The Pen of a Ready Writer

    Today, I have the privilege of interviewing Gwen Moeller!   She is my first Snow White interview, so I am pretty excited.   Without further ado, let's welcome Gwen!   (And give me a little grace -- this was my first interview, and I was a little nervous.) Me:      Hi, Gwen!   Welcome to my blog!   I and my band of dear friends are so glad to see you.   We are honored by your presence.       I am most interested in your story for the Rooglewood Snow White contest.   What is your story about? Gwen:      My story, "Poisoned," is a Snow White retelling set in a classic fantasy setting, but with a different take on fantasy races. Nix never knew her mother, and the father she knew was always sad and reclusive, neglecting his duties as king of the Human realm. When Nix was fifteen, her father married a stunning Elf. But he wasn't revitalized by the...

Sketch of Esther's Snow White character by Melanie Morgan      Today is the day we have all been waiting for!!!!  At last comes the official announcement to the world!  Which lovely stories have come together for such a time as this?  What sort of collection might we all look forward to this year?        So, if you are eager to read about the stories chosen for this year's collection, hurry to Rooglewood Press's website and see the announcement!  They also list the honorable mentions and finalists with comments from their judges.  I'm on that list!

     It's tomorrow.      The winners will be announced tomorrow.       We got this.  We're calm.      Very calm.      So calm we can hear our hearts pounding.      It's tomorrow.

     So, here's my last question for you guys in my "Things to Root For" series:      What is a genre you would like to see in this year's collection?  Sci-Fi?  Westerns?  Romance?

     Today is Wednesday, and Saturday doesn't seem far away at all.  I'm starting to count by half-days now: 3 1/2 days...3 days...2 1/2 days...       My husband's best friend, Skooter, is also a writer.  He isn't published as far as I know, but he has an appreciation for storycrafting.  I've read part of one of his stories, and it was good...good enough that I hated being left hanging when he only gave me the first 19 pages!  Aaaaaah!       I think my husband forgot that Saturday was the big Facebook reveal party, so he invited Skooter to come over and hang out Saturday evening.      I was one of the contestants thinking that I'd like to hide in a closet and get the news of the party by myself.  It's an introvert thing.      But you can't very well do that when you are the lady of the house and you have guests.  Can you imagine the guests entering and asking my ...

So, here's my next question: What is a gender role you would like to see swapped in the upcoming Snow White collection?

New York, 1910 So, here's my next question for you: What is a time period you would like to see in this collection?  Renaissance?  Victorian?  Revolutionary War?  Civil War?  1920s?  1960s?  Modern?

     For the next 12 1/2 days, as we do our final countdown until March 31st, I'm going to do 4 posts asking about something you would like to see in the Snow White collection.      There are so many ways all of us, writers and readers alike, can win in this contest.  Maybe a familiar name makes it into the final five -- hurray!  Maybe a story in your favorite genre ended up in the collection this year -- woohoo!  Maybe you finally get to read a winning story about an evil king and his Snow White son -- how awesome!      So, in celebration of all the many things we can root for, I want to know some of the things that you think would be cool to find in this year's set of winners.      Without further ado, here is my question for the day: What is a point of view you would like to see in this collection?  Would you like a story written from the prince's perspective?  A story from Snow White's p...

     Guys!!!  We're almost there!      It feels like this Snow White journey has lasted forever, but did you realize that at this time last year, we had no idea that we would be writing a Snow White story?  It was June before this year's fairy tale was announced.  And then I still had to decide if I was entering and what I would write.  For several months, I puttered along on my story while life caught me in its whirlpool of busy-ness.      Then came crunch-time for me.  I was racing to finish it, to cut it down to size, and to polish it up enough for submission.  It was December before I submitted it to the judges.      The deadline came on December 31st, although they extended it a little bit for some people.  But that was the day that I felt like the Round One judging started for real.  So it only feels like it's been in the judging phase for 2 1/2 months.  Exce...

I want to write a story about her.  Don't you?      We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this important announcement!  Anne Elisabeth Stengl has finished reading all the finalists and honorable mentions!  And, what's more, she has selected her Top Ten which she will now take to the Rooglewood Team.  And, even more than that, she thinks she knows which 5 will be chosen!!!       How exciting is that?      And, for the record, one of the 5 that she thinks will be chosen was not a finalist but an honorable mention.      It's just barely more than 1/2 a month until the winners are announced.  So this is perfect timing for them to wrap up loose ends and get the announcements ready.  And, even though these last 3 weeks may seem like forever, it really isn't that much longer to wait.            I have had times, over the past 2-3 months, when I w...

     If you read the back of the Five Glass Slippers collection, you will find this intriguing collection of tag lines: "What happens when Cinderella is so painfully shy that she cannot bear the idea of attending the royal ball?  Or when the slipper fits...but on the wrong girl? What happens when Cinderella is determined to oust an imposter prince from her rightful throne? Or when she's a cendrillon miner working from a space station orbiting a cthonian planet? What happens when Cinderella, a humble housemaid, is sent with a message for a prisoner trapped in a frightening fairy circus?"      I don't know about you, but that paragraph of five tag lines were incredibly captivating.  I couldn't WAIT to read those stories.      So here is a fun game for you.  Think about the Snow White collection of 5 winners.  Imagine yours is one of them.  What question could you pose to make people want to read your story...

    On this last day of February, I'm finishing up our discussion on some of Snow White's powerful themes.  This final post in that series is about the family, friendships, and true love in the Snow White story.      Think about it.      Snow White had a fairly dysfunctional family.  Maybe her real mother and father had a good relationship with her.  But what about her step-mother?  Yeah, no.  But we all have an idea of what family SHOULD be like.  That's how we know to define Snow White's as dysfunctional.  So what should family be?      Think about the dwarves.  They were like a family.  Maybe they were family.  How did that family dynamic work out in your story?  Do you think they welcomed Snow White into their family?  Do you think she was happy there?      What about friendships?  If the dwarves weren't family, at least they wer...

     There were so many consequences in the Snow White story.  Snow White faced consequences for taking the poisons, although it all worked out well in the end for her.  In the original story, the queen faced some pretty horrifying consequences for her actions in the end.       What do you think about judgments and consequences?       Did Snow White deserve her consequences?  Do you agree that, at least in stories, things should still work out in the end for good guys?      What about the queen?  Would you have been able to pass judgment on her?  Do you think harsh punishments are sometimes right?  If you were writing the story, does it make it easier to have someone other than your Snow White character pass the judgment?  Why or why not?

    I skipped Sunday, but I'm still thinking about Snow White themes.  And I'm curious what you guys have to say about them.      Snow White has the potential to hold some pretty powerful themes.  We've talked about: There is the ideology of beauty and what defines it. There are opportunities to explore jealousy, pain, betrayal, grasps for control, and the way people react to trauma in their lives. There are reflections of truth and honesty, if you explore the role of the mirror.      Today I want to talk about kindness, mercy, and forgiveness.  How do you see these things in the dwarves?  In Snow White?  What does it mean to be kind?  Or have mercy?  Is forgiveness a good thing?  What's the difference between forgiveness and just being gullible?

     I decided to take the next few days to talk about some of the themes in Snow White.      Snow White has the potential to hold some pretty powerful themes.  There is the ideology of beauty and what defines it. There are opportunities to explore jealousy, pain, betrayal, grasps for control, and the way people react to trauma in their lives. There are reflections of truth and honesty, if you explore the role of the mirror. There are people who will show kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. There will also be judgements and consequences. There is family, friendship, true love.      When you think about the original Snow White story, you have an evil step-mother who is pretty messed up.  She is insanely jealous and power-hungry.  Why do you think she is like that?      You also have poor Snow White.  Her mother dies.  Her father possibly dies (depending on the versio...

     Snow White has the potential to hold some pretty powerful themes.  There is the ideology of beauty and what defines it. There are opportunities to explore jealousy, pain, betrayal, grasps for control, and the way people react to trauma in their lives. There are reflections of truth and honesty, if you explore the role of the mirror. There are people who will show kindness, mercy, and forgiveness. There will also be judgements and consequences. There is family, friendship, true love.      So today I want to ask you about beauty, based on your Snow White retelling or on your knowledge of a Snow White story.  What is beauty?  How would you define it in your story?  How have you seen it defined in Snow White stories?  What is good or bad about these definitions?

     One of the wonderful things about the Rooglewood contest is that we are all in this together.  How many people do you know who have entered this year?      I don't know any of my regular acquaintances who have entered this year -- and by regular acquaintances, I mean people that I see face to face on a regular basis.       I do have some long-time blog-world friends who I know have entered.       And I've made some new blogging and Facebook friends who entered this year.       Plus, I know that Elisabeth Brown (a winner from the first Rooglewood anthology) entered again this year.  And even if she doesn't know me, I'm still super-excited that she is entering.       How about you?  Who do you know?

Hi, everybody! I just got an update from the contest Facebook page! Most of our stories are still in the first round, but one judge has finished and bumped her selections to the second round of judging. So exciting!!! The first round is the one in which the contest judges read each story given to them, fill out a feedback form, and choose five top picks. [The feedback forms judge the story in 12 different categories (plot, dialogue, pacing, use of Snow White elements, etc), giving ratings between "needs a lot of work" to "excellent". Anne said she might have some sort of Facebook celebration for people who got a perfect score, even if they didn't make it into the collection.] The stories are divided among the judges. I like to picture it like dealing cards. So each judge has a different set of stores to read and pick from. And each judge sends their top five picks -- and maybe some "honorable mentions" -- to Anne. I don't know how many judges th...

     There is only 2 1/2 months or so before the winners are announced.  I've been scouting for updates -- any word on what is happening with stories and judges.  Sometimes it helps to know those things.  Like reading battle reports in the newspaper when you know your son might be fighting in them.        Have you heard anything?