Blog tour stop: Chasing Midnight by @ckingwalker with guest post and #Giveaway @JenHalliganPR
Chasing Midnight by Courtney King Walker
YA romance
Paperback, 256 pages
Published January 12th 2016 by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media
WISH LIST
1.
The biggest, fanciest house on Sea View Drive.
2.
Nike Flyknits.
3.
A ski-jump nose.
4.
My own car. A new BMW.
5.
Be a total pro at the piano.
6.
James Odera to like me. Be James Odera’s
girlfriend.
7.
Get Spencer’s lungs fixed.
Mackenzie Love dreams of being a “lucky one”—someone who has
the perfect life. Someone who doesn’t have to worry about money, a sick
brother, or her high school status. So when a mysterious visitor offers to
make all her wishes come true, Mackenzie jumps at the chance. But the
royal lifestyle may cost more than Mackenzie is willing to pay in this
modern twist on the classic Cinderella story.
The allure of retelling classic fairy tales and how
the author decides on which one to rework, the time period settled upon,
characterization, setting, and motivation.
What
is it about fairytales that draws us in and keeps us captive through the ages?
Is it the promise of finding true love (twu wuv)? Or the assurance that good
always prevails over evil? Is it the imagery of beautiful princesses flitting
about the hillside (whatever flitting is)? Or the idea that fairies and
godmothers are somewhere out there waiting to right every wrong?
I
wonder if, even more than that, it’s that classic fairytales have in some way
or another been a small part of our childhood through books and movies and
nighttime storytelling. As a result, we will forever be nostalgic for those
brief years that brought most of us the kind of magic that can only be found in
innocence.
The
allure of retelling classic fairytales rests in this nostalgia, in these images
and memories and feelings we still have mulling around in our heads, now as
grownups. Fairytales are up for grabs, too—meaning, nobody owns the rights to
any of them. Imagine how many Star Wars or Princess Bride retellings there might
be if Luke Skywalker or Princess Buttercup were as old as The Brothers Grimm?
In some ways, retelling a favorite fairytale is like giving a nod to a movie or
book character we idolized our whole lives. It’s like saying—hey, here I am. Let
me tell you how much you influenced who I am and what I believe, and then let
me put my own signature on top of yours before I pass it down to the next
generation.
So
then, why does one author start with Cinderella
and the other Beauty and the Beast?
Why are there so many retellings of one story but not so much of another—say, Sleeping Beauty? I don’t know if there’s
one right answer to that other than what resonates with each writer, but I can
give you my answer: In Chasing Midnight, I didn’t set out to do
a retelling at all. I just had this other story in my head and I wrote it. And
then the magic came knocking. I’ve always been one of those super nerds who
looks for symbolism and patterns in everything, so as soon as I saw hints of
Cinderella in my story, I went back to the original fairytale and worked from
there.
One
of my favorite things to do is to take something old and make it relevant.
That’s what retellings do. They infuse who we are today, right now, with the
beauty and wisdom of the past to create new stories with the same problems, the
same heartaches and the same loves as before. This time, though, we view them with
a different lens, and we tackle them anew.
About the author
Courtney
King Walker grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area building rocket ships and
rafts out of cardboard, hoping to make it the moon or at least Niagara Falls.
But a trip across the border to Tijuana was as exciting as it ever got, so she
decided writing about adventure was the next best thing. She now lives in the
Rocky Mountains with her husband and four children, and still dreams of flying
to the moon. She is the author of the young adult novel, ON THE FRINGE,
and middle grade novel MOLLY PEPPER AND THE NIGHT TRAIN. Her
next YA novel, CHASING MIDNIGHT, will be published January 12,
2016 by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media.
Giveaway
One winner will receive a signed copy of CHASING MIDNIGHT, a heart clock charm necklace (see image), and $25
gift card!
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