Sarah Wylie, author of ALL THESE LIVES and one of the funniest bloggers ever, has tagged me for the Next Big Thing Blog Hop. Sarah is working on her second book: SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH YOU (FSG/Macmillan in 2014). She shares a stunner of a line from the book in her Next Big Thing.
Yikes, I thought, do I have anything interesting enough to say? This is me, the perennial writer of a dark fairy tale, currently still in rewrite. But I guess I do get cut some slack for last year, which pretty much sucked all the wind out of any and all of my sails. I’m back now, though, so here are my answers to the Next Big Thing.
What is the working title of your next book?
PRINCESS CHARMING: A DIFFERENT KNIGHT’S TALE
Where did the idea come from for this book?
I was toying around with the idea of gender-switching a fairy tale and creating a kick-ass heroine.
What genre does your book fall under?
YA Fantasy, a retold fairy tale
What actors would you choose to play the part of the characters in a movie rendition?
Totally wishful thinking but I’d pick Jennifer Lawrence to play the princess knight. As for her love interest, Alex Pettyfer or Chord Overstreet would do nicely. I don’t ask for much.
What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?
Tournament-winning dragon fighter, sixteen-year-old Princess Charming believes her “Destiny” is naught but fairy tale until she rides into the uncharted Wilds and discovers her true purpose, which was never as simple as kissing a musty prince awake.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I hope to be represented, but I haven’t even begun to query.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The very first draft was just weeks because it was a bare-bones, 90-page fairy tale. The subsequent drafts to turn it into a novel and then completely rewrite it from somewhat MG to totally YA have been much longer.
What other books would you compare this to in your genre?
There are so many retold fairy tales now it would be hard to pick. This is dark but there are elements of humor.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I took a workshop with author Bruce McAllister and used a prompt that led me to this idea.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
A bat-shit crazy witch, a forbidden love interest and an ecological disaster—not too much for our heroine to deal with.
And since Sarah shared a snippet, here's one from Charming: I soak up the rare, soft warmth of the sun,
which will disappear too soon behind clouds. The wind carries rain in its memory,
rain that is coming, rain that is always coming.
As per rules of being tagged, I hereby tag the following writers to share their Next Big Thing. Yvonne Osborne, HoboAnnie (Annie Howland) and Wen Baragrey. I can’t wait to see what these talented women are cooking up.
