Short Story Audio: The Duke's New Clothes

I'm taking a break from all the Magiford discussion to share this special treat just for the fairy tale readers among us! On the Finding Fantasy Reads podcast fantasy author Karyne Norton narrates a new short story every week by a different fantasy author. She only features clean fantasy and if you check the Youtube channel for the podcast you will see she has already shared short stories from several authors you recognize from Shea-con including: Kate Stradling, Deborah Grace White, and Hanna Sandvig. Karyne narrates each story herself and she does a great job with adding inflection and overall providing a nice listening experience. This week Karyne featured two of my short stories on her podcast: The Duke's New Clothes and the Robber Maiden! Click here to listen on Youtube! Or to see the other listening options on the podcast website click here.

The Duke's New Clothes is a bonus short story for the Fairy Tale Enchantress series (it is mentioned in book #1 but you don't see it in the book). The Robber Maiden is a bonus short story for the Snow Queen saga, and the rest of the short stories for this series are in the audio book boxset on Audible.

If you prefer to read instead of listen here are the links to both of the short stories:

The Duke's Clothes

The Robber Maiden

The Little Mermaid: my version

Welcome back to Kitty’s Attic! Earlier this summer I was performing a cleanup of my old blog posts and I found a few that I had left in draft status for some reason but never published them?!? So here is another “Kitty’s Attic” blog post – I hope you enjoy it!

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I’m assuming by now most of you have had a chance to read The Little Selkie. If you haven’t, beware! I have spoilers in this post. For today’s post, I’m going to discuss the differences between my Little Selkie and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

The biggest and most obvious difference is that I made Dylan a selkie instead of a mermaid. I made the swap for several reasons. First of all, I’ve been dying to write a selkie story ever since I first read about them while doing research for My Life at the MBRC. Secondly, I wanted to draw a clear line in the sand, so people would know not to expect an exact replica of the little mermaid story. This isn’t something I usually do, but I wanted to give Dylan a lot of space from the original little mermaid—who is, quite frankly, a stalker, and not strong enough to face down a wicked sea witch.

I also put my own spin on selkie lore. Traditionally, selkies don’t have enchanted voices—that’s something Dylan inherited from her mermaid counterpart. Also, selkies always have seal bodies. However, when I did the research for harbor seals, I found they wouldn’t have the kind of impulsive, playful personality that I designed for Dylan. So I decided to make her a sea lion, which would not only explain her temperament, but it would also give her an extra layer of confidence. Dylan wasn’t wowed or frightened by all the humans even though she was different from everyone, because she has always been different.

Possibly the two biggest differences, though, were that I gave Dylan a way to communicate–because otherwise the story would have been incredibly boring–and that Dylan is on land because of the sea witch, not because of a guy. (I can’t imagine that change came as a shock to any of you, knowing me and the heroines I write.) There’s also the happy ending, but again you can expect that with me as the author.

My version of the sea witch was more reminiscent of Disney’s Ursula than Andersen’s sea witch because she is truely evil, as opposed to Andersen’s sea witch, who is merely creepy. Angelique stepped in as the magic user who sealed Dylan’s voice, which was more understandable since Dylan was pitted against the sea witch early on, and because Angelique has been forced to do a lot of sealing/breaking magic over the last few years.

I also chose to depart from the Dutch roots of the little mermaid, and instead swapped it for Ireland. Selkies are a part of Irish/Scottish folklore, and as a lot of my countries have echos of mainland European countries, I decided it was time to try something different. Everything from the food to the dances to the Ringsted obsession with the color saffron is reminiscent of Irish traditions and customs.

And I ended the blog post there?? Hope you enjoyed this episode of Kitty’s Attic, and thanks for reading!

Swan Lake: Romance & Length

Normally when I write blog posts related to my books, I keep my posts focused on things like research and character development. However, because Swan Lake was such an unusual book for me in certain areas, I figured you guys might enjoy hearing about how it came together differently from manuscripts.

First of all, let’s begin this epic post with some background info. Beauty and the Beast was surprisingly difficult to write because of Severin and Elle. While I love those characters to death, and now I enjoy writing them because they’re married, writing a romance between them was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I have never before written characters who were so uninterested in each other. And the theme of two people who dislike each other and then fall in love is pretty common among the rest of my timeless fairy tales. Gabrielle and Steffen were fairly slow to come together, as were Rakel and Farrin. Heck, Cinderella hated Friedrich when she first met him!

Just about the only Timeless Fairy Tale I’ve written in which the couple fall in love with relative ease is Dylan and Callan from little Selkie. But those two still had a lot of drama to deal with, and it affected their relationship. Odette and Alexsei, however, were set on each other from the start.

Seriously, they have been the easiest couple to write to date, and I don’t hand out that phrase easily. Even though they both had other things on their mind (Odette for instance was always concerned about her people, and about keeping the princes safe) they drew each other in like magnets.

I actually wanted the book to be much longer. Originally I was planning for it to be at least 70,000 words. Instead, when I finished the first draft it sat at 58,000 words. I flushed it out, adding as many scenes as I could without creating extra/unnecessary fluff, and I got it up to 62,000 words. This makes it my second shortest fairy tale ever. (Beauty and the Beast 61,000 words.)

I considered trying to expand it or add extra subplots, but Odette and Alexsei wouldn’t let me! Whenever I tried to add a scene, or sketched out a new idea, those two would go through and muck everything up because they were so bent on getting to the end. It was actually kind of refreshing to have a couple that was focused on ending up together, but the same way it was oddly flustering being because I really wanted a longer book!

But, in all fairness, it is due to their personalities. Alexsei was created after I poured over the results from the “most wanted hero” poll I put up this January. The winning hero in that poll was the “overlooked good guy.” An overwhelming amount of you voted for that kind of hero, so I wanted to make sure that was the kind of male protagonist I created for Swan Lake. And that’s where the problems began.

You see, because I wrote Alexsei to be the overlooked good guy, and I made Odette crafty enough to see those who are often overlooked, those two hit it off immediately, and their personalities made it possible to keep them apart. Alexsei, though respectful, is very outspoken of his admiration for Odette because he’s the nice guy character type.  On the other hand, Odette is observant enough to notice him and value him for who he is.

So I guess this post, while explaining the length and taking a closer look at Alexsei and Odette’s relationship, is in some ways a display. It shows that the way a romance blossoms between characters will impact a lot of the book. Beauty and the Beast and Swan Lake are similar lengths, however, Swan Lake is a lot more action-packed, and the characters are a lot more driven to go out and accomplish things because they want to be together. The majority of Beauty and the Beast is me locking Elle and Severin in the same room and forcing them to interact.

So, what do you think, Champions? Was Alexsei a proper “Overlooked good guy?” I tried, but I’m not certain I hit it just right. I think it would be easier to make a true “overlooked good guy” archtype in a contemporary novel, so I may try that sort of hero again when I get around to writing another modern-themed book. Leave a comment below with your thoughts! In the mean time, thanks for reading, and have a lovely week!