K.M. Shea's Blog, page 46

12 Dancing Princesses: Retellings!

Though The Twelve Dancing Princesses is not as popular as the many fairy tales Disney has adapted, it’s still a better known fairy tale and has quite a few adaptions–both in book and movie format! Today I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of them, and the differences between the stories. It’s surprisingly quite long–though most of them are indie published and not traditionally published.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses: By K. M. Shea–that’s me, and yes this is a shameless plug: My version has a lot of battles and magical fights in addition to witty banter, elves, sweet romance, and more! If you’re a fan of Tamora Pierce or Sarah J Maas, this retelling is going to be right up your alley.

The Princess Curse: By Merrie Haskell: This is undoubtedly the funniest–and in my opinion, the best–retelling of the original fairy tale ever! It’s very light on the romance due to the main character’s age and leaves you still wanting more when it’s done, but it presents a traditional melding of the two different versions of the 12 dancing princesses that are most known today. Seriously, you need to read it!!

Entwined: By Heather Dixon: This is a YA retelling that mostly revolves around the romance aspect. (It’s been ages since I’ve read it, but I do recall it being a diverting read!)

Princess of the Midnight Ball: By Jessica Day George: This book is from the perspective of both the princess and the soldier–which is always a plus–and to make it even better, the soldier is not the typical hero (he knits) which makes him really interesting! Additionally, The villain has a different motive that really stands out from the rest of the pack as well.

A Dance of Silver and Shadows: By Mellanie Cellier: What makes this book unique is that the main character in this story is a twin, and she and her sister actually appeared in some of Mellanie’s earlier work. Additionally, the set up is very different as the 10 other girls involved in the story are princesses, but they are not Lilly’s sisters. (Well, besides her twin, anyway!)

Pirouette: by Kenley Davidson: Kenlely’s work always has amazing romance, but I think this book of hers uses some especially masterful plot-twists. It’s the third book in a series, The Andari Chronicles, but the books are all stand alone so you can read it without knowing anything about the two previous books.

The Firethorn Crown: by Lea Douge: This is another YA retelling, but it focuses more on the sisters’ relationship than many of the books I’ve listed above. The way the curse ends up coming down on the girls is very interesting, and the series is set up so you follow the younger sisters on to new adventures once this book is finished.

Other retellings that I have not read–so I can’t vouch for them–but I know they exist: A Branch of Silver a Branch of Gold–by Anne Elisabeth Stengl; Moon Dance–by Christine Pope; and The Twelve Dancing Princesses–by Jenni James.

Do you any other retellings, Champions? Please mention them in the comments below, and share this post with any friends you think need more dancing princesses in their life.

The Moral & My Retelling

I live!!! Thanks for your patience, Champions. You unlocked the final extra–a Grim Reveal,click here for the PDF file!–roughly two days ago. I apologize it’s a little late. I’m actually on vacation (expect to see photos!) and I’m actually sick right now as well. (I know. It seems like whenever I launch a book I get sick. Might be a co-relation?) A huge thank you to everyone who reviewed–thanks for the feedback and the help. And also, just a reminder, Today is the LAST DAY you can get Beauty and the Beast for free! So download a copy and tell anyone you know who might like one!

About the final extra. As I noted on the original announcement, it’s actually a general Timeless Fairy Tale story, and is told from the point-of-view of Odette of Swan Lake. The story will eventually be expanded upon and will show up in Angelique’s trilogy, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy the plot twist it delivers! Now, on to the post!

Normally I like to devote a whole post to the morals of the original fairy tale, but I’ll be honest…it’s pretty thin in Twelve Dancing Princesses. In fact, when I was researching the story I came across only a few resources that cited morals, and the best of them involved the German version with the soldier, not the French version with the gardener’s boy.

One proposed moral is that parents need to let their children grow up, and they cannot grasp them too tightly. This is displayed in the way the king/duke locks the princesses into their room and they still get away at night to do whatever they want.

Another proposed moral is something along the lines of listening to elders. Though many princes and nobles try, it is the wounded, middle-aged soldier who succeeds, and even that’s only because he listened to an old wise woman.

Some say that the French version encourages suffering and patience for the sake of love. (Why else would a shallow-boy have put up with the bratty youngest sisters’ antics?) But as I read over all of these…none of them really appealed to me.

So before I even crafted Quinn, before I even introduced the elves in Swan Lake, I looked at my series (including all my planned books) and contemplated what I wanted a main theme to be for 12 Dancing Princesses. Often in my stories you’ll see lots of themes of friendship, loyalty, and sticking together. These things are great and important. (No matter who you are, you NEED support!) But there is a problem with that…sometimes we get so caught up in our friendships we make poor choices because of those important relationships. We allow others to influence us to do things we wouldn’t normally do or say because they’re our friends. So I decided 12 Dancing Princesses would be the story where I flaunt friendship…and then shatter it by making Quinn choose to do the right thing rather than choose to follow her companions.

One of the hardest things to do is to step away from your friends and family and do the right thing. It takes a lot of courage, because even if what you stand for is correct it doesn’t guarantee that your friends will understand and accept your decision. Personally, I’ve had several relationships crumble because friends have asked me to do things that I know are wrong. It’s hard, and it happens more often than you would think, which is why I felt it was important to address with this particular tale.

Which launches us into my retelling! As I mentioned in a prior post, for my retelling I decided to stitch the two versions together. Quinn represents the German tale, and Roy the French version.

There’s a few obvious hints. Quinn is a soldier, she takes the silver tree branch as evidence, she receives the cloak from Angelique whom she initially thinks to be an old woman (And yes, for you Stil fans out there, the cloak originally belonged to Rumpelstiltskin. It’s the one Pricker Patch ripped that he gives to Angelique after Gemma gives him a new cape.) and she approaches the venture more from a “we’re going to fix this” perspective than a lovesick motivation.

Roy on the other hand is the gardener’s boy (or at least he pretends to be), he hides the twigs from the beautiful trees in the bouquet for the eldest princess (eldest not youngest, because the youngest twins aren’t even teenagers yet, ewwwww!) and he appears to be stupidly in love/motivated by the chance to marry a princess.

You can see a nod to the tales in the way the princesses  drug their victims (German) and that those who succeed in following them are cursed as well (French.) The silver, gold, and diamond trees are featured in my story and both the German and French version as well, but I chose to have the princesses cross a river rather than a lake (featured in both original versions) to get to the elves because I thought a river would be a better divider between the elf and human lands.

Additionally, my story includes the grand parties featured by both stories, and the philtre that serves as a plot point in the French version. (The curse being caused by the food and drink was also a subtle nod to the French version’s philtre.)

Even my choices of making the elves the hosts of the celebration was taken from one of the many other variations of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, in which the parties were hosted by fairies. (Pretty sure Emerys would slug me, though, if he knew he was the substitute for a fairy king.)

And that is the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I hope you enjoyed it, and that the story made you laugh and cheer. There’s only one fairy tale left in this current arc of the series before I launch Angelique’s trilogy in 2019, and that is Snow White. I will continue to write fairy tales after Angelique’s trilogy (you can look forward to books about The Queen of Hearts, The Girl in the Glass Coffin, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and more!) but most of the fairy tales will be like the Snow Queen books. They will influence the events of the world, but they will be stand-alone and less connected.

Thank you for reading, Champions, and thank you for all your reviews–I really appreciate the time you took in making them. Enjoy the last short, and have a lovely day!

The post The Moral & My Retelling appeared first on K. M. Shea.

Where it fits

Once again, Champions, you have exceeded my hopes and reached 100 reviews in record time! You actually reached it over 24-hours ago, but I was unable to get to my computer at the time. But here it is! The next short–which is actually my favorite–is now unlocked: A Gallant Celebration. (Click HERE for the PDF File)

Now, onto today’s topic: where the story fits into the Continent and the timeline.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses make their first debut in the Timeless Fairy Tale series through Cinderella, in a conversation between Friedrich, Merrich, and Deiderrik, and they pop up every few books after that. But besides saying the bare minimum (That they are cursed or something as they wear their shoes out every night) I keep all details under wraps, until the Black Swan Smugglers arrive.

In Swan Lake I reveal that Odette and her crew have been delivering a philtre that freezes the heart of emotion and inspires a passionate desire to dance. This is the first clue that the elves are tied to the twelve dancing princesses as the French version of the story includes that exact same philtre. I planned for the elves to be included since early on in the series, and I knew the Twelve Dancing Princesses would be my ticket.

As you learned in Frog Prince, all the curses, spells, and calamities that have befallen my characters is the work of the Chosen–who have been plotting and planning for centuries. The Chosen specifically target countries and people with power who ruined their attack on Verglas, so naturally the elves would make the top of the list.

Because the elves–though quite limited in number–are a people group, the Chosen would have to strike against all elves if they really wanted lock them out of the incoming fight. Preferably they would want to kill them, but as you recall the elves’ curse was originally powered by Lord Enchanter Evariste, and due to the purity of his magic it couldn’t be twisted to do that. (It is worth mentioning, however, that Angelique’s magic wouldn’t have that problem, which is some food for thought….)

It’s also worth noting that the Chosen acted against them fast. It happened so quickly, in fact, that Emerys and his people didn’t even know Evariste had been kidnapped. (There will be more about this in future books, but its safe to conclude this was done on purpose.)

And to answer your question, Yes, as many of you have asked I do have a Fairy Tale planned to explain the elven Wanderers and how the three generals were freed. My original plan was to include it before Angelique’s book, but the series is already quite long. I still plan to write it one day, but it will likely be a novella. And to answer your burning question, the selected fairy tale is The Elves and the Shoemaker. There’s actually three different stories that include some distant hints to this fairy tale, so super bonus points to any who can guess which three!

Finally, Twelve Dancing Princesses actually introduces a main protagonist from a future story that will take place after Angelique’s books, Bridget! Can anyone guess what her fairy tale is? (Hint: think about her job…)

Thank you for reading and reviewing, Champions. I really hope you enjoy the extra, and have a lovely day!

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12 Dancing Princesses: The French Version

A big thank you to all the wonderful and amazing champions who left reviews for Twelve Dancing Princesses! We’ve hit the first landmark of 50 reviews, which means Of Noble Heart is now available! (Click here for the PDF File. I hope you like it!) You guys snagged this in record time–I was quite stunned–and touched! Thank you for your help, and I really hope you enjoy the short story. (But ohmygoodness I can’t wait for you to read the next one, it’s my favorite, favorite, FAVORITE!!) Now let’s jump in to today’s topic.

Welcome back for the second round of the Twelve Dancing Princesses origins! It’s a bit unusual that I delve into two different versions of the story, but, as you will see by the end of the post, in my retelling I actually stitched these two versions together…and I’m too big of a geek to let that slide without pointing out how I did it.

12 Dancing Princesses: the German Version

Greetings, Champions! Today’s the day. The Twelve Dancing Princesses is now available to read, or borrow if you have Kindle Unlimited. (Click HERE for the link!) Also, as a reminder Red Rope of Fate is free until 1/20, so snag a copy of that if you haven’t yet. Now, on to the post! (Don’t worry, no spoilers here, we’re just talking about the source material today.)

The original story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses is tough to pin down, mostly because there’s so many variants. There’s the most well known version–the Brothers Grimm version which was published in 1812–however, there are also French, Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Slovakian, Scottish, and Icelandic versions as well. Each story is a little different, but they typically share one of two story structures, which are best showcased in the German version and the French version.

The German version–which is perhaps the more traditional version–follows the adventure of a soldier.

The king of his country has twelve beautiful daughters who, despite sleeping in a locked room, wear their dancing shoes to pieces every night. The king promises that if a man is able to uncover the mystery of the princesses and their worn shoes within three days and three nights, he will be given the kingdom and he will be allowed the marry the princess of his choice. (Seems like a pretty big reward for a mystery that pertains to used shoes...) However, anyone who tries yet fails to uncover the secret within that three day time frame will be put to death. (There’s no reason given for this death threat. I bet this king is a relative of the king from Rumpelstiltskin!)

This unpromising cycle has continued on for some time, until our hero–the retired soldier–asks for a chance. The king gives his permission, and right before it’s time for the soldier to spend his first night with the princesses, he meets an old woman who gives him an invisibility cloak and tells him not to eat or drink anything the princesses give him and to pretend to sleep.

The soldier follows that advice, and as a result is able to sneak out after the princesses when they leave their room through a trap door. (The soldier follows so closely behind them that he treds on the dress of the youngest princess–who cries out in surprise.) The princesses lead the way through three groves of trees (One grove is made of silver trees, one of gold, and the last of diamonds.) and the soldier takes a twig from each tree.

They then come to a beautiful lake where twelve boats and twelve princes wait to ferry the princesses across. The soldier hops on the boat of the youngest princess, who lectures her prince for being slower than anyone else due to the extra (and unknown) weight the soldier provides. (I might add that while it’s noted the princesses are beautiful, they certainly don’t get personality points.)

In addition to the French and German version, there is also the little known historical Mattel version. (I kid, but I have been told by many parents it’s not half bad!)

Across the water is a castle, where the princesses dance the night away before hurrying back to their home.

The soldier follows the princesses a second and third time, but on the third night he manages to steal a golden cup. The next day he presents the cup and the tree branches to the king as he explains what the princesses do every night. Faced with this absolute proof, the princesses confess that he is correct. The soldier then picks the oldest princess as his bride, and that’s it.

A few things about this story really gets me, and it’s why I was so determined NOT to write a story about the princesses themselves. 1) The princesses are brats. They aren’t under any kind of enchantment, spell, curse, NOTHING. They willingly go dancing every night and refuse to tell their father what they’re doing for reasons never explained. 2) The princesses have been drugging those who tried to uncover their mystery–which is bad enough, but by doing so they willingly participated in their father’s madness and sent men to death because they wanted to dance. Nice girls, these princesses are NOT! 3) If the king is related to the blood thirsty king of Rumpelstiltskin–who threatened a girl with death or marriage–then the soldier is certainly related to the miller’s daughter of Rumpelstiltskin. Why on earth would he want to marry a girl who is at worst capable of murder and at best a compulsive liar??

The second most popular variant of the Twelve Dancing Princess story is fairly similar, but instead of a soldier the hero is a gardener’s boy. (As I mentioned at the beginning, the most well known of this particular strain of the 12 dancing princesses is the French version) This story is actually a bit more detailed than the German version, so we’ll examine it in another post.

However, if you want to read some of the many variants I mentioned at the start of this post, I highly recommend Twelve Dancing Princesses Tales From Around the World, by Heidi Anne Heiner. (The ebook is in Kindle Unlimited!)

Thanks for reading, Champions. I hope you enjoy Quinn and her adventure in The Twelve Dancing Princesses. Have a lovely day!

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12 Dancing Princesses: Available for Pre-order!

Hello Champions, we’ve got some fun stuff to cover today! First of all, The Twelve Dancing Princesses is available on Pre-order starting today! (Click HERE for the link.) The book launches 1/19–that’s this Friday–so it’s only a few days away.

Next up, Red Rope of Fate is free today through January 20th! Red Rope of Fate is a stand alone epic fantasy-romance novel about a female elf named Tari and her unusual relationship with the human Captain Arion. The story is filled with romance, political intrigue, and–of course–some kick-butt fights! If you like the Timeless Fairy Tales series I highly recommend you give the book a try–and please spread the words to any friends or family who might be interested!

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for…the review special for Twelve Dancing Princesses! As I say with every book release, reviews are really important for authors. They help open up new doors for advertising as some places have a review requirement, and they also provide useful feedback for me and for possible/interested readers. So as a thank you for reviewing, I’ll release Twelve Dancing Princesses extras when we hit big review landmarks! (I count reviews from Amazon.com, the UK Amazon site, the Australian Amazon site, and Goodreads! And please leave honest reviews!)

The landmarks are a little higher this time, but that’s because the stories are longer than usual as well. (Of Noble Heart clocks in at Three pages, A Gallant Celebration is six pages, and A Grim Reveal is eight!)

50 Reviews: Locked: Prequel short story: Of Noble Heart: PDF

95 Reviews: Locked: Short Story: A Gallant Celebration: PDF

140 Reviews: Locked: Short Story: A Grim Reveal: PDF

Important: A Grim Reveal is actually a Timeless Fairy Tale short that will eventually be added to Angelique’s trilogy–which will come out in 2019. I’m releasing it because it presents some vital information I wanted you guys to get before we continue any farther in the story.

That’s all for today, Champions! I hope you enjoy Red Rope of Fate if you pick up a free copy, and I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on The Twelve Dancing Princesses! In the meantime, have a lovely week!

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Book Recommendations: Classics

Hello everyone! Great news: if all goes well, Twelve Dancing Princesses should be available by next week Friday–1/20! Woohoo! Also TODAY Robyn Hood: A Girl’s Taleis the last day you can pick up , for free! So check it out, and let your friends know!

The next time I post I will have a pre-order link for you, but in the meantime, here’s a video where I go over some book recommendations!

The books I recommended and listed were:

A Little Princess (and The Secret Garden)
Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion
The Count of Monte Cristo
Canterbury Tales
Daddy Long Legs

What about you guys? Do you have any classic stories or books that you love?

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Christmas in January

Greetings, Champions! Today marks the start of my belated Christmas celebration. I’m offering four books for free this month–the dates are posted below–so mark your calendars and snag ’em while you can!

Enthroned: Book 1 of King Arthur and Her Knights

FREE: 1/4 — 1/8 Starts Today!

Robyn Hood: A Girl’s Tale: Book 1

FREE: 1/9 — 1/13

Red Rope of Fate: An Elves of Lessa Romance

FREE: 1/16 — 1/20

Beauty and the Beast: Book 1 of Timeless Fairy Tales

FREE: 1/22 — 1/26

But perhaps most exciting of all, today I’m revealing the cover for Twelve Dancing Princesses!

I’m still working on the description–I’m actually hoping you guys will help me out and vote for your favorite description when I get a few working samples–but our heroine on the cover is Quinn, a competent and loyal soldier of the Farset army.

Ooooohhh, that went in a different direction than expected, hmm? Before I shared the unedited first scene, I think most everyone assumed I would write with one of the princesses as my heroine. But when it comes to the original tale, I’ve always been a huge fan of the soldier who uncovers the princesses’ mystery, so I’ve been angling for this from the start. But enough for now, I hope you enjoy the free books, and get ready for a new book to come your way soon!

Happy Holidays, Champions! May the fun begin! 

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Housekeeping!

Welcome to 2018, Champions! I hope 2017 ended nicely for you. Personally, I’m in the middle of a cleaning spree–I just deep cleaned my bathroom last night, and I have seen and smelled things no person should…

We have A LOT of free books and fun things happening this January, Enthroned is first up and will be free from 1/4 through 1/8. There’s a handful of others that I will make a specific post about in the future, but today we’re doing some basic housekeeping!

For starters, the Frog Princess freebies have been moved to the “Extras” page under the For Champions tab. (Pro tip: if you can’t find a freebie any more, it will for certain be found in the extras page. Sometimes I have to change links, and I don’t bother to update the old blog post links, just the extras page.

Speaking of which, the amazing Champion Chloe found a long lost Magical Beings Rehabilitation Center short, Taking Care of Business! You can click on the title for a link, but it has also been relocated to the freebies section as well. A big thank you to Chloe, who went over some of my most ancient blog posts to find it!

In other awesome-champion news, I have some fanart to share!

This lovely drawing was done by a Champion who wishes to be known as “Rakel-wanna-be!”

There’s a lot I love about this image–Elise herself, her uniform, her desk–but what really blows me away is the detail. That’s the Arcainian flag you see tucked behind the desk, and Elise’s much hated gold flute by her feet. (I laughed for several minutes when I saw that flute!) But the most perfect of all are the two love letters on the ground–one is from Falk and the other form Rune. Way to go, “Rakel-wanna-be”! You did an amazing job, and I’m so honored you chose to draw Elise!

That’s it for today! I’ll be back soon with the list of Free Books for January, and the cover reveal for Twelve Dancing Princesses. Until then, enjoy the new year, Champions.

 

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Champions!

I’ll confess and say I’m a little sad, I usually like to post a freebie as a Christmas treat–or at least have some free books. This year I wasn’t able to get around to it, because Twelve Dancing Princesses has run my life for the last month. It’s a massive 80,000 words–the longest of any fairy tale I’ve written thus far–and that length was unexpected on my end so the book took much longer than I planned.

Unfortunately, we got stalled with some hiccups in getting books into print, but I’m hoping that by March all the King Arthur books and MBRC books will be available in print as well!

But, on the bright side we’re going to celebrate Christmas in January! There will be free books, giveaways, and I’m hoping to launch Twelve Dancing Princesses by mid January, which of course means another round of freebies!

Additionally, in January I’m going to announce a very special project I’ve been working on with some other authors, so it will hopefully be a fun start to 2018!

Finally…I do have one little Christmas gift for you all, the first few pages of Twelve Dancing Princesses. (WARNING: These are unedited pages, so there will be errors!) Click Here to see the sample!

Thanks for reading, Champions. I hope you like the sample, and I hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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