I finally finished all edits/revisions for the first draft of Curse of Magic, which means I have spare brain cells to rub together! So let’s talk Apprentice of Magic!
For those of you who are new to my work, the Fairy Tale Enchantress series–which begins with Apprentice of Magic–is the culmination of my Timeless Fairy Tale series, which basically asks “what if all fairy tales happened in the same 5-10 year period and were interconnected?” Angelique is the enchantress that ties every fairy tale together, and so through out the series you’ll see her trot through many familiar fables and tales.
Most of this fun starts after Evariste is captured, but I wanted this to be a theme in Angelique’s life, so I threw some well known stories/fables in Apprentice of Magic as well!
The big ones were:
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf
- Pinocchio
- The Emperor’s New Clothes
- Goldilocks
- Diamonds and Toads
You also get to see the start of Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin–and even a hint of Beauty and the Beast if you really squint–but the big two stories you see play out in the book are The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Diamonds and Toads. (I did actually write Angelique’s adventure with The Emperor’s New Clothes as a bonus story/chapter, so if you haven’t seen it, you can check it out here: The Dukes Clothes)
I picked all of the above tales because they struck me as being on the sillier side–or rather they showed the potential for humor. (We’re talking about you, Wybert.) But in order to let that play out, I had to twist them a bit.
I think just about everyone has heard of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, but just in case you haven’t, here is a short summary: A bratty shepherd gets bored with his job and finds great joy in shouting falsely about wolves attacking the sheep so the villagers come rampaging to an unneeded rescue. Because no one bothers to punish the boy (because why would you, I mean, he only disrupted an entire village for a joke) he does it again and gets the same amusing results. Eventually the villagers no longer trust him so when a wolf does emerge from the woods and the morally-questionable shepherd shouts for help, no one comes. As a result, the wolf slaughters multiple sheep.
Now I’m all for showing the consequences of actions, but when I read this story it always struck me as rather unfair that its the sheep who pay for the brat’s actions. (I mean, we can assume the shepherd was punished by the owner of the sheep, but the story never tells us this.)
So when I decided I wanted Angelique to teach this kid a lesson, I knew I wanted her to do it in a way that would directly punish the shepherd, not his animals. Additionally, I needed her to do it in a way that would provide practice for her as new apprentice.
And that launched my idea of creating illusion wolves to scare the lies out of dear little Wybert. 😉 (It also lead to my friends deciding perhaps it would be better if they never asked me to babysit their children.)
On the other end of the spectrum, you have Diamonds and Toads, which will be the discussion of my next post! But until then, Champions, what about Apprentice of Magic would you like to discuss? Leave your idea in the comments below!
Besides all things Evariste?? I’d love to know more about Angelique’s backstory – and why she didn’t pick a mage name. I feel like there’s something significant there.
What I want to know is why hasn’t anyone thought of training Angelique in the use of her core magic in the kitchen? Can you imagine how easy it would be for her to cut up all the vegitables for a salad or the fruit plate, to say nothing of how that would help her learn control and finesse in a non-lethal way? When I first learned that her core magic had to do with sharp objects I immediately though about all the cutting you have to do to prep a salad or stew or anything that uses a lot of vegetables and fruit. And she would be in the least danger of cutting herself since she doesn’t have to physically handle the knife.
On a different note, I can hardly wait to see how the relationship between Evariste and Angelique changes/stays the same after Evariste is released from the mirror, is sealed from his magic and Angelique has grown in confidence and let go of her false portrayal of sweetness. Hopefully she has also grown in confidence in the use of her magic as well. How is she going to react when she realizes that Evariste knows her better than she thought and that he likes her just the way she is and not because of some false expectation she has constructed in her own mind? There is a lot to look forward to.
Kitchen knives…that…that makes a lot of sense. WHY DID NO ONE THINK OF THIS??? WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS???
She could do tree trimming too, without having to climb up super high & risk breaking her neck.
She could also make superb barbeque. Yay! Party!
I for one have a bad time handling big skewers and you know not get burned too much. But yes, there are a lot of things angel can do. Like stiching? Can she stitch faster than the average person with her magic?
What if she sharpened her broom and dustpan? Imagine how quickly all the chores could get done
Right? Let’s get creative here, magic users! Though perhaps they didn’t think of it for much the same reason that they didn’t realize how silly the roses-and-gems “gift” is (I loved that the impracticality of that made it in the book, I’ve always objected to that gift)–the thought that you’d use magic for really practical things is apparently foreign to most of them? Though you’d think it would occur to a craft-mage and they could mention it ;-)!
And if it’s really a limitation on her magic that it can only be used on weapon-weapons (not vegetable-weapons), well, that’s a bit odd, and should just be explained (though I suspect that’s not the case, Angelique just has trauma on the subject).
I love this idea! This is a great way to show Angelique her magic isn’t just for killing, but can be used for creating things like food or sculpting.
Kinda like someone else we know. Rakel too used sculpting as a way to show others that her magic wasn’t bad. The similarities don’t end. Though it is different as rakel loves her own magic but doesn’t have self esteem, angel hates her magic and has no self esteem. Double trouble.
Let’s be honest. I was thinking of teaching Wybert in the same manner. It was quite satisfying. 😏
So do we ever get to hear about what happened with Pinocchio?
Yes, please! I think that scene would be hilarious!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
EVARISTE! Talk about Evariste please. And pegasus and lovelana …….
Basically all things related to the conclave.
Yes!
Does Evariste have Farrin’s wolf statue? Also is he in some way of related to Farrin and Rakel?
Weird that you say that because –between her war magic and the “frosty” qualities of it in prior books, I was thinking Angelique was a distant member of Farrin and Raquel’s family!
Do we ever get an indication of whether or not Raquel and Farrin had children on their own? I feel like it’s implied they don’t (and is it somewhere mentioned that magic users tend to have a harder time having kids? I may be mixing series there). Either way, I’d like to know more, too!
Rakel and farrin do have kids of their own. He mentioned it in the hero poll interview of 2018. And no i don’t think it is mentioned anywhere that magic users tend to have problems having kids. The most that is said about them is that it is not always that they have magic.
Thanks! I’m reading a couple series of fairy tale retellings, so I thought I might be mixing that up. I’ll have to go find that hero poll, I think I missed that one!
I asked through email and kitty’s assistant meg replied that yes Evariste’s wolf is the same one farrin had.
That’s what I thought!! I’m kind of dying to know how he got it. That thing’s like 500 years old! Can’t believe it didn’t get lost or broken.
Considering his sword and Rakel’s crown are still there not to mention foedus, its not really a surprise but it is definitely awesome.
Stone statues are SUPER sturdy! Think about how many stone or clay icons and statues we dig up on archaeological sites!
Maybe Evariste is kai’s descendant. I can totally see farrin giving the wolf to kai.
Well, we know for sure Gemma is a direct descendent of a guard from the palace during the snow queens time.
I so enjoyed reading versions of these familiar short tales in the book. This is slightly unrelated – but I was recently re-reading the Twelve Dancing Princesses, and I would love to read about how Evariste became Emery’s Elf friend at some point! Maybe in the next book?
Good idea!
Love it! That would be so cool!
Yes, I really enjoyed seeing some of their friendship (and a younger Emerys), and I’d enjoy some more of the backstory there!
True, because Evariste would have had to saved Emerys in order to become an elf friend huh? That would be interesting to learn how that came about.
We need to know more about the skull-cracking Evariste.😉