Contests

Today, I’m thrilled to have Tia Nevitt, my online friend, blogger, and author of The Sevenfold Spell, here on the blog to talk about why she writes fairy tales and for a giveaway (details at the bottom of the post). Welcome, Tia!

Thanks, Jennifer, for having me at your blog—especially since I’m apparently your first guest ever!

Hi, everyone. I’m the author of The Sevenfold Spell, a fairy tale retelling published through Harlequin’s new digital-first imprint, Carina Press. It’s short—a novella—based on Sleeping Beauty. As the original story goes, when the king and queen had their daughter, Aurora, christened, they invited all the good fairies in the land to give their blessings to the child. This naturally left out the evil fairy. And naturally, she was annoyed. And so, in her evilness, she cast a curse on the child, that before she turned sixteen, she would prick herself upon the spindle of a spinning wheel and DIE!

Why would she choose such an innocuous device as a spinning wheel—one that has nary a sharp point? Who knows? That’s one of the many, many plot holes I attempted to fill during my retelling.

Maybe she chose it because she knew of the economic ramifications. The king, naturally, bans spinning wheels, and all known spinning wheels in the nation are destroyed. That’s why the opening of The Sevenfold Spell goes like this:

The booted feet stopped before me as I sat on the ground, hugging my knees. A well-worn, black military boot kicked forward, thumping against my shins. It smarted, but it could have hurt far worse. I looked up at the harried constable. He frowned down at us—a troubled frown, but not an angry one. He was portly and balding, and was a common sight in our part of town. This wasn’t an evil man, but a good man who had been sent out to do an evil task.

“Get up,” he said, his voice so dispirited I almost felt sorry for him.

“Don’t move,” Mama said. It had been her idea that we wedge ourselves hip to hip in the narrow doorway of our shop.

He sighed. “Come now, I don’t like this a bit more than you do.”

“You’ll have to move us,” Mama said.

The constable looked over his shoulder. The fairy hovered there. She was tiny—no larger than my hand— with shimmery pale green leggings and tunic. Her beauty made it difficult to look away.

“Can you move them?” he asked her.

“I am not here to do your job, Constable,” the fairy said, “only to see that you do it honestly.”

So why fairy tales? Because I love them. There is a definite soft spot in my heart for any story that involves a maiden in distress—princesses are even better—especially when she lacks the power to fight whatever put her in distress. I do prefer the fairy tales where the princess gets herself out of her bad situation, which is why Beauty and the Beast is my favorite tale. She gets to rescue the prince!

But the catalyst came when I was watching Disney’s Sleeping Beauty with my daughter, and got to the part where they burn all the spinning wheels. I thought, what about the poor spinsters? So I decided to tell the story. When it stalled, I researched the other stories. Beauty and the Beast is terribly unjust—all the inhabitants of the Beast’s castle are turned invisible. For Cinderella, I wondered what might have happened if the fairy could not have conjured Cinderella’s garments out of thin air. And for Snow White, I speculated on that face in the magic mirror—you know, the one who thought the evil queen was so lovely before he decided he liked Snow White better.

These stories are all simmering on back burners, except the Cinderella story, which I am actively drafting.

Mostly, I like these tales for the sense of wonder. Since the original stories were not for children, mine aren’t either. Don’t adults deserve fairy tales, too? I think so. But we like our fairy tales somewhat gritty, with unexpected bits of humor along with the tragedy and wonder, and maybe with a heroine that is not as pure as the wind-driven snow. At least I do, for this particular story. And I hope you do as well.

Thanks for being here, Tia! I thought The Sevenfold Spell was a cool fairy tale retelling, and I’m looking forward to reading more from you. Folks can find my review of the book here.

For more on Tia, visit her website. Tia is also giving away a copy of The Sevenfold Spell. To enter, just leave a comment on this post about why you do or don’t like fairy tales or what your favorite fairy tale is. The contest will be open through midnight, Friday, Jan. 7, and I’ll announce the winner sometime next week.