'The Glass Minstrel' and Strange Visions

By chance, I saved the hardest book for last. The Glass Minstrel was one of three realistic historical novels I wrote (the others being Icarus in Flight and Banshee), and I honestly was so drained after finishing this that I decided historical fantasy was more aligned with my preferences. 

The book actually started out as a short story, and (ironically) the story was a fairy tale (read: historical fantasy). It revolved around a glass minstrel that comes to life when Christmas rolls around, and while other ornaments and toys celebrate the season, he's burdened by the grief his creator (a toymaker who lost his son) infused in him.  

And to go even further back, a very specific song (and a very specific rendition of it -- see: embedded video) somehow called to mind a scene which involves an old man bent over his worktable, weeping over a glass ornament that he'd designed to represent his dead son. Pretty strange, isn't it, that something so specific would inspire another extremely specific thing in my head? But that was how it all started.

Fast forward several years later when I decided to expand that fairy tale, strip it of its fantasy elements, and reshape it into a more realistic plot -- while at the same time hinting at those lost fairy tale elements with the use of Christmas and toys as significant symbols (even metaphors, if you will) that weave in and out of the day-to-day lives of three main characters. 

While I spent a lot of time looking up information on 19th century Bavaria (the setting of the story), there were still obviously a number of things I had to use my imagination on. I think that also kind of added an extra layer to the fairy tale touches. 

It was a difficult novel to write, yes -- not only logistically, but emotionally. I'll admit I cried here and there while working on this, especially the final chapters. This is a book that I hold dearly, dearly, dearly in my heart largely because I had to dig deep and scrape so much of myself out and lay it all on paper, and it hurt like a MF in more ways than one. 

The Glass Minstrel is the final book that's up for a 50% discount in e-book format. Go here for more information and a list of stores where you can purchase a copy.  

December Backlist Bonanza: 'The Glass Minstrel' (How Apropo!)

We have a solo act for the final month of the year, folks. This December, the following book is 50% off in e-book format from online stores: 

THE GLASS MINSTREL 

It is the Christmas season in mid-19th century Bavaria. Two fathers, Abelard Bauer and Andreas Schifffer, are brought together through the tragic deaths of their sons. Bauer, a brilliant toymaker, fashions glass Christmas ornaments, and his latest creation is a minstrel with a secret molded into its features.

When Schiffer sees Bauer's minstrel ornament in the toy shop, he realizes that Bauer is struggling to keep his son's memory alive through his craft. At first he tries to fault him for this, but then recognizes that he, too, is seeking solace and healing by reading his son's diary, a journal that reveals, in both painful as well as beautiful detail, the true nature of Heinrich's relationship with Stefan.

Fifteen-year-old Jakob Diederich is the son of a poor widow. The boy is burdened with his own secret, and he develops an obsession with a traveling Englishman who stays at the inn where Jakob works. The lives of Bauer, Schiffer, and Diederich intersect during the holiday as Schiffer tries to focus on his family in the present, Bauer struggles to reconcile his past, and Jakob copes with an uncertain future.

Echoing the sensibilities of melancholy 19th Century folktales, lyrical prose and rich period detail quietly weave a moving tale of redemption, hope, and haunting, but timeless, themes.

The book choice is coincidental given the season. I ran my backlist through a random number generator and ended up with the sequence of books as I posted it since January. Anyway, my only Christmas novel is the final title on the block, the solo act due to the face that Eidolon was pulled from the list, and it left a space. 

Anyway, there it is, and I'll be posting stuff about it later this month. 

 

Maybe Not Dead, After All

No, that post title doesn't refer to me. Yikes. It's in reference to my much-lamented book, Eidolon, which I delisted and pulled completely from all stores. 

I've been thinking about it on and off lately -- though the "on" bit is a lot less than the "off" bit, I'll admit -- and I do think something can be done with it. The story itself falters once Emerick grows up, and the POV shifts to his entirely, so I'd like to go back, take the earlier chapters (however many I can salvage, anyway), and work with those for a new story.

Or at least a new angle to Emerick's curse. 

One thing I'd like to do is to continue the POV from his parents', which I've always felt was a stronger position from which to tell the story, but this is one example of not listening to one's instinct and the less than stellar results of that move. Not that I'm excusing my choices, mind you, but since I was trying to force the book into the Curiosities mold, I was obligated to change the POV to the character most affected by the cursed wish. 

Shouldn't have done that. Well, you know what they say about hindsight.

Anyway, I'd like to salvage those chapters from the fateful night of the mother's misguided wish through to the moment the family immigrate to a different country and take it from there. Of course, there'll be a hell of a lot of rewriting -- not revising, no, but an overhaul without completely sacrificing the story from Valentin and Hanke's perspective. It's going to be tricky, but I can do it. At least the groundwork is there, and I just need to spend time picking through what's usable and what isn't until the foundation is completely set.

I think it's the only way to give the story the vindication it deserves now that I've accepted my mistake and am willing to make things right. The story will be part of the Grotesqueries collection, naturally, and as for what the new title will be (definitely won't be Eidolon) or even the story's tone, it's all going to come out down the line. The calendar might shift again, I don't know. 

For now the six-month schedule looks good, but I'm also progressing pretty rapidly with Doppelgänger, and I might be tempted -- because I'm weak that way-- to tweak my publishing calendar again. If that does happen, it's more likely going to be a five-month schedule and not a four-month one like before because I'm not superhuman. 

Anyway, watch this space. 

'Rose and Spindle' and Loving Thy Enemies

I do apologize for the radio silence from my end. Work's gotten surprisingly hectic, and I haven't been mentally fit to update my blog until now. There were also a few self-care things I've been delaying that demanded attention, so I paid them attention. All's well now, though, and I can move on.

Anyway, yes -- Rose and Spindle, woo!

image from Pinterest

This book, along with Gold in the Clouds, was my attempt at writing a fairy tale retelling from the point of view of a side character. For instance, for Gold in the Clouds, which was a retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk," Blythe is a good friend of Jack, and the book delves into the magic beanstalk and how its existence forces the boy to choose a path while Jack goes off on his own adventure in the clouds (with disastrous results in a lot of ways). 

And for Rose and Spindle, we're looking at the "Sleeping Beauty" story with the points of view of two side characters, both princes, one of whom is a cousin of the titular fairy tale princess. The book is also a romantic comedy as well as a satire poking fun of all the perfect attributes given to Sleeping Beauty herself, and I really enjoyed turning Rosamund's "gifts" and "blessings" on their head (much to her cousins' chagrin). 

The enemies-to-lover trope was really the main point of the book: the journey taken by Hamlin and Edouard from childhood mutual loathing to a thawing of the enmity every time they saw each other through the years -- but with still a lot of saltiness seasoning the meal, so to speak, until there wasn't any salt left. 

The love story coming out of this coming-of-age experience is the reward, the final choices made when the curse finally comes to silence the princess's castle and everyone in it -- all of those aren't the focus of the book even though they all lurk in the background like ever-evolving threats. An inevitability that will test the princes' love for each other. 

And to mirror what we usually get from Disney princess films through the years, we have sidekicks -- animal and human -- who are there to help our boys find their hearts and understand their bond. 

Rose and Spindle is one of two books currently marked down by 50% through the end of November in e-book format. You can go here for the book page and a list of stores, and happy reading! 

'The Book of Lost Princes' and Oscar Wilde

I once owned a collection of Oscar Wilde's short stories, which were primarily his original fairy tales. It was one of those books I loved to pieces (still do, really) despite collapsing in a puddle of tears after every story. 

this wasn't the volume I owned, but you get the idea

"The Happy Prince", "The Selfish Giant", "The Nightingale and the Rose", and "The Birthday of the Infanta" were the ones that tore me up again and again, yet I couldn't help (still can't, really) going back to them repeatedly because of how different they were from the older folktales we're all so familiar with. They're complex, they dive much deeper, and they deal with more adult themes in several ways -- "The Nightingale and the Rose" and "The Birthday of the Infanta" are examples of the last item. The other two stories are more child-friendly, if you will.

I was inspired primarily by that collection of stories, wondering if I could write my own fairy tales in a longer form. I wanted to do something that one-ups The Winter Garden and Other Stories, which is a collection of short stories that are also original fairy tales. 

The stories in this book were originally published individually when I was still working with a small press, and then three of them were bound into an anthology. Ansel of Pryor House was published way after that, and when I got my rights back, I decided to re-release everything in one volume. 

I heavily leaned on symbolism and metaphor in these stories, which all deal with self-acceptance, confidence, and courage. Similar themes as those tackled in my other fairy tale anthology, but I gave myself way more room to explore them here as these stories are all novelettes and short novellas. My original plan was to write a series of fairy tale anthologies containing longer forms but never got around to doing that. 

Only one story -- Benedict -- received the musical treatment, if you will. I listened to Carl Orff's "Gassenhauer" repeatedly when I wrote this story. 

It does have a fairy tale-esque quality to it. 

The Book of Lost Princes is currently 50% off in digital format through the end of November. Go here for a list of stores for a copy.