Tag: Fairy Tales

Classic Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult5 Comments

Since I’m spending November working on (hopefully) the fourth book of my fairy tale-inspired series, Beyond the Tales, it seems like a good time to revisit one of my very favorite retellings!

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“Beauty and the Beast” has always been one of my favorite fairy tales–probably because the retellings are so good.  If you go back to the original story, it’s almost as flawed as any other traditional fairy tale.  But the retellings…are SO good.  Beauty by Robin McKinley is a particular favorite of mine.

The basic story is familiar, if you’ve read the original or even if you’ve seen the Disney movie.  From the Disney movie you’ll recognize the part about the terrifying Beast living in the castle in the woods.  A lost traveler spends the night and, upon offending the Beast, agrees to bring back his daughter, Beauty, to stay at the castle.  From the original story you’ll recognize the part about Beauty’s father being a rich merchant who lost his fortune, forcing them to move out to the country.  And Beauty had two sisters as well, and it was Beauty’s request for a rose when her father began his ill-fated journey that, in a way, put everything else in motion.

I think I read Beauty before I read the original fairy tale, so when I did read the original, I kept thinking, “oh, now I see where McKinley got that detail or this part from!”  But, like any great fairy tale retelling, McKinley has taken the slender original story and embroidered and expanded upon it, bringing the characters to life and explaining the bits that never quite made sense. Continue reading “Classic Review: Beauty by Robin McKinley” →

NaNoWriMo, Day 16 – Secret Goals and Major Plot Turns

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo3 Comments

Strange as it seems, we’re already just past the halfway point of November–and of NaNoWriMo!  In some ways I’m having a quiet month…because I’m spending a lot of it over my keyboard, and I am happy to report that my characters have had plenty of excitement. 🙂  Long update today, so I’m taking it in sections.

First on Numbers…

I was worried about this past week, because I knew I’d be out of the house four evenings out of five…so I deliberately built up a big cushion last weekend, with three days in a row that each topped 3,000 words.  And then I managed to get at least some writing done every day last week, including the day I was out of town from 8 am to 8:30 pm for work.

So where do I stand now?  I just passed 33,000 words today…which if you’re counting along at home, puts me well above NaNo’s official goal for Day 16, which is 26,672.  But I have a small confession about that goal…or rather, my goal!  You see, my real end goal here is to have a complete first draft by the end of December, which I’m guesstimating as about 75,000 words.  I blocked off a lot of time in November, but December is going to be busier…so my November goal is actually to hit 60,000, leaving 15,000 for next month. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo, Day 16 – Secret Goals and Major Plot Turns” →

NaNoWriMo, Day 8 – Words, Words, Words

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo2 Comments

Greetings from the trenches of NaNoWriMo!  We’ve finished out the first week, and so far things are going along well.  My word count stands at 17,110, which puts me well above the official goal of 13,336 for Day 8.  But next week is going to be much busier, so I expect to need that cushion!

As I expected, Wednesday and Thursday of last week gave me less writing time, though I managed 1,200 words on Wednesday and 800 on Thursday.  Along with the time constraint, the muse was not smiling so much.  I knew what the scenes needed to be, but they were coming out rough.  All of NaNo writing (and all first drafts) is expected to be rough to a point, but I feel good about my first 10,000 words…and then the next few thousand are going to need heavier revision later on.  But, I realized I have the wrong point of view for one of those scenes, so at least I have some idea where to start revising! Continue reading “NaNoWriMo, Day 8 – Words, Words, Words” →

Blog Waltz: Interview on Calmgrove

On By cherylmahoneyIn Novel News2 Comments

Storyteller Cover 1 - SmallToday we’re on the final stop of my blog tour for The Storyteller and Her Sisters!  We’re closing up with another interview, this one with Christopher who blogs on Calmgrove about books, minutiae, and Arthuriana–among other things!  We also both participated in Lory’s Witch Week event, which is wrapping up today.

I’m excited about this interview, because Christopher asked some great and complex questions about the nature of fairy tale retelling, and the importance of narratives in our lives.  I only hope my answers are as good! 🙂

Find out for yourself by checking out my interview!

 

NaNoWriMo, Day 3 – Plodding Words and a Little Knitting

On By cherylmahoneyIn NaNoWriMo2 Comments

I was very glad to see that November started on a Saturday this year–it makes for such a good opportunity to get a solid start on NaNoWriMo on a weekend!  I managed to keep most of the weekend clear of plans (and scheduled a writing-date with a friend on the 1st) and spent lots of time over my keyboard.  At time of this writing, my word count stands at 7,719 words, about 2,700 words over the official goal of 5,001 words by end of Day 3.

So I’m happy about that progress. 🙂  But not so happy as to get complacent–I expect to have less writing time over the next few days, and word cushions disappear very quickly during NaNo. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo, Day 3 – Plodding Words and a Little Knitting” →