Good news, Champions! The revised edition of Beauty and the Beast is up and live in the Kindle store. (We’ve got another week or two before the paperback will be good, so it’s still the old version at this point.)

Ta-da! The new cover! Although Elle’s most well-known dress is rose-red, Myrrhlynn decided to go with pink so no one would mistake the level of romance in the book.

I’ve gone back and forth with Amazon, and they’ve pulled through for us again and decided to make the update available to everyone who has previously bought B&B. In speaking with an amazon rep, they said they will send out an email to everyone, informing them of the new edition, and that you’ll be able to update it by going to your amazon account and choosing “Manage my content,” and selecting the update for the book–much like you did with Red Rope. However! Myrrhlynn and I both had the new version pushed onto our devices, so I think they might have decided to push it on to everyone’s kindles.

If they have, when you turn on your reading device, B&B will begin queuing, and the new version will download. (It might take a little while for your Kindle to figure all of this out, so give it a few minutes.)

To check and see if you have the revised edition, open it up and read the first line. The new version begins: Prince Severin happened to be pacing in the little hall when the stained-glass skylight shattered, and a young woman fell through the ceiling with the broken glass. She dropped like a twisting cat and landed with an ominous crack.

If you have anything that does not say exactly that, you have one of the old versions. (The Prince Severin part of the line is the big clue you’re reading the new version. The older versions have something similar, but that scene is now told from his point-of-view, which makes it very different.)

The new version has a few new scenes, a lot of extra content in old scenes, the new cover, and a few plot tweaks. I hope you enjoy it!

Alright, I’m sure you’re all chomping at the bit to take a look at the new version, so I’ll cut it off there. Have a great weekend, Champions. Thank you for reading!

We’re approaching the end of the Swan Lake themed blog posts–though the review special will continue to run! Today’s topic is probably the heaviest and the most philosophical, but it also is filled with spoilers so I want to give everyone enough time to read the book before I broached the subject. So, be forewarned if you still haven’t had a chance to read it, this blog entry has some major spoilers about the ending of Swan Lake.

Let’s jump straight into it, Rothbart. Rothbart was one of the trickiest and most difficult villains I’ve written thus far, because he ends up being  sympathetic. At the very end of the book you learned that Rothbart was either told to take over the country, or his daughter would be in great danger. As he was unwilling to endanger his daughter, but also wasn’t twisted enough to follow through with whatever darkness is pulling the strings in the background, Rothbart uses Odette to accomplish redemption for everyone… Except for himself. As he dies he breaks the “quick release” strand of his spells that Angelique identified when studying Odette’s curse, freeing everyone and breaking any of his leftover spells. (Unknown fact: He had some nasty spells placed on his castle in case Suzu came sniffing around while he was out. He broke those as well so the castle wouldn’t harm anyone.)

I badly wanted Rothbart to be the reason why the curse was broken, because in the six previous volumes of the Timeless Fairy Tales, the hero and heroine are always responsible for breaking the curse. (As they should be.) Looking ahead, I know I will be writing several more stories that include breaking curses, and everything was starting to look really repetitive. So for the sake of interest, and to keep me from going as crazy as Angelique is over all these curses, I decided to mix things up a little bit.

But although this change made the story much more compelling and interesting, Rothbart’s character was extremely difficult for me to figure out how to write when I first started the book. How could I present him so everyone knew he was a villain, but still give him the freedom and ability to end strongly?

You see, I’m a big believer in darkness and light. I love Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings because they, like fairy tales, show how important it is that you don’t compromise with what is evil. However, one thing I’ve learned as an adult, is that individual humans don’t follow that kind of division. Some of the kindest, most compassionate people I know screw up– just as we all do. And some of the meanest people I’ve met have hidden soft spots. Humans can be gray. I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just the reality we live in.

More often than not, fairy tales follow the pattern of darkness and light, and the villain is always unsympathetic and horrible. Rothbart was a real challenge for me to craft when I place him in the shadow of every other villain I’ve written thus far. However, I also feel that as the villain he is the one that stands out most. He seems  more realistic than the other villains. He was also the most secretive. Now that you know the ending of Swan Lake, if you take another gander at his scenes you’ll see tiny hints of his inner struggle. (In example, he commiserates with the wyvern in feeling imprisoned, the smugglers mention Odette is the only one he’ll tolerate–which you should now know why thanks to the In Search of a Hero extra–he openly talks about how fond he is of Odette and how much he values her ruthless protective streak, etc.)

In a totally unemotional/unrelated note, I’m sure some of you are wondering that if the original Swan Lake ballet said the evil sorcerer’s name was Von Rothbart, why did I drop the von? Kozlovka’s culture is very loosely based off historic Russia–I saw a few of you clever readers picked up on the Russian names, excellent observation! Russia does not use vons in their titles, that’s a German thing, so I dropped the von and kept the Rothbart!

So, please tell me Champions, what did you think of Rothbart? Did you find him interesting, or did you think I was attempting to be too clever for my own good? Until next time, have a lovely weekend everyone–and happy Fourth of July to my American Champions!