 1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why? I choose Beauty and the Beast retelling (with Dracula and Pride and Prejudice) because it's one of my favorites and I love the element of 'who is the REAL beast?' that works so well with the overall structure. I can't think of another that has so many elements I can twist into something that works with my Vampires. 2) What makes your story unique? I think the origin of vampires is one thing that makes the world I created unique. They are demon cursed creatures rather than undead. 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? Beauty and the Beast, and I think like many authors my reasoning would be similar to "Who doesn't want that library?" But also, as a child I loved that she had a horse and knew how to ride. (I was obsessed with anything and everything that resembled a horse.) 4) Who was your favorite villain? Oh that's tough. I suppose I don't have a specific favorite villain in mind as I do a type of villain. I love when they think what they are doing is right, or they have a back story that shows how their past pain has led them to do the horrible things they've done. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? I have 6 books of this series planned, and the majority of which will be published in 2020. Books two and three are up for preorder. (The dates for books two and three will be moved up soon)  Ali Winters is the USA Today bestselling and award winning author of The Hunted series, as well as an amazon and international bestselling author. She was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest where she developed her love of nature, animals, and all things green.
For as long as she can remember, she’s been mesmerized by the extraordinary world of books and fantasy. There has never been a time when stories were not begging to be told, either by drawing, photography, or writing.With encouragement from one of her favorite authors, she jumped in, head first, to pursue the career that had been calling to her since the day she opened her first book.She has a deep love for coffee, tea, warm blankets, dogs, creating art in any medium she can get her hands on, and family.
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 1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why? The classic tale of Peter Pan! I've always adored this story and felt it was incomplete and a had an unsatisfying ending. But I still loved it! 2) What makes your story unique? It's more of a "sequel" than a retelling- what REALLY happens to Wendy after Neverland? 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? I had so many, it's truly hard to choose. I liked Beauty and the Beast and the Goose Girl most, I think. 4) Who was your favorite villain? Maybe the sea witch Ursula in little mermaid. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? This one is standalone. I don't intend to make it a series, but it was sure satisfying to write!  Author Bio:
Bree Moore lives in Utah with her amazing husband and five children. When she's not busy homeschooling or folding laundry, she sneaks off to write more urban fantasy. Bree has a passion for pregnancy and childbirth, which influences her female-led stories. She loves shopping for groceries like other women like shopping for shoes (no, seriously), movies that make her cry, and Celtic music. She likes both her chocolate and her novels dark. Bree is also a resident writer at www.WritingThroughBrambles.com, a blog for fellow authors and readers.  Hans Christian Andersen is as famous as the Brothers Grimm. Born in Denmark in 1805, he was a poet, author and playwrite. His fairytales are his most famous works and they include The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen and The Ugly Duckling.
Like the Grimm brothers, few of his stories ended well. The Little Mermaid did not end up with the handsome prince, instead he married another and she threw herself into the sea in despair. Other stories like The Little Match Girl have an equally sad end. He is revered in his home town and the statue above is dedicated to him. Hans Christian Andersen had a troubled love life and he passed away in 1875 from liver cancer. He will always be remembered for his fairy tales.  1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why?
Snow White And the seven dwarfs. I always liked that one. 2) What makes your story unique? It has become a funny revers-harem story where Snow is a bad-ass sexually prolific princess, the wolves are vegan, the stepmother is a doll and the prince is gay. There were so many options I really had to reign myself in to make sure that I didn’t include every single fairy tale character into the one story. I had a blast writing it. 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? Cinderella, because she wins in the end, despite all the issues she has to go through, and I like the idea of a fairy godmother. 4) Who was your favorite villain? The Beast in Beauty and the Beast. I like the big surly types. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? This is a standalone in the fairy tale retellings. I generally write dark Urban Fantasy. Though I really did have a lot of fun writing this story, so you never know. I just might have the fairy-tale bug now. I liked combining the fairy tale with shapeshifters; my usual genre. It was also a lot of fun to do a humorous story instead of my usual dark fantasy.  1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why?
Angela Kulig (my co-author) decided on Aladdin, but not the Disney retelling. A dark and twisted retelling of our own. We joined a shared world called, Never After Tales, and the cover, Angela K. chose (because it is gorgeous!) and then asked me to co-write with her. As for me, it was simple: one of my little sister’s favorite movies was Aladdin, and the opportunity to retell it in a way with shifters and mystery and intrigue, where a princess doesn’t need saving? Well, that was our idea of a fairytale worth retelling with its own spin: a princess as the hero. 2) What makes your story unique? It’s unlike any Aladdin retelling ever told. As I mentioned in the previous question, Princess Cyra doesn’t need saving, she can save herself. But, there are things that come about she doesn’t foresee… and, she has a power passed down to her from her mother. A sacred power through an amulet. 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? Cinderella. I watched it over and over with my mamaw (grandmother), and she just loved the little mice. She collected ceramic figurines of mice, and to this day, they’re still on her wooden shelves in her kitchen, although she passed in 2011. Most of my greatest childhood memories are with her, and watching Cinderella when I was little, singing along at her by my side while we folded laundry, or she just hugged me close. I miss her. 4) Who was your favorite villain? Now, as an adult, I have to say Maleficent, although she’s truly not a villain. She made up for her evil ways in the end. But it would have to be her. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? It’s standalone, but it can be read with all of the other books in the Never After Tales collection, and in any order.  1) What fairytale have you chosen to retell and why? My first fairytale retelling is my version of Little Red Riding Hood as a response to Angela Carter’s own retelling called The Company of Wolves. In The Girl with the Red Hood, I give my vision of feminine power when faced with male predators. I love Angela Carter’s rewritings and retellings of fairy tales, but this one caused such a reaction in me, because it angered me that the girl would give herself away so easily. Turns out, her version was hitting too close to home… but it prompted this story that I love. 2) What makes your story unique? I would say the style. It’s quite dark and gruesome, as fairy tales used to be, but with a bit more details in the horror department. Also, my treatment of wolves is quite unique, as I give them their real purpose back. 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? It has always been Little Red Riding Hood, and somehow, I’ve always known that wolves could never be so big and bad – only humans can. But the foundation of the tale and its morality have always rung true in my heart: beware of men who can’t control their urges, because they’ll do you wrong and say it was your fault for dressing up like a woman of little virtue… Well, I’ve twisted the morality to fit it to the reality anyway! 4) Who was your favorite villain? In old fairytales, I used to love the old hag that tries to eat Hansel and Gretel. But my favorite villain ever in a fairytale retelling has to be Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She’s so grand and sassy, big and bold! 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? This one is a standalone short story, but I have other retellings in the work, about Sleeping Beauty. I’m preparing a collection of short stories where I will rewrite and retell the tale from every angle, much like Angela Carter has done before. I want to find out if this tale can survive the age of #MeToo, from the kiss stolen without consent to the lesser known version of the tale in which the princess is actually raped while she sleeps…  The Girl with the Red Hood Excerpt
Some say that wolves are cruel and cunning creatures; that they will not feel remorse or even compassion when they rip open the throat of their innocent victims; that they actually take pleasure in killing and mutilating. They say that wolves’ eyes glow red in the light in anticipation of the blood they yearn to spill; that they lurk in the dark, just out of sight, along lonely streets or forest paths, waiting for lovely young women or candid children to pass by, lusting for their silky flesh. Wolves are deemed to be subordinates of the Devil, spawns of Evil, companions of nightmares and mates of shadows, murderous beasts. Their howl can pierce the bravest most righteous man straight through the heart and make him doubt of his own sanity and virtue. It can freeze the fiercest army in its charge and make a slaughterer waver in his chopping. It resounds with the memories of long forgotten times fraught with darkness and folly, when humanity was not yet a concept and the animal was within us all. *** Bio: International author born in Switzerland of a Dutch mother and a Romanian father, Jude Cocaigne finds her calling after binge reading all of Terry Pratchett's work. Fantasy is her realm, with dashes of romance and a bit of horror at times. Her first published piece (in the CEA Greatest Anthology Written, aimed at a Guinness World of Records), the short story The Girl with the Red Hood, is a retelling of a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood by Angela Carter. Drawing on Carter's original idea, but adding gruesome details and an even deeper twist, Jude Cocaigne unleashed her talents and her voice. Her next published piece, a novella called The Elf Girl and the Prince (in the limited edition boxed set Once Upon Another World), is a dab at romance and fairy tales of another kind, and introduces Ze World, a planet in which many more adventures will take place in the near future, as a Fantasy series is already in the making.  1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why?
The Dragon Princess is Sleeping Beauty (with a subtle dash of Frozen) The Siren Princess is Little Mermaid (with a blend of Peter Pan) The Beast Princess is Beauty and the Beast Book 4 is Snow White (coming summer 2020) Book 5 isn’t really a retelling in the typical sense, but follows the villain throughout the series (coming fall 2020) 2) What makes your story unique? My fairytales aren’t typical retellings the way others see a retelling, which is why I say “reimagined” on my covers. For example, with Sleeping Beauty, the princess (Elisa) is the dragon, the prince has narcolepsy, and her and her sisters are based on the three fairies. In Siren Princess, Odette is the Ariel character, but she’s a pirate with a love/hate relationship with James Hook. Scuttle is her BFF, and so on. 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? Does “The Hobbit” count? Haha My favorite is Beauty and the Beast because it’s the first story I had hear where the prince and princess actually fell in love. Bell was the first strong Disney princess I had seen (and she wasn’t even a princess until she married him!). 4) Who was your favorite villain? If we’re sticking with Disney villains, I adore Hades. If you want to be technical with Marvel now being Disney, Loki. But from fairytales I like the witch from Snow White. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? As you saw above, The Forgotten Kingdom Series has 5 total books (book 4 will hopefully release in June, book 5 hopefully August).  1) What fairytale(s) have you chosen to retell and why?
I chose to retell the Grimm fairytale "All Kinds of Fur." It goes by many other names but the gist of it is that a runaway princess always wears a fur coat to hide her identity. Under the employment of a prince, she dresses in three beautiful gowns during his balls and he vows to learn who she is. My version takes the coat and dresses and turns them into different forms someone takes in order to exact revenge. I've always been interested in Irish mythology and wanted a new way to tell this awesome fairytale using that. So my version is about a hellhound who is chosen to kill a human king for revenge and is given different forms to let herself get close to him, including that of a young woman. 2) What makes your story unique? While I see many stories that reference the fae out there, I don't see many that try to adhere to the true mythology of the old stories. I try to weave the original flavor of ancient Irish beliefs into something relatable today. It's a challenge but totally worth it! 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? "All Kinds of Fur" was always a favorite of mine, but I also loved reading the story of King Thrushbeard, the king who pretended to be a poor man in order to humble his proud princess bride. The way they fall for one another and become so compatible is great, and I love the transformation of the princess from a horrible person into someone humble and hard-working. In fairytales, it's usually the men who have to change, but this was a fun turn on that. 4) Who was your favorite villain? As a kid, the archetype of the Wicked Stepmother always scared and intrigued me. Here was a woman who was supposed to love and protect you and she ended up being the most dangerous thing in your life. I always found that dichotomy so fascinating. Of all the Wicked Stepmother, I have to go classic and say Cinderella's stepmother is so delightfully horrible! 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? This book is technically a standalone, but it is in the same universe as other Irish stories I plan to publish after this. They all fall under a series/universe that I call The Golden Court and feature stories throughout Irish history and mythology. These characters in "She of the Many Skins" do come back in other stories so stay tuned!  No fairytale heroine would be complete without a worthy adversary. Who is your favorite fairytale villain? Who stands out the most?
This is our list of the top five villains - 1) Maleficient - While the recent films have painted her as a hero rather than a villain, there is no doubt that Maelficient makes a great foe. She is powerful, strong and she can turn into a dragon! 2) The Evil Queen - The original Disney villain, she is vain, heartless and wants her precious stepdaughter dead. Though she doesn't get the ending she deserves in Disney, she does lose when Snow White is awoken by the prince and they marry. 3) Ursula - The sea witch claims to want to help poor mermaids to find their bliss, but we know she likes to trick them and keep them for herself. Ruthless and cunning, she is brought down by Prince Eric when he spears her with the broken hull of his ship. 4) Lady Tremaine - She keeps her stepdaughter as a slave, making her clean the house and wear rags, but Cinderella gets the last laugh. An ambitious woman, she is all about appearances. 5) Cruella De Ville - She turns puppies into fashion items, does it get anymore evil than that? A fashion icon, she has no trouble in resorting to extreme measures to look good.  1) What fairytale (s) have you chosen to retell and why?
Snow White. People used to compare me to her when I was a child, always remarking how good she was and how that made her even more beautiful. Deep inside, I always questioned those arguments and asked myself: what if Snow was a regular flawed human being? Then came the opportunity to tell that story, and of course I jumped on it! 2) What makes your story unique? It’s the fact that Snow is an imperfect woman. She’s faced with the loss of her parents at a very young age and that scars her heart, transforming her into a wary person, unable to open her heart completely for fear of being hurt again. At the same time, she’s a woman who lives on the edge and wants to experiment all life has to offer because if there’s one thing she’s learned is that life is too short and everything can go away in a blink. Then, of course, we have The Seven, a posy of rebel mages who defied the rules of Magic. Forced into a mercenary life, they’ve set their lair deep in the Black Forest, where their paths will soon meet Snow’s. There is more than meets the eye to Prince Ashton Charming. He’s become somewhat of The Seven’s protégé. Ashton’s secrets have cast him out of his home, Thorn Hall, and may threaten Snow’s purpose to defeat The Evil Queen. Snow, Charming, The Seven… my perfectly imperfect characters struggle for redemption. They want to make right out of their curses. And who knows? Maybe they will. You can download Chapter One of Ash and Snow here: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/KUH7FqFO And watch the book trailer here: https://youtu.be/eLTBJc3S3l4 3) What was your favorite fairytale growing up and why? Sleeping Beauty. I’ve always rooted for the bad guy. The aesthetic of Maleficent’s realm and her as a character always appealed to me, and it still does. Look for this retelling in my Cursed Kingdom’s series soon! 4) Who was your favorite villain? Maleficent. She’s everything an empowered woman should be: mighty powerful, determined, assertive… and can turn herself into a dragon if the occasion calls for it! Lol. 5) Is this a standalone or do you have more books planned? Ash and Snow: The Curse of the White Throne is book one of the Cursed Kingdom series. I can tell you the name of book two. “Belle and Beast: The Curse of the Black Keep” which is in the works at the moment. |
 
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About the Author:S. K. Gregory is an author, editor and blogger. She currently resides in Northern Ireland. “Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” 
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