Tropes—A Good Thing?

Another feature of a good story is tropes. Before you give tropes a bad rap, they actually can be handy. Readers have different expectations for the books they read, and tropes can help you meet those expectations.

In an old blog post, I mentioned the tropes I would be having in my fairy tale retelling.

  • Little Red Riding Hood Retelling
  • Dire Wolf Character
  • Young Teens
  • A Crush on a Prince (Who Can Fly!)
  • Talking Animals
  • Found Family

Here’s more I’m adding:

  • Character With Physical Disability
  • Confronting Bullies
  • Mad Scientist

How does my story fit all these tropes?

  1. It’s a Red Riding Hood retelling (duh).
  2. The wolf character is a dire wolf. So all you dire wolf fans out there, I’m sure you’ll be pleased. 🙂 Plus, she has magic powers.
  3. The protagonist, her love interest, and her personal enemies are young teens, ages thirteen through fourteen.
  4. The protagonist, Nan, develops a crush on Prince Deverell of Lusanda. And because Deverell is Lusandan, he can fly (as well as shoot fires and winds from his hands). I think of their relationship as something like Peter Pan and Wendy. However, their budding relationship gets challenging, as the Prince grows suspicious about Nan palling with a troublemaking dire wolf. But things get straightened out in the end. Overall, this romance is very slow-burn; no kissing and no hand-holding. Though when the Prince catches Nan when she falls, she gets a thrill of sorts.
  5. Yep, I gotta have talking animals in my book. The dire wolf doesn’t talk, but two of the Prince’s friends are animals that can speak: a monkey called Chidike and an owl named Oma. However, one of them proves to be an enemy, and you’ll have to read the story to find out which one.
  6. Found family? Nan becomes friends with the Prince and his sister, Princess Celine. After all they go through together, there is a kinship of sorts.
  7. Nan has a physical disability, probably Cerebral Palsy. She’s forced to use a walking stick when navigating through the woods. Sadly, her disability has become the brunt of the bullies’ jokes.
  8. Speaking of bullying, there’s both verbal and physical bullying. *Trigger warning* The two bullies, Gabrielle and Jared, call Nan Crooked-Limbs, and Gabrielle wrestles her aggressively. They also harass the dire wolf too, pulling her fur. The main villain, i.e. the alchemist, creates a monster to burn down infirmaries, as she despises the sick and weak (However, the burning of infirmaries is only told, not shown). But now for the good news: the alchemist gets destroyed by the Prince, and Gabrielle and Jared are punished.
  9. Let’s talk about the most dangerous villain in my story: the alchemist. If you’re familiar with alchemists, they’re scientists who come up with crazy hypotheses about turning things into gold. However, this alchemist is more sinister, as she uses biology and chemistry to turn animals—and people—into monsters to harm the weak. But again, the good guys win in the end (another trait of a good story).

Does this story sound right up your alley? Here’s the link to preorder the book, where I’m featured with other authors and their fairy tales.

Of Dangers and Dreams Preorder

Introducing My Wolf Character

I mentioned my main female character and special male character, but I have to mention an important side character: the wolf. Or should I say, the dire wolf.

Nan meets the dire wolf in the woods, and she calls her Silvera. Little does she know that the animal is actually a human girl who consumed a potion by a powerful alchemist. And she’s related to Prince Deverell in some way.

Why does she drink the potion? She’s insecure about herself—her poor athleticism and her not doing well in school. She hopes the alchemist would make her stronger, but she doesn’t think the potion would turn her into an animal.

Note: If you haven’t heard already, I’m writing a book that tells the wolf’s backstory, and you can sign up for my newsletter to get an email every time I post a chapter. Click on the “Bonus Story!” link on the top of this site to sign up. It doesn’t cost a cent.

Here are royalty-free pictures I chose for Silvera’s human self and dire wolf self. The expression in the first picture could possibly be how she looked when she decided to drink the potion. When she’s a dire wolf, she has both blue and violet in her eyes, so I edited the second picture accordingly.

The Setting Of It All

Every good story must have an intriguing setting, and I aim for that in my “Friend of the Dire Wolf” tale.

Nan, my Red Riding Hood character, lives during a Medieval-like era. She’s an orphan, and back in Medieval times, they didn’t have orphanages or foster homes like the ones we’re familiar with. Rather, she would either have to live with next of kin or live and work in somebody’s business. In her case, she dwells and works in an inn based in a hamlet, or a very small village. It offers mead, pottage, and fresh bread, and with this particular inn, the sleeping quarters are divided into women’s and men’s rooms. What’s super-unique about the building is that it’s made of stone, which makes it extra protective against shady folk. All the staff carry keys, which they use to lock and unlock the doors, ensuring the inn’s security.

[Royalty-free photo]

However, the stone walls prove weak against a mysterious arsonist. An arsonist that flings white fire so hot, it can melt the stone (According to real life science, it is possible for white fire to do that.).

Nan’s country, called Bueron, is a country that’s all forest, and I locate it in the center of my fictional world, called Tarin’e. This here is a map I drew of the world, and it features Bueron as well as Lusanda, which is Prince Deverell’s country.

Who is Princess Fredricka? She’s someone from another Tarin’e epic, for which there is no definite date for its completion.

[An image of Bueron, maybe? It’s a royalty free photo, by the way.]

Not only does Nan live in the forest, but she’s also forced on a journey where she ends up camping with Prince Deverell and hiking through the woods. You may have seen how storytellers are interested in communities and adventures in forests. If you’re a Millennial and familiar with old kid shows like Dudley the Dragon, Once Upon a Tree, and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, you know what I mean. It’s fun to think that “Friend of the Dire Wolf” would fit a trope like this.

Speaking of my world Tarin’e, it’s the same world that my story, “The Princess of Lusanda,” takes place. It’s a short tale that’s featured in the Chipper Press anthology The Princess, and it was written back when I was a somewhat new writer. It tells the story of a young Lusandan royal called Princess Raylin, who rescues her infant nephew from danger. Sounds interesting, huh? It takes place many years after the Dire Wolf adventure.

If you’re interested, you can purchase a copy on Amazon, or you can check it out through Hoopla.

The Princess on Amazon
The Princess on Hoopla

Introducing My Hunter Character

Last week, I announced I submitted my fairy tale retelling. You can read more about it at this link, plus learn more about my heroine.

Introducing My Red Riding Hood Character

Another character bio is here, and it’s on the significant male character in my Red Riding Hood retelling.

Yes, I do have a huntsman in my story. Actually, he’s a prince, too.

Prince Deverell is of the country Lusanda. He’s fourteen years old, and like the people of Lusanda, he has the inborn ability to fly, as well as shoot fire and wind from his hands. Assigned by Elohim (the Supreme Creator God), he hunts for monsters created by the alchemist, who’s intent on harming the weak and helpless.

He’s brave, and he takes his role as warrior seriously. As Crown Prince, the burden of being the best leader is intense, and he doesn’t always know who to trust. While in Nan’s country Bueron, he suspects Nan and her peers of being abettors of the temperamental dire wolf, so he forces them to stay in his camp for a few days. There are moments where he’s too harsh, like when he expresses his doubt in Nan’s innocence. Or when he speaks harshly with his sister, the Princess Celine, which inspires her to run away.

However, when Nan’s innocence is confirmed, he softens, and he expresses regret of his meanness toward his sister. He even stands by Nan’s side as she tells Madame Ethel that she’s been bullied by her fellow wards. Having a compassionate side, he helps her if her physical disability causes her to stumble on the forest floor.

I picture him as having bangs that cover his brows. He’s supposed to have brown hair, but this royalty-free photo can represent light brown hair. *shrugs*

Introducing My Red Riding Hood Character

I submitted my Red Riding Hood story, you all! Everybody do a happy dance!

The official publishing date is March 3rd, and it’ll be in an anthology by Beyond the Bookery. Hooray!

In the meantime, here’s a bio my main female character, who’s the Little Red Riding Hood character, of course:

Thirteen-year-old Nan is an orphan who lives with and works for Madame Ethel, an innkeeper in the country Bueron. She’s kind, smart, and a problem solver. She has a physical disability that slows her gait, and when trekking through the woods, she needs a walking stick. Having a prideful streak, she likes to show she can do things herself. She loves reading and dogs, and she can shoot a crossbow (as long as her legs don’t wobble underneath her).

When she’s bullied by a couple of Madame Ethel’s wards, she does whatever it takes to earn their respect, even if it means breaking curfew and taking them to see a female dire wolf she befriended. But if the dire wolf proves to be a villain, she will break her friendship with her, though if there’s a chance that the wolf can be redeemed, Nan has hope for her.

Nan has long brown hair, and she wears a red cloak that her late parents gave her. However, her most precious gift from them is a handwoven pink ribbon she likes to wear in her hair.

This is how I picture her appearance, thanks to a royalty-free photo I found. All she needs in this photo is the pink ribbon and red cloak.

More Fairy Tales Of Course: Part Two—Plus a Call to ARC Readers and Book Promoters

Welcome back to my announcing fairy tale retellings. 🙂 If you haven’t read my last post about some special fairy tale books, you can click here:

More Fairy Tales of Course: Part One

If contemporary fiction is more your thing, Beyond the Bookery has a collection, called To Love You, which contains contemporary retellings of the classic, old stories.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

Beyond the Bookery invites you to step into a collection of sweet, fun, and romantic contemporary fairy tale retellings.

Moments in Time by Michaela Bush
A missing-person report turns into a dangerous hunt through the Appalachians…
Olivia’s desperately looking for her mother, who’s been missing for days. Game warden Tucker Blanchard is searching for signs of a little girl lost years ago. When they collide on the Appalachian trail, Olivia is skeptical to accept help—but what choice does she have? As they begin the search for Olivia’s mother, they slowly piece together her story, moment by moment.

Slippers & Starlight by Jennie Marie Ryan
Anna Walter is a perfectionist ballerina who’s trying to make a name for herself outside her small town. After nearly getting kicked out of military school, Garrett Brady’s just trying to keep his head down and figure out what’s next. But sparks fly when Garrett and Anna meet…and their dreams just might change forever.

Of Silence and Song by Cate VanNostrand
Desperate to break free from her overbearing stepmother and the soul-draining demands of the music industry, rising pop star Holly trades the spotlight for a chance at anonymity: starting her freshman year at college. There, she finds a family in the arms of seven quirky roommates who become her closest friends. But when her secret gets out, Holly is forced to choose where she puts her trust: the friends who embraced her, and the God she abandoned… or the life she ran from before it consumes her for good.

To Love You on Amazon

Do you love reading about these fairy tale collections? Want to be a reviewer or a promoter of other books in Beyond the Bookery’s series? Here’s a form to be part of the ARC and Hype Teams! They would love to have you, and my experience as an author writing for this publisher has been fantastic. *smile*

Fairy Tale Frenzy ARC and Hype Team Signups!

More Fairy Tales Of Course: Part One

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’m announcing more fairy tale retellings from Beyond the Bookery, and these announcements are multiple blog posts during this month. I’ll list the titles with their Amazon blurbs.

Here are the first two. Don’t they strike your fancy?

Of Might and Mettle: A Brave Tin Soldier Retelling by Michelle Emmanuelli

A tin ballerina. A brass soldier. A porcelain princess.
What does it matter who you are, if people only look at what you’re made of?

Twenty-four-year-old Lorelle Jimenez thrives under the spotlight. She’s trained all her life to be a principal ballerina, and now, with a performance before the princess of Monte Rico, her dream is within reach . . . only if she can keep her secret: her tin arm. The stage is the only place she’s called her home, but with the spotlight comes scrutiny and a jealous rival that will stop at nothing to expose her—and even end her life.

For Capitán Antonio Fuentes, failure isn’t an option . . . again. Even though he’s recovered from the accident that took his leg two years ago, he won’t show weakness. When rumors of an upcoming attempt on the prince’s life reach Antonio, he won’t fail to protect his kingdom. Not this time.

When Antonio sees a young ballerina in danger, he saves her life. Now, swept far from home, they must work together to get back to the castle. She can’t lose her only chance at her dream, and he’s the only one with the coveted information that will save the prince. But danger nips at their heels, testing their strength and resolve . . . When put to the fire, will they melt under the heat? Or come out as gold?

Of Might and Mettle is a NA Christian fantasy retelling of The Brave Tin Soldier with a Caribbean-inspired world, a happily ever after, and a very troublesome (but lovable) wolf pup.

Of Might and Meddle for Kindle

Waking Courage: A Collection of Fantasy Fairy Tale Retellings by Madisyn Carlin and Samantha Seidel

Beyond the Bookery invites you to step into a collection of heartwarming, thrilling, and romantic fantasy fairy tale retellings.

A Stitch of Love by Madisyn Carlin
What happens when you combine a matchmaking shenanigans, an ornery dog, and a ball no one wants to attend? When seamstress Samara Perrson agreed to assist with the royal ball, she never expected to find herself unintentionally included in matchmaking shenanigans. She also never expected to fall for Prince Ewan Landreth. Can a troublemaking dog, scheming siblings, and a stitch of love bring these two together?

Princess of Mine by Samantha Seidel
Betrayed by her lady in waiting, Princess Analise Lockhart of Wilkenshire is forced into servitude in the highland empire of the Aurelian Cliffs. As the royal Goose Girl, she learns about the kingdom’s sudden misfortunes and their desperation for the union to succeed. Will she reclaim her title and save Aurel before the crown prince marries the wrong woman, or remain the peasant goose girl of a dying empire?

Waking Courage for Kindle

Notice Anything New on This Website?

I added something to the menu. No, it isn’t a dinner menu, ha ha. It’s the menu of this website. It says, “Bonus Story.”

There you can sign up and have chapters of my new book emailed to you. These chapters are friendly for both middle grade and teens. The book features the dire wolf of my Red Riding Hood retelling. We see her start out as human, then get turned into a wolf and back to a human again.

Click on the link to join the fun!