I can't believe this, but I have some interesting news to roport. I have written
another book,
White Elephant, and hope to publish it soon. It is more of a traditional folk tale than
Be Our Guest, which is a modern story based on a traditional tale.
Both, really, are retellings of
Beauty and the Beast, and contain the things I took away from the movie, and from the original, which was written in 1740. It's interesting how these tales evolve, and how some things that are important to us stick out and are memorable. I think that in marketing/selling these books, I will find out a lot about what people took away, both from the animated version (which was definitely a classic, especially the music), and the live version (somehow disappointed most people), oor even the original, which very few people have read.
To me the most salient feature of the original is the seductress, the bad fairy who turned him into a beast in the first place. Bad fairy? Special power? Punitive? Maybe she was humiliated because nobody ever said no to her. Or because she wanted someone to turn into a beast, just to see if she could do it. Both of my present tales have seductresses. If it is possible to turn someone into a beast, maybe that's something people can try.
As you can see, I laugh a bit at that one. I don't mind spinning it into my story. It's ok that folk have legends about these things and perpetuate them. A friend of mine said, "your book qualifies as magical realism, a new genre." If that is the case, I embrace the genre. I sit right squarely on the realism brick foundation and then wonder if there is any place for
any magic anywhere. It's kind of like sitting on the fence between atheism and religion.
Stay tuned; I can't tell you more about the new book, until I wrap it up and deliver it. Should be this weekend, I hope, but if not, soon after.
