Introducing Fairy Tale Central

When I heard that several online friends were starting a website to highlight fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, I was super excited to feature their website’s launch on my blog.

Dagger's Sleep_Internet UseI LOVE fairy tale retellings. I grew up on Gail Carson Levine’s fairy tale retellings and have since discovered a whole wealth of traditionally published and indie published authors who write fairy tale retellings, including KM Shea and Melanie Cellier, who are among my favorites (both are indie authors who write funny, clean fairy tales).

Last year, I released my own fairy tale retelling Dagger’s Sleep, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a few hints of allegorical elements. I’m working on writing Midnight’s Curse, the sequel to Dagger’s Sleep and a Cinderella retelling.

So without further ado, here is Fairy Tale Central!


Once Upon a Time two girls had a dream. A dream of a fairy tale site, an internet library, if you will, for all the fairy tale lovers of the land to gather and converse. To learn, to read, to fangirl/boy, to bask in the goodness that is fairy tales.

As this dream blossomed, the two girls recruited a third. Because, after all, all good fairy tales come in themes of three.

With the third member in place, the girls got to work. The dream began to take shape, until it was no longer just a dream. But something real.

Introducing…

 

FAIRY TALE CENTRAL

This newly launched site run by Arielle Bailey, Faith White, and Christine Smith, is your source for all things fairy tales.

Every month a single fairy tale will be featured, and posts will include:

  • Reviews for retellings/shows/movies/etc.
  • Essay, origin, and discussion posts on the featured fairy tale
  • Interviews with fairy tale retelling authors
  • Galleries featuring fairy tale artists and artisans
  • And a whole lot more!

The FTC’s goal is to unlock the magic that is fairy tales and build a community of fellow fairy tale enthusiasts. Arielle, Faith, and Christine are thrilled to share this new fairy tale centric space and connect with all you epic fairy tale fans!

You can CLICK HERE to find the site and join the Fairy Ring! (Don’t worry, you won’t be enchanted or cursed.) And, if you want to connect even more, you can find the FTC on:

(If you’re inclined to share about the FTC in those places too, you may or may not be blessed by a fairy godmother. *smile, smile*)

Do tell a friend, or a dragon, or the fairy living in the hollow tree behind your house. All humans and mythological creatures alike are welcome!


Doesn’t it sound like a cool site? I know I’m excited to follow their posts!

In case you didn’t hear yet, last week the finalists for the Realm Award were announced, and Dagger’s Sleep is a finalist in the Fantasy category!

Realm Award Finalists!

I am really honored that Dagger’s Sleep made it this far, especially considering how many amazing fantasy books were released by Christian authors last year.

The winners of the Realm Awards will be announced at the Realm Makers Conference this year, and I’m going! Realm Makers is always an amazing experience, and I’m excited to be going again this year!


Are you excited for the launch of Fairy Tale Central? Do you read fairy tale retellings?

Book Signing

This week is Realm Makers week!!!! Yay!

For those who don’t know, Realm Makers is a Christian speculative fiction writers’ conference, and just about the most fun thing ever. It’s like getting together with 300 of your best friends to chat about all things fandom and writing related.

This year, you all can drop by if you want! For free! All you have to do is get to the St. Louis area by Saturday night. You’ll be able to attend an open to the public book signing where you can meet all the 300 plus authors attending Realm Makers if you want.

On Saturday, July 21st, Realm Makers is having its first official book festival, which will be open to the public. Hundreds of authors will be there, including Wayne Thomas Batson, Nadine Brandes, Mary Weber, Jaye L. Knight, and me. 🙂 If you live anywhere near St. Louis, MO, I highly recommend you to check it out.


Besides preparing for Realm Makers, I’ve been busy being a reader fangirling over books. So many writers I know have been releasing books, releasing titles, releasing covers, it’s been crazy lately! So here’s a quick summary of a few of them! Click on the cover to link to Goodreads to learn more about the books.

Jaye L. Knight revealed covers for both book 5 and a companion novella to the Ilyon Chronicles. I’m so excited for these books! They look amazing!

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Aren’t they so pretty! They’re going to be amazing!

Sarah Addison-Fox revealed the cover for the final book in the Allegiance series. I can’t wait to read the ending to this series!

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Nadine Brandes released her newest book Fawkes a little over a week ago. Yes, I’ve read it already, and, yes, it is amazing. You can read my review here.
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Not to mention, just LOOK at that cover. Even though I knew I’d probably read it as audiobook (which I did, and the audiobook is amazing!), I still bought the hardcover because I knew I wanted this book gracing my shelves. It’s even more stunning in person.

This week, Nadine also revealed the title for her next book, which is going to be Romanov, a historical fantasy about Anastasia! *cue the incessant urge to re-watch the Anastasia movie for the 1000th time* You can read the full blurb about Romanov here on Goodreads. Doesn’t it just give you tingles?

What upcoming books are you excited for? Will I be seeing you in St. Louis on Saturday?

The Awesomeness that is Realm Makers

I know, it has been over a week since Realm Makers and everyone else and their brother-in-law has already written their Realm Makers post. I’m a little behind. More news on that later.

All I really have to say is IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! That would pretty much sum it up, but that would be a sorry excuse for a blog post, especially after I haven’t posted anything in four weeks.

Realm Makers is a writer’s conference for Christian writers in the speculative (fantasy, science fiction, horror, steampunk, etc) genres. It is kind of like a four day retreat with 150 of your closest friends (even if you didn’t know they were your friends until you arrived). This year, it was at Villanova University outside of Philadelphia. Me being crazy me, I drove the 11 hour drive all by myself. Who wouldn’t want to drive themselves with views like this?

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I did the drive in two days, one long day and one morning so that I had time to stop at the Valley Forge National Monument. Valley Forge is where George Washington and his men spent the winter of 1777-1778 and started being better organized as an army. While most of t
heir huts and entrenchments are no longer visible, the farmhouse where George Washington spent the winter is still there. It is about 80% original, down to much of the interior floorboards, railings, and paneling in the rooms.

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Finally, I arrived at Villanova. The campus was beautiful, all stone buildings and brick paths. Lots of scope for a fantasy writer’s imagination there!

I roomed with Nadine, Katie, and Ashley. Of the three, I’d only known Nadine before the conference, but that didn’t stop all of us from bonding. Katie is super perky and amazingly dedicated to her blog fans. Ashley and I swapped curly hair horror stories and product tips. Seriously great Realmie Roomies! I could go on and on about how amazing our three AM chats were! Ashley and Nadine both have books available, and I adore both of their series! There was a rather hilarious moment when I wore a Nadine’s Ninjas shirt all day, but Nadine didn’t notice it until nearly midnight. She screamed incredibly loudly and totally freaked out. Katie and I got a good laugh about it, because Katie asked in the morning how long I thought it would take Nadine to notice. Apparently it took her all day.

Realmie Roomies

Nadine's Ninjas
Photo Credit: Nadine Brandes This is Nadine’s “I can’t believe I never noticed this” face!

 

Ashley and I got each others books at the conference. So excited to read the rest of her series now that I have them!

Ashley and I

 

The sessions were amazing, especially Steve Laube’s. He focused on building our own faith since, as writers, we pour out what we take in. If we aren’t taking in God’s Word, we can’t pour it into our writing.

The costume night was also a highlight. I dressed as a Blade, but I struggled to be intimidating.

Dressed as a Blade

Then there was the lack of sleep. The last night I got about 20 minutes of actual sleep before I had to be up to drive a carload of faculty to the airport. I’m really surprised none of them refused to ride with me when they realized I’d had pretty much no sleep, I was driving in the dark in an unfamiliar area, and it was a torrential downpour. Thankfully, they all arrived safely, and I was able to doze in bed for a few more hours before I had to start my drive home.

In case you hadn’t noticed, no one at Realm Makers sleeps. For four days, people should get about 32 hours of sleep. I haven’t seen any Realmie report anything more than 20 hours of sleep. I think I got about 10 hours of deep sleep and a lot of catnaps and dozing. Good thing everyone at the conference is too buzzed on hanging out and caffeine to care how little sleep they got!

The best thing about Realm Makers I think is the whole atmosphere. It is very relaxed, very friendly. Like I said, it feels like a several day retreat with 150 of your friends more than a stuffy conference. I made so many new writer friends it would take pages to list them all here. I miss them all so much already!

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Seriously, if you are a Christian speculative fiction writer, you should go to Realm Makers if at all possible! I can see now why people go back to it every year!