Emily C.A. Snyder's Blog, page 8

Strangeways: Corresponding Cryptograms

Two pieces of good news!

This Tuesday, Regina Jeffers returns with a guest post!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand...
  
Today there's a new chapter of Strangeways available! 

How good are you at reading encrypted correspondence?  That's the question as we receive our first report from Mrs Sznorpjn-Fflonger, the erstwhile companion and sometime informant of Aunt Esmeralda.

You can read the chapter here or you can press the fly-out arrow below in the embedded .pdf file.

And you can read the other chapters here !  Or you can read the entire first volume by clicking on the link.  Enjoy!

Strangeways Returns! Searches & Suspicions

Happy day!

The House of Strangeways returns today with the first installment of the second volume, wherein Aunt Esmeralda begins the search for her lost niece, our erstwhile narrator Miss Serafine Meadowlark!

You can read the chapter here or you can press the fly-out arrow below in the embedded .pdf file.

And you can read the other chapters here !

Macbeth: Promotional Video

If you're anywhere near New England, or even if you aren't, consider coming up for our final week of Macbeth, directed by yours truly!  For a sneak peek, click "play" below!

This unique take on the show examines the loss of innocence and the death of children in the pursuit of power.  I'd love to see you there! 

Check out theater906.org for more information about how you can get your tickets to this weekend's performances.

WINNER of Awake: A Fairy Tale

Congratulations to... 
Sharon 
The winner of the Jessica Grey giveaway of one hardcopy of her new novel, Awake: A Fairy Tale!  And many thanks again to Jessica Grey for joining us at O! Beauty Unattempted!

Crying "Fire" in a Crowded Theatre (Things I Have Done)

I have, in my life, cleared out two buildings that were (kind of) on fire.  The first one was at a production of Hello, Dolly!, the second was a local Wal-Mart.  I nearly cleared out the local mall, once, when the fire alarm was going off, except that security actually seemed to have it under control.

This is the story of how I cleared out a theatre when the fire alarm went off.



In the Spring of 2007, I was prepping for the summer Shakespeare production of Much Ado About Nothing (you can see some snippets below).  As a consequence, my face had become somewhat recognizable in local high schools where I had been recruiting for our second year of theatre for adolescents and young adults. 


What this meant was that I was going to see an inordinate number of productions - good, bad, and indifferent - after which I was expected to give some sort of review - always good.  So when the opportunity presented itself to see Hello, Dolly! at a local high school where I was not known (or, at least, only known to the director, whom I could avoid), I took it.

The production was typical high school production level.  The singing was good, the costumes were rented, the energy was so-so.  It wasn't the greatest theatre I'd ever seen, but neither was it the worst.  However, what was great was the ability to think whatever thoughts I wanted and know I'd never need to verbalize them to the cast and crew.

You can see where this is going.

Now, because I'd bought my tickets at the door, I actually ended up sitting in the very front row, in the very central seat.  This is a tricky place to sit because the actors can and do see you.  My sister and I sat front row center when we saw The Importance of Being Earnest in Dublin, Ireland, and I swear our intent gazes threw off Lady Bracknell by a lot.  Being cognizant of my precarious position, then, and wishing to retain my anonymity, I made sure to school my face at Hello, Dolly!  If I was unimpressed with a song, I merely thought it...but I didn't show it.  If I liked a scene, I smiled politely, but I didn't applaud enthusiastically.

Dolly Levi from our production of "The Matchmaker"
(Thornton Wilder's original play, basis for "Hello, Dolly!")
Spring 2007I wanted to remain unseen.

Then, suddenly, in the middle of the Harmonia Gardens scene - moments before they were about to break into the title song...

The fire alarm went off.

I should probably mention, now, that this show was taking place in central-eastern Massachusetts.  We're very...polite...people here.  Kind of uptight British-y, in that we "don't want to cause you any trouble."  And so, like good little Massachusetts citizens that we are...

We all sat there.  While the fire alarm went off.  And the actors continued acting.  We.  All.  Sat.  There.

This continued on for a good few minutes.  There was a little polite squirming, as if to say: "Oh dear.  Isn't anyone going to deal with this?"  Hesitant looks at the doors to see if someone was coming to tell us to go, or gauging whether we'd be noticed if just one or two of us slipped off - not to disturb the show or anything, God forbid - but just in case...you know...just in case there's a, well, a fire?

Still, we sat there.

"Someone must know more than we," we all thought.  "The actors don't seem bothered.  They're continuing on.  Perhaps there's just a glitch in the system.  Perhaps it's been going off all week and we should just ignore it."  And so on and so on.

And still, we sat there.

As I said two, three minutes passed in this fashion; an eternity.  When a little old man came out from the stage right curtain, down the front stairs, and started walking hesitantly across to the orchestra in the corner.  As he passed by me, I grabbed onto his sleeve and whispered:

"Excuse me?  Is this real?  Is there a fire?  Are we supposed to go?"

He nodded, and put his finger on his lips, and continued toddling across to the orchestra, seemingly with the intent of perhaps quietly and with a minimum of fuss letting every individual know that, if they didn't mind, they might want to consider leaving the theatre, since it was, in fact, on fire.

This wouldn't do.  Now, at that time, I was the Theology Chair at the local Catholic High School and had been working in the school system for a good six years.  You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the teacher out of the fire drill.

I stood up just as Dolly appeared to sing her big number.  I stood up in front of the actors and the audience, turned around with my arms outspread, and called out in my biggest theatrical and teachery voice:

"TIME TO GO!"

Everyone grabbed their stuff and left.  The actors streamed off the stage, leaving their props behind them.  Mothers and fathers and siblings dragged along to the show all grabbed their coats and streamed out of the theatre.  The little old man looked at me with something like affront, but I didn't care, I was making sure all the actors were off the stage and we were all getting out of the building.

So much for anonymity.

Ambrose Kemper knows the best way to get his girl
Is to throw her over his shoulder!
From our Matchmaker, Sping 2007However, when I got to the doors of the building, everyone had clumped into a bottleneck.  Now that the first people to leave were safe, they didn't feel like moving out into the cold winter air.  (To their credit, there were snowbanks a good twelve feet high from all the accumulation that year.)  However, there were still people backed up down the hall and into the theatre.

"Don't do it, Emily," I tried to tell myself, even as the fire alarm continued to go off and we all stayed inside.  "You're not the principal here; you're not even a teacher here.  You don't have a kid here.  You don't even love this production all that much.  Surely, surely, there are local firefighters in the audience, or people who work in the superintendent's office, PTA presidents, bossy mothers...somebody who will deal with this."

No one spoke up.

And the fire alarm continued to go off.

I couldn't help myself.  I raised my voice (I've got a voice that's built for the Alps) and shouted: "C'mon people!  We know what to do!  Evacuate the building, ladies and gentlemen!  Get out of the building!  Keep going!  C'mon!  You and you!  I see you!  Stop standing at the door!  GET. OUT. OF. THE. DOOR.  People coming through!  Keep moving!  Keep moving!  Keep moving!"

We finally started getting out of the building and to the parking lot. 

I tried.  I really, really tried.  There must have been the family of local police officials, dispatchers...good God!  Wasn't there one single teacher at that performance?  Certainly there was the directors, the stage manager...the students should at least know what to do at a fire drill, right?  Right?  But, nope.  Everyone was out of the door, and huddled up against the building.

And the fire alarm continued to go off.

I took a deep breath.  I didn't know where they were supposed to go in times of a drill.  But against the burning building probably wasn't the best idea.  I raised my voice again:

"C'mon people!  We know what to do!  Get away from the building!  MOVE. TO. THE. SNOWBANKS!  No, no, no!  Not back into the building!  I can see you!  Move away to the snowbanks!  Keep on going!  Move it, move it, move it!  The firemen will be arriving any moment!  Get out of the fire lane!  Over to the snowbanks people!  Move away from the building!"

I must have been bossing around the vice principal, or important bankers, or lawyers, financiers, politicians...I don't know.  I was mostly moving middle aged folk who moved reluctantly.  And while I was haranguing them, and the fire alarm continued to sound...

I suddenly turned around and was face to face with the director.  Who I really didn't like.  And who didn't really like me.  And whose show wasn't horrible, but wasn't great, and who I was so glad I didn't have to see.  Until now.

I smiled.  (I can act fairly well, too.)  "Hey!"  I said, feeling kind of bad for his show being disrupted...and also ticked that he didn't freaking move us out of the theatre if he'd been there.  "How's it going?  This is so sad.  I'm so sorry this happened.  You!  Yes you!  I can see you!  Get the freak away from the building, mister!  (To some venerable gentleman who'd tried to creep back to the school wall.  Now back to the director:) Anyway, this is so awful.  But the show was going really well.  Sorry about this.  I mean it, buster!  I can hear the firetrucks on their way now!  Back AWAY from the building!  Anyway, catch you later.  TO THE SNOWBANKS!"

Eventually, the firemen did come, and found that the custodians had set off the fire when drying a ton of towels from some sporting event and causing a small fire in the laundry room.  Everything got settled pretty soon after that.  We were let back into the building.  The actors began at the top of the scene, and let me tell you - the show was worlds better after the event.  The audience was appreciative of their work; the actors were grateful to finish the show.  We all clapped along to "Hello, Dolly!" as the waiters did their high kicks, and Dolly sang her heart out.

Cornelius Hackl is caught in Irene Malloy's closet
In our Spring 2007 production of "The Matchmaker"

The reason why I'm writing this story now is that I find that I'm crying fire in a crowded theatre again.  Those who are friends with me on Facebook have been subjected to a series of links that don't normally adorn my page.  Most often, one can find random geekery about Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or Downton Abbey, or even more likely, updates and photos about my latest plays, or information about my novels.  Perfectly lovely, perfectly harmless stuff.  The sort of stuff that one might enjoy anonymously and without complaint - not so great, not too hideous - rather like that production of Hello, Dolly!

But lately, I have taken the very great risk of alienating my colleagues and friends by posting news about the recent actions taken by our government.  Now, you should know that by and large I'm with Mercutio on the issue of politics: "A plague on both your houses!"  I vote in all matters presented to me, I think about writing letters to my politicians, I will refer obliquely to something...but more often, I'll watch something pop up on my feed - opinions which are both agreeable or noxious to me - and I am silent.

The fire alarm has been going off for a while, and I've been sitting still.

There's a problem in this world, and that problem is me.

I can write all the lovely little stories in the world, all the fluffy comedies, all the sweet romances that I like - and all around us, O my friends, our nation is burning.

Well, it's time to go.  Time to stand up and speak.  Time to move not just a few people to safety, but all of us away from the danger, no matter the cost to our anonymity.

We have been sitting in a crowded theatre, watching actors, while the fire alarms go off.

AND WE ARE STILL SITTING.

Well, I would very humbly suggest that it's Time To Go.

I am a Catholic.  And I am shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre.   And there are politicians, and financiers, and principals, and policemen who should be saying something, too, but they aren't.   And there are Bishops who are fighting, but who must not - once the Churches get to safety - bottleneck in the doors and keep the private business owners, the agnostic men of conscience, and all others who care about freedom to be caught in the burning building.And there are people, private citizens who want to remain anonymous, who are huddling by the building - perhaps because they agree with what's going on, perhaps because they haven't really listened to the alarms, perhaps because they're just too tired to fight - and they need to move to safety.And there are people who are furious at being moved, because the show was a good one, and it should go on.  But I swear to you, that it is better to stop the fire than to be burnt up for the sake of personal pride. And there are actors in our drama, who will continue on performing on a burning stage, because they don't know what else to do. And there are little old men and little old women who will try to go up, one by one, to warn us in hushed voices that the fire alarm is going off and perhaps we should get going.And there's you, my friend, and me, who need to stand up in the front row and shout it from the rooftops that the theatre is on fire and It Is Time To Go.

Fairy Tales and Tomfoolery

What's been going on and what's coming up at O Beauty Unattempted?

Jessica Grey  Joined us for a Teatime Ten interview, and a Book Giveaway & Guest Blog ("For the Love of Fairy Tale Adaptations" - comment to win a paperback copy!  Winner drawn Tuesday, March 6th) for her new novel Awake: A Fairytale .  IndieJaneRecently featured a review by Nancy Kelley of my Austenesque short stories, Letters of Love & Deception , as well as featuring my latest guest blog, Snagging Mr Darcy (Romance Tips from Austen's Heroes)!  Regina JeffersWho last joined us for a Teatime Ten  interview, returns in early April with a guest blog on the two Scottish legends that feature in her latest Austenesque novel, The Disappearance of Georgiana Darcy .  The House of StrangewaysWill return (after I finish directing Macbeth ! The Scottish Play requires quite a bit of attention as we near the showdate!)  In the meantime, you can read all of the chapters here to catch up with the first volume in preparation for its return! If you're an author interested either in a Teatime Ten interview or - better! - a guest blog, please contact me at webmaster (at) christianfantasy (dot) com and I'll be glad to chat with you. We're looking especially for fantastical or Austenesque works to feature. (No erotica, please.)

Do check out the links and I'll see you back here at O Beauty Unattempted!

You Make Me Strange! & Other Macbethery

Macbeth at the banquet scene,
said to Lady Macbeth:
"You have made me strange!"
I've been immensely grateful to have directed quite a lot of Shakespeare this year (for those of you keeping score, we're coming up to number three of the four back to back directing Shakespeare plays this year: As You Like It, The Tempest, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream).

YOU CAN SEE REHEARSAL PHOTOS HERE!

Howsomever, Macbeth is really one of the Big Five, when one's considering Shakespeare tragedies.  (I'd say it's Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Othello and Lear.  Put on any one of those, and folks will come...and criticize.) 

The most intimidating of his plays, for my money though, is still Hamlet.  To quote Tolkein: one does not simply walk into Elsinore.  But right behind Hamlet is definitely the Scottish Play.  And one does not simply walk into Dunsinane, either!

When I first started getting my thoughts together on Macbeth, one of the things that struck me was that this was Such A Ridiculously Male Play.  The testosterone of it daunted me, actually.  It was just so full of...war...and more war and more war...and a bunch of grim faced guys talking about war and making war and going into war and coming out of war and...

I didn't really feel that I had a way in.

(For the record, I don't mind male plays, and I'd hate to be called feminist, just I don't get excited about the prospect of mindlessly hacking away.  If I'm going to kill someone on stage, I want it to hurt me emotionally, too.)

The script, too, was weird.  Oh, the story is straight-forward enough:
Boy gets prophecyBoy pursues prophecyBoy gets killed by prophecyTHE END

By "weird" what I mean is that there are a ton of characters who either:

A) Have no name and pop up for one scene to say some direful things and then are never seen again (Old Man, A Lord, etc.) or;

B) Have a name but you've never heard it before and they do stuff at the end and die so you could really care less but you're supposed to care at all (Mentieth, the Siwards) or;

C) Have a name, and you even hear it, but you can't seem to quite register Who The Hell They Are (Lennox, Ross, Angus) or;

D) Have a name, and you know it, and then they just disappear for forever...even though they're really important to the plot (Malcolm, Donalbain, Fleance) or;

E) You know who they are (the Macbeths).

Even when things go very badly for the Macbeths,
they're still in it together!Another thing that troubled me was that, tonally, the show can become one long string of horror, like a Greek drama, that loses its power because of repetition.  I'm always about finding grace in any tragedy - and Shakespeare is typically a willing partner in such ventures - but from watching other productions of Macbeth, I couldn't find it initially.

What I can do is human drama.  What I can do is interior war.  What I can do is come to a play with a female perspective which, especially when working with a male playwright, can help compliment his worldview.

So I focused in on that line of Lady Macbeth's, that she had "given suck, and know what 'tis to love the babe that nursed me," and that she would, "while it was smiling up at me, have dashed the brains out."  It's not a statement you make lightly.  And yet, it never seems to be addressed at all in all these manly manly productions.

I began looking at the death of children and the rape of innocence.

If Lady Macbeth did indeed kill her child...wouldn't that have upset their marriage, which seems evident from the start?  And if she can get Macbeth to join her in killing the father (Duncan in our case) wouldn't that "alleviate" - even absolve - or at least spread around the guilt?  And if the guilt is spread around, then they don't have to be guilty, right?

But death begets death.  And we've found beautiful moments, not of Macbeth pushing away Lady Macbeth, but attempting to make her innocent again ("be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck") by taking on all the collateral deaths (Banquo/Fleance, the Macduffs, etc.) without her knowledge.

Our teachers have always said that Macbeth is an example of a tragic hero - which always seemed absurd to me.  Macbeth seems to be just a monster.  It doesn't seem to take much to get him to kill; there's nothing heroic about him!  But...

But what if there were?  What if, in fact, Macbeth does have to be talked into the first murder, and the second, and the third, and then it gets easier, and so on and so on.  Looking at the text, it's all there - the curses and reverses, the time for a million decisions and revisions, as T. S. Eliot says in his Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Lady Macbeth in her mad scene
Goes terribly sane, instead
"There's a knocking at the gate"I have to thank, as always, my brilliant cast - particularly my Lord and Lady Macbeth who go throughout the play together.  That, too, was something important to me.  So often, the story begins strongly with them and then the pairing just peters off.  In our production, whether they're working in concert or against one another, there is a constant association.

I've been amazed, too, and how the entire cast has help to keep focus on the deaths (or attempted deaths) of children.  It can get pretty brutal - especially the massacre of the Macduffs - but all the actors are fantastic at keeping me on track regarding their characters' reactions to each death.  I love how our Donalbain has even added a grace note to the deaths of children with a new child...and how our two child actors (Elizabeth Macduff, and Fleance) are just phenomenal!

I love how the lords, who could just blend into one another, individualize themselves.  I love how the witches (played by Duncan, Ross and Donalbain) switch in and out of their characters.  I love how the Macduff family tugs at my heartstrings...and how ambiguous the royal family is...and how it hurts to see Macbeth try to kill Banquo and his son.

Likewise, our Banquo is no avenging ghost, but he offers something that Macbeth (by the end) fears even more: grace.  Mercy and grace.  I keep thinking of that song, "Aldonza" from Man of LaMancha:

You have shown me the sky,
But what good is the sky
To a creature who'll never do better than crawl
Of all the cruel bastards
Who've badgered and battered me
You are the cruelest of all

Can't you see what your gentle
Insanities do to me
Drive me from anger
And give me despair?
Blows and abuse
I can take and give back again...
Gentleness I cannot bear.
Macbeth is, at its heart, a cautionary tale.  Like the Bearenstein Bears: This Is Something You Should Not Do.  But cautionary tales are only helpful if they provide a way out.  Otherwise, you leave the audience in confusion and despair and hopelessness.  Although I'm all for rightfully unsettling an audience, I feel that it's important to provide an alternative, a solution, an exit from No Exit as it were.

It's important that in the midst of hopelessness is a glimmer of hope.  I guess I'm just with Samwise Gamgee on this one.  So, although we're going dark dark dark in some places - or rather, not dark, not GRIMDARK, not dark for no purpose - but rather although we go agonizingly real in the play, I think we're still holding on to the thought that there's good in this world, Mr Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

For the Love of Fairy Tale Adaptations (Guest Blog)

Today, Jessica Grey returns with a guest blog: For the Love of Fairy Tale Adaptations.

And there's more!  Jessica will also be giving away a free copy of her new book, Awake: A Fairytale !  To enter to win a copy, just leave a comment either here or in Jessica's Teatime Ten interview!

For the Love of Fairy Tale AdaptationsGuest Blog by Jessica Grey 

"When I was ten, I readfairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so.Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put awaychildish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be verygrown up."  -C.S. Lewis Illustration by W. CraneFairy tale adaptations are everywhere right now.  In the movies, on television, in popularfiction.  It's a trend that seems to comearound every decade and a half or so.  Asa child I was lucky enough to grow up with Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theaterand a Beauty and the Beast remake on prime time television.  As a young reader I was able to read bookslike Beauty and Spindle's End by Robin McKinley.  Of course whole generations of children grewup with Disney adaptations, and Disney Animation revived the fairytaletradition in the early 90s.  Adaptingfairy tales is nothing new, and I would bet a whole nickel that the writers ofOnce Upon a Time and Grimm probably are close to my age and grew up with manyof those same influences.  Fairy taleshave a way of getting into your mind and soul and changing the way you look atthe world and the way you write.
My early exposure to fairy tales (we had the most amazingcollection of books when I was a kid) and adaptations has definitely affectednot only the way I write but what I write. My first novel, Awake: A Fairytale, is an adaption of SleepingBeauty.  In my story Sleeping Beauty isawakened in modern day Los Angeles by a kiss, but the curse isn't trulybroken.  Instead, the sleeping spell transfersto the boy who kissed her.  My maincharacter, Alexandra Martin, is a childhood friend of the kisser and is stucktrying to figure out a) how to wake him up, and b) what exactly to do with theawakened twelfth century princess. 
There are people that love fairy tale adaptations, but you alsooften hear people saying they prefer the original version of a particulartale.  While I am all for authenticity,and for fairy tales and folk stories being read in their earliest writtenforms, the fact is that so many of these stories existed as oral traditionsbefore they were ever written down.  Eventhe Grimm brothers, as dark as their stories are, were accused of sanitizingsome of the original tales.  In somecases, stories that we consider as part of the fairy tale lexicon were writtenby an author (Hans Christian Anderson is one of the biggest examples of this),and certain critics might be more justified in their distaste for modernizingor changing those stories.  I think itspeaks to the power of Anderson's stories, though, that they get included alongwith the iconic fairy tales.  They havebecome a part of the general consciousness in the same way as the earlierstories.
Illustration by Gustav DoreThe tricky part about stories that come from an oral tradition,like so many fairy tales do, is they are hard to pin down.  The story shifts and changes from teller toteller.  And as anyone who has ever hearda really great story teller knows, even when telling a known tale, they somehowmake it their own.  Great stories tend totravel which results in many cultures that have similar stories.  If you are ever researching a fairy tale itis so much fun to check out the similar tales across cultures on Sur LaLune Fairy Tales.  Beware, itis a total time suck.  I could spendhours on that site reading versions of various stories. 
I made a conscious decision to have the main characters in mystory actually research the fairy tale they were caught up in.  Alex and Becca are both really smart,college-bound girls.  When confrontedwith the fact that the Sleeping Beauty tale is true, and not only is it truebut they've been saddled with the recently awakened star of the story, it makessense for their characters to try to learn as much as possible about what theyare dealing with.  So they researchit.  It's what I would have done, I wouldhope it's what most people would do, although often YA novels especially havetheir main characters act before thinking in a way I find unrealistic.  When the girls start researching the originsof the story they run right up against this "pinning it down" problem:

A half ream of printer paper later,Alex wasn't feeling any more in control of the situation. Becca was cursingquietly under her breath as she surveyed the haphazard stacks of papers onAlex's bed and desk. "This is frustrating. None of these stories seem tomatch."Alex leaned back and sighed. "Yeah,there are elements that pop up in each one, but nothing that's really feelingstrongly like Lilia's version of events. They certainly all have the prince shekeeps harping on about."Lilia looked up from the bean bag chairin the corner, where she was flipping through a version of the story called Little Briar Rose from Grimm'sFairytales that Alex had already perused, taken notes on, and abandoned."See, it is as I said. A prince shouldhave kissed me awake. My true love; not this peasant boy.""You're lucky you didn't wake up inlabor like the princesses in some of these stories," Alex commented drily."Being woken up by a peasant might be slightly preferable to being impregnatedwhile unconscious by a prince, true love or not."
Illustration by Breakspeare
While the sometimes murky origin of these stories may presentproblems for a historian or recorder (or two eighteen year olds trying tofigure out how to break a curse that seems to have transferred), I believe itis this subtle obscurity that gives fairy tales much of their power and theirability to be adapted.  As adapters wecan take our place in a long line of storytellers who have added their ownpersonal flair to these famous stories. We aren't aiming to change how the story is passed on to futuregenerations (although as an adapter of tales Disney may have managed justthat), but to add another way of looking at a tale, a new thread, howeversmall, in the grand story telling tradition. We want to give the audience around our personal campfire a story thatwill inspire their imagination and get them thinking about these old storiesthat still hold so much power and meaning in our lives.

Teatime Ten: Jessica Grey (Awake: A Fairytale)

Today, the Teatime Ten returns with an exclusive interview with Jessica Grey !  For those who may not know, Jessica is one-half of the brilliant team behind IndieJane.org (who've let me guest blog a time or two) and the lovely lady known as NarniaMum .

Now Jessica has published the first of her fairy tale retellings, " Awake: A Fairytale " - and was kind enough to join us here to tell us more about it!  Today's offering includes your choice of fully caffeinated Irish or English Breakfast tea and a Mardi Gras array of pancakes!

[image error] Welcome, Jessica!

Thanks so much for featuring me ;)
Tell us a little bit about "Awake."

Magic spells and enchanted beds are the last things on Alexandra Martin's mind when she sees Luke Reed on the first day of her summer internship. But when Alex finds a real Sleeping Beauty she discovers the truth hidden in fairytales and that a fae's ancient evil still holds power. Can Alex and her friends defeat the curse and finally realize it takes more than true love's kiss to bring you fully Awake?
To sum up: Magic. Gems. 850-Year-Old Princess. Hot guy. What drew you to the story of Sleeping Beauty?
Well, she is my favorite Disney Princess.  Actually, Prince Phillip is my favorite Disney Prince and I've written a whole treatise on why.  But even though I love the story, I hadn't given it much thought as something I might want to write. Then one day an image just dropped into my head - this amazing metal and gem bed with a sleeping person on it.  That image eventually became Awake.  While I didn't set out to write a Sleeping Beauty story, I was drawn question of whether we are powerless to affect our fate - it excited me to think of the roles being reversed - how fun it would be to have the heroine realize that she was more powerful than she knew.
Recently, we've had a slew of modernizations of fairy tales.  Why do you think this trend has caught on?  What do fairy tales tell us today? 
The fairy tale modernization trend seems to come around every decade or so with varying degrees of popularity.  I was lucky enough to read authors like Robin McKinley when I was young and now I am thrilled to see some of these stories once again getting the recognition they deserve.  It's either feast or famine, though, I can't believe there are two different Snow White movies coming out this year. It kind of boggles the mind, but I'm prepared to give them each a chance!  I think the t.v. shows Grimm and Once Upon a Time are both brilliant.  Although they are extremely different takes, I think they are both valid and well written and I'm thrilled they are both on at the same time! 
There is a reason that these stories have remained popular for so many centuries.  The serve to condense good and evil, along with every possibly human character trait, into easily identifiable and relatable stories.  We can understand them as children, and as adults we can see the subtleties that we may have missed when we were younger.  I do think that the popularity of fairy tales is cyclical, but I also think it has to do with uncertain times.  Fairy tales offer glimpses into the human condition but still allow us to have good and bad guys...even when the roles are reversed or tweaked in fun post-modern stories, they always seem to retain a measure of that battle of good versus evil.
What did you find was the most challenging aspect of writing this novel, and why?
Starting!  I usually get a really strong visual image of a specific scene and then build my whole story around that.  In this case, it was the image of Sleeping Beauty's bed, actually the scene I am including at the end of this post.  The image was so strong it was burned onto my brain and is described in the book just the way I saw it first, probably at least six years ago.  It sat in my head for years before I finally started working a bit on it in November 2010, but I didn't really get started writing the book until March of last year.  Things that kept me from working on it - working, doing infertility treatments, then having two babies within 14 months of each other and moving across country...basically life!  However, once I got started it poured out of me.  I was done with the first draft in about two and a half months.

What were five discoveries or surprises you made on the road to independent publication?
a)  The fact that most people think you chose to self-publish because your manuscript was rejected by everyone and their grandmother.  I've never even submitted a novel TO be rejected.  Self-pubishing was something that spoke to my annoyingly independent "I'll do it the hard way and reinvent the darn wheel if I want to" personality.
b)  How amazingly supportive the self-publishing and indie/small press publishing community really is!  We see examples of this all the time on IndieJane and it's fabulous.
c)  Knowing people who do stuff is really handy.  I already knew this, but honestly guys, make friends with other artists...graphic designers, musicians, etc.  It's enriching in general, and it honestly makes it easier to get stuff done when people around you know what they are talking about and share your passion!
d)  I'm not going to lie, sometimes there is a stigma attached to self-publishing.  I always thought it wouldn't bother me.  But whenever the issue is brought up, or someone says something derogatory about self-publishing, I have an instinctive, and luckily internal, defensive reaction.  I've learned to not beat myself up over the reaction, let myself have it, and then move on to being awesome and positive.  
e)  I already knew that I was kind of a control freak, and that I would rather do most things myself (any experience in college group projects will convince most decent students that doing it yourself is the way to go), but it is surprised me how much I've enjoyed it!  The resources are out there, putting out a quality product is easier than it ever has been before.  
You're a Mom, a blogger, an author, and a publisher!  How do you balance your home and literary life?  What suggestions do you have for other Moms?
Um...balance? Moi?  It can be really hard.  When I'm up to my eyeballs in potty-training disasters I sometimes wish I could just hide away in a  corner with a coffee and my laptop...and when I head out to the coffee shop to write and my two year old looks at me with huge, fat tears running down his face and says "Mama, don't go do writin!'" the mom guilt is overwhelming.  Luckily, I know he's fine after about three minutes so I don't have to wallow in the guilt (although some days I do!).  In a weird way, the fact that I can't write every day helps motivate me.  I can think over a scene in my brain for days while I'm at home (I find it is best if I actually leave to write), and then once I actually do get to sit down with it it flows better because I've thought it out so much.  It also helps me not waste a lot of my writing time, so I get a lot done in a short amount of time. 
My advice for other moms is: If you want to do it, do it!  You can't wait to "find the time" cause there will always be something else you can fill your time with.  You have to take the time, forcibly.  And sometimes that means letting something else go.  But even if you can only find an hour a week it is still an hour a week you weren't spending on writing, or whatever your chosen art form, before.  It's amazing what you can do when you are motivated....which I keep reminding myself when looking at my dusty workout dvds. The Trailer for "Awake" You may be best known for your work on IndieJane.  But "Awake" is not Austen paraliterature!  Would you say there's any overlap between the two genres?

It's kind of cool to think I'm "known" for anything at all!  My mother claims I'm best known for talking through movies, so it was fun to tell her "no, I'm known for Indie Jane, Emily said so."  I love working on IndieJane and I adore Austen paraliterature.  My next novel actually is Austenesque (although I have to put my own postmodern spin on it of course, too many watchings of The Princess Bride when I was young!), but I have always loved fairy tales  - both the originals and adaptations.  I do find that there is some overlap when writing something that is fantasy based and something that is Austen based because to me at least, they are BOTH fantasy!  Although, Austenesque novels are usually set in the Regency era, an actual historical time period, they are focused on a world that we are so far removed from that it might as well be magical.  The difference is, if you're writing your own fantasy world you make the rules, whereas in historical novels the rules are made for you.  Either way, it is important to honor the rules - to keep your world true to itself.

Let's say you're spending a night out with one of your favorite characters from "Awake.  Who is it and what do you do?

I'm going to have to cheat and pick two characters!  My heroine, Alex, is wonderful, but (at least at the start of the book) she might be a little bit too shy and reserved to really make for a fun "night out."  Her friend and fellow intern, Becca Ward, however, is spunky and a bit snarky.  I think they compliment each other well, and with Becca along Alex would definitely have a better time.
Would you care to give us a 2-3 paragraph sample from "Awake"?  Lead us into and out of the scene, please!
So our intrepid heroine has just arrived at the museum she interns at, looking for her advisor and the artifacts they are supposed to be  receiving.  She doesn't find her advisor, but she does find an amazing gem encrusted four poster bed that has just been uncrated...

A soft sound interrupted Alex's rapid thoughts. She wasn't alone. She had been so entranced by the bed itself that she hadn't noticed there was someone actually on it—sleeping on it, in fact.At first Alex thought the sleeping figure, like the bed, was covered with fine cobwebs. As she looked closer she saw that it wasn't cobwebs draping over the figure but hair – foot after foot of sandy-colored hair streamed from the sleeper's head and over its face and body, moving gently as the figure breathed in and out. The hair wasn't growing just out of the sleeper's head, but from the face as well–a beard that would have done Rip Van Winkle proud flowed down to well past the knees. And that is when Alex figured out that she didn't have a sleeping beauty on her hands, but an enchanted sleeping man.As Alex stared at the figure in shock, trying to calculate how long it would take for that much hair to grow, the sleeping man emitted a soft snore. Alex jumped back at the quiet sound, trying to stifle her slightly hysterical giggles. She may not know much about fairytales, but she was pretty sure that enchanted sleeping princes weren't supposed to snore.

And coming out of the scene...she figures out who is on the bed! And it's someone she knows!
You can actually read a bit more of this scene on the site www.fairytaletrilogy.com.  I've got several samples from Awake available there.What's next for Jessica Grey?
Hopefully quite a lot!  I am currently completing Attempting Elizabeth, a novel about a grad student who finds she can jump into characters in Pride and Prejudice.  I hope to have it out in September of this year.  I also am right in the middle of a sequel to Awake (although each book is stand alone) called Atone: A Fairytale, that features Becca Ward and is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.  I hope to have that one out by this time next year.Thanks so much for joining me!
Thanks so much for having me for your Tea Time Ten, Emily!  Jessica Grey is the author of "Awake: A Fairytale" and the editrix of IndieJane.org .  You can learn more about her at her official site .
You can also connect with Jessica via Twitter and Facebook. "Awake" is available through Amazon.

Turn, Hellhound, Turn!

And just for kick and giggles - here's the latest publicity poster for Macbeth presented by Theater906 and directed by yours truly.  Macduff in the final moments of fighting (and winning against) Macbeth.  If you're in Massachusetts - or even if you aren't - you should definitely make plans to come and see this production!

You can actually buy tickets now!