Launch Week - Five Enchanted Roses

And we are back with day two of our week-long celebration of Five Enchanted Roses and the five authors who made this book possible! Today we are featuring Savannah Jezowski, whose story, "Wither," was the very first one picked for this collection. A fantastically frightening and strangely beautiful tale that has already left its mark on early readers . . .

INTRODUCING

SAVANNAH JEZOWSKI

 How did you find out about the Five Enchanted Roses contest?

Savannah Jezowski: I was already a fan of the Goldstone Wood Series and one of Anne Elisabeth’s mentoring students. I entered the Five Glass Slippers contest the year before and knew before the subject of the second contest was even revealed that I would be entering. I created a story world for the "Cinderella" contest that I felt needed further developing and was determined to branch out and explore some alternate stories in the same story world—a world I call the Neverway. Ironically enough, I was already putting together some ideas for a “Sleeping Beauty” story . . . and then “Beauty and the Beast” was announced, and I realized I had the right idea all along . . . I simply had the wrong Beauty.

Did your story idea spring immediately to mind or did you have to work to find it?

Savannah Jezowski: As I said, the story world had already been established. I knew that the Neverway was the setting for my story. I simply had to figure out what kind of characters would do the beloved fairy tale justice and still seem natural in my spooky, enigmatic world. I brainstormed with my husband and Marmie for a few days, playing with multiple ideas. I knew that I wanted roses to be significant—with a title like Five Enchanted Roses, I knew they would have to be. I even considered a humorous and outlandish storyline with a Cyborg beast and a spunky Beauty searching for her missing father on an airship . . . but the characters just did not grab me. I wanted a unique but still familiar retelling, with characters as endearing as the ones from the Broadway musical. Around this time, I also decided that I wanted the Beast to be as strong a presence as Beauty, perhaps even telling the story completely from his viewpoint. All at once, the pieces began to fall into place—the terrifying and tragic hero, the spunky but awkward Beauty, a brooding castle filled with mysterious but endearing servants. All these were familiar characters from the original tale, but when they began to explore the Neverway, bit by bit, they came into their own.

What makes this retelling of the classic tale uniquely special to you?

Savannah Jezowski: Corwin’s journey is the heart of my story. I did not want to tell the usual tale about a Beast who was cursed by an enchantress who then disappears and never reappears in the story. I wanted to dig deeper into what made him a monster, and what made him heroic. The idea came to me to create new circumstances for the Beast, to create circumstances for his ugliness that were not the result of his bad character . . . but rather a result of his good character. His true struggle would not come in escaping his outward appearance, but in maintaining his integrity and staying true to his calling. At this point, I began to realize how deeply I was sharing my own story while telling the tales of Corwin and Bet. I began to draw upon the questions I had asked in the darker times, upon the fears I had faced when I was alone for weeks on end while my husband drove long distance for a trucking company and while all of my family lived on the other side of the country. Out of my own struggles, theirs emerged.

If you had to pick a favorite fairy tale, which would it be and why?

Savannah Jezowski: When I was a little girl I liked "Cinderella" and "The Little Mermaid." I liked the star-crossed lovers, the pretty dresses, the dancing, the handsome princes . . . but when I got older, "Beauty and the Beast" became my favorite fairy tale, partially because I loved the music, but mostly because I felt the themes in the story had so much significance. In our world, where movie stars are more famous than real life heroes, I think we all need to be reminded that our outward appearance pales in comparison to the condition of our hearts. I also like that there are sacrifices made in this tale—when Beauty sacrifices her freedom for her father, when the Beast gives up his future to give Beauty back her freedom. I also love that theirs is a slow, painful love story—they grow to love one another once they put aside their prejudices and take the time to truly get to know one another. It seems more realistic than a “Love at first sight” scenario. Although we do not read fairy tales for their realism, the truer the tale, the closer it will hit to home. True love is often gritty and desperate. It is refined in difficult times and on dark days. It is a journey of small steps, of awkward looks, of blossoming affections that gradually lead to unbreakable bonds. Truly, of all the fairy tales, I feel this one is the most romantic. 

Keeping in mind the many themes of the classic fairy tale, have you ever experienced a "Beauty and the Beast" moment in your life?

Savannah Jezowski: In so many respects, I often feel like the Beastly character, while my husband is the kind, generous Beautiful one who loves me in spite of my shortcomings. I fear, of the two of us, I would be the one more prone to stumbling into curses and needing to be rescued and reminded of the things that truly matter. I sometimes feel like such an ugly duckling, and then my White Knight looks at me, with that dreamy “I think you’re adorable” look on his face, and then I feel like a princess even though I can’t figure out why he likes me so much. It’s the best feeling in all the world, knowing that you are not perfect and that you are loved anyway. Your “Happily Ever After” may not be all glitter and roses, but it is real, and it is enduring, and that is what truly matters.

As a fun conclusion, I thought I would share my favorite song from the Broadway production of this timeless tale.

“If I Can’t Love Her."

 _________________

 

 

SAVANNAH JEZOWSKI lives in a drafty farmhouse in Amish country with her Knight in Shining Armor, who is no less shiny after eight years of matrimony, and a loyal brigade of kitties, who may or may not sleep on the job. Her work has been published in Ray Gun Revival, Mindflights, and in the student publication of Fountains at Pensacola Christian College. She likes books, faeries, writing hats, and having tea with her imaginary friends.

 GIVEAWAY!

  In honor of this exciting release, the authors of Five Enchanted Roses have teamed up with Rooglewood Press to offer an exciting Giveaway Bundle for one lucky winner! Included in the bundle will be:

1 print copy of Five Enchanted Roses
1 "Book of Omens" red leather journal from Kaycee Browning

1 Lilla Rose cameo hair clip from Savannah Jezowski

1 pressed rose bookmark from Jenelle Schmidt

1 pair of jaguar sunglasses from Dorian Tsukioka

1 gorgeous rose and pearl necklace

If you would like to enter your name for a chance to win this awesome bundle, here's what you do:

 Share any of the following images (or any of the images from our Launch Week Celebration) on your social media sites -- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, etc.

For every image that you share, copy a link and compile all your links into a list. Send your link list in an email to David Cross (david.cross@rooglewoodpress.com) using the subject header: "Five Enchanted Roses Giveaway." Be sure to send him your links NO LATER THAN MONDAY, AUGUST 3. The winner will be selected later that week.

You may also gain one free entry by leaving a comment for Savannah down below, congratulating her on her new story or asking her a question about "Wither."

Have fun spreading the news about this awesome new collection from Rooglewood Press!

 

 __________________

Don't forget to purchase your copy of Five Enchanted Roses today! Add the book to your Goodreads shelves and let your reader friends know how much you enjoy these beautiful tales.

Launch Week - Five Enchanted Roses

Dear readers, welcome to a week of celebration! TODAY marks the launching of Five Enchanted Roses, an all-new collection of "Beauty and the Beast" stories from Rooglewood Press, and the authors and I are pretty much thrilled!

To start the party, I am featuring Kaycee Browning, the talented young author of the very first story in the collection, "Esprit de la Rose." This piratical adventure novel has already beguiled early readers with its breezy combination of charm and spookiness. Here's a little more about that story . . .

INTRODUCING

KAYCEE BROWNING

How did you find out about the Five Enchanted Roses contest?

Kaycee Browning: Short answer: Jenelle Schmidt. Long Answer: I became a fan of Jenelle's after reading King's Warrior when I was twelve years old (and then discovering we attended the same church, and then inadvertently babysitting her daughter... but that's a longer story). I followed her blog and I followed her progress as she prepared a story for the FiveGlass Slippers contest. Even though she was not one of the five winners, I bought the intriguing collection. I loved all five of the Cinderella retellings. I especially loved the little advertisement at the end of the collection- it featured a gorgeous cover with the title Five Enchanted Roses. I was pleased to see that the next contest focused on my favorite fairy tale. I sincerely hoped Jenelle would enter because Jenelle's writing + Beauty and the Beast = even more awesomesauce, but I had no intention of entering. I was too busy with my original novel. Or, at least, I thought I was.

Did your story spring immediately to mind or did you have to work to find the right tale to tell?

Kaycee Browning: Like I said, I had absolutely no intention of entering the contest. I planned to spend all available time working on my novel, Hail Frost.

Then my grandad died.

He died in the middle of my junior year of high school. I was swamped with schoolwork, SAT, ACT, and AP exams, college visitations, and stress. My family and I drove down to Georgia, attended the funeral, and then returned to North Carolina. I had an anatomy test and an AP exam the very next weekend.

Kaycee with her grandparents and siblings.

I cried once for about five minutes during the entire ordeal. I remember being briefly concerned by this. I loved Grandad. He had been one of the first people to encourage me to write. He was the source of so much inspiration and so much happiness. Why wasn't I more upset? Why wasn't I wrestling with sadness, like my brother, sisters, relatives, and parents?

 
I wondered, but then I picked up my ACT prep book. I could think about it later.

That summer, exams and school and stress finally over, we went to stay at a beach condo in Florida. I was very excited. I would finally have time to write! I could finally work on Hail Frost!

Nothing. I could write nothing. I could read over what I had written, I could know in my head what needed to happen, but I could not make my fingers type. I could not move.

That was terrifying.

I nearly cried, but my sisters were in the room and I didn't want to try to explain what I could not explain, so I hastily clicked over to the spotty Internet and started blog-hopping.

I don't know which blog it was, possibly Jenelle's, but I was again reminded of the Five Enchanted Roses contest. I allowed myself a brief moment of fancy; what Beauty and the Beast story would I tell?

A pirate ship. The silhouette of a man in a tricorn hat. Cold blue lights. Mermaids.

"Esprit de la Rose" istantly sprung to life.

What makes this retelling of the tale uniquely special to you?  

Kaycee Browning:  I wrote my first novel when I was thirteen years old. It was a pirate adventure titled Shadow's Fire, featuring a shy but strong heroine, an enigmatic pirate lad, an evil government scheme, and epic ship battles. It also featured poor narration, deus ex machina, inconsistent plot, and a complete lack of character development. I love Shadow's Fire, but very few people have and ever will read it. Grandad was one of the few who read it. I think I was grieving Grandad, in a way, by abandoning my usual genre of quirky sci-fi/fantasy for pirates once again.

Also, grace is one of the main themes of Esprit. While writing Esprit, I went through some huge character development myself. I learned the true meaning of grace. I learned the true significance of mercy. I learned that I had been playing the role of a villain for most of my life, especially when it came to judging others. It felt good, almost cleansing, to put thoughts I had actually harbored into the mouth of a fictional villain.

Those are my two “deeper” reasons for finding Esprit special. Here are some fun reasons!

Pirates have always been a bit of an obsession of mine. During middle-school, I was the queen of pirate trivia. I would often corner my poor friends and siblings and quiz them. “Which of these flags belonged to Blackbeard?” “What are the names of the two most well-known female pirates and which captain did they sail under?” “Which of the following killed Henry Morgan: a cannon ball, old age, rum overdose, or sickness?” When my poor victims floundered for answers to these oh so important questions, I smirked and would recount the proper answer, along with a bunch of other pirate facts. I'm so glad I'm not such a dweeb now! (BTW, the answers to the above are “The one with the skeleton stabbing the heart”, “Anne Bonny and Mary Read served under Captain Jack Rackham”, and “sickness possibly caused by rum overdose”.)

I have always been fascinated by colors, lights, and the water- especially when all three are combined. The Beast's transformation scene in Disney's film is my favorite piece of animation for this very reason. There's a lot of imagery in Esprit involving brilliant colors, flashing lights, and ocean water. I had a lot of fun simply thinking about the story, because I found it eerily beautiful.

While outlining the story, I was learning quite a lot about grace. To try to push myself to show grace to everyone, I decided to think of personality traits that I despise. I gave those traits to the Beast character and then I challenged myself to like him. This was fun, though I still can't exactly bring myself to like real-life people with those particular traits. At least I can show them understanding and grace now.

If you had to pick a favorite fairy tale, which would it be and why?  

Kaycee Browning: My favorite fairy tale is definitely Beauty and the Beast, but I also love a rather unknown Grimm fairy tale titled The Robber Bridegroom. In the tale, a young maiden is forced to marry a wandering, and evidently rich, stranger. The stranger only wants her because she is beautiful, and her father is only pushing her to marry to earn money. She is suspicious of the stranger, but she has no power to refuse. Her betrothed insists she visit his cabin deep in the woods. She goes, but she spies on him before entering. She watches as he and a gang of thugs brutally murder a young girl. She returns home without him ever knowing what she saw. At the wedding, she tricks her bridegroom into giving himself away. He is arrested, and she escapes both an unwanted marriage and her own murder.

I love this tale because, while the world was exceedingly unfair to the poor protagonist, she used what she had- a quick mind and clever wit- to save herself and no doubt many others. She did not whine or sob or beg. She thought her way out of her problem. I doubt Disney will ever make a movie out of this particular story (lol), but I wish more people knew of it.

Keeping in mind the many themes of the classic fairy tale, have you ever experienced a “Beauty and the Beast” moment in your life?

Kaycee Browning: I can think of several distinct "Beauty and the Beast" moments in my life, but there is one in particular that stands out in my memory. It was when I realized it was fun to be different.

I can't pinpoint an exact day or time when this happened. I do know it was a slow and sub-conscious process that built into an epiphany.

I first realized I was a bit different when I overheard some criticisms as to how I was being parented. I was around nine years old. I loved reading Greek mythology, fantasy, and fairy tales. I scowled and stormed at even the mention of romance, lady-like behavior, or any attempt to “boss me around”. I was always in blue jeans and T-shirts. Within my community, I was different. And, from what I gathered, different was bad.

I set my jaw and determinedly plucked up my plastic sword. I stubbornly endeavored to be even more different. There's a twisted type of power in being able to make others predictably mad by unpredictable actions. I was rude and abrasive and I certainly was not having fun. I was just trying to prove a point. What that point was, I didn't know and I still don't know.

I was around fourteen years old when I finally realized why I was so unhappy. It was because I was spending all of my energy on trying to make others uncomfortable to make up for the fact that I was uncomfortable. I don't know when it happened, but I suddenly realized that yes, I was different. Yes, it was okay to be different. Yes, I needed to be who I wanted to be. But I finally realized that I did not need to be so obnoxious about it! I needed to simply be who I was and not care at all what others thought. I realized that I had spent so much energy on trying to make people irritated I was not enjoying the differences I pretended to love. I decided to stop paying any heed to what people said. I decided to just be me.

I have no idea what people think about me. I do know I'm a much more likable person now. I know I'm nerdy, practical, ambitious, stubborn, brave, and different. And I know that I am having so much fun! The theme of "Beauty and the Beast" that has always resonated with me is that people are different. Because of our differences, the same person might be viewed as a hero from one perspective and a beast from another. The same person might be viewed as beautiful one moment and crazy the next. The same person might seem charismatic and handsome on the outside, but vile and vain on the inside. There are so many perspectives in the world that in the end, the best thing to do is to simply be kind to yourself and be kind to others. You can't change the perspectives of the world. You can only change yourself. That, to me, is a truly beautiful concept.

___________________________________

 
 
KAYCEE BROWNING is a homeschooled teenager living in North Carolina. She wrote her first novel when she was thirteen and published a novel at age fifteen. When not writing, she is most likely amusing herself by reading, fangirling, hanging out with friends, or (occasionally) doing her schoolwork. She resides with her two amazing parents, her three awesome siblings, and her two bossy dachshunds.

 GIVEAWAY!

In honor of this exciting release, the authors of Five Enchanted Roses have teamed up with Rooglewood Press to offer an exciting Giveaway Bundle for one lucky winner! Included in the bundle will be:

1 print copy of Five Enchanted Roses

1 "Book of Omens" red leather journal from Kaycee Browning

1 Lilla Rose cameo hair clip from Savannah Jezowski

1 pressed rose bookmark from Jenelle Schmidt

1 pair of jaguar sunglasses from Dorian Tsukioka

1 gorgeous rose and pearl necklace

If you would like to enter your name for a chance to win this awesome bundle, here's what you do:

 Share any of the following images (or any of the images from our Launch Week Celebration) on your social media sites -- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, etc.

For every image that you share, copy a link and compile all your links into a list. Send your link list in an email to David Cross (david.cross@rooglewoodpress.com) using the subject header: "Five Enchanted Roses Giveaway." Be sure to send him your links NO LATER THAN MONDAY, AUGUST 3. The winner will be selected later that week.

You may also gain one free entry by leaving a comment for Kaycee down below, congratulating her on her new story or asking her a question about "Esprit de la Rose."

Have fun spreading the news about this awesome new collection from Rooglewood Press!

 ______________

Don't forget to come to the LAUNCH PARTY tonight on Facebook and chat with the five authors themselves! Fun insider's scoop on each of these awesome stories and a good time to be had by all. See you there!