Fairytale Riot Blog Tour

So Keturah emailed me a while back, telling me about how she'd recently gotten published and would I like to be part of the Book Tour.

And I was like "...yeah!!!!  Can I interview you?"

So, without further ado...

How did you hear about the book?  That's something that I always wonder, like...I've never heard of this and you're suddenly going to be a part of it?  That's awesome!

My friend, Lauren likes to send me emails with tons of links for different places looking for submissions of different sorts. When I have time I'll look over the submissions and see if I have anything that might fit what they are looking for. As I've written dozens of short stories, I always have something I can submit to many of the places  Lauren emails to me. I've receive tons of rejection letters, but it's been an overall fun, learning process.

What made you decide to do two entries (or did you enter more that we don't know about)?  Were you surprised that both made it in?

I actually entered three stories! I just had three fairy tales I thought might fit their criteria, that were available to be used (the one that's published in Mythic Orbits I could have possibly used if it wasn't already being used elsewhere). Last day of April 2018, Months after I submitted, I received the email from Agorist Writers an hour after I found out my dad had just been in a serious car accident. The letter started out with them saying they were sorry that they couldn't use "Blessed Disasters" in their upcoming anthology, BUT they would love to use my next two stories. I just had to do a bit of rewriting. Which I happily did.

I felt a little guilty being so excited about the stories being accepted, because I still didn't know how my dad was doing, except that he wasn't doing very well.

I was staying with my friend, and I think she thought I was a bit strange. I took the news of my dad being crushed in his truck calmly. I read the email from the publishers and literally jumped up, and broke into a huge smile. "It's good to see you have some natural emotions," my friend told me.

I promise I am human. I just don't worry like most people do. Yet, I love joy.

I haven't read the book yet, though I did get offered a review copy (just have no timeeee!).  Can you tell me about your stories and the inspiration behind them?

Wow, the inspiration behind one of them is really personal. I'll save that for last ;p

I don't remember how the Piper's Last Song exactly started in my head. I know I had been reading a lot of history about the Waldensians. And I didn't like the Pied Piper story very much—but realized I could combine the two stories. So I wrote a rough draft of a short story and put in my files. Years later I went through my folder and saw it, and though, "This is a great idea I need to rework." So I did. I think I was probably seventeen when I did the rewrites? Anyways, it was a long time ago. I also have a notebook full of poetry, so I added all of that into the story. The only poem I wrote especially for Piper's Last Song is the very last poem. The first poem in the book was a silly thing I'd written when I was fourteen or so. I so loved that poem and was excited to be able to use it in that story.

I originally called this story The Last Song, but then I saw that Nicolas Sparks had a romance novel by that name. So I changed my title, a little grudgingly at first.

Prince Perfect I wrote spring of 2017. I had just been through a rough breakup, and I couldn't do anything. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and most of all I couldn't write. Laughter, of course, was a dead memory. It was a horrible time for me. But in that darkness a satire story came into my mind. Something to make fun of how I had been dumped, something that would lesson the darkness I felt inside. I laughed at my idea. And I wrote the story, laughing the entire time.

This story started my healing, returned me to my pen, and showed me I could laugh at my heartache.

Is there anything you wish you could go back and change, now that you’ve had time to sit back and think about your entries?  Do you ever go back and read your “finished” work and find yourself wanting to make corrections?

Not really. I'm weird like that. I don't really like worrying about anything. And, besides, if I spent all of my time reworking old stories I'd never have time to write all the new ideas spinning around inside. My main concern is that my message in Prince Perfect won't come out clear. It's not about feminism. It's not saying all men are evil. It's showing that some men are such self-conceited idiots that can't see a good thing when they do, and that it's never right to hurt anyone. This same message could be said toward all the women who show no sign of loyalty, and dump guys easily, too.

You can preorder the book at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HVVQGPW

I mean, seriously, doesn't this cover look cool?