Despite the familiarity of the storyline, they have all still managed to take me by surprise and leave me eager to find out how it will all end!
With the December 31st deadline still a good distance off, I'm sure none of you who have quite hit Mad Scramble Mode yet. So I thought, Let's enjoy the creativity before it gets stressful . . . .
If you are participating (or hoping to participate) in the contest, do share with us the working title of your story and a 1-3 sentence summary of the premise (no spoilers!) in the comments below. If you're feeling really brave, perhaps even share the first 3-4 sentences. Maybe we can all encourage each other, applaud the creativity, and look forward with eager anticipation to so many wonderful fairy tales in our readerly future.
Oh, and if you haven't heard of the contest yet . . . .
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19 comments:
EEK I can't wait!! :D
I have three stories to submit! I've finished the first drafts of two of them and am now getting ready to edit and send them off! I got some wonderful advice from a fellow writer who is creating some fantastic Cinderella stories of her own!
Transparency
Everyone looks right through Sheylla. She works night and day without hope for a future. Weston can relate. No one seems to understand him either, only seeing the governor's son.
Both want more then anything to be truly seen, but for Shyella that's literal--she's invisible.
The Cinderalla Case
Agent Ella is on a case. She has to decipher a riddle that might lead to her country's most significant historical artifact--Cinderella's glass slippers. But the renowned thief, the Dragon, is also after them. Will she be able to uncover the thief's identity and find the slippers before the annual Cinderella Ball?
Twelfth Stroke
At the stroke of twelve, fairy tales end...
After a long, bitter war, two countries have made a truce to unite through the marriage of their prince and princess. But Guard Elra has uncovered a far more sinister plot in mind, and her true identity might be the only chance to overthrow it...at the cost of her own life.
Thank you so much for letting us share, Anne! I can't wait to hear everyone's ideas. This is going to be one amazing collection! :D
I have only one entry planned - can only afford one! - it was originally written for another contest that had a 1,500 word limit, so I'm enjoying the opportunity to add in all the details and excitement that I had to cut out the first time.
CinderEddy
When the Princess Elicia is kidnapped, it is announced that any knight who can rescue her can have her hand in marriage (and half the kingdom besides). Edward, called CinderEddy by his step-brothers, doesn't intend to try, since his step father denied him the opportunity to become a knight. But when he realizes that this is the perfect time to run away, he discovers that it is the perfect excuse for keeping people from suspecting his identity as a runaway ... and somehow, he keeps finding himself on the right path.
First four sentences (and incidentally, the first paragraph): Once upon a time, there was a valiant knight whose kindness and bravery were known throughout the land. Whatever the problem, if Sir Henry was there to solve it, the people knew that all would turn out all right. Therefore, you should hardly find it surprising that he won for his bride a cousin of the king himself. They were married with much festivity and pomp, and lived together happily for many years.
(By the way, Hannah, Transparency sounds fascinating!)
I have one story planned; I just haven't been able to write it yet.
I have two ideas, but the only one I have written(and still editing) has the title of "Clumsy Feet."
Here's some of the beginning:
It just so happened that, every so often, a person in the land of Barge was born with a special gift. Sometimes the gift was a leadership quality that made them highly esteemed by others. In other instances, the gift was an unusual amount of courage to help them through difficult trials.
Felicity , however, was born with big feet."
Grace
This is so fun, Anne! I'm really grateful you're hosting this contest - it's given me the prompt I needed to write a secondary character's story (from Bleeding Heart). I'm having a great time with it so far!
Title: Fairy Slippers
Brief Summary: Margaret Richmond's dreams for her life have always been simple, but that truth doesn't save her from feeling devastated when those dreams come crashing down like the redwoods in Falk. Can Zachary Taylor - the lumber town's cook and war-ballad crooner - help her find the courage to dream again?
First paragraph: Margaret Richmond had thought her future bright once upon a time. Not everyone would have thought it so. Her greatest ambition had been to take care of her father after her mother’s passing. She just never expected him to die and leave her alone in a redwood lumber town, thousands of miles from home and a hundred teardrops from her childhood.
Pinterest board: Fairy Slippers
Contest: I'm currently offering a $10 Amazon.com gift card giveaway in conjunction with the Bleeding Heart blog tour. One of the ways you can enter is by helping me find an actor to match Zachary Taylor, a secondary character from Bleeding Heart and the hero of Fairy Slippers. I'd love for you all to check it out HERE! :) Thanks!
~Amber
P.S. Love how creative everyone's ideas are! :D
Oh, all of these ideas sound outstanding! I love the versatility.
I have two ideas:
1. "Isabella and the Kiln Master": In the land of Avaricia, beauty is prized above all. When Queen Catherine dies from a mysterious illness, the king organizes a "Choosing Ceremony" during which he will select a new bride. Isabella, a blind servant, longs to be chosen in order to escape her life of pain. Yet, when she is sent to work for the Kiln Master, an outcast more despised than herself, everything she holds dear will be called into question.
2: "Eleanora's Quest": The land of Delmarna is besieged by a seductive yet terrifying monster who dwells within the depths of a vast forest. Seven young girls have vanished in the course of a year. Eleanora, the only girl to return from the forest unscathed, (yet forced to leave her sisters behind in the process), is wracked by guilt. When Eleanora's uncle is terrorized by harrowing dreams that send him into the forest on a fool's mission, she embarks upon a perilous quest to rescue the seven maidens from a ruthless enemy bent upon revenge. Accompanied by a mischievous, marmalade-colored cat who loves cream and is more than she seems, Eleanora must use her wits and determine whom she can trust in order to survive.
I have one entry:
Cardea
All Cardea has ever done is serve. Never thanked, never rewarded, only punished for things out of her control. It eats at her heart, making her bitter and fearful. Yet greater services seems to be the only way to be truly free of it.
I only have one story this year. It's titled "The Handmaid and the Prince". The High King's only son needs a bride... so of course every princess in the land comes to the ball!
Allison
Hello guys, this is my idea :)
It's tilted Shadows
premise: You might not know your shadow but it knows you. The others have friends, your friends. Some have homes, your home , some have love, well almost. They live like you, they act like you ... well almost, except for one thing they can not take their own step. This is a story of the shadow who didn't want to follow the glass slipper.
Wow! So many good ideas here!
Like Hannah, I have three different ideas for this contest, one of which I already sent in, and the other two I'm currently working on.
Until Midnight
Summary: When Elle's father dies, she is left with nothing, forced into servitude by her stepmother in order to pay off his debt. She dares not hope for a happy ending. But she finds an unexpected friend and ally in Eloise, her eldest stepsister. Eloise wants nothing more than to wed the man she loves, but her mother forbids her from marrying a mere coachman.
But a royal ball is approaching, a night when the dreams of ugly stepsisters and sweethearted servants can come true. And Eloise is determined that dreams will come true--even if she has to help them along.
First lines: When Maman told us we would be purchasing another servant, I did not expect my late stepfather’s daughter to be the unfortunate victim. Upon returning to the mansion after my usual afternoon carriage ride through Le Parc de Roses, I found my stepsister scrubbing the floor of the main hall. Light poured through the high, narrow windows, illuminating Elle’s golden curls.
The Ever Queen
Summary: One dark day, Aednat is stolen from her quiet life to serve as a slave in the realm of the Everen, a place full of dark beauty and monsters hidden behind sweet smiles. Her one hope is to escape, and when the new faerie king holds a ball to choose his queen, Aednat seizes on her one chance at freedom--even if that one chance may cost her life.
First lines:
Long ago, in a land of mist and shadows and mirrors, lived a girl who changed the world. It all began—and ended—with a song.
ʘ
They had not come today.
For seven long years, Aednat had risen early each morning to slip away to the Border. When the shadows had not yet lightened, when the mist was still a myriad of searching silver fingers, she had crept to the rocky embankment that jutted over the Border. She had listened to the quiet gurgle of the stream, watched it ripple as she dared poke a finger against its languid surface.
The Voice in the Laurel Tree
Summary: After her father's execution as a traitor to their country, Katrine is sold into slavery. She loses everything: the man she loves, her name, and her freedom. But not everything is set in stone--her father might have been innocent. To prove his innocence, Katrine will do anything--even flirt with death. But when a different Voice calls her, one leading to life, will she listen?
Yay! These all sound so amazing! I've been dying to hear what everyone else is writing about and am so excited to get a taste of it all! I'm only planning on sending one story in, the title is: Finding the Other Slipper.
Summary:
Six-year old Ella’s life is completely shattered when her new Stepmother turns out to be an evil witch who proceeds to kill her father and sell her older sister into slavery. Left only with a promise to meet again and a single glass slipper that was once her mother’s, Ella struggles to survive. But when she is rescued by the kind but cursed Prince William, the small girl finds herself thrown into a world of war, magic and secrets.
First Lines: “Brr…it’s freezing in here!” fourteen year old Hana remarked as she rubbed her shoulders and made her way down the silent hall of the large mansion. She paused to glance out the window, watching as the rain and wind blurred the desolate lands outside; ravaged by winter and flash floods, the once beautiful landscape wasn’t much to look at.
“I miss spring…and the flowers” she sighed longingly before forcing a smile and turning around “Don’t you?” It was then that she realized she was alone. She looked up in surprise and then let out a small sigh “Again?”
Does anyone have advice they would be willing to share?
What do you think of 'the-name-is-the-title' sort of things?
Wow! I can't wait to read all of these; they sound so amazing! I have two entries that I'm working on, if all goes to plan:
Hands of Ashes, Heart of Glass
In the war-torn world of the tiny Fair Folk, Elaena has been sent away from her beloved kingdom of Greypel to Reyal, which is ruled by an icy queen. When her father makes a political marriage to save his lands and is subsequently killed in battle, Elaena is sold into slavery, and she swears never to allow pain into her heart again. But on a mission outside the walls, she makes forbidden contact with a human, who informs Elaena of an upcoming ball. With a little magic and the help of a stranger from an enemy land, can Elaena heal her heart and regain her title of princess? Or will her plans be foiled and smashed like glass by the queen of Reyal?
(As yet untitled)
After a routine break-in goes wrong, Zoelle, or Zoe, a common thief, is unexpectedly recuited by a mafia-like organization. Rising quickly through the ranks, she is poised to finish the biggest heist of her career, when a bungle loses her her coveted position. When an enemy agent, one whom Zoe had betrayed long ago, announces his intentions to host a ball, Zoe is eager to take the job, but it is given to two other agents instead. Undeterred, Zoe infiltrates the ball with stolen equipment, and is plunged into a deeper mystery than she ever expected--one that tests her knowledge of right versus wrong, and love versus hate.
To the Anonymous above the last comment, I'd be happy to help anyway that I can. What exactly do you need advice on?
These stories sound intriguing! I can't wait to read whichever ones get chosen for The Five Glass Slippers!! :)
As for my story I'm planning to enter...
Working title: A Dream Not Imagined
Summary: Ellie Abbington has a dream; but who is foolish enough to think dreams come true for those such as her? Yet if a chance arose, would her dream be as beautiful as she had thought... especially with all those striving to ruin it? Not everything is as it seems in the Abbington household, and Ellie is on the brink of finding out.
So there it is. I couldn't think of another way to word it. Hopefully it's more interesting than the summary portrays, ;)
Thanks for this! :)
-Shantelle H.
I am now in the editing stage of the third story that I have written for this contest; however, I will only be submitting this last one. The previous two stories are great, but I can’t do them justice and keep them under the 20,000 word limit. They really need at least double that amount of words to properly tell their stories. To be honest the last story is already at 27 thousand, but I think the story is told and maybe some of the wordiness can be cut down to size.
The title for the story I am submitting is The Cat’s Paw. I am terrible with titles, so no matter what I put here it would probably change in the end, but that is the working title and it has a double entendre.
Even if my story is not selected; I still have to be very grateful to this contest, because of it, I now have 3 stories that I would not otherwise have written.
Listening to my niece talk about her recent school field trip has sparked another idea:
"Pamela Pumpkin": The title is pretty self-explanatory, but I wondered if perhaps the pumpkin had a story of it's own. Such fun! Still debating about submitting it, but even if I don't, I had a great time imagining different aspects of this tale.
All the ideas listed here are wonderful.
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