I don't really remember where I got the idea for Once Upon A Tome. I do seem to recall it actually started off with an idea for a twist on Goldilocks and then went on from there.
I do remember having all my characters planned out. Not actually planned out but chosen, my array of fairytale warrior princess arranged on my bed (quite literally, I'm a little bit OCD so I have folders for them all). I had all of the characters I wanted to twist the stories of picked out and I had no idea how to connect them. I knew I wanted a series in which the books were kind of separate (retelling the stories of the different fairytales) but then where they came together at the end to solve the overall issue.
And then it came to me. I had already chosen Red Riding Hood as one of my characters (Crimson Red) as well as the wolf from her story (Hope Winters) and Goldilocks (Harmony Gold) who happened to be a criminal just like the wolf. So I thought, "what if Harmony was the wolf's friend?"
And as I began to plan out each of my characters, falling more and more in love with them as I went, I began to find more and more places like that where it was so easy to connect the stories. I won't reveal those connections here, I hope someday these books will get published and you'll all discover the connections for yourselves.
Once Upon A Tome is a series of fairytale twists starting with a twist on Goldilocks (The Criminal). The series will include twists on the stories Beauty and the Beast (The Beauty), Cinderella (The Servant), Sleeping Beauty (The Dreamer), Red Riding Hood (The Courier) as well as many other fairytales hidden in between. Two novels will wrap up the series. The sixth novel in the series, The Wolf will also tell the story of the wolf from the Red Riding Hood tale, and the final novel will be entitled The Heroes.
But while fairytales are often things for children, I am aiming this series at young adults or even adults (though it will not be so mature that mature middle school readers cannot read it). The series has monsters like werewolves, witches, trolls, and as well as criminals. Sword fights and falling in love are also present (as they always are in twists on fairytales). The series also contains darker twists like those present in the original fairytales as well as darker elements I have added myself including abusive fathers, cut-off toes, and abandoned children.
The book I am currently working on (I've finished the first draft and continue to work on editing the 92,000-word book), The Criminal, the first in the Once Upon a Tome series is the twist on Goldilocks and explores both Goldilocks' past and her present as she struggles to manage friends, her freedom, and a newfound love for the guard who was sent to hunt her down (Chase Charming). My hope is that you will fall in love with these characters as much as I have as we go on this journey together to get this book published.
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