I have a wonderful surprise for you: News about an upcoming Cinderella retelling and my very first interview with an author!
And since I've read it, I can recommend it wholeheartedly. Considering that Cinderella is one of the most retold stories of all time, I was initially concerned about how Marissa would keep it fresh, but I shouldn't have worried because Cinder adds in so many new elements, it never feels cliche or predictable. My favorite part is that it's set in futuristic China, which gives the story such a unique flavor. I can't wait for the next three books to come out because they will bring in even more fairy tale characters.
Cinder officially launches on January 3, but you can pre-order it now on amazon if you want.
Marissa has so much exciting Cinder news going on right now (a book tour, a book trailer, and book giveaways, oh, my!), I can't cover it all in a single post! So I'm going to encourage you to visit her blog HERE and check it out.
Marissa: Thank you! I’m a fantasy girl at heart, and magic has a tendency to work its way into everything I write. In early drafts of Cinder, the magic was much more Dungeons & Dragons-esque, with fireballs and lightning bolts and the like. But as I worked through revisions it became more subtle and eerie, gradually turning into this power of mind-control. So I started researching different theories about mind-control and military experiments and was eventually led to this idea of bioelectricity, which is something every living thing produces. Some fictionalizing and pseudo-science later, and I had my “magic” element for the book.
2. In your Acknowledgements, you mention Star Wars. As a big Star Wars fan, I can't resist asking: What kind of an influence did Star Wars have on Cinder?
Marissa: The original Star Wars trilogy were some of the first movies I ever fell in love with. My brother, cousin, and I used to watch them every time we visited my grandparents, and for many years it was the only “science-fiction” I was really familiar with. I’m not one for very technical sci-fi stories, I get lost in physics and jargon, but I love futuristic space stories that focus more on the characters and relationships and good vs. evil. When I started writing Cinder, I wanted to model it more after these epic “space operas,” like Star Wars and Firefly, rather than the technology-focused works out there.
4. Grimm or Once Upon a Time? Have you even had time for tv with all that's going on in your life?
Marissa: Definitely Once Upon a Time! When the shows started, I watched them both, but I’ve since given up on Grimm. I just don’t care for crime and murder mystery shows. (I also L.O.V.E. Nathan Fillion, but couldn’t get into Castle no matter how hard I tried, so it isn’t just Grimm!) I am loving Once though, and find myself more intrigued with every episode. I really look forward to seeing how the writers carry the storyline over many seasons.
5. I wasn't sure if the fairy tale theme would continue in the series, so I'm very excited to hear that you'll be bringing in a new character with each book. Will you be keeping Cinder's point of view or switching it?
Marissa: Cinder will continue to be the main protagonist throughout the series, and we’ll be seeing many more adventures from her POV, as she delves into her past and continues to defy Queen Levana. But beginning with Book 2: Scarlet, she’ll be sharing the spotlight with other fairy-tale inspired heroines (Scarlet/Little Red Riding Hood, Cress/Rapunzel, and Winter/Snow White). Each heroine will carry her storyline from her own POV, but as the stories progress their paths will intertwine, until all my protagonists (and a healthy number of handsome guys, too) join forces against their common enemy in an attempt to save the world.
6. I was stalking some of your other interviews and saw you mention a sci-fi Puss in Boots short story? Will Puss be making an appearance in the Lunar Chronicles?
Marissa: Yes, the short story I wrote that first inspired the Lunar Chronicles was a futuristic retelling of “Puss in Boots,” in which Puss was a talking robotic cat. Unfortunately, though, he won’t be making an appearance. When I first started plotting out the books, I’d hoped to expand that short story into one of the main novels, but it didn’t fit in and was scrapped early on for the four fairy tales I chose instead.
7. Did you do any research for the Cinderella aspect of Cinder or is it such a well known fairy tale that it wasn't really necessary?
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| What a gorgeous cover! |
Cinder is a steampunk retelling of Cinderella where the heroine is actually a cyborg--what a fantastic concept, right? This is the official book blurb:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Marissa is a longtime follower of Diamonds and Toads and when she sent me an email a month ago asking if I’d like to review her book for the blog, I couldn't say, “YesYesYes!” fast enough. The best part was getting an advanced reading copy in the mail and getting to read it months before the book came out in stores.
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| Proudly displaying my Cinder ARC |
Cinder officially launches on January 3, but you can pre-order it now on amazon if you want.
Marissa has so much exciting Cinder news going on right now (a book tour, a book trailer, and book giveaways, oh, my!), I can't cover it all in a single post! So I'm going to encourage you to visit her blog HERE and check it out.
Onto the interview!
1. One of my favorite things about Cinder was the idea of "magic" actually being bioelectricity. How did you think of that idea and how did you go about researching it?
Marissa: Thank you! I’m a fantasy girl at heart, and magic has a tendency to work its way into everything I write. In early drafts of Cinder, the magic was much more Dungeons & Dragons-esque, with fireballs and lightning bolts and the like. But as I worked through revisions it became more subtle and eerie, gradually turning into this power of mind-control. So I started researching different theories about mind-control and military experiments and was eventually led to this idea of bioelectricity, which is something every living thing produces. Some fictionalizing and pseudo-science later, and I had my “magic” element for the book.
2. In your Acknowledgements, you mention Star Wars. As a big Star Wars fan, I can't resist asking: What kind of an influence did Star Wars have on Cinder?
Marissa: The original Star Wars trilogy were some of the first movies I ever fell in love with. My brother, cousin, and I used to watch them every time we visited my grandparents, and for many years it was the only “science-fiction” I was really familiar with. I’m not one for very technical sci-fi stories, I get lost in physics and jargon, but I love futuristic space stories that focus more on the characters and relationships and good vs. evil. When I started writing Cinder, I wanted to model it more after these epic “space operas,” like Star Wars and Firefly, rather than the technology-focused works out there.
4. Grimm or Once Upon a Time? Have you even had time for tv with all that's going on in your life?
Marissa: Definitely Once Upon a Time! When the shows started, I watched them both, but I’ve since given up on Grimm. I just don’t care for crime and murder mystery shows. (I also L.O.V.E. Nathan Fillion, but couldn’t get into Castle no matter how hard I tried, so it isn’t just Grimm!) I am loving Once though, and find myself more intrigued with every episode. I really look forward to seeing how the writers carry the storyline over many seasons.
5. I wasn't sure if the fairy tale theme would continue in the series, so I'm very excited to hear that you'll be bringing in a new character with each book. Will you be keeping Cinder's point of view or switching it?
Marissa: Cinder will continue to be the main protagonist throughout the series, and we’ll be seeing many more adventures from her POV, as she delves into her past and continues to defy Queen Levana. But beginning with Book 2: Scarlet, she’ll be sharing the spotlight with other fairy-tale inspired heroines (Scarlet/Little Red Riding Hood, Cress/Rapunzel, and Winter/Snow White). Each heroine will carry her storyline from her own POV, but as the stories progress their paths will intertwine, until all my protagonists (and a healthy number of handsome guys, too) join forces against their common enemy in an attempt to save the world.
6. I was stalking some of your other interviews and saw you mention a sci-fi Puss in Boots short story? Will Puss be making an appearance in the Lunar Chronicles?
Marissa: Yes, the short story I wrote that first inspired the Lunar Chronicles was a futuristic retelling of “Puss in Boots,” in which Puss was a talking robotic cat. Unfortunately, though, he won’t be making an appearance. When I first started plotting out the books, I’d hoped to expand that short story into one of the main novels, but it didn’t fit in and was scrapped early on for the four fairy tales I chose instead.
7. Did you do any research for the Cinderella aspect of Cinder or is it such a well known fairy tale that it wasn't really necessary?
Marissa: Being a long-time fan of fairy tales, I knew a lot about the story and its origins to begin with, but I have re-read the Grimm version many, many times since I started writing Cinder. There are parts of the book that differ so wildly from the fairy tale, that it was important to me that the classic story was still recognizable underneath, and I also had a lot of fun dropping in hints of the fairy tale. For example, the scene in which Cinder’s stepsister topples over a toolbox and Cinder has to dig through a bunch of nuts and bolts came to after reading through the tale for the gazillionth time, and was directly inspired from Cinderella having to separate the lentils from the ashes in order to go to the ball.
8. What are some of your favorite retellings and what do you think it takes to do a really good retelling of a story?
Marissa: Gregory Maguire’s retellings (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror, Mirror, and Wicked) are some of my all-time favs, and I’m also a huge fan of those by Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale. Recently I read and loved Entwined by Heather Dixon. For me, I look for the same things in a retelling that I look for in any book: suspense and conflict, a protagonist worth rooting for, an enchanting love story. Though many of my favorite retellings are those that give an interesting spin on a classic (such as Ella’s curse in Ella Enchanted), I don’t mind a retelling that merely expands upon the original (like Zel by Donna Jo Napoli). It all depends on the execution.
9. What are some of your favorite fairy tales? (Feel free to elaborate on why you love those particular ones so much)
Marissa: This is probably self-serving, but I like the tales that I can interject “Did you know…” tidbits when they come up in conversation. “Did you know that in some versions of Sleeping Beauty, the prince slept with the princess while she was asleep, and she didn’t wake up until nine months later after she gave birth to twins?” “Did you know that some scholars think Cinderella’s iconic glass slipper was inspired by Chinese foot-binding traditions?” “Did you know that in some versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl gives the wolf a strip-tease to distract him from eating her?” Of course, you probably know more of these than I do! But it’s these strange little tidbits that have kept me intrigued by fairy tales for so many years.
10. Why do you think fairy tales are so popular right now?
Marissa: I’m not sure I have an answer for this, other than trends come and go, evidently spurred on by some deep social subconscious. Just like dystopian fiction is the hot thing in young adult literature, and it was vampires before that, and people tend to think it’s all new and happening right now even though both dystopians and vampires have been around for ages and their popularity comes and goes. I’ve heard people say that fairy tales are in right now because they’re escapist and people like to escape when times are tough—and maybe those theories are right. But I tend to think of it as being more of an ongoing pattern: fairy tales are seeing a resurgence now, and then they’ll fade away for awhile, but eventually they’ll be back again. Just like those darn vampires. :)
8. What are some of your favorite retellings and what do you think it takes to do a really good retelling of a story?
Marissa: Gregory Maguire’s retellings (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Mirror, Mirror, and Wicked) are some of my all-time favs, and I’m also a huge fan of those by Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale. Recently I read and loved Entwined by Heather Dixon. For me, I look for the same things in a retelling that I look for in any book: suspense and conflict, a protagonist worth rooting for, an enchanting love story. Though many of my favorite retellings are those that give an interesting spin on a classic (such as Ella’s curse in Ella Enchanted), I don’t mind a retelling that merely expands upon the original (like Zel by Donna Jo Napoli). It all depends on the execution.
9. What are some of your favorite fairy tales? (Feel free to elaborate on why you love those particular ones so much)
Marissa: This is probably self-serving, but I like the tales that I can interject “Did you know…” tidbits when they come up in conversation. “Did you know that in some versions of Sleeping Beauty, the prince slept with the princess while she was asleep, and she didn’t wake up until nine months later after she gave birth to twins?” “Did you know that some scholars think Cinderella’s iconic glass slipper was inspired by Chinese foot-binding traditions?” “Did you know that in some versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl gives the wolf a strip-tease to distract him from eating her?” Of course, you probably know more of these than I do! But it’s these strange little tidbits that have kept me intrigued by fairy tales for so many years.
10. Why do you think fairy tales are so popular right now?
Marissa: I’m not sure I have an answer for this, other than trends come and go, evidently spurred on by some deep social subconscious. Just like dystopian fiction is the hot thing in young adult literature, and it was vampires before that, and people tend to think it’s all new and happening right now even though both dystopians and vampires have been around for ages and their popularity comes and goes. I’ve heard people say that fairy tales are in right now because they’re escapist and people like to escape when times are tough—and maybe those theories are right. But I tend to think of it as being more of an ongoing pattern: fairy tales are seeing a resurgence now, and then they’ll fade away for awhile, but eventually they’ll be back again. Just like those darn vampires. :)
4 comments:
Love this interview Tahlia! You asked a lot of the questions I was curious about. I linked to this post yesterday just in case I had readers who weren't aware of it yet.
And thank you Marissa for sharing a little fairy tale behind-the-scenes. You've given me reason number 20+ to read your book when it comes out! :)
This was a fantastic early Christmas present for me - thank you both!
I feel like we have a lot of the same interests. I've been obsessed with myths, fairy/folk tales, and the stories behind them since I was little...and now I make toys and "dress-up stuff" inspired by them. Did you know Cinderella's step sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into her shoe? Or that she had a doll that came to life and did all of her work?
Did you know the glass slipper wasn't an original feature of the story, but added by Perrault to an older story, which may have originated in Asia (where a version described a gold slipper)?
Trivia is fun :-)
And thank you Marissa for sharing a little fairy tale behind-the-scenes. You've given me reason number 20+ to read your book when it comes out! :)
This was a fantastic early Christmas present for me - thank you both!
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