Tag Archives: twisted fairy tale

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Luck

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Hello and Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, now operating in stealth mode as the google-borg attempt to assimilate our website. But we persist, much like our heroes and heroines, resisting those that would crush our tender spirits.

Ahem…can you tell I’m a writer with an overactive imagination? So anyway, here we are with many a rousing tale to share. I’m nearing the end of the second chapter of Snow, my reimagined fairy inspired by the legend of Snow White. In last week’s snippet, Prince Gabriel’s brother, Tristan, appeared rather furious that Gabriel had an encounter with the mystical white stag instead of him, but is that really what he’s so angry about?

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“I’m sure it was just luck that brought me here—”

“Magical, auspicious creatures do not work on luck, or so I’ve been told,”  Tristan said as he stalked up to him, swooping down and snatching the arrow from the ground.  “What happened here?” he asked in a low, menacing tone.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Gabriel began, then paused as he viewed the arrow in his brother’s hand. It was finely made, with the red feathers of a hawk at the base and distinctive red and gold banding at along the shaft.  It vanished from view in an instant, Bryce having walked up to whisk the thing out of Tristan’s hand and slide it into his quiver.

But in that brief moment, Gabriel knew two things: the arrow was his brother’s, made exclusively for him by the castle armory and it was his brother who’d made the shot.  His brother had tried to kill him.

Gabriel’s vision tunneled to the empty spot on the ground where the arrow had fallen.  He was wrong, like he’d been wrong about the trajectory of the shot.

***

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Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Auspicious

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Hello and Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. Apologies to my fellow Warriors if I didn’t visit your excerpt last week. I actually got caught up in….writing!  Yes, I pushed ahead and finished the umpteenth draft of my other WIP!  Not Snow, which I’m excerpting from here, but that novel-from-hell that’s been sucking up my life for over a year now. Soon I’ll be sharing from that one (hint: it might feature a fashion designing cat shifter with intimacy issues), and pushing to finish Snow in the background.  One of these days I’ll learn to work on one project at a time, but for now, the stories beckon.

I really want to finish out this scene from Snow, in which Prince Gabriel learns all kinds of disturbing things, and that’s before he even gets home to Castle Rosenthal.  Last week, Gabriel had the disturbing thought that one of his brother’s men had deliberately tried to kill him.  He pushed the thought off as ridiculous, but…

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There was a clamor in the trees and then Tristan emerged, looking agitated and flushed, his breathing labored.

“So you managed to interfere with the hunt again, Brother? What’s this nonsense about a magical deer?” Tristan held his bow tightly in one hand, and as he drew closer, it seemed to Gabriel that he was not only agitated, but enraged. Even in the fading light of dusk, blotchy patches on his face radiated red heat and his eyes gleamed with something akin to hate.

Startled, Gabriel took in a sharp breath and exhaled slowly before responding. “It was the white stag, Brother. The same white stag that adorns the family crest.  It is auspicious.”

“And the stag showed himself to you instead of me?”

***

Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Trajectory

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Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less. Occasionally we get creative with semicolons and em dashes in order to fit in the limit, but I’m sure you’ll forgive us our enthusiasm!

I’m continuing to share from my WIP, a romantic gay fantasy inspired by the tale of Snow White. I might be entering spoiler-y territory here, but it’s early in the book, and I’m rather excited about upcoming developments. If you’d like you can read last week’s snippet here.

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Gabriel walked to the arrow and looked down at where it lay harmless on the frosted ground.  As he retraced the trajectory according to the tip of the arrow, he froze in place, staring at the spot where he had stood. The arrow, if not stopped, would have pierced him directly in the back.

A hard chill gripped him and he stared into the wall of trees where the stag had vanished. He must be mistaken. The arrow might have veered slightly when it was hit by….by whatever force it was that he’d conjured.  He might have pulled it toward him without knowing—after all, it had happened so fast, without thought or any semblance of control. If there was one thing he knew about magic, it was that it was finicky and hard to direct, even for a skilled wizard.

He looked sharply at the man Bryce, whose back was now turned to him.  What motivation could a man loyal to his brother have to kill him?

***

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Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ The Prey

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Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Before I get to the snippet, I just want to say, Happy Year of the Rat! I’m usually too exhausted by December 31 to do much celebrating, so the Chinese New Year is when I get reflective and start making plans for the new year. I haven’t actually looked up what the Rat portends, but surely it will be good for someone who likes to hole up and hoard cheese?

I’m sharing from Snow, my gay romantic fantasy inspired by the tale of Snow White.  In this scene, Gabriel is confronting Bryce, the man who shot an arrow at a stag after Gabriel gave the order it was not to be killed. The arrow would have come dangerously close to Gabriel as well, if he hadn’t stopped it with a latent magical ability he didn’t know he possessed.  Gabriel speaks first.

***

“You disobeyed a direct command.”

“I hadn’t heard it yet.”

“That’s true,” said Samuel, one of the few remaining men-at-arms Gabriel recognized from his youth. “He’d only just come up and it did look strange, you standing so close to that stag.”

Gabriel looked at each man’s face. None of them would support him if he demanded that Bryce be punished and it would not do to create rancor on what was supposed to be an occasion of manly bonding and ushering in the new king’s rule. He might be Prince of Rosenthal and second in line to the throne, but right now, he felt more the stag, the odd man out, the prey.

And then there was the business of the magic.  They’d all be wagging their tongues about it at the Three Boars that night, and they didn’t need any further provocation to spread dark rumors.

“Because this is the first hunt of the season and a day of celebration, I forgive your mistake, Sergeant Bryce,” Gabriel said, and hoped it wasn’t interpreted as a sign of weakness.

***

Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.

Weekend Writing Warrior ~ The Culprit

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.

I’m continuing to share from my WIP, a romantic gay fantasy inspired by the tale of Snow White. We’re in the middle of a tense scene here. After issuing the command not to shoot the great white stage, someone took a shot anyway. Gabriel stopped the arrow with a magical ability he didn’t know he had.  Now he is trying to figure out who disobeyed his command.

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The men mumbled and shook their heads. No one would meet his eye.  “We’re not moving from this spot until the culprit comes forward.”

A large burly man with a thick black beard stepped out of the brush—the same angry man who’d been impertinent toward Gabriel earlier, when he’d gotten in the way of the hunt the first time.

“I did it,” Bryce said, “I thought he was about to charge you.”

Gabriel swallowed his rage, stopping himself from calling the man a liar outright. “So you endangered me by shooting an arrow in my direction instead?”

“I had to make a quick decision.” Bryce’s already red face grew brighter.  Gabriel knew it wasn’t from shame, but from being called out.

***

Alpar Benedek | Dreamstime.com

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Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Who Shot The Arrow?

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Greetings and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide range of genres share from their work in snippets of ten sentences or less. I hope your New Year is off to a good start, with lots of good writing and/or reading under your belt. If you’re looking for the next good read, this blog hop is a great place to find it.

I’m continuing to share from my WIP, a romantic gay fantasy inspired by the tale of Snow White. In the last snippets I shared, (here and here) Prince Gabriel stunned himself and the rest of the hunting party by stopping an arrow in mid-air. Now he gets to deal with the fall out.

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Gabriel looked over his shoulder to see Falkner extending a hand to help him up. He ignored it.

“Who shot the arrow?” he demanded.

A wary shadow dropped over Falkner’s face.  “I didn’t see.”

Gabriel struggled to his feet.  His arms and legs were leaden and he stood straight with difficulty, as if the magic he’d pulled from the earth wanted to draw him back underground with it, like a receding tide.

Other men emerged from the brush.

“Who shot the arrow?” he demanded again.  All looked stunned, or fearful, as they stared at the arrow on the ground, the empty space where the stag had stood, and at Gabriel.

***

© Ka2shka | Dreamstime.com

Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist and along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.