse is always scarier and creepier when the abuser is claiming love as the motivator.

It is terrifying how easily love is corrupted into obsession and this story gives two examples of this. Mother loves Zel and desperately wants her to remain with her forever. She does love Zel, but there are other, far darker reasons for her desire to keep Zel close. Then there is Konrad. He meets Zel at the market place and is captivated by her eyes and is fascinated by her. She leaves before he can figure out who she is and he becomes obsessed with finding her again. His days are spent searching for her, his money spent paying townsfolk for tiny tidbits of information and his thoughts are always full of her.

This is a story of obsession, of twisted, tangled love and of our deepest desires of what dark things we are willing to do to fulfill our deepest wishes. And more than anything it is a story of madness and all the many forms it may manifest itself. Never in any other version of Rapunzel have I seen madness as a part of the story. But if you think about what Rapunzel's life must be like, locked away in a high tower for years, seeing no one but her mother once a day, it is a wonder no one has used madness to tell her story before.

I read this book for the first time a few years ago, and didn't quite know what to think. When I read it, I had mostly read the traditional retellings, which stay in the realm of 'happily ever after' and 'Once upon a time'. I had not had much personal experience with the darker fairy tales beyond the original Grimm's versions and I was not really prepared for this book. But I liked it, and it intrigued me, made me want to read more and understand deeper. Zel is a story that even in the happy moments is tinged with an undercurrent, at times both subtle and overt, of pain and darkness just out of reach.

This retelling is haunting. It is darkness. It is madness. It is eerie and chilling and dark. And yet, it also, somehow hopeful. It is a compelling read, one that makes you think, makes you wonder, makes you question. But it is not one that makes you sorry for the reading.

Eilis O’Neal’s debut novel, The False Princess, isn’t directly based on a fairy tale, but has that “feel” to it as you read. It’s about a princess who finds out that for the past sixteen years, she was a decoy for the real princess, who had been cursed at birth. It’s the complete reversal of tales where young maidens discover that they are princesses. Full of its own magic and lore, this novel has already been nominated by The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) for its annual Teens’ Top Ten Award. For a review of The False Princess, please visit A Backwards Story or Books From Bleh to Basically Amazing

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1) What were your favorite fairy tales growing up? What drew you to them?
I loved Beauty and the Beast and The Snow Queen. The first because I liked the fact that Beauty saw through the Beast’s exterior to his inner self, and the second for its atmosphere. And, though I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites, I had a very strong reaction to Bluebeard. We had a book of one-hundred fairy tales, which my mother would read to me from, one a night, and I don’t think I slept for two nights after hearing Bluebeard for the first time. I can still recall the picture that went with it of the wife opening the door, and it still makes me shiver. It frightened me and creeped me out, and I would read it whenever I wanted a good scare.

2) Did any fairy tales influence you when writing THE FALSE PRINCESS?
In a way, you could say that all the fairy tales in which common girls either become princesses or in which princess are raised in obscurity as common girls influenced The False Princess. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are probably the two most famous of these types of fairy tale, though they certainly aren’t alone. Having grown up with their stories and having had them in my imagination for so long is part of what made me ask the question that lead to The False Princess: What if you grew up thinking you were a princess and then found out you weren’t? I wouldn’t have gotten to this reversal without first having read it the other way around.

3) Was it hard coming up with your own lore when you began world-building for TFP? How did you bring everything together?
It’s always such a balance when you’re world-building. With The False Princess, there are quite a few elements of the world—the oracle of the Nameless God, the way magic works, the tension between commoners and nobles—that are essential to the plot. The reader needs to understand them and how they work to really get into the book. But TFP also has heavy doses of mystery, adventure, and romance, and so the pacing has to move along at a pretty good clip. So it was sometimes a challenge to balance fleshing out the world and its rules and keeping the book moving. I want the information to be there, but in a way that feels natural and keeps the book going, rather than a ten page diatribe on exactly how magic functions in Thorvaldor. So that was what I tried to concentrate on: getting the needed information into the book in a natural way.

4) What are some of your favorite fairy tale inspired novels and/or authors?
I love Robin McKinley’s Beauty—I’m still so jealous of the Beast’s library in that book, which contains books that haven’t been written in Beauty’s time. Edith Pattou’s East, which retells East of the Sun, West of the Moon, has a prime place on my fairy tale shelf. Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow’s anthologies of fairy tale retellings (the first one is Snow White, Blood Red) are must-reads. Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl is a favorite, and recently, I’ve gotten really attached to Malinda Lo’s ASH, which is a very powerful and wonderfully written twist on Cinderella.

5) If you could live out any fairy tale, what would it be and why?
Probably Beauty and the Beast. It has so many elements that appeal to me: the enchanted castle, the mysterious curse, the slow building of trust and love between two people. And, of course, in many modern retellings, a girl who loves books!

6) Will you be writing any more novels that read like something out of a fairy tale? Can you tell us anything about your upcoming work?
I think so. It’s a feeling that I love in other books, and one that I like to cultivate in my own work. I’d like to do an actual fairy tale retelling myself someday—I just have to figure out which fairy tale I want to do most!

As for what I’m working on now, it has a bit of a more modern feel than TFP or many fairy tales, though by “modern,” I mean Regency England. Still, there are some definite fairy tale tropes in it. I’m going to be coy and not say much more than that, as these are still early days, and I tend to lose momentum if I talk about works in progress too much.

7) What's your favorite Disney rendition of a fairy tale? What makes it so special?
I feel a little like a broken record, but I would have to say Beauty and the Beast. It came out when I was in 6th grade and having a really hard time socially. I felt very alienated from kids my own age, and I spent a lot of time alone with my books. So to see a girl who loved to read and who was considered odd by the people around her be strong, fall in love, and have someone fall in love with her meant a lot to me.

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We want to thank Bonnie for sending this interview our way for FTF, and thank Eilis for stopping by and chatting! Make sure to leave them some comment love!

First, let me thank both Lori at The Next Best Book Blog and author M. Clifford. Lori hosted a contest to win a copy of M. Clifford's new book, The Book. I won.

Prior to reading The Book, every dystopian society I've come across in literature has been the result of a major apocalypse, huge earth changing war or a major catastrophe. It is then relatively easy for this "utopian" government to step in and take over because anarchy reigns and the people are in desperate need of some order. Even a highly controlling government sounds great when faced with the absolute lack of one. This gives most dystopian literature a feeling of separation from reality. We can see the similarities to our culture and society and hopefully avoid that future, but we breathe easier because we know it can't reach that level of atrocity without that apocalyptic moment. And, if we are faced with the apocalypse, we probably have other things on our minds. The major disaster that destroys most of the world keeps us at a disconnect that allows me to sleep comfortably at night knowing my government is solid, even though it isn't perfect. M. Clifford refuses to allow me that small comfort. The government who orchestrated the introduction and infiltration of this insidious electronic reading device is my own United States Government, still bound by the amazingly brilliant United States Constitution. This adds a new element of fear to his book. With all other works of dystopian literature, I am able to take comfort in the knowledge that my government would never be reduced to those extremes, and that I can take comfort in the protections, securities and liberties written into and guaranteed by the Constitution. Clifford takes that away from me, and instead shows me a world where my government is responsible for the systematic destruction of the printed word and ultimately our freedom of speech, the press and expression. I shudder. I cringe. But, it forces me to think.

Aside from uniquely blaming our current government on the horrific situation our hero finds himself in, the best part about this book was the love of literature that simply flowed from the pages. This book is one that truly speaks to lovers of the written (and printed) word. The way Clifford drafts his character's discussion, description and handling of books is reverent, almost sacred. The imagery he uses to describe these character's first experiences with an actual printed book gave me goosebumps. There were numerous allusions, both blatant and indirect to a wide variety of literature. He quoted multiple sources ranging from popular fiction to fairy tales to classics. He used them as inspiration for parts of his story, but managed to do it in a way that doesn't feel as if he is 'borrowing' their ideas in substitute for his own. His written voice is unique enough, even when directly quoting sources, that the words almost felt like entirely new ideas. If you take away nothing else from this book, remember that books are important and have the ability to transform your world and your life. Love them, treasure them, but most importantly, read them.

In this novel, M. Clifford has gifted the reader with both the horrors of a nightmare and the majestic beauty of a dream. His book begins with the words "Don't read the book". But it's more than that. If you read between the lines and apply it to right now, we can instead say, Don't let others think for you. Don't follow blindly. Question everything.

Here it is everyone! A special thank you to author M. Clifford for taking the time to write up a post just for us. Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts!

Most of the time when people read my novel, THE BOOK (www.dontreadthebook.com) , they come away proud of the passion they always had inside for the written word and for storytelling. Some people close the novel with a fresh desire to read more paperbacks or to buy their books from used bookstores and sign the inside cover so that someone will always know that they owned that book and loved those pages. A lot of people ask me what my intentions were in writing THE BOOK and there are many. To follow through on my promise to give you a unique guest blog post, I'll touch on the one motivation I haven't discussed very much — the redemption of the storyteller. In my novel, I definitely glorify story and the ability to read it freely from an honest source. Reading is a private and very personal act. Authors are who they are because they love telling stories. Creating an arc and then another arc and then another until they reached the end of a much larger one that began somewhere in the beginning. I'm an intentionally self-published independent author. I've never sought representation from a major publishing house or even attempted to get an agent beyond a few query letters six years back. I'm sort of a rare breed in that I am passionately supportive of the indie author and I encourage them to get their work read, edited and uploaded so that story-lovers can keep finding things to read. Not everyone is a storyteller, even when they've written a book, and that's sort of the negative element to the benefit of being able to self-publish. Stay with me because I'll loop this back to the beginning and it'll all makes sense in a minute. I have often read books that are waiting for me to open them the moment I enter a bookstore. Stacks upon stacks of shiny covers waiting. I know hundreds of thousands have been printed and I almost feel a responsibility to take one for that fact alone. And then, when I get home and start reading, I have felt by chapter four that I've already listened to four different voices. Three other people have written a few sentences here and a paragraph there. I'm sure of it. Although publishing houses do a good service for the written word by printing and distributing and marketing high-quality stories, they are a still a business. A for-profit business. They will alter a story if need be, or convince an author to do so, simply to sell more copies. I wouldn't be surprised if there are authors today that, after submitting their work, get a reply like, "Solid book, but please make all your characters vampires. Send it back and we've got a deal!" That is obviously an outrageous, dramatic example. My point is that altering an original work is akin to someone being interrupted during the telling of a campfire story. I included a similar scene in my book, sans interruption. Campfire storytelling is a wonderful pastime where novels begin and the mind of the creative person is sparked toward a future in writing. The desire to tantalize and entice people around them, to get them to the edge of their log as they wait to find out where the man with the hook on his arm is hiding. Now picture this budding author telling his story, only to be interrupted by someone else at camp who thinks everyone needs to know that "one of the characters was also a vampire. Okay... go ahead now. Finish the story." Even though plenty of readers could find that to be more beneficial to the story, I think it is important for readers to know that when they buy a book from a bookstore, or from someone that isn't an independent author, they may not be getting a single story. They are getting one that has been edited with scissors and tape and red pen from multiple handwriting styles suggesting alternate story lines, characters, etc. When you read THE BOOK, it is 100% mine. Every idea is mine and every line is mine (other than what I reference from classic and contemporary literature) because no one has the ability to control my writing. Although this was not my main motivation, not even in the top 10, I do think it is important as we move into this new age of digital reading to discuss the future of publication. I would be lying if part of me wasn't afraid for the authors who have written stories that other people control. Who's to say that on the 50th anniversary of THE SHINING by Stephen King, the sales department at the publishing house will not only create a new cover, but alter the story to explain that the reason the main character went crazy and attacked his family was because of a full moon and that he was actually a werewolf or something. Sure it sounds interesting when you hear the idea, but Stephen King may not be alive when that happens, which means that he would be unable to defend the characters he created. Is that really fair to do that to him or his characters? In a sense, the publishing house owns those characters... so...

We see a lot of this today with Quirk Classics and their new release of Android Karenina. I'm not opposed to taking old stories and putting a new twist on them, I think it's really smart. I hope to dabble in that at some point in my future. It's fun and it's creative, but it only illustrates my point further. How destroyed would Jane Austen be to known that her characters were mangled and reformed into something comedic and disgusting? To know that the lines that she cried over, that mixed with the ink of her pen, were now spliced with a graphic image of a zombie tearing into the fleshy neck of some matriarch from a rich family while she's reading quietly in her stately home. The difficult thing is that there is not an easy answer for this question. That's why a lot of people have enjoyed discussing THE BOOK after buying it, because I ask a lot of unanswerable questions. Do we treat these books as just a collection of words? One after the other, after the other and the other, until there are enough pages to be clasped together and wrapped with a hard linen binding? Or are they unique works of art that must remain perfectly intact, structurally sound, exactly as the artist intended? Does it make it okay to chop it up and change it simply because enough time has passed? Maybe. It's a good discussion to have. What is great is that my book is gaining attention during the advent of popularity with these mash-up novels. I think that in ten or twenty years we'll really see how people go about augmenting this idea further. Here's the real truth in the matter: the moment you edit or add to an original manuscript, a line is crossed. Again, I'm not saying crossing that line is bad. But it is crossed and respect must still be given to the original. How far then do we walk past the line before it is too hard to get back? And, by then, when we reach the point of no return, will people even care? As an author, I know I would be devastated to hear that a hundred years from now someone could take my characters and change them any way they pleased, simply to make a profit. Those characters are pieces of me and I love them, as any author would. I poured my soul into them. But, in the same breath, although I would not agree with the actions of someone disfiguring my work, I'll fight to the death their freedom to do so. And maybe therein lies the real question — How much of this is an expression of freedom, and how much is a defacement of public property? The reader must decide, because it's not stopping anytime soon. M. Clifford

About a month ago, I wrote up a post discussing the upcoming Fairy Tale Fortnight event that Misty from The Book Rat and I are hosting. I've been really excited for this event since I signed on with Misty to co-host. But, if you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been talking about almost nothing else... Why is that you say? Because it seems like every single time I open my email or check my Twitter feed, some new fairy tale awesomeness awaits me!

So, this post has two purposes — to give you a teasingly small glimpse into the greatness that is headed your way in April, so you can experience so of this excitement that has me squealing most unattractively at odd moments and doing strange dance moves up and down the stairs... But, it's also to get YOU involved. If you click on the pretty button, or anytime Fairy Tale Fortnight appears in this post, you will be directed to the initial introductory post, where there is a place to mention your favorite fairy tale, both original and retold, as well as volunteer to guest post. (You know you want to!) We would LOVE to have you involved.

We know that's more than some people can contribute, but we have something else for you!! Below you will find a list of the current authors who have committed to an interview as part of Fairy Tale Fortnight. Misty and I want YOU to tell us what you would most like to hear from these wonderful authors, and we can tailor their interviews to you! Your questions can be general questions directed at each or several of the authors, or you can ask a specific author a specific question.

So, who will be stopping by?! Well, let me tell you!

Elizabeth C. Bunce, author of A Curse Dark as Gold and Starcrossed.

Jessica Day George, author of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, Princess of the Midnight Ball, Princess of Glass, and etc.

Donna Jo Napoli, author of many retellings, including Zel, Crazy Jack, Sirena, Spinners, Breath and etc.

Janette Rallison, author of My Fair Godmother, My Unfair Godmother, Just One Wish, etc.

Mette Ivie Harrison, author of Mira, Mirror, and and Princess and the... trilogy, including The Princess and the Hound, The Princess and the Bear, and The Princess and the Snowbird.

Diane Zahler, author of The Thirteenth Princess and A True Princess .

Jaclyn Dolamore, author of Magic Under Glass and Between the Sea and Sky.

So, now that you are just as excited as we are, maybe doing a happy dance of your own, start asking questions!!

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for more updates! Misty and I are pretty sure there is going to be an Ask the Author 2 sometime soon, because we just can't stop the awesome!:)

It's time once again for the weekly blog hop hosted over at Crazy for Books and Parajunkee's View.

For everyone visiting, HELLO! I'm so glad that you stopped by! Please feel free to check out/enter my very first contest/giveaway! It's just a fun way to play with words, and I would love to get a lot of participation and feedback!

Please leave a comment letting me know you came by and, if you leave a link, I'll be sure to head over to your blogs and check it out as well! Feel free to take a look around and let me know what you think of my site and review! Again, welcome and thanks for stopping by.

To answer Jen's question — I am Ashley, and I started blogging because I love to read. I've loved reading and writing both for as long as I can remember (and if you ask my parents, even longer). I love to talk about, recommend and discover new books. I can't think of a better way to start a good discussion about books than to blog about them and come in contact with other book bloggers. I've already discovered many great new books. I'm pretty new to think, but I've been loving it so far. So, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to let me know what you think!