It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated.
In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse.
Beauty met the Beast, and there was . . . bloody murder?
It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated.
In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse.
In the ball-room is young Lord Topher, who is rapidly falling in love with an older woman.
And in the card-room, lying in a pool of his own blood, is the body of one of Isabella’s oldest friends: Raoul, Civet’s Head Guardsman. The papers sewn into his sash seem to suggest espionage gone wrong, but Isabella is not so certain.
Lord Pecus, as Commander of the Watch, is of the opinion that Isabella should keep out of the investigation and out of danger. Isabella is of the opinion that it is her murder to investigate, and that what a certain Beast-Lord doesn’t know won’t hurt him. . . .
Will Isabella find the murderer before Lord Pecus does, or will she end her investigation as a bloody spatter on the parlour floor?
GUEST POST
The Best Way To Retell A Story
I love retold fairy tales. Unsurprising, I know, seeing as I’m on blog tour with Masque, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, my next-to-be-published book is also a retold fairy tale: Red Riding Hood, this time.
They say there’s nothing new under the sun: that every story has been retold over and over again. Originality is hard to come by. That being the case, when it comes to direct retellings of fairy tales, myths, urban legends, and classics, a storyteller’s job is inherently more difficult. There’s a veneer of originality over novels that doesn’t apply to retellings. That means that any consideration of the best way to retell a story is incomplete without the question of how you’re going to make your retelling ‘original’. What is it that raises your retelling from a mere copy to a fresh, original take on an old theme? You’d better know, because if you don’t know, chances are you haven’t managed to do it.
Moving on from the issue of originality, what is the best way to retell a story? It comes down to the wording I used in the previous paragraph: what is it that’s original about your story? The single best way to retell a story is to make it your own. Because it’s your story now. You saw something in it that no one else did. You’ve teased that thread of an idea and brought it out: stretched it, built on it, made it new and beautiful, and given it a different direction. You’ve changed the nuances. And that’s good. Soon you’ve built layers into the original story that might only ever have been hinted at: you’ve given it depth and dimension.
Masque originally came about because I was thinking of my favourite fairy tales, and of which ones I wouldn’t ever try to rewrite. Beauty and the Beast was one of those that I knew immediately I didn’t want to rewrite. Only then I thought: But if I did, this is how I’d do it- and the rest, as they say, is history. (Yes, rather pretentious, I know.)
So what is the best way to retell a story? Make it your own, be original- and most of all, have fun! Nobody likes a boring narrator, after all . . .
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W.R Gingell is a Tasmanian author who enjoys reading, bacon, and slouching in front of the fire to write. More titles in the Two Monarchies Sequence will be upcoming, and readers are encouraged to visit or follow for the latest news and publication dates.
Other publications by W.R. Gingell include A Time-Traveller’s Best Friend: Volume One, and Ruth and the Ghost.
Mythical Books' Giveaway
the winner was announced on April 1st, 2015
the winner was announced on April 1st, 2015
Thanks for having me, guys! It's good to be here :)
ReplyDeleteWishlisted! This sounds so good :D Beauty and the Beast is my second favorite fairytale (at least, if you only count the ones Disney adapted). Peter Pan's #1 :) I can fly! It's hard not to love books and not love Belle, right? I'm more likely to grab a reinterpretation of B&TB than, say, Sleeping Beauty (which I can never seem to remember anything about).
ReplyDeletePeter Pan is one of my favourites, too! Though for some reason I've never thought of it as a fairytale- ridiculous, since, well- Tinkerbell!
ReplyDeletePeter was one of the first that I thought of redoing, but it'll be years yet before that one hits the market :)
@WR Gingell - You're welcome; I was very reluctant regarding the retellings but I read some very good and, even if they had as a "starting point" a classic tale, they are original, fresh and inspired.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
C