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This post was inspired by Victoria Lynn, my fellow author and friend – I loved the idea for this post and I wanted to take a try at it. But I do have 4 less facts then she did – my book is shorter.
And now – let us kick off a WHOLE week of The Reluctant Godfather with some fun and facts!
1. When I first started writing fifteen years ago, pretty much all I wrote was fairy tale retellings – but then I largely abandoned them to move onto more ‘serious’ works. Ironically, things have come full circle again and I’m focusing on fairy tales again – the place I loved and had forgotten. It’s nice to be home again.
2. I always appreciated the beauty and allegorical possibilities of fairy tales – but ‘The Reluctant Godfather’ has taught me afresh how sweet fairy tales are — that they are no less important than any other genre — and a pleasant and lovely rest (for readers and writers alike) from harder styles.
3. The Reluctant Godfather trained me to write more succinctly and ultimately create a stronger narrative. Before this, I mostly wrote 300 page + epics.
4. The Reluctant Godfather has suggested to me that I am actually happier and more comfortable writing shorter works.
5. The rough draft took me 3 weeks to write.
6. I got the idea for the story the night I returned from visiting the Ark Encounter. No connection, obviously.
7. Like Burndee—I love to bake.
8. I originally had no intention of writing a sequel.
9. But after getting enthusiastic feedback encouraging me to write more – bang! – the ideas for seven sequels all began tumbling into my mind.
10. The Reluctant Godfather came to me at one time—almost completely intact in my head—all I had to do was right it down.
11. Reading Nicole Sager for the first time last summer really inspired me, and I credit her example as being one of people that really encouraged me to ‘go for it’ and actually publish.
12. This is the first story that has ever been shown or seen by anyone outside of my immediate five family members.
13. My original suggestions for a cover was something like – “black with lots of fancy swirling things, sophisticated” – obviously a little vague. But I am so happy with how my beautiful cover turned out! Victoria Lynn did a fabulous job.
14. Amazon kept rejecting my cover and it took me days to sort out the problem. I had so much trouble uploading it I nearly went with an alternate design for the cover – but, fortunately, it all got sorted out.
15. Prince Colin appears to have a ‘love ’em or leave ’em’ effect on readers. You’ll have to read it yourself to decide whether you love him or not. 🙂
16. In the original draft, Countess de Ghent was actually Baroness Tremaine, Portia was actually named Druzilla, Cynthia was named Anastasia, and Colin was named Harry. I wanted to distance myself not only from the Disney version but the real Prince Harry (who BTW looks nothing like what I imagine Colin to look like), so I changed all the names.
17. I didn’t use any reference photos of models or actors to inspire me for my characters – I actually don’t have very solid ideas for how my main characters look—my images for them are a little vague—which is major for me, since I usually use pictures to inspire me with all my characters.
18. I was not originally going to publish this in a paperback form, just an ebook – but I had so much lovely encouragement from readers that I decided to release a paperback edition.
19. The Reluctant Godfather taught me a lot about grammar, I didn’t realize realize how little I knew about grammar until I started working with my grammatical superiors! Which would be my editors and beta readers. 🙂
20. In the original draft, the city that my characters lived in did not have a name.
21. I had to cut a small scene of dialogue between Burndee and Ella that I really liked (Burndee was being VERY Burndee-ish) but it slowed down the flow of the story. Hopefully I’ll be able to use it in a future Tales of Ambia.
Prince Colin is a gem; and all shall bow before him. (My take on it, anyways :-P)
‘big grin’ I was thinking of you, Jessica when I said some of the readers loved Colin. 🙂 ‘nods in agreement’. I personally think that is kind of a sweetie. 😀
OOOH, love the facts, girl!! And I wanna find out more about Prince Colin. 😛
AHH gosh I love your cover, I’m glad you stuck with it. 🙂
God bless.
-Ang | thepeculiarmessenger.wordpress.com
Thank you, Angela! I can’t wait to hear what you think of him! 🙂
Oh I know! i was so worried that I would have to use another version – fortunately I didn’t!
God Bless!
Those were some very fun facts! Prince Colin seemed likable to me. I especially can’t blame him for being annoyed with Burndee for trying to set him up with someone he didn’t even know. :p Somehow I didn’t realize Victoria did the cover! Very nice. 🙂
Oh cool! Haha – I could understand how Colin could be an acquired taste, though. ‘wink’
Haha – yes – I could really understand why Colin would be annoyed with Burndee – how just about everybody could be annoyed with Burndee!
Yes! I loved how the cover turned out! <3 Thank you, E.F.B!
Ooh yes. I love those facts. xD *applauds* Very interesting to read about. 😛
Thank you, Jane!!
These facts are so interesting! It makes me want to read “:The Reluctant Godfather” even more!
I like knowing small bits of history concerning a piece of music, a book, artwork, or a movie. It makes something a lot more interesting and more in depth.
You like to bake! I like to bake too! What do you like to bake?
Ekaterina – I’m sorry! I didn’t see this comment until today! ‘face palm’
Oh yes – the ‘behind the scenes’ of something enhances the experience for me too!
OH COOL! ‘high fives’ – hmm let’s see. Cakes, muffins, pretzels, cookies, bread. I’ve made a couple of international desserts that turned out soooo yummy. What are your favorite things to bake?
Now that I look back on everything I bake, I realized that I bake a lot of cakes. This is usually because we already have most of the ingredients already on hand in the pantry. I also like to bake cookies and muffins, but not as often as cake. 🙂 Mom and I have been trying different berry pie recipes since berries are in season. My aunt gave us this sour cream berry pie recipe, which has been a success. It’s like a custard pie, but it’s not because it has sour cream and lacks other ingredients a custard pie would have.
I’ve made pretzels before at a friends house, but I’ve never made any type of bread by myself. I don’t know why. I would love to learn how to make my own bread but in my mind, I see it as too much of a challenge. I think it will take a ton of time make, so I’ve been putting off actually trying to make bread. In the end, I would love to learn how to make bread, but my mind keeps on making excuses. What are your experiences with making bread?
CAKE! My hands down favorite dessert – hmm – that and pastries – LOL. Wow – I think you will really enjoy all the baking in The Reluctant Godfather, Ekaterina! This sounds so much like what my MC does!
Oh my goodness, that pie sounds AMAZING!! ‘licking lips’ – ooo . . .I’m imaging how smooth and creamy that is. ‘drooling’
You should try bread! I’ve made it before and it’s actually simpler than other things I’ve tried – especially two recipes my family uses which are an absolute breeze! I would be happy to send you an email with the recipes if you are interested!
My very favorite bread I have made is called Mediterranean Stuffed Bread – it was pretty tricky but it tasted SO GOOD.
Oh – my other favorite thing to make is scones!
I think I would love The Reluctant Godfather. I recieved some Amazon gift cards for my birthday, and I will be using one to buy The Reluctant Godfather. 🙂
I would definitely be interested in those bread recipes! The Mediterranean Stuffed Bread sounds so delicious! I have made scones with friends, but not by myself. After thinking about my baking experience and how to word this comment, I realize that I am not very adventurous by myself. I like to stick with making things I know, like cake. 🙂
Awww! – eeek! – Thank you, Ekaterina! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on The Reluctant Godfather!
Okay – I will send those to you! Oh – the Mediterranean Stuffed Bread is mouth-watering…I need to make it again. Oh yeah! That makes sense. ‘nods’ I’m usually more ‘tried and true’ in some things but for some reason in the kitchen I get pretty adventurous – guess I can relate quite a bit to my baking main character – LOL!