I’m really happy with the feedback I’ve gotten thus far, so a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed Swan Lake! If you haven’t reviewed it yet, please do! The reviews help me with sales rank, but they also help me a lot in my writing process because they let me keep track of what people are looking for and like.
I’ve got tons of comments and messages from you amazing Champions that I badly need to reply to, but I thought you would be more interested in having me unlock the first short. So here it is in a PDF file: Flying.
I can’t wait to unlock the next extra because it’s a short story told from Rothbart’s POV, and it was so fun to write, and it digs into his thoughts, and I WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!
Ahem.
So…let’s just say I’m eager to discuss the story, shall we?
As Swan Lake has been out for less than 48 hours, I’ll refrain from discussing the story, but this weekend I’ll be replying to comments so if you haven’t read it yet you may want to steer clear of those areas as they may contain spoilers. Alright, I’ll cut myself off there before I start dropping hints left and right. Have a lovely weekend, Champions, and enjoy the extra!
Loved Swan Lake!! And ALL of your other stories! But I have about a zillion questions too. So this is a spoiler comment, for anyone that hasn’t read the book yet – STOP READING THIS COMMENT NOW!
OK, first, regarding the breaking of the curse on Odette and her crew. Angelique indicated that when the curse was broken by Odette falling in love (and having her love reciprocated), it would only break the part that compelled them to become swans at dawn each day. She said that they would retain their other magic powers (vitality, being able to transform at will, etc), because those were separate from the main curse. And when Odette felt the curse break, she could tell that those other powers remained in her, so that was why she thought it was the love that she and Alexsei had that was responsible for the curse breaking, even though they hadn’t actually expressed their feelings for each other verbally, at that point. (please jump in and tell me where I am going wrong with this thought pattern.) Then, after finding the notes and letters that Rothbart had left for her in her fancy new boots, She decided that HE was the one who had broken the HARMFUL magic part of the curse, leaving everything else in tact, although his notes indicated that “he planned to snap them all before his death.” So my question is this: Was it the love of Odette and Alexsei that broke the curse, and left everything else in place, or was Rothbart actually selective in breaking only the curse part of his magic on the gang, as he was about to perish?
Second, Was Odile’s evil mother, Suzu, the same dark mage who is mentioned as having hired the assassins who were trying to kill Friedrich and Cinderella?
And, yes, I am a geek when it comes to your books. I think that I own everything that you have written, and I have reread all of your books multiple times. (Hey, everybody has to have an addiction – mine happens to be reading – especially when the books are as amazing as yours are! Thanks for continuing to make them CLEAN and UPLIFTING)
Thanks!
Linda
SPOILER OF A REPLY!
Rothbart broke the curse (Though if Odette had given Alexsei another 2 seconds when she first spoke to him in the battle, right before she hunted down Rothbart, he would have told her he loved her and they would have broken the curse.) Rothbart didn’t really have to be selective because, as Angelique mentioned, he had built what we call a “quick release” part of the spell–meaning he just had to yank on one part and all the bad parts about the spell, like getting changed into a swan every day–were unraveled/broken. 🙂 (He also broken the slew of defensive spells he had on his castle.)
Your second question:…wow…I didn’t think anyone would remember that line! Yes, Suzu has been working behind the scenes for a while now–though she’s not moving on her own. 😉
Finally, I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed my stories so much. (Re-reads are probably one of the highest compliments you can give an author, so thank you!) I hope you enjoy future books as well! 😀 (And I adore clean and uplifting books, so you can count on my stuff staying that way!)
In that case, you should know that I re-read Cinderella white IN LABOR. I was literally reading it on my kindle between contractions at the hospital. So thanks for writing something to help me through that! 🙂
Oh my GOODNESS! Wow! Yes, that is quite possibly the greatest re-read story I’ve ever heard of! Thank you for sharing, that is amazing! 🙂 I hope you had a healthy baby!
Hi Kitty. Oh my god I just finished the book and I have so many questions!(which you totally don’t have to answer btw. Also minor spoilers below) For one, I think I have an idea of what Angelique’s core magic might be (given how tired she is in the novel and the way she is described to fight the wyvern) but I’m not going to say anything here. Another questionI had was SUZU. I feel like she’s going to be one if the worst villains (I mean, threatening to kill her own child?) and is it bad that I want to more of her? And also, what’s the difference between enchanters and sorcerers? Os it just that enchanters go to the academy and sorcerers are rogue ones? Another thing: the elves. In the book, Odette delivers some kind of dancing powder to the elves. Does that mean that the 12 dancing princesses are elvish? Because I can’t picture the elves are cruel enough to be cursing the princesses themselves. Okay, that was some of the questions I had from the book, but you don’t have to answer them or anything.
Also, on a completely unrelated note, do you think you would ever do a retelling of Aladdin, Mulan, or Thumbelina? I know that the last two aren’t exactly fairy tales, but I still think they would make a really cool retelling. Also, those are some of my favorite stories. Wow, I didn’t mean to write this much! And btw, I really liked Swan Lake and I wish the next book ( is it sleeping beauty?) would come out faster! ( of course I wouldn’t mind if the next kind arthur book came out first…that cliffhanger was soooo evil!)
Hahah, you have no idea how rewarding it is for me as an author to see how excited the book has made you! Now, as for your questions (SWAN LAKE SPOILERS AHEAD!) I’m extremely interested to hear what you think Angelique’s magic is (though I can’t confirm or deny it) but I did take care to add a prodding or two about it. Once a few more pieces of the big over-arching plot are added in I think her role (and magic) will then become a little more obvious.
Nope, the 12 dancing princess are NOT elvish–they’re the daughters of the Farset King and they’re briefly mentioned in Cinderella–but yes, the elves are involved in their story. 😉
Suzu will resurface later, and yes sorcerers are rogue magic users. (Notably, none are as powerful as enchanters, though Rothbart does come pretty close. As you’ll see in Angelique’s book, there are less than two dozen enchanters alive, so you’ve gottta be out-of-the-world powerful to snag that title.)
Finally, I would love to tackle a retelling of Mulan and I even have a few plans for it, but it is a loooong ways off. And I won’t be retelling Aladdin per say, but I will do a retelling of Arabian Nights, and another similar story I don’t want to name as is slightly spoiler-y) Jury is still out about Thumbelina though. 🙂
I really love fairy tale retellings, and your books are among my favorite because they’re light and sweet and funny, and the characters are always so likable.
I love hearing the news of future books in the series–can’t wait!
Aww, thank you for your sweet compliments! While I love telling a wide variety of stories, I actually do try to make sure they have a common thread–the humor, sweetness, and the wild characters–so I’m REALLY glad you enjoy that! 🙂
I just finished Swan Lake! As always, you did such an awesome job! I love that you got to see an interesting side to Rothbart. (?) I hope you get to 50reviews quick! Even though I’m pretty sure I’m going to cry…
Thank you! I want each fairy tale to be really different from the others and not follow a cookie-cutter pattern, so sometimes the challenge is picking out what makes the story unique . (In example: For Puss in Boots I made Puss into a main role so there were technically 3 main characters, for Cinderella she doesn’t struggle against a main villain but to keep her duchy, etc) so when I was trying to pick apart what unexpected thing I could do in Swan Lake… well, I was pretty happy with Rothbart. 😉