The Tour of Ever After - My Writing Theme

Hello there! Kendra returneth with a post that's actually on time.

No, the tailspin that is my life hasn't died down yet, but it's starting to. Last night was also my first night "on my own." I mean, I have an aunt living just upstairs, but ... I'm now responsible for myself and everything.

Anywho, I'm here today for the Tales of Ever After blog tour again!

Today, I'm here to talk about my writing theme.

So, funny thing that happened after I had assigned this for myself on the blog schedule, but I was actually talking to a good friend of mine, who happened to be one of the submission judges for the Tales of Ever After collection. The submissions had all names removed, so it was a blind judging.

We were talking about the collection, and she'd admitted that she felt that the story was my best yet (she's read ... pretty much all of my books up to this point), which prompted a curiosity in my head. I knew that she'd known that I'd be entering a story, and I think she knew some of its premise, but I wanted to know how long it took her to realize that the story was mine.

"Half a page?" she answered.

And it was my writing she recognized, not the premise I'd previously shared with her. (And she hastily went on to assure me that her comments were based solely on the story's qualities, and not any attempts to sway the game in my favor. Which I had no worries over. The girl's a tough judge.)

This prompted further discussion into my writing style, with the other girls in the group chat who'd also read significant chunks of my writing. Because, apparently, I have a distinct, strong voice. Whimsical, apparently. Lighthearted on the surface but usually hiding something serious and deep. I think it's also the fact that I overuse dashes - they're pretty much my favorite punctuation. But I think they were trying to be nice and thus didn't bring it up. (Seriously, I think someone needs to take away my dashes at some point.)

But I do put in an effort to make sure that my writing and style is distinct. My goal is to write books that makes the reader laugh, and makes the reader think. I write escapist fiction that leaves the reader better equipped to face the real world when the book is over. I search for creative, high-concept plots, but I don't shy away from cliches if I see an angle that gives a unique perspective. And I have a Fairy Tale obsession that shows through in most of my books.

So, if you enjoyed Cinders, I'm fairly certain that you'll enjoy the rest of my writing, too. I mean, they're older works, so therefore not as good, but still fun, I promise!

But don't forget to check out the rest of the other lovely stories in the collection. I must say, I'm halfway through my own read, and I've as yet to find one I didn't like. And the ones I didn't love, I know there's a reader out there for them, somewhere.

What's your writing theme? Would you say that you've achieved your distinct voice yet?

Make sure that you visit and comment on all of the posts in the Tour of Ever After - the person who leaves the most comments will get a bonus collection of sneak-peek snippets from a number of the authors! (I am in the process of fixing the broken links. My blog isn't being nice to me about them)

Amazon Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Ever-After-Fellowship-Anthology-ebook/dp/B07FFMHM8M/

Books2Read Universal Link: https://www.books2read.com/u/bwYKry

Goodreads Listing: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40788623-tales-of-ever-after

Rafflecopter Givaways:

U.S. Only:

(All books are paperbacks, and possibly signed.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

International:

(All books are ebooks of the winner’s file format of choice)

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Tales of Ever After - Cinders

This post is a ... wee bit late.

My life has been turned upsidedown this last week as my parents finally got a new house and we've been in hyper-move mode to get them into it. Leaving me with practically no time today. Sigh.

But here I am now, with post stuff. Though I am also unfortunately on the wrong computer and don't have many of my graphics for this post. We'll make do, though, shall we?

Basically, and in short, I had a story make its way into the latest Fellowship of Fantasy Anthology! (Not only that, but the organizer put my story at the front of the collection!)

And, in the interest in keeping this post short, here's the rundown of why you should read this lovely story that I christened "Cinders"

1. As the name suggests, it is a Cinderella retelling.
2. But it's a very mixed up retelling of Cinderella.
3. It features a veeeeeery adorable little kitten, who has a pretty important role to play. (They almost moved the story over to the cats collection, in fact!)
4. One of my friends has told me it's my best work to date.
5. The collection it's featured in is free! Or it will be, just as soon as Amazon gets its act together.

And some funfacts about the writing process for this story:

1. It's been the fastest I've ever taken a story from inspiration to publication, as I didn't even have an idea for an entry when the anthology was first announced.
2. The anthology organizer actually gave me my premise, when I confessed to having no inspiration.
3. I proceeded to write the first thousand or so words in one night, in a notebook.
4. The last half of it was written at the Texas Homeschooled Author's Writer's retreat.
5. I got to hug the anthology organizer at Realmmaker's the week before last.

Now, there are some giveaways involved with this thing, but I currently don't have access to the links and such. I'm just going to point you guys to the masterlist/schedule thing, where others DO have the giveaways posted. Click through and comment on all of them, because the person who leaves the most comments across the tour will get a bundle of sneak peeks from the upcoming books of multiple authors!

(Please note that some of the links are broken. I am in the process of fixing them, but every time I think I have, they break again. Bear with me.)