Fairytales + Happily Never After: Guest Post from Jack Heckel

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming author Jack Heckel to the blog to talk to us a little bit about the changing nature of fairytale heroines and Prince Charming in his newest release, Happily Never After. As I'm a HUGE fan of anything relating to fairytales, I immediately added this book to my list. I hope you enjoy Jack's thoughts as much as I did!

Hi, this is Jack Heckel, author of Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After. Before we get too far along, I’m incredibly excited to have this opportunity to do a guest blog for Supernatural Snark. In my series, The Charming Tales, I’ve taken fairytales and asked the question, “What if Prince Charming didn’t save the day?” That simple question has led to some interesting answers, especially involving the female characters in my books.
 
Although the books are called The Charming Tales, one of the main protagonists is Liz Pickett. She’s the older sister of Will Pickett, who becomes known as the Dragonslayer, when the Dragon in question accidentally impales itself on Will’s pitchfork. Although she’s very practical, she has a romantic heart and hopes that maybe she can find her own fairytale. In most fairytale stories, she would be set up to be the damsel in distress in need of rescue.
 
However, I believe that the role of the helpless princess or maiden doesn’t work in our culture. One of the things that I enjoyed the most in the movie, Frozen, was that neither Ana or Elsa needed someone to save them. They had their own strengths, from when Elsa decided to accept her abilities to when Ana was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her sister. The global success of the movie speaks to the sort of heroines we expect in our stories.
 
For Liz’s part, she has a point where she is imprisoned and feels helpless, but it’s Elle, our version of Rapunzel, who helps talk her into not accepting her fate and doing something to stop the schemes of our lead villain. Once Liz gets her mind set, she starts on a path where she isn’t waiting for her fairytale ending, but where she’s determined to find it on her own. When she does find love, she has to take action to keep it. No spoilers, but the end of her story might not be how she would have written, but it’s one that she gets to choose.
 
As far as villains go, the primary antagonist of the books is the Princess Gwendolyn. She was the helpless prisoner trapped in the Dragon’s Tower, waiting for her Prince Charming to come save her. Unfortunately, he never came. Will Pickett, the accidental hero, saves her, and she later learns that he didn’t even kill the Dragon. She decides to seek her own justice by plotting to remove King Rupert and Prince Charming for never bothering to try and save her. While she does go a bit mad in the process, her desire to have a wedding and become the princess of legends may not seem too unreasonable considering what she went through. After all, isn’t that how fairytales are supposed to end?
 
Characters in fairytales tend to be flat and two-dimensional. They react in ways that we expect as they head off to their own ‘happily ever afters.’ It’s been a fun and fascinating journey to take those characters and add depth to them, placing them in positions that they wouldn’t encounter in the original tales and seeing what happens. One of the great things about these stories is that they are retold and changed by each generation. We live in an age where fairytales and myths are changing to reflect our world, from Maleficent even to the new Star Wars movies. I hope that everyone enjoys the journey and shares their own thoughts.

Thank you for stopping by Jack!

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HAPPILY NEVER AFTER

The Charming Tales #2

Once upon, once again …

The dragon has been slain, but the problems have just begun for Prince Charming.

Disowned by his father, the King, and abandoned by his only friend, William Pickett, Charming must find a new path in life—but he's going to need a lot of help. His love, Liz, barely survived an assassination attempt; his former fling, Rapunzel, is in danger; and William is under an evil spell cast by Princess Gwendolyn.

The fate of Castle White hangs in the balance as Charming tries to find himself, while finding new allies along the way—including an odd number of dwarfs (or is it dwarves?) and a reformed beast. But he's running out of time to stop royally ruinous wedding bells from ringing …

Amazon • B&N

• • • • • • • • • • • •

ONCE UPON A RHYME
The Charming Tales #1

  

The dragon is dead. The princess has been saved. There is but one problem: Prince Charming had nothing to do with it.

In order to save his royal reputation, Prince Charming must begrudgingly enlist the help of accidental hero William Pickett. The two set out on an adventure that has them fighting trolls, outwitting a scoundrel, and drinking the foulest ale ever, collecting bruises to both body and pride along the way. Meanwhile, the rescued princess, Gwendolyn, turns out to be one dangerously distressed damsel, and an evil presence takes over Castle White in Charming's absence …

Enter this rollicking world and discover just what happens when a fairytale leaves the well-trodden path of "once upon a time."

Amazon • B&N

Scarlet Blog Tour: Interview with Marissa Meyer + A Giveaway

I'm positively giddy today at the fact that I have young adult author Marissa Meyer joining me on the blog as part of the promotional tour for the second book in her Lunar Chronicles series, Scarlet. I absolutely adored the first book in the series, Cinder, and after finishing it Scarlet immediately went to the top of my "I may die if I don't read this" list for 2013. I'm thrilled to say it didn't disappoint! I thought it was a brilliant sequel, and I hope everyone runs to the bookstore on February 5th and loves it as much as I did!

If you could write yourself into any fairytale, which would it be and what role would you play?

This will probably sound crazy, but I have a weird envy toward Rapunzel. All that free time. So much peace and quiet. Just think how many books you could read! But I could probably do without all the crazy-overprotective-witch and blinded-prince stuff.

In Scarlet, we get not only the continuation of Cinder’s story but also the introduction of Scarlet’s journey as well, and both progress side by side until Cinder and Scarlet finally cross paths toward the end. What challenges did writing two separate-but-linked stories present over simply continuing Cinder’s story on its own?

Probably the most difficult part of writing this book (and Book 3, which I’ve just turned into my editor) was keeping a good balance between the storylines. Scarlet is the hero of this book, but Cinder is the hero of the entire series, so I didn’t want readers to get bored with or forget about either protagonist. I did a lot of shuffling around of their different chapters, trying to figure out the best points to break from a storyline and ensure that there was a good mix of suspense and information-gathering. It was kind of like putting together a really big puzzle.

Kai and Wolf are both strong, butterfly-inducing romantic leads, but let’s say they’re not in the picture for Cinder and Scarlet at the moment. Which other fairytale hero (or villain) might each young woman ask on a first date if her life wasn’t so crazy?

Hahaha, what a fun question! Of course, the problem with real fairy tale princes is that so many of them are so booooooring in their original tales, and neither Scarlet nor Cinder would be interested in a relationship with a pretty figurehead. So, hmm. If he was older, Cinder might look twice at Pinocchio—their history of prostheses would at least give them something to talk about. And Scarlet would want someone who fits in on the family farm—perhaps the youngest son in Puss in Boots (they were farmers, right?). In the end, he wouldn’t be ambitious enough for her, but she might want to keep his clever cat around.

If you were facing the same impending battle that Cinder is with the Lunar queen and had an expert fighter like Wolf in your camp, what’s the first thing you’d ask him to teach you?

Any of Levana’s secrets, that he knows. I don’t think any amount of training could turn me into a fighter, so I’d have to rely on wits and strategy.

Thorne is accompanying you on a promotional tour for Scarlet. How long do you think it will take for him to get himself in trouble?

My first tour stop is in Nashville this year, so I suspect it would take him all of an hour before he stole an authentic Elvis jumpsuit, and had convinced himself how goooood he looks in it. Rawr.

If Cinder were to ask you one question about the writing of her character, what do you think she would most want to know?

She might question her fashion decisions. Normally when we think of Cinderella we envision shimmering ball gowns and glass slippers… or at least a neatly pressed apron. But Cinder spends almost the entire series in some form of the boots + cargo pants + plain tank top or T-shirt uniform. Poor girl. I hope someone writes a fanfic that allows her to get dolled up for something!

There are quite a few technological advancements in Cinder and Scarlet’s futuristic world. What one piece of technology do you wish we had here?

Who doesn’t want hovercars? (Bonus: They drive themselves!)

If Emperor Kai were to address fans of the series and give us a briefing as to what to expect from book three, what might his concluding words to us be?

“Please rest assured that the other characters and I are working very hard to ensure the future safety of our planet, but I’m afraid things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better.” Then as an aside to me, he’d probably ask, “Things are going to get better… right?”

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Marissa! More information on Marissa and the fantastic Lunar Chronicles series can be found here:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Amazon Buy Link

And don't forget to check out the remainder of this tour and the other participating blogs for more interviews, guest posts, reviews and giveaways, all the details can be found HERE. Tomorrow's stop is at Anna Reads.

SCARLET

LUNAR CHRONICLES GOODIES

•     Meet Marissa on tour!
•     Download 2 Lunar Chronicles short stories for only $.99 each
      - Glitches
      - The Queen's Army
•    Read the first 5 chapters of Scarlet
•    Watch the Cinder trailer

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the fabulous team at Macmillan and Marissa Meyer, I have a paperback copy of Cinder and a hardcover copy of Scarlet to give away on the blog today. *happy dance* To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open US/Canada only. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway