White Elephant I

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.

update

Listen up, I'm only going to say this once. It's partly because it's a promise I may not be able to keep. But it's important.

The publication below, Be Our Guest, was written to be part of the Global Beasts series. This is a series of books that will all have similar covers, and similar themes, and will all be set in the 18th century. They are all retellings of The Beauty and the Beast.

My new book, Be Our Guest, meets most of those criteria except one; it's not truly set in the 18th century. It's kind of an anti-fairy tale, in the sense that at one point the main character has to admit that her beau is not going to turn into a prince. I wrote it thinking my deadline was August 2025. It turns out that my deadline was August 2026, and the first books of the series are just being rolled out now.

As a result, I have decided to take another year, write a true 18th century fairy tale, and slip into my place, in August 2026, as if this book never happened. The new one will be a kind of echo of this one. They will be partners in their own world of folk tales and the 18th century.

I will not change this one much. It expresses many of my true feelings about the movie and about life, and I'm proud of it. But I will not deliberately push it forward in my crowd of fantasy writers, most of whom are much better at publicity and putting books out there than I am. Instead, I'll let it sit and work on the next one.

Watch out for the Global Beasts series. Lots of good books in there! When I finish mine, the one I intend to put in the series in place of the one I just wrote, you'll be the first to know.

Be Our Guest

Be Our Guest
A retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Now available on Amazon:
Paperback $7.39 + shipping
Kindle $2.99
Free on Kindle Unlimited
(paperback link not working temporarily for some reason)

This tale is part of the Global Beasts Series in which every book features a different country. This one is set in Thailand, against the government shutdown of Tiger Temple, a famous tourist theme park in Kanchanaburi. It's a tale as old as time, but it can be seen in many ways, with a wide variety of characters. The original tale was written in 1740, and this one brings the original to light against the traditional ideas of karma, reincarnation, and animism that have been in Thailand since before Buddhism ever arrived.

Global Beasts promo - due in. November!

Update

The new book, Be Our Guest, is almost ready; it should be published tomorrow. There's a kind of group agreement to "release" in November, but I decided that I could do that even if I published it now. Publish now, then change it a little, when I have more information about authors, titles, main webpages, etc. I will keep yoo posted here.

It's been hard writing this one, but mostly because activity around my house, where I have twelve kids at the mooment, the last of whom are not independent or possibly ever will be, has filled up my time. Perhaps my strategy should be to only do things that don't take a half an hour to get myself in the mood to write. Now, for example, I have my second cup of coffee, a perfect opportunity (as it is the first day of school), and I'm about to fall asleep because of how busy I've been, basically.

I made it straight up, kind of a classic folk tale in ways. I'm interested in experimental folk tales: gay versions, reverse-harem, or whatever, and I'm all in favor of messing with the genre. The only thing I don't like about the genre itself is the way stepmothers are always bad. I would do my part to change this, but it didn't happen this time around. As I pointed out at the end, at the wedding, it was kind of a fairy tale wedding. The boy marries the girl. Everything is perfect. Things work out. Hey, give me a break! I'm just starting out in this folk tale business.

Remember, I'll keep you posted here. I am not sure but I might have ignored some crucial requirements, but I'm banking on all-systems-go and going straight forward. Most of the other writers are women and like to weave in steamy sex scenes - with animals? shifters? bad guys? We'll have to read and find out. Mine, take my word for it, is straight-up.