Release Announcement - Once: Six Historically Inspired Fairytales

Fanfare! Trumpets! Excitement in triplicate! This time I'm breaking blog-silence to announce something actually a little bit wonderful. Too often you've opened Blogger to find The Inkpen Authoress has published a post, only to see it's just a scrap of scrappy flash fiction or another apology at having been so incognito. But this time, loves, this time I'm here to announce the publication of another novella. My novella which some of you were introduced to as "The Spindle and the Queen," to be exact. Now re-titled and being published in just over a month as She But Sleepeth, the novella and five others by my companion authors will be released in a one-of-a-kind collection. Friends and countrymen, meet:

Six fairytales you thought you knew, set against a tapestry of historical backgrounds.
A lonely girl plots revenge in the shadow of a mountain. A stolen princess fumbles a century backward. A dwarfish man crafts brilliant automatons. A Polish Jew strikes matches against the Nazis. A dead girl haunts a crystal lake. A terrified princess searches a labyrinth. A rich collection of six historically inspired retellings, Once is a new generation of fairytales for those who thought they'd heard the tales in all their forms.
Featuring the novellas of Elisabeth Grace Foley, Rachel Heffington, J Grace Pennington, Emily Ann Putzke, Suzannah Rowntree, and Hayden Wand.

I have been working on this project secretly since Suzannah Rowntree and Elisabeth Foley (the brain-parents of this collaboration) approached me to ask if I would participate by throwing She But Sleepeth into the ring. I am so proud of all the authors in this collection. Each fairy-tale is so unique, so different, and so exciting. With a retelling of  "Rumplestiltskin," "The Little Match Girl," "Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Rapunzel" in the mix, the novellas incorporated in Once are really something else. We will be releasing Once: Six Historically Inspired Fairytales as an e-book fairy-tale collection on December 2, 2016, so just a bit over a month until you can read the stories for yourself!

My contribution, She But Sleepeth, is a re-spinning of "The Sleeping Beauty," set in the beautiful Peles Castle in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Guys, having been on-location of the actual setting of my story, I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am for you to read it. There is so much of the palace I was unable to include because of the story's length, but I hope you will enjoy reading the partially-true story of Romania's Princess Maria. You will hear more about it in the story's "historical note," but the uncanny parallels between the real princess and the sleeping beauty story gave me chills. It seemed like the deeper I researched, the more perfect that pairing became. It is now time to spam you with a couple photos to whet your appetite:

Ahhhh, for a castle of my own. *happy sigh* I hope you'll go ahead and check out the Pinterest board for She But Sleepeth and continue on to the rest of the authors in the collection who are telling us a little bit about their own stories. Feel free (please!) spread the word about Once with the hashtag #OnceFairytales on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook, your blog, and whichever form of social media you'd like! We will be spreading promo images around like confetti so ya know, why not? And if you'd like to pre-read and review the collection, please send an email to cinderella19395@gmail.com and Elisabeth Foley will get you all set! And please, travel on to see the read about the stories from the rest of my fellow #OnceFairytales authors!

Suzannah Rowntree
Elisabeth Grace Foley
J. Grace Pennington
Hayden Wand
Emily Ann Putzke

PENDRAGON'S HEIR Debut!

My dear chaps and chappesses. It is my great pleasure to announce to you today that Suzannah Rowntree's debut novel, Pendragon's Heir, is available for purchase! There has been some little difficulty with Kindle but Suzannah has that being worked out from afar. In the meantime, Pendragon's Heir is looking stunning in paperback! And I have the pleasure of letting Suzannah onto The Inkpen Authoress for a chat about the romance in this tale of

Romance Fixin’s

Suzannah Rowntree

Some people seem to be born with a writerly itch in their bones. Not me. I can be classified into that class of author who was a reader first and always—a reader moreover who, being disappointed with a shortage of the exact kind of reading she likes, decides to write something of her own for a change.

For me, one of the ways this manifests is as the temptation to write as a fixer. Something bugged me in that book I recently read? Well, I’ll put in my book just for the pleasure of doing it right!

And nowhere in my work on Pendragon’s Heir—my debut novel and so far only completed full-length work—was this impulse stronger than in the romance.

You see, I have read so many, so very many novels, most of them featuring romances, and most of those romances failing to satisfy either my common-sense or my artistic standards. From wish-fulfilment heroes who push social and physical boundaries (Mr Rochester, I’m looking at you), to the sheer twitterpation (a word neatly coined by my amiable hostess) infesting most of today’s romances, which focus more on the colour of the hero’s eyes than on actual interesting things like saving the world or building a city or questing for freedom and truth, the world seemed so full of unsatisfactory romances that I relished the chance to construct a really good one.

So today, I’d like to list a few of the goals I had in writing the Pendragon’s Heir romance—hoping they will provoke some thought and encouragement!

A Romance That’s About Something

The first important ingredient was the purpose of love and marriage. Marriage is meant to be about something bigger than just the two of you and your feelings. Ultimately it’s about building the Kingdom. It’s about the cultural/dominion mandate. It’s about the Great Commission.

Because marriage is about signing up together for a splendid adventure, I knew that the romance in Pendragon’s Heir had to be about a mission. This is actually the compelling force that draws my two protagonists together: although Blanche dislikes Perceval at first, she eventually comes to realise that they are on the same mission. This is the common ground on which they begin to build their friendship. For them, love and adventure become inextricable—and I think it’s the same in real life.

Mutual Help and Comfort

I recall being tremendously inspired by Leland Ryken’s wonderful book Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. There, in the chapter on marriage, you can find many excerpts from Puritan love letters and teachings on marriage. One of the major themes coming out of this chapter is the powerful sanctification these men and women found in each other’s company. Their love for each other manifested in building each other up spiritually.

I saw something similar in many of the romances I appreciated most, from Jane Austen’s novels to Charles Williams’s, and I knew I needed to include the same thing in my own novel. Not only are both my protagonists on the same mission, they eventually realise that they are stronger together than they are apart. Sometimes, it’s Perceval helping Blanche to understand the rules of honour and duty in an alien world. Sometimes, it’s Blanche encouraging Perceval through disappointment and grief. Either way, each of them supplies something lacking in the other. And for me, these moments of help and comfort are the most romantic parts of the book.

Principles and Applications

I have to admit, I’m a fairly standard good homeschool girl. I hope that if the Lord brings someone into my life, we’ll court rather than date. It’s not a topic I’d stay up at night arguing about, but I think it’s reasonable to save your first kiss for on or close to your wedding date. I think it’s helpful to be intentional about marriage, to keep physical boundaries, and to seek the counsel of one’s parents and mentors. These are relatively minor issues for me, but I know why I hold them.

I also know that not everyone in history has held them. And certainly I know that concrete applications of general principles have varied widely across history.

As I wrote the romance in Pendragon’s Heir, I knew my protagonists needed to share my general principles. At the same time, though, I knew that their temporal and social position—nobility in anachronistic Arthurian Britain—would result in quite different applications. In the end, I ended up using two strategies to make sure I could stand boldly on my convictions while allowing my characters to be themselves.

First, I let them make mistakes. I allowed them to learn from experience, rather than coming to their romance with a preconceived set of notions. Fiction, being a dramatic medium, is well suited to dramatise the reasoning behind a certain application—so, in allowing my characters to do things I didn’t personally see as wise, I also had them learn from their experiences.

Second, I attempted to use the actual applications that historically existed in my characters’ general time period. Parental involvement, for example, was far more formal and expected then than now. In fact, if you were a noble, male or female, your marriage was often arranged as a matter of state, and this is more or less the situation in which both my protagonists find themselves. In fact, at one point in the plot, I knew I couldn’t delay resolving the romantic conflict any longer because beyond a certain point, their liege lord would step in and resolve it for them!

Again, these are relatively minor issues for me. But it was important to me that my book be consistent with my principles while retaining artistic integrity. If this is something you struggle with, I’m here to tell you to take heart: you can retain the integrity of both your principles and your art!

Superverting the Saturnine

Finally, there was one particular aspect of my romance that I just had to put in, more for giggles than anything else. Romance from Jane Eyre to Twilight (yes, I did read it—for laughs) has given us an endless parade of subversive, saturnine romantic heroes. You know the kind. They range from the rude (yes, Mr Darcy, this means you) and criminal (MR ROCHESTER) to the vampiric (Sparkles Cullen) and the downright abusive (supply your own candidates). Romance readers seem to get a real kick out of snobs, rakes, bloodsuckers, and worse. Me, I was a bit over it.

My hero, I decided, was going to be a nice, normal, well-adjusted boy with no dark secrets, no interest in pushing physical boundaries, and no rebellious streak. He would neither brood nor succumb to jealous furies. He would not even be strong and silent; he would be voluble and ebullient. He would be everything that St Bernard of Clairveaux first recommended for knights and which, later, Baden-Powell recommended for Boy Scouts: Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

He would be huge fun.

But he would not be a doormat, either. Good doesn’t have to be boring, weak, or a pushover. Perceval was going to be all these things—and he was also going to be fierce in battle and uncompromising in his beliefs, no matter what the pressure to conform.

Yikes, I Hope You Like It, Folks

As you can no doubt tell, I really enjoyed writing the romance in Pendragon’s Heir! It was huge fun, not just to explore some of the basics of love and marriage, but also to get some pet peeves out of my sytem. The only thing left is to hope that you enjoy it half as much as I did. You’ll have to let me know!

Author bio:

When Suzannah Rowntree isn’t travelling the world to help out friends in need, she lives in a big house in rural Australia with her awesome parents and siblings, trying to beat her previous number-of-books-read-in-a-year record. She blogs the results at www.vintagenovels.com and is the author of both fiction and non-fiction. Pendragon’s Heir, her debut novel, released March 26.

Blanche Pendragon enjoys her undemanding life as the ward of an eccentric nobleman in 1900 England. It's been years since she wondered what happened to her long lost parents, but then a gift on the night of her eighteenth birthday reveals a heritage more dangerous and awe-inspiring than she ever dreamed of—or wanted. Soon Blanche is flung into a world of wayfaring immortals, daring knights, and deadly combats, with a murderous witch-queen on her trail and the future of a kingdom at stake. As the legendary King Arthur Pendragon and his warriors face enemies without and treachery within, Blanche discovers a secret that could destroy the whole realm of Logres. Even if the kingdom could be saved, is she the one to do it? Or is someone else the Pendragon's Heir?

Author Interviews: Sarah Sundin "On Distant Shores"

You will remember when I read Sarah Sundin's With Every Letter and enjoyed it so much I ended up interviewing her on The Inkpen Authoress? Well, when I heard that her newest book, On Distant Shores, released, I sent her an email and asked if she'd be willing to be featured again.

 See, one of the things I like best about Sarah's books are how well researched they are. Her historical novels might not be the ones with the massive driving plots or the wild action, but they are accurate as all get-out and the characters get at you in a way that is not so frequent as you might think. In short, I love what of Sarah's work I have read, and I think you will too.

1. As a published author, which are your favorite and least-favorite parts of the responsibility of promotions?

Like most authors, I’m not fond of promotion. I love the “interact with readers” part of it—Facebook, email, things like that. I don’t care for blogging or writing articles, and I dislike when I need to post too many things about my books or myself within a short period of time. Book release months can feel a bit icky—and yet they’re a lot of fun too.

2. What is your favorite method for historical research?

Whatever does the job. I start with general books, peruse bibliographies for more specialized books, search the internet, contact museums and experts, and visit the settings when I can.

3. I know you have been to a couple of the places featured in your books, but when traveling to your setting is not an option, how do you ascertain that your portrayal of the places and people are accurate and believable?

That’s always a challenge. I love Google Maps “Man on the Street” feature where you can “drive” down the streets and enjoy a panoramic view. However, this shows me the sites in 2013. I have to watch out for what has changed and what hasn’t. I like to read firsthand accounts from people who were there for the bits of color.

4. Georgie sounds quite a lot like how I would have been if I was in the military during WWII. :) Describe her to us, and tell us how she became involved in the military in the first place!

Georgie was fun to write. She’s a perky people-person with a huge heart—but she struggles with fears, and she’s used to turning to friends and family to make decisions. In fact, she joined the Army Nurse Corps and became a flight nurse all to be with her best friend, Rose. When she’s faced with the dangers of the combat zone, she’s afraid she’s in over her head.

5. Your first book in the Wings of the Nightingale Series, With Every Letter was about Mellie Blake, On Distant Shores is about Georgie Taylor, and you have told us that the third book will be about the final gal in the tight-knit trio. If this isn't too much of a "choose your favorite child" question, can you tell us which heroine is your favorite and/or which most resembles your personality?

It’s definitely “choose your favorite child.” Mellie, Georgie, and Kay couldn’t be more different, but I completely loved writing from each point of view and adore each of these women. Mellie’s personality is definitely closest to my own—an introvert who never fit in when she was younger, but learns to embrace friendship.

6. In another interview you mentioned that your sons like to read your novels more than your daughter - do you have any idea why, and have your charming literary-ladies set a high standard for your sons' idea of a suitable wife? ;) {not that this would be a bad thing. Any guy would be lucky to win a Mellie's heart.}

That’s still true about my children. I’m not quite sure why the boys (15 and 20) like the books—except that I do blow things up. That’s important. My daughter (17) just feels uncomfortable reading romances her mother wrote. Eww. I understand.

As for the feminine standard, I hope my books would help. My heroines are realistic women with strengths and weaknesses, hopes and fears, dreams and hang-ups. I hope the stories would help the boys understand real women and how they work. For the same reason, my heroes are well-rounded, so young women will have realistic expectations on how men act—it’s rarely flowers and poetry and effusive compliments.

7. Your computer crashes and you lose a third of your book. (God forbid.) Your first reaction: 
   The paralysis of sheer terror. Followed quickly by freaking out.
8. Your son or husband or the technician comes in and finds the lost work; everything's peachy-keen. Your reaction to that initial reaction:

Embarrassment at the freaking out. Profuse apologies for the freaking out. Over-the-top gratitude.

9. You are handed plane tickets to go on a research trip to anyplace in the whole world except where your novels are currently set. Which continent do you choose, and what sort of story might you decide to write?

Well, that’s not very nice. Right now I want to go to Boston or take a cruise on the North Atlantic to research my next series. And the last thing I need is a new story idea to distract me. How about Hawaii? That would be very inspirational.

10. Some authors swear by reading books in their genre during the writing-stage of their novel. Others consider that the most counter-productive thing they could ever do. Where do you stand on this?

No problem. I read what I like, in and out of my genre. I do try to keep up with the other WWII novels on the market to make sure I’m not duplicating story or character elements—and because I love a good WWII story. I also like to direct my readers to these other books, because they’re usually hungry for more. And I only write one book a year!

11. What is your favorite snack to eat while writing, or are you one of those creatures who can exist on lukewarm tea and no sleep?

Gumdrops, tea, chocolate, coffee—all good. While writing In Perfect Time (August 2014), I started chewing gum because my hyperactive drummer/pilot hero is a gum-chewer. I found it burns off my nervous energy when writing and reduces gumdrop consumption.

12. Ocean or mountains to rest up and recharge?

Yes, please  I love the ocean. I love the mountains. Both are inspiring and relaxing and rejuvenating to me.

13. What is your favorite book on writing how-to?

I have a trio. Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey for story structure and plot development, Brandilyn Collins’s Getting into Character for character development, and Dave King and Renni Browne’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers for good general fiction writing conventions.

14. Are you a shoe-queen or a barefoot girl?

Neither. I don’t go barefoot because my feet get too callused, but shoes are just…shoes…to me. I like a good comfortable pair, cuteness is always fun, but I wear my favorites long past their fashion expiration date and refuse to pay much for new shoes. I’m disgustingly practical.

15. Have you ever read an Amish romance, and if so, did you like it?

I have. It isn’t my favorite genre, but I read Suzanne Woods Fisher’s books at first because she’s a personal friend—and I love them! She includes lots of humor, and her characters are complex, realistically flawed, and different.

16. Which do you love best: your cat or your well-meaning-but-destructive dog?

My cat. I’ve always loved cats best. But Daisy the yellow lab grows on you—she’s a true character. And she’s Facebook gold—any post where I mention Daisy gets twice as many comments as any other post. By far.

What a fun interview! Thanks so much, Sarah, for participating. And she didn't only participate in the interview; Sarah has agreed to give away a copy of On Distant Shores to one blessed reader! To enter, leave a comment on this post with your email address. That will earn you one entry. For extra entries, follow Sarah's blog, share the giveaway on Facebook, your blog, or Google+, and come back here with another comment to tell me what you did! The winner of the entry will be drawn next Wednesday, so don't forget to check back. Again, thank you for the interview, Sarah, and congratulations on the release of On Distant Shores!