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Book Review: Five Magic Spindles

Goodreads // Amazon

When Rooglewood Press published a collection of Cinderella retellings a few years ago, Five Glass Slippers, I snatched it up. To my delight, the creative spins on a tale that’s been told hundreds of times blew me away.

And when the next collection of Beauty and the Beast retellings, Five Enchanted Roses, came out, I was even more delighted! It was clear that all these writers deserved to win the contests Rooglewood was hosting; these were talented, creative individuals, all with their own distinctive approach.

Well, I’m happy to report that the third collection, Five Magic Spindles, is just as wonderful as its predecessors! In fact, it might be the most unique set of retellings yet.

The Man on the Buckskin Horse // Rachel Kovaciny

When I first heard that one of the stories was a Western, I was . . . well, skeptical. I don’t read Western books or watch Western movies all that often. I’m a fantasy nerd at heart!

But within the first chapter, Rachel Kovaciny had me hooked with her dry humor and the no-nonsense midwife Emma Thornberry. I didn’t think it was possible to plunk Sleeping Beauty into a log cabin, toss in a farmer and a gunslinger, and come out with anything remotely like the original fairy tale. But she did it!

“The closer I get to fifty, the rarer sensible folks become.”

Favorite Things:

  • Emma. She’s practical and blunt and hilarious. Why don’t we have more books from middle-aged perspectives?
  • Snark!
  • Palmer, the swoon-worthy gunman, has a deep backstory packed into just a few pages.
  • I felt like all the characters had a history–their own stories, their relationships with each other, everything.
  • It was such fun picking out all the Sleeping Beauty elements in this wildly different setting. I won’t spoil anything for you, but it was definitely creative!
  • The heartwarming ending.

Not-so-favorite Things:

  • I must have missed a detail, because I thought Palmer was about 20 years older than he actually was, right up until the end. Oops.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and flew right through it. 4.5 stars!

Guardian of Our Beauty // Kathryn McConaughy

I remember when Anne Elisabeth Stengl (the lovely author who runs Rooglewood) shared a collection of first lines from a bunch of writers entering the Five Magic Spindles contests. And I still remember how Kathryn McConaughy’s first line about a king drowning in daughters jumped out at me. That same amusing, old fairy tale style is all over her story!

This is possibly the most exotic tale of the collection. Despite being written in a slightly more distant manner, I was fully immersed in the Middle Eastern-inspired setting and its almost mythological flavor.

Palli did not know how she could save anyone. But if all she had to was sleep–well, she could do that! She slept every night. When her other small sisters wondered why Palli went so willingly to bed, Palli only blinked at them and said, “It is good practice.”

Favorite Things:

  • Palli, the Sleeping Beauty character, was so sweet and altruistic.
  • All the cool creatures! They were what gave the story a mythical slant. At first, they seemed random, but I should’ve known better–they all became important later on.
  • The setting. It felt like there was a whole world to explore.
  • Political happenings that were realistic, not ideal, but still not dry at all.
  • Neriya, the prince: oh my goodness, he’s a sweetheart too! So brave and endearing.
  • The God Who Answers. I shan’t say more. It’s best to read it for yourself.

Not-so-favorite Things:

  • At times, like when I thought the inclusion of the creatures was random, it felt like the story meandered. But in the end, it did tie together, so this isn’t completely a negative!

This was another pleasant surprise! A solid 4 stars.

The Ghost of Briardale // Grace Mullins

I think I was most excited by this middle story when I first read the blurb. I mean, it takes place in an insane asylum! Forgive me, but I have an odd fascination with both crazy characters–both the creepy psychopathic kind and the lovable/gruff/off the rocker kind.

And while there wasn’t a lot of those kinds of craziness going on, the delightfully convoluted plot was more than enough to keep me engaged! There’s a ghost, a dwarf who can’t turn invisible, a miniature prince turned human-sized, a Slavering Swamp Beast, and buckets of enchantment. There’s gloomy dungeons, locked towers, and a courtyard full of statues. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Never before in his life had Franz wished this much to throttle anyone, but there were important reasons why he couldn’t. First, she was a girl, and he would never hit a girl even if she were as annoying as this translucent green creature.

The second reason was that he was helplessly strapped, so, even if she’d been some sort of brute, the only harmful thing he could do was glare.

Favorite Things

  • Franz. Dear, dear Franz! He’s exactly the kind of unlikely hero that I love to cheer for! As a banker’s clerk wrongly committed to the asylum, he tries so very hard to be the True Hero everyone is looking for. He’s not strong enough to slay a dragon, he’s never saved anyone, and the only thing he has going for him is a big heart.
  • While Franz was the kind of hero I love to cheer for, Mara was the kind of antagonist I love to hate.
  • Roselee, the green ghost, was adorable.
  • The fairies were trapped in the forms of a squirrel, a chicken, and a lizard. (Yep. You read that right.)
  • Lots of banter.
  • All the magic! It was so layered and complex, with each chapter revealing more and more of the enchantment. I was kept guessing the whole time.
  • A certain subplot I won’t name was really sweet.
  • A satisfying ending.

Not-so-favorite Things

  • Not much to say here, except for the very minor disappointment of not including crazy people in the way I expected.

All in all, this was a complete pleasure to read. Props to Grace Mullins for her twisty plot and lovable characters! 5 stars!

Spindle Cursed // Michelle Pennington

Before I knew that all these stories were actually amazing, the presence of a good ol’ high fantasy amongst the less-traditional genres was a relief. Spindle Cursed guaranteed at least one story I’d love. And, though all the other stories proved to be far better than I foresaw, I was right about this one–I did love it! It follows the original tale a bit more closely than all the others, but still stands apart in its fleshed-out storyworld and vibrant characters.

The story primarily follows Prince Edmond, a rather dashing, serious, down-to-earth character who completely stole my heart. But all the others were fantastic too! Aaaand this is the only story to include an honest-to-goodness dragon. Instant brownie points right there.

“Martin, I am a fool,” Edmond called.

Reining in his horse, Martin turned his craggy face to look back in surprise. As Edmond drew even with him, Martin inquired, “Would Your Highness wish me to agree with you or disagree?”

Favorite Things:

  • DRAGON.
  • Classic fantasy settings that popped off the page rather than settle into dusty clichés.
  • Lona, the fairy who looks after the sleeping princess, lives alone in the thorn-riddled castle and has gone utterly mad. It’s wonderful.
  • The rapport between Edmond and Martin reminded me of Sage and Mott from The False Prince at times.
  • Lady Rhoswen is another one of those love-to-hate-them villains!
  • A neat twist on the sleeping curse.
  • Arabella was noble and good-hearted and all around a likeable princess.
  • I absolutely loved how Michelle Pennington dealt with the romance. There was still the magical kiss, but it required a genuine relationship to develop first. It was done really well!

Not-so-favorite Things:

  • At times, some of the action scenes seemed to take a step outside the character’s head and became less immersive.

This was a fantastic addition to the collection! It kept a more traditional fairy tale slant, which I loved. 4.5 stars.


Out of the Tomb // Ashley Stangl

Sci-fi is something I haven’t read much of either (although there’s more of it in my reading diet than there is Westerns), so I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. I needn’t have worried, because Out of the Tomb was superb! Ashley Stangl thrust me right into a teeming new world full of flora, fauna, and gadgetry I’d never heard of, yet made me feel right at home.

But it was the raw, relatable characters that won me over completely. Tanza, though an alien girl, was a rough-around-the-edges protagonist who wormed her way right into my heart. And her tale flipped Sleeping Beauty upside down, because this time, it’s a prince who gets woken!

She turned her back on the spindle and rifled through the boxes of antique medical tools, falling into a quiet rhythm as she searched for anything of value. Most people found tombs eerie, but Tanza luxuriated in the peace.

A man’s voice, deep and smooth, flowed through the silence. “I beg your pardon, but are you robbing me?”

Favorite Things:

  • Tanza is bacon-flipping SMART. She robs high-tech tombs for a living and definitely knows how to look after herself.
  • Prince Auren is absolutely adorable. So confused and old-fashioned and struggling to understand the ways of a world one hundred years ahead of him.
  • The concept of virtue names was genius, and it made me love Auren and Tanza even more. I won’t explain it, because that’s something else you need to read for yourself!
  • Maybe it was just the genre, but somehow I got a few Lunar Chronicles vibes . . .
  • There’s so much culture, history, and worldbuilding jam-packed into this novella, and all without resorting to too much telling.
  • Hovercars!
  • Plot twist!
  • The Moon-Cross Festival scene was my favorite thing ever. So precious!

Not-so-favorite Things:

  • Nothing to report here, unless you count my severe distaste for Keffer, Tanza’s low-life boss.

I think, surprisingly, this might have been my favorite story in the collection! The ending nearly made me cry, which is difficult to do in less than a hundred pages. I would gladly follow these characters into more adventures. 5 stars!

Overall

A rollicking Western. A world of priests, princes, and flying cats. A castle woven in complex enchantments. A prince brave enough to face a dragon. A sci-fi adventure. Five completely different stories that somehow all paid homage to the original Sleeping Beauty we know and love.

This is a strong collection indeed! Just like the two books before it, there’s bound to be something in it for everyone; yet you may be pleasantly surprised by stories you didn’t even expect to like. I’m giving Five Magic Spindles a smashing FIVE STARS. This is one book I’ll be eager to return to in the future!

If you’ve read Five Magic Spindles, which was your favorite story? If you haven’t, tell me which ones looks most promising! (And then get thee to Amazon and go buy it!)

Rooglewood Press Fairy Tale Contest: FIVE POISONED APPLES

The time has come once again, my friends, to announce the theme of this year’s fairy tale retelling contest hosted by Rooglewood Press, and I couldn’t be more excited! The previous three contests have inspired such creativity and talent as writers rise to the challenge of spinning beloved fairy tales into reimagined stories of beauty, pain, humor, and wonder.

And there’s much to inspire us again this year. Because the theme of Rooglewood’s fourth and final fairy tale collection is . . .

hold your breath






wait for it






scroll down






ignore the fact that you read the title already






keep going






bet you haven’t guessed . . .





Snow White!

That’s right! With the beautiful title of Five Poisoned Apples, and the even MORE gorgeous cover, I can already tell this final contest is going to be incredible. It seems that each collection somehow manages to top the one before–and let me tell you, the ones before have been pretty amazing! (Five Magic Spindles is sitting unread on my shelf, but shush, it is on my summer TBR list.)
You can find the full contest details and rules right HERE, including the deadline of December 31, 2017.
The cover model must be super talented, because not only does she grace the cover, she’s the photographer as well. You can find Wynter Clark’s website HERE. And last, but certainly not least, the cover design was once again done by Julia Popova, whom you can find HERE.
***
Let me tell you a little bit about my experience with these contests. If you’ve been around Adventure Awaits for a while, you may know most of this already, but bear with me.
Back in early winter 2013, I read Anne Elisabeth Stengl’s Heartless and fell completely in love. Wanting more, I looked her up and discovered her blog, where I found out she was hosting the Five Glass Slippers contest. The deadline was a month away, but I hastily whipped up an entry anyway. My novella, The Glass Girl, was far from perfect, but I’d had a lot of fun reworking a fairy tale for the first time.
So when June 2014 rolled around, I pounced on Five Enchanted Roses and wrote Blood Rose, a contemporary fantasy-ish thing with a dash of medical science (gosh, was that part ever hard) and angst. Again, it was a boatload of fun! Having the full half a year to work on my entry this time, I got the chance to connect with other hopeful young writers entering the contest, and through that, I made some wonderful friends.
Then in June 2015, when Five Magic Spindles was announced, I dove right in once more. I’d already discovered some important things about myself as a writer, and about the nature of retellings, through the previous contests, but writing The Brightest Thread brought a whole new set of challenges–not to mention a whole new beautiful experience.
Now, after a one year hiatus thanks to the arrival of Anne Elisabeth Stengl’s precious baby girl, Rooglewood Press is holding Five Poisoned Apples. I anticipate another adventure, my friends: this one centered around the iconic Snow White herself!
I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and get started (once I finish some pressing work on TBT first).
And if you’ve got some time and even just one creative bone in your body, I would highly recommend joining me! Seriously, you guys. This contest gives you the chance to submit your work, and not just a short story or piece of poetry like most places accept, but a full NOVELLA. Some entrants even get professional feedback from the judges at the end, which is invaluable. Along the way, you can connect with a community of other writers, bounce ideas off each other, and support each other. And who knows? YOUR name might wind up on that jaw-dropping cover. If it does, you’ll also get the chance to work alongside the Rooglewood staff to refine your manuscript until it gleams.

Now wouldn’t that be a fairy tale come true?

Retellings – Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em?

With my mind on The Brightest Thread, I’ve been pondering retellings lately, retellings of all sorts and all formats. Books. Movies. Fairytale retellings. Superhero reboots. Book-to-screen adaptions. We’ve been seeing an influx of all of them–and perhaps a decline in original ideas, but that’s another topic for another time.

What I want to talk about today is the vast spectrum of responses these retellings get from people. One retold fairytale or rebooted movie from the 90’s might be adored, loathed, criticized, apathetically ignored, or anything and everything in between. Now, of course any work of art, original or retold, will elicit a variety of responses, but it seems that people become rather vocal when it comes to retellings.

Why is that?

I propose it’s because of people’s deep emotional attachment to the original story.

Take Beauty and the Beast, for instance. (And we’ll remove the LeFou issue from the equation for the moment, so we can focus on the bare bones of a retelling without whatever social agendas a director might shoehorn into a story.) Some people loved it. Some people strongly disliked it. Others feel conflicted, because they liked some parts and not others.

[source]

Maybe the big deal is because a lot of the people who went to see the movie love the original tale of Beauty and the Beast–either the animated Disney movie or the Grimm fairytale or perhaps both.

Let’s take a look at an imaginary person for a moment. We’ll call her Jane. Jane grew up with a big fat book of fairytales, a book whose pages she wore ragged with use. She grew up watching B&B and sang “Tale as Old as Time” often enough to drive her brother mad. She’s eighteen now, and when she saw the preview for the new movie, she was ecstatic. Getting to see her favorite story brought to new life with modern special effects and great actors? Of course she’s thrilled!

On opening night, she settles into the theater folding chair, bucket of popcorn in hand, and her breath catches as the first scene starts.

Two hours and nineteen minutes later, Jane staggers out of the theater with her mind whirling.

Now, this could go many ways. She could be euphoric over the magical adaptation, the perfect songs, the many little nods to the original Disney film, the new twists.

Or she could feel angry and betrayed because of how, in her mind, the heart of the original was lost.

Or she could feel anything in between! But chances are good that she’s going to feel something, and it’s probably going to be a strong something. Because Beauty and the Beast is her favorite, and she wants the retelling to do it justice.

This goes for any adaption on the screen or on the page, and it’s an interesting topic to explore whether you’re the consumer or the creator.

[source]

I think of the plethora of superhero films. They reimagine the comic books. And some of them reimagine the first reimaginings of the comic books. I mean, we’ve had three different Spider-Mans in the last fifteen years. If you like superhero movies, you probably have a favorite rendition, right? Even if you never read the comics (I never have), you have a certain expectation of who Spider-Man should be, and you’ll judge the movies accordingly. Nothing wrong with that; it’s just how it is.

[source]
Or what about the Narnia movies? I adore them, even when they strayed from the books. And I adore the books too, just in a different way. That’s another complexity in this world of retellings! Some people are weird enough to separate the art forms, and they love different takes on a story. I don’t think of the Narnia movies the same way as I think about the books. I love them both for different reasons, and I’m on pins and needles waiting for more news on The Silver Chair. (Not to mention very sad that there’s no chance Will Poulter will get to reprise his role as Eustace.)
Like I said at the beginning of this post, I’m writing a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, so I’m growing increasingly interested in what people generally expect of a fairytale retelling. How faithful do they want it to be? How many twists do they want? How fundamental can the twists be? Gender swaps? Role reversals? Genre bending? How many different ways can you interpret the heart of the original story? What is the heart? What do you highlight? What do you downplay? Is the original story a concrete framework, or is it a set of loose guidelines to play with as you please?

Stray too far, and you’ll upset someone. Stick too close, and you’ll still upset someone. Because Sleeping Beauty matters to this audience, otherwise they wouldn’t pick up a book based on it.

I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I can’t please everyone, so I’m not even going to try. But still, it’s worth figuring out what expectations your audience might have when they crack open your book.

I don’t know where I’m going with this post, really . . . I was just puzzling over why people react strongly to retellings, and I think I stumbled over one key reason. What do you guys think?

And when it comes to fairytales, what’s your perfect mix of ingredients? Do you like them to stick close to the original one, or do you like a wild ride of twists and turns? Tell me your thoughts on retellings/reboots in general, too! Let’s discuss them allll!

TAG #4 – The Snippet Tag (Fairytale Themed)

What ho, my friends! We’ve come to round four of this month of tag catch-up. In December, Deborah O’Carroll @ The Road of a Writer included me in the Snippet Tag (created by Madeline J. Rose).

the-snippet-tag

The rules are as follows:

-Include the graphic somewhere in your post (or make your own, just so long as you include a link back to Madeline’s blog).
-Answer all the questions, however you want to. Creative interpretation is key here! You can use the book you’re currently working on to answer the questions, or other books you’ve started or have written.
-Tag 2-5 other bloggers.

I wanted to feature The Brightest Thread, seeing as it’s my primary writing focus right now, but I didn’t want to limit myself to just one story (nor did I want to bore you all with nonstop gushing about Luci and Hadrian and spindle trees and dreams). So to diversify things a bit, I thought I’d bring in my other two fairytale retellings (both novella-sized): Blood Rose, and The Glass Girl. I haven’t discussed either of them a whole lot on the blog, so it’ll be fun to share a couple of glimpses.

Although I must admit, after skimming through them in search of snippets, I cringed to myself at the stories’ weak spots. Yet it was encouraging at the same time to see that I have grown and made progress since then.

Without further ado, let’s get on to the questions. My {comments} are inserted in fancy shmancy brackets.

1. Share your most gripping, fascinating, and hooking first line of a story.

Not in centuries had the mountains rung with such gladness.

The Brightest Thread

{This remains one of my favorite first lines.}

2. Share a snippet that literally just crushes your heart into a million feelsy little pieces.

She was Iroran—not one of the thousands he’d always yearned to help—and yet she, too, was chained. And he could break those chains.

“I must break them,” he whispered to the shadows.

Hadrian threw on a cloak, stuffed crushed gildroot in his pocket, and snatched a pack for provisions. As he rushed down darkened passages, his heart beat painfully in his chest. Strange—he was sure his heart had been stolen by the weeping maiden in his dreams.

The Brightest Thread

{It’s off to the rescue!}

3. Share a snippet that makes you want to shout to the world that you’re SO. HAPPY.

But time went on, and I learned to find happiness in what I had left. I spent hours in the studio with Father, helping him stoke the furnace and learning how to use the glassmaking tools. While his team of six workers mixed ingredients, poured molten glass into molds, or formed vessels by hand, I stayed at my father’s side. Watching. Experimenting. Learning his magic. He was so skilled, sometimes I thought he was a Vibrant, a legendary individual blessed with supernatural powers. But of course he wasn’t – Vibrants were only fairy-tales, after all.

Whenever I tired of the furnace’s heat, I would make my way to the shop at the front of the building, where daylight played over Father’s brilliant wares. Crystal clear goblets, painted dishes, and multihued vases were artfully arranged in the front windows. Prisms and ornaments dangled from the ceiling, throwing rainbows and spots of color across the walls. Glass trinkets and baubles and figurines graced the shelves like little treasures dropped by fairies. If I wasn’t spending my day in the studio, I was whiling away the hours in that wonderland of color and transparency.

The Glass Girl

{From the opening act of my Cinderella retelling. Although the story bears many flaws, the visuals in this scene capture a childhood happiness that I still love.}

4. Share a snippet that gives a bit of insight into one of your most favorite characters ever.

She entombed the star in her fingers. No, such hopes could not be afforded. Not when death lay weeks away, immovable as a mountain. Hoping would only make it more painful when it came.

Her wrist tingled where Hadrian’s fingers had touched her. Strong and slender fingers, calloused, with dirt under the nails. He liked digging in the dirt. He liked making things grow.

“I’m just a dream to him.”

Luci curled into a ball, imprisoned star pressed to her sternum, and tried not to think of the prince who plucked light from the heavens and asked for her name.

The Brightest Thread

{Luci just breaks my heart. She spends far too long pushing away exactly what it is she yearns for.}

5. Share a snippet that literally melts you into a puddle of adorable, squishy, OTP mush.

The first thing she noticed in the transition from sleep to wakefulness was pain—in her head and in her right foot. Emi moaned.

“Good, you’re awake.”

Prying her eyelids open, she struggled to work out where she was and what had happened. A soft pillow cushioned her head. Whose bed am I in? She tried to rise, but lightning seared inside her skull. “Ow.” She covered her face with her hands.

“Just stay still,” Will said. “You knocked your head.”

“It feels like a rock bounced off me,” she muttered, peeking at him through her fingers.

“I think it was the other way around.”

Blood Rose

{In case you didn’t know, OTP stands for one true pairing, and refers to a fictional couple you love. In this case, I still adore Will and Emi together. The beginning stage of their relationship is so light and fun compared to what comes later. Heheh.}

6. Share a snippet that gets you beaming with pride and you’re just like yep, I wrote that beauty.

Long-forbidden memories tugged at him, and for a moment he relented. They drew him back to hazy summers, when laughing eyes teased him and a girlish giggle chased him down the corridors. When all it took was a plump red apple or a daring climb up the wall to enchant her. How distant those days seemed. Years and use had polished the memories to a sheen, softening their edges and lending them the golden air of dreams.

And yet for all their beauty, both idealized and real, these echoes of yesterday brought with them a sharp pain. For always the summer was swallowed up by winter. Forest romps, once spirited adventures, became attempts at distraction. Her laughs grew less frequent. Unfamiliar faces passed through the manor, arriving confident and departing solemn. Hushed whispers, closed doors, forced smiles, lingering glances…

Thus, summer died at winter’s hand. And then even winter surrendered to darkness, and the night reigned supreme.

Blood Rose

{Still a favorite excerpt of mine!}

7. Share a snippet of genius, deliciously witty dialogue between your characters.

Luci eyed her company. “Master Boris.”

Her tutor raised his head. “Yes, Princess?”

“Have I ever mentioned you have the nose of a pig?”

Boris blinked and touched his round, upturned nose. “I—no, Princess, you haven’t.”

“I think it goes lovely with your squinty little eyes.”

Aleida hiccupped, but Luci suspected it was a cloaked giggle.

Boris’s face reddened. “Er, thank you, Princess.”

“Alucinora,” Mother said. “I’ve never heard such an insult leave your lips.”

Luci fought back a grin. “I was merely pointing out his natural talent.” In truth, every time she sat under his schooling, she couldn’t put the image of a pig out of mind.

Aleida’s shoulders quaked.

Mother set her fork down with a clang. “Alucinora, perhaps you should keep your compliments on others’ talents to yourself.” She forced a smile. “After all, today is about you.”

The Brightest Thread

{When a princess “blessed”–or in her mind, cursed–with the gift of diplomacy finds a way to repress her gift for a day, and is finally free to speak her mind . . . well, that’s when the fun begins.}

8. Share a snippet that makes you feel like an evil genius for thinking up such a malevolent villain (Mwa-ha-ha!)

Lady Lurline stepped closer, seeming to tower over me on my little workbench. With her ebony hair swept up on her head and her sharp nose pointed down at me, she made me feel like I was under the shadow of a large raven. “Do not question me, Cinderella,” she hissed. “If I ask for something, you give it to me.” She put one hand over my burnt one and squeezed hard, her fingernails digging into me skin. “Do – you – understand?”

Something inside me finally cracked. Father’s death had shoved my heart into a fiery furnace. Then the Lady’s demands had yanked my heart out again into instant cold. I should’ve known that such an abrupt change would cause me to shatter like glass that hadn’t been cooled properly.

I stared up into Lady Lurline’s dark eyes. Isadora, Mysteres do exist. Your mother is one, the devil. Her grip tightened. I glanced down and saw little beads of blood where her fingernails had pierced my hand.

“I will ask you once more, Ellesandra,” she whispered. “What is your recipe?”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

She flung my hand away and stepped back. “Then you have brought this upon yourself.” Fingers splayed and palm down, she extended her right hand. Her skin seemed to darken, first to ash grey, then to coal black.

I jumped off the bench and backpedalled, heart racing. My thought had come true!

She began chanting. “Fires hot and rocks so deep, thunderclouds and skies that weep – to my side you now amass…”

My legs hit a bench, stopping my backward path. Whimpering, I raised my hands in a weak attempt to protect myself.

The Lady’s eyes glowed yellow. “…Turn flesh and bone to limbs of glass!”

Blinding white flashed across my range of vision, bringing with it both searing heat and glacial cold. A scream – my own? – pierced my eardrums. Pain lancing through every nerve, I collapsed on the floor.

The Glass Girl

{Probably the best scene involving Lady Lurline.}

9. Share a snippet that leaves you breathless, in a cold sweat with action-induced intensity.

The twinge grew to a throb beating in time with his heart. The air thinned; [Will] sucked in a shallow breath. “Emi, there are…things…I need to…explain.” He blinked hard, tried to clear the fog enfolding his brain.

She shook her head. “I think you’ve explained enough.”

“No, there’s…more,” he grunted, swaying on his feet and gripping the bars for balance.

Roar.


Take.


Kill.

The girl said something, but her words sounded garbled and strange. Will stared down at the floor and fought off the mounting wave of bestial desire.

Run.


Own.


Fight.

It descended all at once. Tearing, rending agony; a maelstrom of crimson. He dropped to the ground, felt the vibration of a growl low in his throat.

Clawing at the stones. A howl streaming from his lips. Blood rushing through his veins. Red.

Stone rose up on either side, hemming him in, trapping him. Muscles bunched beneath his skin. He threw himself at the bars.

Live.


Kill.


Flee.

He crashed against the walls. Pain flared. He lunged again, snarling, scraping, panting.

A sound, high and offensive to his ears, knifed through the air. He turned. A she-creature cried out in a language he didn’t know. He crouched there, staring at her. Heat radiated from her flesh. She was alive. She was prey.

Lips peeled back in a roar to end all roars, he slammed into the bars. They quaked but held firm. The she-creature stumbled backward. He smelled fear.

Prey!


-Blood Rose


{I think I was almost breathless when writing this scene.}

10. Share a snippet of a most interesting first meeting between your characters.

“Are you alright?” the dove asked. It wasn’t a bird, but a girl standing pale in the moonlight, golden-red hair loose and windblown. As if suddenly aware of his gaze, she turned her back, but not before he caught a glimpse of rainwater eyes.

“It’s you!”

She stood with arms crossed and spine rigid.

“You’ve been haunting my dreams,” [Hadrian] continued. “Who are you?”

“My name matters little.”

“It does if it belongs to the one who rescued me.”

“Falling would’ve woken you up, not killed you. I hardly call what I did a rescue.”

Hadrian sidestepped in an effort to see her face, but she turned too. “Since this is a dream, it makes no difference if I know your name.” But never before had his dreams been so lifelike. What could have inspired his mind to conjure her?

After a moment, her posture relaxed. “Fine. I’ll trade my name for three items from you.”

He chuckled. “One for three? You sound like a valley bargainer.”

“Sensibility isn’t required in dreams.”

The Brightest Thread


{I’m so looking forward to expanding, perhaps even changing, their first meeting. A dream realm allows for some pretty fun experimentation, a strange and otherworldly backdrop to the beginning of the story’s central relationship. Yay!}

Thanks for reading! Now the time comes to tag some fellow writers . . .

P.S. I have had zero time to reply to comments this past week, and it looks like I’ll have less than zero time next week (yes, we are pretending that is possible). Do keep leaving those comments, and rest assured I’ll return to converse with you once March is over!