Longer Sample of My Novel!!

I've put up a longer sample of my novel Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story up on my author blog.

I would love if you could check it out and let me know what you think!

Introducing Jessica Grey

I've gone back and forth on whether to use a pen name for my writing. And I've finally decided to go ahead and use one. So, without further ado, meet Jessica Grey.

Hey! That girl looks just like me!

So, why Jessica Grey?

Grey is my mother’s maiden name, and my first book, Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story is dedicated to my late grandfather, Charles Richard Grey, who was a huge influence in my life and a great reader. He introduced me to Mary Stewart, one of my biggest literary influences, and I still have his copies of his (and mine!) favorite Stewart novels. I actually began using Grey as a pen name when I was in middle school, and so when I decided to publish under one, it was the best and most obvious choice.

I am launching my new online presence this week, and would love if you would join me on my new blog! I will be sharing fun writing stuff, excerpts from my upcoming book, and random ramblings on music from my infamous writing playlists. Good times all around. I also have a Twitter account dedicated to my new pen name @_JessicaGrey.

We are actually getting pretty close to the launch of Awake! Only four more months to go!

I am excited!

Nothing Says NaNoWriMo Like Moving House

I'm super committed to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. I fizzled last year, having written something sad and pitiful like 4,615 words of Awake (quality, not quantity, people!) but I have redeemed myself by actually finishing the sucker once we moved here to Montana.

So, guess what I am doing November 1st? Kicking off NaNoWriMo here and on Indie Jane . . . aaaaand MOVING! Yes!

We are moving from our condo to a house. Still renting, but the exciting things are:


a) it's cheaper . . . mind-blowing.
b) it's bigger, although same number of bedrooms and only one bath, the downstairs is bigger than our whole condo.
c) it's got a yard, and that yard is FENCED.
d) we can paint the walls . . . pause for happy dance.

The cons are:

a) it's a WHOLE LOTTA work to move.

So wish me luck as I'm writing, editing, and packing like a mad woman this coming month. Only to be writing and unpacking like a mad woman in November! Yay!

100 Days

There are only 100 days left until Christmas. Less if you're on the other side of the world.

Don't believe me? Check out the Christmas Countdown Clock.

Cause you know, we all need more stress in our lives - countdown clocks really ratchet up that old spazz level. You can sit there and watch it tick down. Freaky.

In twelve hours from this writing, there will be only 99 days left . . . double digits! Omg.

Pause for freakout.

I am unprepared.

Extremely unprepared.

For a lot of things actually . . . not just the 100 days until Christmas (lists? sewing? what?)

Slightly less than a month and half after that lovely little Christmas Countdown Clock hits zero and resets to 355 (actually my favorite part) I will be releasing my first novel into the wild.

Pause for slightly larger freakout.

Maybe I should create a countdown for that . . . just to see how high my blood pressure can get as I watch it tick down. It would be like a medical experiment!

There are also less than 7 weeks to the start of November, which means NaNoWriMo!
Planning, outlining, deciding how the darn thing ends?
Sure. Whatevs.

Not pausing for a freakout here because I am in d-e-n-i-a-l.

It's September. I now live in Montana. It could snow any day. Fall is like the blink of an eye here, at least that is what they tell me.

Pause for huge, out of control, I-have-no-winter-clothes-and-wear-flip-flops-everyday freakout.

But enough about me . . . and the celebration of the Christ Child's birth . . .

The biggest, most important countdown clock is this:

There are only 13 regular games left in my team's regular baseball season!

Thirteen.

Mind blown.
Whatever am I going to do with myself after the season is over?
Maybe, you know, finish editing that novel, sew those Christmas presents, buy some real shoes, or curl up in a ball and cry until spring training.
It's really a toss up.

Meanwhile, we are 3 back in the division race and starting to make some noise in the very intriguing wild card race . . . so GO ANGELS!
The rest of it can wait.

At least for another 13 games or so.



(gratuitous cute kid picture with Angels tie in. Um, yes, he's restrained with a jump rope, he seems ok with it, my kids are weird.)

Because I am Insane

I am really looking forward to this year's NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November. My plan is to work on my Austenesque novel Attempting Elizabeth which I am expanding from the short story I wrote last year. I am currently doing some serious actual planning and plotting for it, which is so unlike me.

But here is the thing. I've been editing for weeks. And now I am planning something I won't be actually writing until November. That's eight weeks away! What is a girl to do? A girl who is itching to get some real, actual writing in?

Apparently what I am doing is writing a completely different novel! Yes sirree Bob! This week I started the sequel to Awake. Don't worry, they are stand-alone, you will definitely get a resolution to Awake . . . no waiting for months for the next book to come out after being left dangling off a huge plot-precipice. I hate that.

So, what is it about? I can't tell you much other than that it is a redux of Beauty and the Beast. Love! It's been done a lot. It's been done really well (especially well by Robin McKinley, not once but twice for goodness sake!), but I am hopeful that my story will add something new and fun to the grand tradition of La Belle et La Bête.

That may be aiming a bit high, let's just say I hope it's really fun to read!

So, I write my booty off until NaNoWriMo and then I guess I take a break from Beauty and work on Austen . . . OR I could finish Beauty and the Beast before then . . . it only means writing 11,250 words a week.

No problem.

Cough.

I would love to finish the rough draft by November first. It would be brilliant. But I am not going to throw myself off a cliff if I don't. After all, I'm only 7,000 words in. I'm having fun though!

While I can't tell you anything about my plot (hint: there is a beauty in it . . . and maybe a beast), I can share with you these amazing photos! Did you know that Drew Barrymore did a Beauty and the Beast spread a few years ago for Vanity Fair? I am dying over these dresses. Aren't they so pretty? You really must see them all!

The Debut of Chapter One

Here it is! The long awaited (ok, maybe only by me) debut of the first chapter of Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story.

If you need a quick refresher on what my novel is about, click on over here to read the synopsis. Otherwise, without further ado, here is the first chapter:

Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story

Chapter One

The last place Alexandra Martin expected to see Luke Reed was at orientation for summer interns at the Museum Guild of Los Angeles.

Quite honestly, Alex hadn’t expected to see Luke anywhere after graduation, except maybe in the occasional news report about minor league baseball and eventually the majors. Rumor had it he’d already signed a contract with a major league team and was going to be playing in their minor league farm system starting that summer. Not that Alex paid any attention to rumors about Luke Reed.

And yet there he was, slouching in one of the museum’s ancient folding chairs, arms crossed behind his head as he gazed soulfully up at the ceiling. What he found so fascinating about the yellowing acoustic tiles Alex couldn’t even begin to fathom. A group of girls seated a row behind him, obviously destined for a summer of interning at the art museum if their black clothing and red lips were any indication, ogled him blatantly. It was entirely possible that he studied the tiles more to avoid their predatory gazes than from any real interest in the ceiling.

Alex lingered in the doorway and wondered for a single heartbeat if she could escape unnoticed. Maybe she could tell the receptionist she wasn’t feeling well and see if she could be excused from orientation. It was, after all, her fourth summer interning at the Gem and Mineral Museum; she was already fully oriented.

But that would be cowardly.

And he’d already lowered his gaze from his contemplation of the ceiling and spotted her.

“Hey Lex, saved you a seat,” Luke flashed her his trademark killer grin - a grin that caused most females of the species to swoon and giggle like they’d suddenly dropped twenty IQ points, but the only feeling it aroused in Alex was minor irritation.

Alex eyed the seat next to him. She supposed it would be horribly rude to sit anywhere else, seeing as he had just announced to the entire room that he had saved it for her. Alex had never been horribly rude to anyone in her life. She doubted she could even pull off horribly rude if she wanted to.

“Luke,” she acknowledged as she stepped over his long legs to reach the folding chair next to him, ignoring the incredulous, mildly jealous, stares from the gaggle of art interns. Alex sat, hugging her backpack in her lap in front of her and resting her chin on the top of it as she stared at the empty podium at the front of the meeting room.

“Aren’t you going to ask me what I’m doing here?” Luke teased her after a few moments of awkward silence.

Without looking over at him she answered, “I would think it was pretty obvious, as it’s summer intern orientation, that you’re here because you’re interning at one of the museums.”

“Hmm, yes, logic always has been your strong suit,” he replied. “You’re at the GeMMLA too, right?” He laughed as Alex’s head snapped towards him, her eyes widening at his use of the word “too.” “Of course you are, you’ve always had a thing for rocks.”

Alex stared at him, her brain refusing to wrap itself around the concept that Luke Reed of all people was going to be spending the entire summer at the Gem and Mineral Museum of Los Angeles.

“Luke,” she finally asked in bewilderment, “what in God’s name are you doing here?”

He flashed her another lethal grin, but Alex was already too off balance to feel her normal irritation.

“I’m spending the next nine weeks doing all sorts of geeky rock stuff with you, short stuff.”

Alex winced at the old term of endearment. “Luke, you and I haven’t been friends since the seventh grade,” she pointed out. When everyone began to notice how talented he was on the baseball field, he had started getting popular, while Alex, who’d possessed no discernible talent other than for schoolwork and being slightly awkward, had remained as unpopular as ever. It wasn’t that Alex had been a social outcast, that would have required her peers taking enough notice of her to cast her out. She just sort of quietly was, whereas Luke’s good looks, charm, and athletic talent had rocketed him into the popularity stratosphere. “We’ve barely even spoken to each other since middle school.”

“Lex, I asked you to the junior formal last year. Doesn’t exactly qualify as not talking to each other.”

“Your mother made you ask me.”

Luke laughed. “Is that why you said no? Because you think my mom made me ask you?”

Alex glared at him, silently daring him to lie to her. “Okay,” he conceded, “she may have mentioned that your mom told her you didn’t have a date to the dance, although I already knew that because you never go to dances . . .”

“There is no sense,” Alex interrupted irritably, “in a person like me ever attempting to go to a dance. That aside,” she continued when it looked as if he might argue with her, “I am sure there is an actual valid reason you’re planning on wasting your summer doing ‘geeky rock stuff.’”

“Yup.”

“Yup, what?” Alex asked, exasperated.

“Yup, I do have a valid reason,” Luke answered.

Alex glared at him for a moment, but he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. “Well, there you go,” she said sarcastically.

She glanced up at the clock, hoping orientation would start soon. The museums had staggered closed days. The only two days all six were open at the same time were Wednesdays and Saturdays. Even the organizers of the summer internship program realized the cruelty of asking teenagers to sit through an orientation on a Saturday in July. So here they all were, every teen within a thirty mile radius who had even thought of setting foot in a museum during the summer, about twenty-five of them, spending their Wednesday morning waiting to get sorted out and dispersed amongst the main museums.

The six museums were grouped together in a hodgepodge circle surrounding a large open grassy area referred to, quite creatively, as “the lawn.” Other than the occasional errand between museums, the lawn was the only place interns from different museums would ever run into each other. This usually happened during lunch breaks since most of the restaurants around the museum guild were priced out of the average high school student’s budget.

The Gem and Mineral Museum was definitely not the most glamorous museum in the Guild, and therefore it garnered the least amount of interest. Becca Ward, who had volunteered with Alex the last three summers, had waved exuberantly at Alex as she came into the room a few moments earlier. Becca had noticed mid-wave that Alex wasn’t sitting alone. She’d raised her eyebrows almost comically high at Alex as she walked by them and took a seat in the back corner with a group of interns from the Science Museum. Alex tried to flash her a “save me” look, but she was pretty sure Becca hadn’t seen it, or she’d just decided to abandon Alex to her fate.

Alex had figured this year, just like last, it would only be herself and Becca, who would end up at GeMMLA. But now, of course, there was Luke.

The clock slowly ticked down the last few moments to ten when the orientation was scheduled to start. Luke, wisely reading her last comment as signaling the end of the conversation, had resumed his perusal of the ceiling tiles. Alex wondered idly who would be doing this year’s presentation. It was pretty much the same material every year, an overview of the program, usually dryly presented by someone from the Art Museum, as they got the most interns, or occasionally by someone from Science. It was too much to hope it might be someone from GeMMLA, and definitely too much to hope that it might be him. As evidenced by the fact that she was sitting next to Luke Reed and therefore already feeling out of sorts and slightly inadequate, she was just not that lucky today.

Exactly one minute before ten, the door swung open and he walked in, a stack of stapled handouts tucked under one arm. Alex’s mouth went dry and her cheeks flushed as he caught sight of her and gave her a smile and a wave. She could hear the gaggle of art interns whispering furiously amongst themselves. Alex figured they must be wondering how she rated a saved seat from the hot blond athlete and a smile and a wave from the handsome dark-haired advisor. She had to consciously stop the almost frantic giggle that rose up in her throat, because she totally agreed with them.

Luke had also noticed the smile and wave, as well as Alex’s reaction to it. He gave her a little smile, different than his usually casual grin, and Alex had no idea what to make of it.

“Hey everyone, my name is Nicholas Grey, and I am the intern advisor for the Gem and Mineral Museum.” Nicholas dropped his stack of papers on the podium with an audible thud, then leaned against it, ankles crossed with one arm casually draped across the top. In his dark jeans and sports coat over a t-shirt featuring the logo of a classic rock band, he was the epitome of academic chic. Alex could almost hear the art interns rethinking their museum choice.

“I’m also working on my doctoral thesis,” Nicholas continued, “so I’m a student just like you guys.”

Alex was pretty sure Nicholas could not honestly be compared to any of the high school students or soon-to-be-college students in the room. With the possible exception of Luke, no one else here was as comfortable in their own skin. Unlike Luke’s innate athletic grace, Nicholas radiated a sort of calm energy that came from maturity and experience.

“The information we are going to go over this morning is pretty basic and general, just a bit about the program and the six different museums that make up the Guild. You’ll get more detailed info from your respective intern advisors. I’ve got a list of all your names, so I’ll read it off and make sure everyone is here.”

He paused to pull out a pair of horn-rimmed glasses from his coat pocket and slipped them on. It was really unfair, Alex reflected, that Nicholas’s glasses managed to make him look even hotter, while hers just managed to obscure her eyes and highlight the too-small bridge of her nose by slipping down continuously.

“Alexandra, would you mind passing out these handouts while I take attendance?” Nicholas shot Alex another smile.

Alex set her backpack on the floor and wiped her suddenly damp palms on the front of her jeans before she stood up, almost tripping over her discarded backpack. Before she could even react to the fact that she was tipping over, Luke’s arm shot out to the side and he snagged a finger through the back belt loop of her jeans, stopping her forward momentum. Three thoughts flashed simultaneously through Alex’s mind. The first was that she was glad her jeans, as well worn as they were, didn’t rip. The second was relief that Luke had been so quick that he had effectively prevented her from making a total fool of herself and had done it in such a way that only those sitting behind her could even tell there was a problem. Nicholas, standing as he was in front and to the left of her, couldn’t even see Luke’s arm steadying her or his hand gripping her waistband.

The third was that Luke was really, really strong.

“Easy, short stuff,” Luke said under his breath. “Make him guess at least a little.” Alex turned and glared at him with what she hoped was enough force to kill. He just chuckled under his breath and tugged on her belt loop once before letting her go.

Alex concentrated on taking careful, measured steps on her way to the podium and accepted the stack of handouts from Nicholas without fully meeting his eye. As she passed them out, she ignored the snide sideways glances from the art interns, who, being seated behind her, had unfortunately had a great view of her near mishap and the heroic save by Luke. She sat back in her chair and resumed her clock watching, this time counting down the seconds until the orientation was over and she could escape to the calming environs of GeMMLA. She made the mistake of glancing over at Luke once, and when he gave her a broad wink, she realized with a small sinking feeling that her sanctuary, the one place she felt relatively normal, was about to be invaded by the person in whose presence she tended to appear the most unspecial and inadequate. And this invasion was going to happen in front of the one person that she desperately wanted to see her as special and adequate.

Butterflies in My Tummy

This upcoming Monday, August 22, I will be debuting the complete first chapter of my novel Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story here and at Indie Jane.

I am a little bit excited and a lot terrified.

I really hope you will come by on Monday and let me know what you think!

Just for Fun

Just for fun I created a Wordle word cloud of my novel (as it stands now mid-editing) and then I took an Instagram picture of it, because everything is better with Instagram.

The best part is that none of my overused words appear anywhere on this! Progress my lovelies, progress!

I am hoping to release the first chapter as a sample soon . . . anyone interested?

Realizing You Have a Problem is Half the Battle

I know there are certain words I overuse when I am writing a rough draft. That's kind of the point of the rough draft, you have to turn off that internal editor as much as possible and just plow through.

I know I use "suddenly" way too much. Apparently things never happen at a slow pace in my novel. Another one is "seemed" (and seemingly and seems), maybe part of that is that I am writing scenes with magic so I default back to my own unbelief and say something "seemed to happen" instead of actually happening.

I had no idea that there was another word that I overuse. A lot.

Realized. Who knew? It appears to be one of my favorite words and I didn't even realize it (ahem). This was pointed out to me by one of my beta readers, Victoria. Her awareness of it was likely enhanced by the fact that because she's in Australia, her spell check underlined each and every instance of it in annoying, squiggly red. I'm glad it did or I would never have known!

After a few hours of editing . . . the occurrence is much lower. Yay for the awesome "find" feature in Pages, I really do get more out of it than the one in Word.

Are there any words you overuse? Do you own a thesaurus? My Mom swears by good dictionaries with an included thesaurus. Luckily for me, there are some online, it makes editing so much easier!

Once Upon a Time Challenge - Completed

(I die for this artwork, they should release them as a series, I'd buy and frame them!)

I have been totally MIA for the last week or so, and wonders of wonders I managed to break another toe. I am special, very special. However, I completed the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge, on time and everything, although this post is two days late.

I tried to stick with a Sleeping Beauty theme, just because I am in that state of mind, but in the end only 3 of 5 ended up being Sleeping Beauty stories. Here is a quick recap of the books I read:

Thornspell by Helen Lowe

This is a middle grade fiction book based on Sleeping Beauty. What is fun about this novel is that it focuses more on the story of the prince who rescues the sleeping princess. It's interesting how knowing (or suspecting) that he is the foretold prince who will break the spell affects Prince Sigismund. I really liked the use of the faeries and faerie world in this book, the magic was very believable, I am a huge fan of magic making sense in it's own context and not just being used to get a writer out of a jam. 4 out of 5 stars.

Spindle's End by Robin McKinley

This is the one book on this list I had read before, although it's been a few years. You may as well know that I think McKinley has cornered the market on fairytale retellings. She is brilliant, and as it turns out the only living author listed in my "favorite authors/authors who have influenced me" in the "About Me" section I had to write for my new site. The way she writes magic is amazing. If I could be half as good as her I would die happy. I love the non-traditional take on Sleeping Beauty, I love Rosie as a heroine, I love Narl as a hero, I love Katriona, and her constant internal conflict and love for Rosie. To recap: I pretty much love everything about this book EXCEPT the new cover, the old cover was so much better, and luckily that is the version I have (and have chosen to share with you here, click the title of the book if you want to see the new one, boo). 5 out of 5 stars!

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

My third Sleeping Beauty novel . . . It was cute, it was fun, so why was I left feeling disappointed? Maybe it's one of those horrible examples of a book not living up to it's (gorgeous, by the way) cover? I'd heard a lot about Beastly, also by Flinn, although I haven't read it, so perhaps I was just expecting a lot? It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely fluff. That isn't necessarily bad. Fluff is fun, it just doesn't really etch glorious images into your mind. It just sort of is, and once you're done, it isn't. It was likely a mistake to read A Kiss in Time directly after Spindle's End. It also has a new cover, what is up with these publishers? Ditching beautiful covers for crap? 4 out of 5 stars.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike

While not technically a fairytale, Wings is a tale about faeries, so I am totally counting it. I had been wanting to read this for awhile, so was thrilled when it was offered free on the Kindle (I'm so cheap). In the first chapter there is a reference to homeschoolers being unsocialized and this annoyed me so much I put it down and didn't pick it back up for almost a month. And while this overused and frustrating stereotype is actually used to further the plot in this book, it still cheesed me off. That being said, I really liked the book. The main character, Laurel, is interesting, the take on faeries is fresh and unique, and there is tension between to equally awesome possible main hero types. Fun stuff! It is the first in a series of three, so don't expect total resolution at the end. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The Fairytale Bride by Kelly McClymer

Ok, I admit I bought this for my Kindle iPhone app merely because of the title and the fact that it was 99 cents. It ends up being more of an early victorian romance than having anything to do with fairytales other than that the heroine is constantly, and often inexplicably, quoting them. If you like historical romances it's a decent read. The heroine was likable if a bit naive, and the hero was suitably honorable and attractive. I suppose I could have found another book that met the challenge more specifically, or recapped one that I'd already read, but I ran out of time. 3 out of 5 stars.

Editing: Not for the Weak at Heart

I bit the bullet and scanned through my manuscript, mostly just to make a list of scenes I need to add and rewrite, and to reassure myself it's not a total piece of crap. And it's not, at least not totally. But that is why I call it the crap draft (rough is too kind a word).

I went old school and made my list with an actual pencil and paper. My goal was to give myself a mental break, and separate the beginning of the editing process in my mind as much as possible from the writing process. Hmm. Not entirely sure how it worked out. It was fun writing it out, but I'm having to type it up anyway because a) I get anal over line spacings and stuff when I write things out, and b) eventually my kids will find and destroy this paper.

It was both frightening and freeing to make this list. I know what I still have to write. Hopefully now that I know my characters better the scenes that gave me issues before will come out more smoothly.

It also helped to go back and reread the scenes I am already pretty happy with. To remind myself that even in crap drafts there are gems.

The End. Or Just the Beginning?

I finally wrote the words The End.

Honestly, I expected to feel a lot more elated. Maybe finishing that last scene in the 10th inning of what would turn out to be my team's 5th loss in a row (at home) wasn't the best timing.

It was kind of like "Oh, so there's that. Hmm. Interesting. Ho, hum."

Or maybe the issue was I know how much work I've set up for myself. There's four or five scenes I stopped writing half way through and moved on, or that I just didn't write at all. There are some really awesome continuity / character issues near the beginning of the novel because I didn't know my characters as well in chapter one as I do now.

I'd love to be more excited than I am. A lot more excited. I mean, it is a pretty big deal, right? That's what I keep telling myself!

Oh well, I guess the only thing to do now is grab a huge Diet Coke (why does diet Coke have to taste like death?) and jump right into re-writes!

Same, Same, 50k

It's really hard for me to write at home. I either have a toddler hanging on me (or they are doing something nefarious or climbing random furniture), or if for some reason the kids are asleep we usually have a baseball game on, or I am like, you know, falling over dead on my feet asleep.

So what I usually do is sneak out to Starbucks, or the library. But Starbucks has caffeine, so it kicks the library all hallow.

My little corner at Starbucks looks pretty much the same, me in my Mickey hoodie, with headphones on listening to Pandora (I find it easier to write YA fiction if I listen to bands that I used to listen to in high school, it's like method-acting but writing, so um, method-writing?) and a yummy, yummy white chocolate mocha next to my computer.

Pretty much the same . . .

and more of the same . . .

and if you do that often enough you hit a really big milestone like I did last week . . .

Fifty thousand words! I still have about 1/3 of my rough draft (or as I like to call it the "crap draft) to go, but having that first 2/3rds or so down feels absolutely fabulous!

Don't forget! Monday is the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day1 Make sure to stop by and enter my giveaway!

Welcome to the Fourteenth Century

I am part of a group on Twitter called Tangled Janeites, we found each other through Jane Austen but discovered that we all love Disney movies as well. Every few weeks we watch a Disney animated movie at the same time and live tweet our thoughts and commentary using the hashtag #TangledJaneites (we started with the movie Tangled when it was released, hence the title).

We decided it was be fun to do a mini blog tour featuring posts about our favorite Disney heroes.

Nancy at Austen Aspirations : Flynn Rider (Tangled)

Kaydee at For the Love of Austen : Naveen (The Frog Prince)

Rebecca at a Word's Worth : Beast (Beauty and the Beast)

And I am posting about Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty.

You're shocked right? Totally, absolutely flabbergasted that I chose to talk about the hero from Sleeping Beauty. You hide it well.

Also, if you missed it, I announced the title and release date for my Sleeping Beauty redux here, there is also a synopsis and I'm pretty darn proud of it.

Welcome to the Fourteenth Century

Honestly, girls like me who like Disney princesses tend to get a lot of flak, especially if they happen to be English majors. Most feminist professors are not really fans. Even among the average, every-day "Mom of Girls" there tends to spring up anti-Disney Princess viewpoints. The problem most of these women have with how Disney portrayed these princesses is that in their view the women are weak, unable to do anything for themselves, relying on a man to save them, yadda, yadda, yadda.

There is even a poster floating around that has each princess labeled with the "bad" message she is supposedly indoctrinating our daughters with. I'd show it here, but it would just cheese me off, I'd have to dispute it point by point, and this post would get even longer than it already is destined to be. I'll save that for another day.

This poster even shows up sometimes where it surprises me, and I feel suddenly judged for liking the princess movies, and worse, exposing my impressionable young daughter to them (gasp). I suppose it doesn't matter that her favorite movie is Superman, or that our favorite female heroines are scrappy, tough-talking, kick-butt kinda girls like Mara Jade from Zahn's extended Star Wars universe. I've let her watch a princess dancing about in a dress and singing and therefore my poor sweet girl is destined to play second fiddle to men for the rest of her life.

Here is the main problem with this school of thought: If you are being honest, it's not the women in these Disney stories who are getting short-changed.

It's the men.

Snow White: Say what you will about Disney's first heroine, she's obviously not the strongest of the princesses (likely a result of being the first, we often forget the point of Snow White was that it was the first movie of it's kind, no one had ever attempted a full length animation before), but she at least has several good qualities. She makes friends easily, she cares for nature, she has a name. Not so the big, strong, man who "saves her" with a kiss. First name Prince, last name Charming. So glad a really fleshed out character was important here. Obviously Disney was conspiring to destroy the confidence of a generation of young men, oh wait, I mean women. Yes, that is what I mean.

Cinderella: She needs a man to save her! The poor thing can't do anything for herself (except, you know like persevere in adverse circumstances, while not letting them poison her attitude or change her character) and needs a man to come and save her. Except not. Pretty sure it's another woman that performs the getting out of dodge magic (Cinderella's goal was never to leave her step-mother's house for good, just for the night.) And again here we have Prince Charming. Dear writers, please lay off the steam rollers. I believe this character is flat enough. Oh wait, he doesn't want to get married. Look, there's a slight bump, we need to iron it out some more.

These men exist only to serve the princess and her story line. Without the princess they are just nameless, faceless heirs to a throne no one really sees or knows about. Even with the princess they are still pretty much nameless, although they have faces. Very smooth, expressionless faces. Poor schmucks.

Which brings me to Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty. The first really fleshed out prince character in Disney animated movies. Mothers of boys everywhere rejoice. Importantly, we notice he has a name! This is a pretty big deal to me, because, in my opinion, naming connotes personhood. Prince Phillip is more than just the prince, the heir to the throne, the one promised to marry the Princess Aurora, he's also Phillip. And it's as Phillip that he meets the lovely peasant girl in the woods, and falls in love with her, and it's because he's Phillip that he fights an evil fairy in the form of a dragon. I doubt his responsibility to the throne is what's really on his mind as he battles to save his true love.

Another really important aspect of the Phillip character is he is loved by Briar Rose/Aurora not because he is a prince, and not because he can save her. Briar Rose has no idea she needs saving at all. She doesn't realize that she is royalty (although as such she will be elevated to equal footing with Prince Phillip without having to marry him), nor does she's realize that he is royalty, and she also has no idea she is in danger. She doesn't see him as a savior, she sees him just as a young man that she is in love with, a young man that she has dreamed about.

Phillip has some pretty modern views about who young royals (male or female) should be allowed to marry. He is all for marrying for true love, and not overly concerned about defying his father on this matter. "After all, this is the fourteenth century" he tells his father as he rushes off to meet Briar Rose. Even though his views on marriage are modern, he also exemplifies the sort of chivalrous qualities that I hope my daughter looks for in a man, and that I hope my son learns as part of his character. Phillip is brave and courageous, he would lay his life down to save his love.

I don't know any mother who doesn't want that for her daughter. Do I want my daughter to be strong and courageous as well? Of course. I want her to be brave, to be thoughtful, to care about others, to be able to meet life's challenges while never losing sight of who she is. I want her to have all of the qualities that make a truly, fleshed out, complete person. And I want her to expect that from any man that comes into her life.

She should demand a Prince Phillip and nothing less.

Shazam! Ka-pow! A Title, a Release Date, and a Synopsis

Take two! I posted this the other day, but then blogger went all cuckoo for Coco Puffs and deleted it, posted another post, reposted this post - but with the comments deleted! It had only been up a few hours before blogger threw its little hissy fit, so I thought I'd post it again (I reworked the synopsis again, let me know what you think)!

I've been studiously (and shockingly productively) working away on my novel. If I can keep up the pace, I am pleased to report that my rough draft will be done by July 2nd. Woot! Then comes the fun business of rewrites, editing, formatting, and promoting!

I am not sure if I have mentioned this explicitly before on this blog, I know I've discussed it pretty openly on Twitter, but I am planning to self-publish. And no, this novel hasn't experienced loads of rejection from publishers and agents. I'm actually writing it with the intent to self-publish. Why? So many reasons! Mainly, it means I get complete artistic control over my product, as well as the ability to set my own timeline, price, and marketing. There are a billion more reasons, and if you're interested in why self-publishing works for some people I highly suggest checking out Jennifer Becton's blog Skidding in Sideways.

Maybe I will blog more about my reasons in the future - there is a lot of debate about self-publishing in the writing community, and I fully expect to get some flak for my decision - but for now I have some exciting news.

Here is my official announcement of my novel title and my release date.

I'm including the internet debut of my novel's synopsis for your reading enjoyment! Let me know what you think!

Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story

February 7, 2012

Alexandra Martin didn't believe in fairy tales...

Alex has always been more interested in rocks and science than stories about princesses and magic. Now she's far too busy with her summer internship at the Gem and Mineral Museum to think about children's stories. Between avoiding her former best friend and high school baseball star, Luke Reed, and trying to hide her unrequited crush on her mentor at the museum, the real world is occupying all of her time.

...Until she walked into one.

It turns out fairy tales aren't all fun and games. A curse has turned her neat and orderly world upside down, and to break it, she bands together with a fellow intern and a recently awakened princess, who's been asleep for 900 years. Can this trio of unlikely heroines put an end to an ominous enchantment, discover true love, and keep an ancient and evil magic from being unleashed on modern-day Los Angeles?