Henderson Smith's Blog: The Beginning..., page 8

Beauty vs. Ugly

As I mentioned earlier, I really adored fairy tales when I was a young girl. I still love fantasy, but as I grew older something about traditional fairy tales really began to bug me. Why was it that the princess was always beautiful? In every Disney Princess movie I watched, they were all beautiful. And it was as if all the good attributes of people: kindness, mercy, creativity, intelligence, etc. went hand in hand with the beautiful characters. In fact, all of the "bad" characters were usually portrayed as ugly physically or certainly not as attractive as the princess. It was like not being beautiful made you bad or unworthy. Well, I was not a "beautiful" girl, so this started to bug me.

I remember specifically when the idea for my book popped into my head. I was watching "Ever After" with Drew Barrymore (later voted the most beautiful woman in the world). It was the scene where the Prince was supposed to marry the Spanish Princess who wore a veil as she approached the altar. When he removed the veil, she was a very pretty woman. Not as pretty as Drew, mind you, but very attractive. But it got me to thinking, here is this Prince who is supposed to marry whoever was behind that veil. What would happen if he removed the veil and she was ugly? What would the Prince do then?

And so began the kernel of idea for my story...

600+ for Giveaway

So, with 8 days left for the sign-up for my giveaway, over 600 magical readers have entered! I wish I could afford to send every single person a copy! Thank you for your interest. I know I have a wonderful story...now to get it into your capable hands. Thank you!

Amanda Hocking is my hero

Certainly one of my heroes, and in my current state of affairs, my favorite hero. A year ago, My sister heard me complaining, yet again, over all of the agents turning down my wonderful story. She told me to get on the internet and look up Amanda Hocking, so I did.

I read her blog and felt like I had met a younger (smarter) version of me. When Amanda starts her blog in 2009, she is trying like heck to get an agent and through the year's postings, she gets fed up with them and her feelings of rejection. In 2010, she decides to self-publish and tells you all of her steps to what she's doing. By the end of the year, she's well on her way to becoming one of the first self-published authors to have sold over a million copies of her book!

What an inspiration. I immediately decided to follow her lead and I've just published my first book. As she advises: keep writing. I'm working on two more books, the sequel and another book with a different hero.

I know I have some really good stories. I've won many writing awards and my group of friends who've actually read them are incredibly encouraging. Now, to follow Amanda in finding readers...the real challenge!

Over 500+ Fabulo-soooooo

Thanks everyone who has entered the giveaway!

Last Day for Free Download!

Just a last reminder to the ether that you can download my book for free from Amazon today. Last day! Thanks so much

The Puzzle of Tweeting

With all of the wonderful readers on this site, if anyone can tell me why is Tweeting significant and/or how to use it effectively, I would be eternally in your debt. To me, it seems so self-involved, but people say it can really help to get information regarding my book "out there". I don't get it. Any help, any one? Thanks

To "To Reads" Readers...

Since you've checked my book as "To Read", remember you can download it for free on your Kindle through this Tuesday. You'll win a free copy before the giveaway is even over! Hope you will take advantage of that and thank you for putting my book on your "To Read" shelf!

Download Free on Amazon

You can download a copy of, "The Ugly Princess" through Tuesay on Amazon.com.

Where this book came from...

The Ugly Princess is the first in a planned series of books, "The Legend of the Winnowwood." As I developed the story for this first novel, I realized that this was a unique world that needed to be further expanded. The Ugly Princess will probably be book 4 in the series. Once you read the book, you'll see where I'll be headed when I go back: to Ursula and the intial battle with the witches. I'm working on the next book that will immediately follow the Ugly Princess right now. I can't even reveal the title as it could be perceived as a spoiler by a clever reader.

The Ugly Princess was originally written as a screenplay which won The Austin Film Festival's screenwriting competition. Initially, there was quite a bit of hoopla around it and the promise of a "sale" to Hollywood by my manager. Needless to say, that didn't happen and I became discouraged with that entire market. So, knowing this was a great story, I converted and expanded the script into this book. And now it is out in the world.

I'm so looking forward to sending out the 20 copies to the winners of my giveaway and to what they think of my lovely, magical Olive.

So Thankful for the help...

Well, just hit 400 readers who have signed up for my book giveaway and I am incredibly thankful. This is the part that is very different from the writing part - the waiting part. Waiting to see if anyone will love your book...rather nerve-racking as well. My thanks to the first 400!