Today we’ve got the author of The Stepsister’s Tale on the blog to talk to us about the challenges she had while writing this book, then you can enter to win! 😉
The Stepsister's Tale by Tracy Barrett
Published by Harlequin Teen on June 24th 2014
Genres: Retellings, YA
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What really happened after the clock struck midnight?
Jane Montjoy is tired of being a lady. She's tired of pretending to live up to the standards of her mother's noble family-especially now that the family's wealth is gone and their stately mansion has fallen to ruin. It's hard enough that she must tend to the animals and find a way to feed her mother and her little sister each day. Jane's burden only gets worse after her mother returns from a trip to town with a new stepfather and stepsister in tow. Despite the family's struggle to prepare for the long winter ahead, Jane's stepfather remains determined to give his beautiful but spoiled child her every desire.
When her stepfather suddenly dies, leaving nothing but debts and a bereaved daughter behind, it seems to Jane that her family is destined for eternal unhappiness. But a mysterious boy from the woods and an invitation to a royal ball are certain to change her fate...
From the handsome prince to the evil stepsister, nothing is quite as it seems in Tracy Barrett's stunning retelling of the classic Cinderella tale.
Guest Post by Tracy Barrett
The biggest challenges of writing this book
The Stepsister’s Tale took me a long, long time to write. I think that from the time I started it to the time when I signed the publishing contract was seven years! I don’t mean that I wrote all day, every day for seven years, though—I’d write for a while and hit a snag and put it away for a few months, and then take it out and delete a lot of it and write some more and hit another snag. Finally, with help from my agent, Lara Perkins, I managed to whip it into shape and get it submitted to Annie Stone, my editor at Harlequin TEEN, who identified some of the things I hadn’t been able to fix earlier and gave me guidance about how to make them better.
It’s hard to identify the single biggest challenge to writing this story. I can identify three, though, that really got in my way:
1. One of the hardest things was making sure that Jane stayed front and center. Isabella kept trying to steal Jane’s thunder and get all the attention, so I had to remind myself that this was Jane’s story, not Isabella’s. Cinderella has already had her turn! Jane had to have as rich an inner life as any Cinderella who’s ever been written about or filmed, and as many dreams, as many difficulties to go through, as much triumph.
2. Since I don’t know of any version of the story (and believe me, I’ve read a lot of them) where Cinderella is anything other than good and sweet and put-upon and I had decided to write a counterpoint to that, I kept making her worse and worse until she was positively demonic! I had to pull back and make her human—a bit spoiled, perhaps, and sometimes bratty, but not evil. Lara was especially helpful in identifying ways to do this.
3. The challenge that made me get stuck the longest was near the end. If Cinderella isn’t the main character and if she doesn’t behave in a way that makes her deserve to live happily ever after, why does she get to marry the handsome prince? This was a problem that took me a long time to break through. The answer came to me, as many answers to this kind of problem tend to do, as I was falling asleep. (Don’t worry—no spoilers!) When I woke up, I wrote the ending.
About the Author
Tracy Barrett is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including the Sherlock Files books, King of Ithaka, Cold in Summer and Anne of Byzantium. Her books have been named an ALA Best Book for young adults, a Bank Street best children’s book of the year, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, among many other honors. She is a professor of Italian language and civilization at Vanderbilt University and lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.
This post is part of The Stepsister’s Tale blog tour.
Monday, June 9th – Fiktshun (Character Interview)
Tuesday, June 10th – Harlequin Blog
Wednesday, June 11th – Xpresso Reads (Guest Post)
Friday June 13th – About To Read (Guest Post)
Monday, June 16th – The Irish Banana (Author Interview)
Tuesday, June 17th – On The Verge (Author Interview)
Wednesday, June 18th – Refracted Light Reviews (Guest Post)
Friday June 20th – The Book Cellar (Guest Post)
Giveaways
Thanks to Harlequin Teen and Kismet Book Tours, you can enter to win a copy of The Stepsister’s Tale.
There is also a grand prize of a HarlequinTEEN Goodie Bag, all entries into the daily giveaways on each tour stop count towards the grand prize!
- Open to US and Canada only
- Full contest terms and conditions found on Rafflecopter
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Pili
This one sounds quite intriguing, and like a different kind of retelling!
I love when retellings let us see a different side to who we consider a villain and ends up being different that we thought! (Like Wicked!)
Fantastic guest post!
Sarah K.
My favorite Cinderella retelling is Cinder.
Kristin@Blood,Sweat and Books
I love twisted retelling’s of Fairy tales. While I have read books with a similar premise recently. I’ll never get tired of reading new ones I come across.
Jen
I love any fairytale retelling. Especially if they take on the darkness that the original tales have.
erinf1
I also love Cinder 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Nick @ Nick's Book Blog
Wow 7 years! That is amazing. I don’t think I would have had the patience to be able to write the same story for 7 years.
I just finished reading this book today and liked it overall, although there were parts where I found myself snoozing a little. I especially liked how the characters were so vastly different from the ones we know from the movie. It was definitely intriguing.
Thanks for sharing, Giselle!
Vivien
My favorite re-telling is for sure Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I just LOVE that series 😀
Lindsay Galloway
I have read dozens of different take on Cinderella (including zombies) but I don’t think I’ve ever tried one from the step sister’s point of view. I would love to give this one a shot!
Abby
I really really want to read this! Not just because I love to read books, but because I love a twist on Cinderella’s story, and I like this author! 🙂
Megan @ Adrift on Vulcan
This book sounds great! I think I’ve gotten a lot more interested in Cinderella retellings after reading Cinder (which was amazing), and what makes this more interesting is the author’s process in writing it and getting it published. Seven years is a looooong time! I can relate what Tracy went through while writing because I’m facing the same problems. It’s just so easy to hit a snag and ignore writing for a while, so this book alone is inspiration to continue and write till the end.
And whoa, the Cinderella in this book is evil-ish?! GIMME. Sounds like such an intriguing twist! Even though she probably isn’t as evil as she was when the author first wrote this, I’m still curious to see what’s different about her.
Thanks for sharing, Giselle! Definitely going to keep my eye out for this one.
Rhianna
I’m a huge fan of retellings and twists on classic stories and fairy tales so this sounds like one I would very much enjoy. 😀
Christianna
This kind of sounds like Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and I loved that book! Thanks for the giveaway!
ShootingStarsMag
Oh, this does sound interesting! I find I get a lot of my ideas for things when I’m trying to fall asleep. hah
Rebecca
I love faerietale retellings and I’m really interesting to see Barrett’s take on Cinderella!
Marie-Claude
I would love to read cinderella storie from the point of view of her 2 stepsisters. It sound intriguing !!!
Susan T.
I love fairy tale retellings! So far my favorite Cinderella retelling is Cinder.
Danya
This book was one of my WoW picks today! Interesting to read about some of the challenges in writing the story. As for my favourite Cinderella retelling, that would have to be Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. It was one of my favourite books growing up and I still have a soft spot for it 🙂
Lauren
This sounds like such a cool take on the Cinderella story, and it sounds like it was quite the challenge getting the story to work out as well as it did. Thanks so much for sharing this guest post, I love getting this behind the scenes writing look at the story!
Nicole D.
I love faerie tales.One of my favorite Cinderella retelling is the sci-fi YA called Cinder by Marissa Meyer.If you haven’t read it check it out it’s amazing.
Lauren @ Lose Time Reading
Wow, I hadn’t even heard of this one before today and it sounds fabulous! I really enjoy retellings and Cinderella was my favorite fairy tale. A twist on the way she is portrayed is very interesting so I can’t wait to pick this up 🙂
Jennifer Bielman
Wow, a bad Cinderella. Loving the sound of this. I would have liked to see how evil you made her before you softened her a bit. lol.
Morgan
I have had this on my to read list for awhile, and would love to read it! I love fairy tales and retellings! I loved Cinder! Thank you for the giveaway!
bn100
It sounds different
Meredith
A story that is the reverse of Cinderella. Very unique! I will definitely be adding this to be Goodreads!
Lori Hopkins
I just love to read a different take on stories. Stories that we all have grown up with, like the new movie Maleficent!
Aneta
I love Cinderella re-tellings! And this one sounds amazing 🙂
Debbie
I would love to read this book. It sounds great.
Connie Saunders
Great read for the summer!
Holly U
I’ve actually read this one, and I really enjoyed it! It was a sweet retelling of Cinderella. 🙂
Fallon Vaughn
I would love to read this because I love different takes on Fairy tales.
Mirlou
My favorite re-telling is for sure Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
Thank you for this giveaway.
Rain Jeys
Hmm. Probably Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire.
Alisha Sienkiel
My favorite Cinderella story is Cinder!
Tiffany M.
I loved Cinder and beyond that I don’t think I have picked up many Cinderella retelling’s. Which is odd because Cinderella is super huge… This one catches my eye because of who tells the story and how the light is cast 🙂