Beauty and The Beast Retelling

I have decided to post a short story every month to keep my creative juices flowing when I start to get burned out on my novel-in-progress. This particular one is not exactly short (it's almost 2000 words), but I have a soft spot for it. One of my favorite childhood movies was Beauty And The Beast-- i still know ALL the words to the songs, by the way-- so I wrote this story for a fairy tale retelling contest that I entered a few weeks ago. Hope you enjoy!

Scarred

 

My father will not let me be beautiful. 

  "Beauty is for silly girls," he says. "Beauty only causes pain to others."

  I avoid my reflection in the mirror as the familiar burn of embarrassment turns my cheeks a shameful red. My hair falls over my face and I let it stay there; the less of my face that anyone sees, the better. I know that that he relishes in the fact that I will never be beautiful. The doctors said they could fix my skin. They said they could turn the thick, leathery scars that covered my face and arms into skin that I could be proud of again. 

Pimping Maggie

So as I have said before, Maggie Stiefvater is my favorite author. If you have never heard of her, where the heck have you been???? She is the Best Selling New York Times author of Lament, Ballad, Shiver, Linger, and a myriad of other books yet to be published. Shiver and Linger are part of the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, and the third installment, Forever, is due to be released on July 12th, 2011. Maggie is not only an author that can make a reader's heart bleed with her beautiful descriptions, but she is also an accomplished artist and musician. Here is proof:

And yes. Maggie designed and hand cut ALL of that paper. Plus she shot the video (using stop motion animation). Plus she wrote and recorded the music in the background. Impressed yet? (Don't make me add another "plus").

To pre-order an autographed copy of Forever (or any of her other amazing books), click here. To go to the Wolves Of Mercy Falls website, click here. And if you want to be entertained by Maggie's quirky sense of humor, click here -- Even when she is trying to be serious, she will make you spew coke from your nose.

Oh in case I forgot to mention it before, Maggie rocks. She just does. 

"People Don't Talk In Contractions"

The past two weeks for me have been filled with excitement, disappointment, tears, and smiles. Thanks to the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater, I had my first experience with someone critiquing my novel-to-be. As Maggie and many other authors point out, it is best to have another writer or avid reader to read your work before sending it out to agents or editors. Most authors these days have a critique group, usually made up of one or two other authors. So I asked Maggie on her live journal how she came by her two critique partners, and in response, she set up a post so that other writers that read her blog could find a critique partner or two.

And so began the heart breaking process. I have barely even talked about the plot to my mostly-finished novel because I wanted to know exactly where I was going before I told anyone what it was about. But I was certainly not going to let this opportunity slip through my fingers. So I typed up a little short paragraph about what the main idea of my story was, and waited to be requested as a possible-future-critique-partner.

That day, I had never been so excited in my life. I received ten emails from other aspiring writers who wanted to read my work! People actually thought my story sounded interesting! So I polished my little baby and sent it's first 50 pages out into the world. No one had ever read my private work, and I was SCARED. I knew that there were some grammar mistakes here and there, and I knew that my main character needed to be a little more unique, but I thought the main thing in itself was pretty good for a first draft.

Reality TV

*Reader Warning* - If you enjoy any show with word "housewives" in the title, then this post will most likely piss you off. You were warned.

I have a question for the world today: Why does anyone watch reality television? No scratch that: it should be titled "reality" television, with quotes around the word. Because there is absolutely nothing REAL about it. I get the premise of it. I mean it's neat to be able to see how other people around the world live. It's cool to be able to see inside rich people's houses. But it ends there for me. 

Most of these "reality" shows are only about fame seeking, fake careers and the idiotic people that chase those dreams. Don't get me wrong, I would love to one day have my name printed on a book jacket that everyone has on their bookshelves. I would be ecstatic for people to point at me and whisper, "Hey, I think that is Stefanie Jones. She wrote that book that I read over and over and worship in my basement with secret candlelit rituals every full moon." (Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but you KNOW those people are out there. *shudders*) But I wouldn't invite strangers with cameras into my home and pretend to do things like sleep with my best friend's boyfriend just so that I could achieve that dream. 

Since the "Housewives" shows seem to be so popular, I decided to sit down one day and give one of them a try when I came across a marathon on Bravo. I thought, "This might be funny. Maybe I'm thinking about these shows in the wrong light. Maybe these women actually have some depth that I've somehow missed." Yeah.... My husband had to listen to me rant for three hours after watching approximately two minutes of the show...

Is It Just Me?

Is it just me, or is the final book in a series never as good as the rest?  I have noticed a pattern with the last few series books that I have read lately; I have felt empty after reading the final book of the series -almost EVERY series that I have ever read. As of late, I have read; The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy by Carrie Ryan, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and don't even get me started on the whole disgusting baby love thing in Breaking Dawn, of the Twilight series. Every one of these series started out great.  The authors (whom I love and will continue to eagerly await their next books) had prose that wouldn't leave my mind for weeks afterwards. These were books that I couldn't put down even if i tried.  I would read each book in a day or two, then I would sit rocking in the corner, clutching my dignity as I waited for the next installment to come out. As each series came to a close, I would hungrily devour the final book just as quickly as I had the previous books.  But for some reason, I didn't feel the same after finishing it.  Sure, I would love more stories told from the points of view of Mary, Gabry, Annah, Katniss, and Bella (and EDWARD of course), but I have never felt the urge to read a final book more than once.  I don't think I have everread the end of a series more than once.

Do I feel this way because deep down I am sad that it is truly over -that I will never hear that character's thoughts again? Or is it because all of the ends of these series were conflicted with war and death and sadness? Is it because the end of a book series is like the end of a relationship? (I mean, you have to come to love these characters, and suddenly they just break it off???) Or is it simply because many authors, no matter how great they are, cannot figure out how to write an ending that will satisfy everyone?  I don't know.  Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows was the ONLY book out of a series that I have read so far where I was completely satisfied with the entire book (Take note from J.K. Rowling, self).  Maggie Stiefvater is my FAVORITE author, and her third and final book in The Wolves Of Mercy Falls trilogy comes out this summer.  I have high hopes for her, as she always seems to know the right thing to say.  But my question is, am I the only one who hates endings?  Everything has to come to an end at some point, and maybe that's why I have rarely liked a final story;  I DON'T WANT IT TO END *huddles into my corner and cries, clutching my battered copies of Shiver and Linger*.

Thoughts? Comments?

LOVE

I recently got this tattoo on my foot:

 

(Yes, I am aware that my feet are translucently pale)

It was my first tattoo (and most likely, my only; though, I feel that if I ever get a book published I will probably want to get a tiny one somewhere to commemorate it).  But when people ask me why I got that particular tattoo, I want to tell them the real reason.  But it takes a while for me to be able to explain it fully.  So I usually just tell them that it stands for my love for my husband and my family (which is true), and that I drew it up and thought it was pretty (which is also true).  But my real reason for getting the word "love" permanently engraved into my skin is this: the world revolves around love.

 

If you stop and think about it, love is all around us.  Almost every song out there, from country music to rap music, is about love.  They are about falling in love for the first time, or falling in love for the umpteenth time.  They are about having your heart ripped out, or having your heart repaired by a new love.  All movies have to have some sort of love plot, or people will lose interest.  Even in the most gruesome horror stories, love plays some part in the plot line. Most books are completely about love.  I have heard several authors joke, "kissing sells books".  And it does! Because everybody wants to play a part in love, whether it's their own or someone else's.   

 

And there are so many different types of love, how could you resist?  We are built for love.  There is the love you have for your significant other, the love you have for you parents, the love you have for your children, the love you have for your friends, and even the love you have for worship.  All of these are different unto their own, but we crave it.  We live for it.  If you were to find one person in this world that doesn't feel some type of love, you will be looking at a dead person.

 

I think it is beautiful that this one emotion can cause so much ecstasy, anger, frustration, happiness, and utter thankfulness.  So all in all, I love - LOVE.  Love can make you feel like nothing else in this world, like nobody is more special, like nothing could be better than what you are feeling right at that moment.  And who doesn't want that?

 

Night Owl

I am curious as to what makes an "early bird" and what makes a "night owl".  I am the latter, where my husband is the former.  He is ready for bed at 8:00 p.m.  every night.  I am usually just getting started by then.  If it were up to me, I would stay up until 2:00 a.m. and not wake until about 11:00 or 12:00 the next day.  Oh wait! It IS up to me, because that is exactly what I do (when I can)! No matter how early I go to bed, I DETEST any time before 10:00 a.m.  Catch me before then, and all you get in return is a grumble or two.  Maybe an eye roll.  Or a hiss.  I am NOT a morning person.  Even when I was little, I NEVER wanted to get up and watch early morning cartoons on Saturday.  Four year old Stefanie would get MAD if someone tried to wake me before I was ready.  Heck, I still do.  I have broken several alarm clocks...

But seriously, what makes a night owl?  I feel most productive after 9:00 p.m.  I have no clue why.  If I sat down and tried to work on my novel, I guarantee you that I would get a higher word count AND more carefully crafted phrases in the middle of the night than I would at, say, lunchtime.  It's like my brain doesn't turn on until the sun goes down.  

But some people can jump right out of bed with a smile on their face and a "good morning- no, GREAT morning" on their lips.  SOME people can wake up and be immediately alert and ready to grab the pick-axe and head off to the salt mines.  I am not one of those people.  

But I love to sleep.  People tease me about it, but I DON'T CARE.  It's fun.  I could sleep ALL day and not get tired of it (yes, I meant that pun. Yes, I am lame).  My excuse is that I have a very LARGE imagination, and my dreams are more interesting than any t.v. show or movie.  They make absolutely NO sense when I wake up, but while I am actually dreaming them, they are the intense and, well, awesome.  I wish there was some way to record a dream, even though I would probably be studied after showing it to someone.  (They get pretty weird.  I mean, REALLY weird).  I have the type of dreams that I like to think cats have.  You know, when you see a cat (or a dog, I'm an equal opportunist) twitching like they are running from something. Like that dream is so intense, their body moves along with whatever is happening to them in their sleep world.  You can probably find me twitching and sighing and mumbling and all sorts of other hilarious things pretty much every night.  

NIght owl or early bird, insomniac or comatose, everybody has their own sleeping and waking preferences.  Do you like sleep as much as I do, or do you prefer to be awake?  Are you a night owl, or an early bird?  Have any funny dream stories?  I'd love to hear them!  If you want to hear any of my crazy dreams (which happen multiple times every night) just ask, and I will be happy to share.  My brain is quite entertaining.

(Just for the record, my snoring, twitching cat inspired this post.  At 12:00 a.m., by the way.  O_O ME AWAKE!)