I was privileged to read
The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson (click on the title for my review -- it comes out January 22). Anyway, it was SO good! Definitely a book I'm keeping! So I asked Melanie if we could do an interview and giveaway...and she said yes. The result? You see it before you! Enjoy this interview, it's a lot of fun.
Melanie, welcome to
Austenitis! I am so excited to be talking with you today about your newest
book, The Fairest Beauty. Before we
get into that, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?
Thank you so much, Charity!!! I am so excited to be on
Austenitis! I am the biggest Jane Austen fan. She is my favorite author, and my
daughters and I can’t get enough movie adaptations of her novels! We watch them
all the time, and I own quite a few.
About myself? Besides being a Jane Austen fanatic, I live in
north Alabama. I’ve been a special education teacher and a missionary in
Ukraine, and now I lead an ordinary life as a stay at home mom who happens to
make up and write stories. I have two amazing daughters and one amazing
husband. And it has rained so much in the last few weeks here in north Alabama,
I’m thinking about taking up ship building.
Yay, another Austen fan! Those movie adaptions are the best. :) Good luck with your ship building! Please tell us a
little bit about the plot of The Fairest
Beauty.
It is a Snow White retelling, set in Medieval Europe, and it
is about a girl who longs to escape her life as a scullery maid to the cruel
Duchess Ermengard. When a young man, Gabe, appears, telling her she’s the
daughter of the long-dead Duke Baldewin and that she’s betrothed to his
brother, she isn’t at all sure she should trust him. NOT trusting people has
kept her alive and sane and she’s not too sure she should change her policy
now. But she ends up having little choice in the matter when the duchess tries
to have her killed. She and Gabe flee for their lives, heading toward the safe
haven of the Cottage of the Seven, a mysterious place where they’ve been told
they’ll find refuge.
Yes, readers, it's just as good as it sounds! Melanie, what was your
favorite part of The Fairest Beauty to
write?
My favorite part? Well, I like writing the exciting turning
points and action scenes. I also like writing any kind of pivotal turning
points in the characters’ mindsets, when they come to terms with a problem or
realize they’ve been wrong, those kinds of things. I try to leave out all the
boring parts. :)
You succeeded in that! Not a slow minute in the book. What gave you the
idea, or inspired you to write The
Fairest Beauty?
I got the idea from the Snow White fairy tale, particularly
the Disney version of the tale. I thought it would be fun to take the story of
Snow White and make her realistic, and give her a hero who desperately wants to
save her. But she’s very tough, and she intends to save herself.
Is there any special
story about the beautiful cover?
This cover is gorgeous, isn’t it? Zondervan hired the same
freelance guy to do this cover, Mike Heath, who had done my previous covers. He
also creates my trailers, which can be found on my website, www.MelanieDickerson.com.
I really had nothing to do with the cover. My editor asked me what I thought
would look good on the cover, and I said I thought it would be cool to have a
bright red apple in the background somewhere, to show that it’s a Snow White
story---since the evil “queen” tries to kill Snow White with a poison apple,
and I did include that element in my story.
I really enjoyed the
way you portrayed the seven who are commonly known in the classic fairy tale as
the Seven Dwarfs. How did you come up with the ideas for their different (and
entertaining) personalities?
I really have a lot of affection for my Seven men. :) I drew
on my background as a special education teacher, and I used the original Seven
Dwarfs’ unique characteristics. The leader is indeed a dwarf, or it’s more
polite to say, “little person.” But none of the other men are small, they just
all have different things that might make other Medieval people afraid of them
because they don’t understand them.
For instance, my “Sleepy” character has narcolepsy and falls
asleep easily; my “Happy” character is severely mentally impaired and is
loveably emotional; my “Grumpy” character has had a brain injury that has affected
his personality, and so on.
I love that you did that! I know you’re already
preparing another book for publication this fall. Can you tell us a little
about it?
My next book is already finished, it just has to be edited,
and they are almost finished with the cover, which is very beautiful, BTW! It
is called The Captive Maiden and is
about Valten, Gabe’s older brother. At the end of The Fairest Beauty, Valten
isn’t very happy, so I wanted to make sure he got to have his own heroic story.
He saves the “Cinderella” character, whose name is Gisela, not only from her
mean stepmother, but also from his own rival, who keeps trying to defeat Valten
in jousting tournaments but keeps losing.
Can't wait to read it, and see the cover! :) What is your favorite
time period to read about? How about to write about?
I love reading about Medieval times and Regency England, and
those are the two time periods I love to write about as well.
If you could be any
literary character, who would you be? Why?
Hm, I guess I would be Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, because she gets
Mr. Darcy, and Darcy is my favorite hero. :)
Good answer! :) Is there a random
fact about you that most people don’t know?
My favorite flower is the tulip.
What is one thing you
dread doing?
I dread dieting, so I rarely do it. I also dread exercising,
but I force myself.
Haha, I think you aren't the only one to hate either of those things... ;) What’s a book you
recently enjoyed reading?
Lately I’ve mostly been reading about the Regency (I will have
a book set in Regency England coming
out before long … stay tuned!) but the
last novel I read and really enjoyed was
Moonlight Masquerade, a Regency romance by Ruth Axtell. I got to read an advance
copy. It comes out March 1st, and I highly recommend it!
I'll keep an eye out for it! Which of your book
covers is your favorite?
That is a hard question. I think The Fairest Beauty, because of the color and intrigue.
The colors on this cover are lovely. Thanks so much for
coming today, Melanie! The Fairest Beauty
is a great book, and I’m already anticipating reading your other books. Where can
readers find you on the web?
I love to hear from readers, and you can write to me on my
website, http://melaniedickerson.com where
you can also watch my book trailers, or through my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MelanieDickersonBooks.
So please come by and “Like” my author page and say hi! I’m on facebook a lot
(probably more than I should be!)
Thanks again, Melanie! Readers, we're back to just me.
So, any of you think you might want to read The Fairest Beauty? If not...well, it's your loss. But hey, if so...here's an opportunity to enter to win it! And let me tell you -- this is a book well worth winning and reading. :) Enter via the Rafflecopter below! Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
