Guest post from KM Randall, author of Fractured Dream + Giveaway!

Join me, my lovely Fairy Tale Fortnight-ers, in welcoming KM Randall, author of the upcoming debut Fractured Dream, to the blog! KM has stopped in today to talk about the big H.E.A. and how it came into play when she was writing Fractured Dream. Take a look below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
And don't forget to enter to win 1 of 7 copies of the book!!

Happily ever after and the fairytale retelling'

from

KM Randall, author of Fractured Dream (The Dreamer Saga)

I first got the idea for Fractured Dream in 2005, and in my mind I envisioned a red-headed huntress—a warrior who hunted Big Bad Wolves—to be my main character’s BFF. As you can guess, she was my version of Little Red Riding Hood. But in this rendition, she is part of a long line of Red Riding Hoods passed down from mother to daughter. Jess, as I call her, became only one of many fairytale characters to be reimagined during the writing of this tale.

I believe fairytales are the backbone of all fantasy, whether the story is a retelling or an entirely new dream. Evil witches and beautiful girls, beasts and questing knights, darkness and light. They have a special place in my heart and I couldn’t resist creating a world that allows the characters of these stories to find new life, becoming, in fact, their own race of people.

I took a class called Witchcraft in college, and as a part of the coursework we studied fairytales. But in their original form, where nice, uplifting endings were never the norm. Phallic symbols were a big theme. Not what you think of when you read or watch Cinderella. I only have to remember watching a cartoon rendition of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid and I cringe. Instead of happy ever after, the sea witch makes it so that the mermaid feels like she’s walking on broken glass with every step. And then, despite her best efforts to win over the prince, he absconds with a different girl. Thus, the Little Mermaid dies. I honestly prefer Arielle and Sebastian. But life doesn’t always give us happy endings, so the earliest versions of these tales often represent that truth.

In today’s literature, both those happy and sad endings are a part of retellings—the original and contemporary versions both have a place within these new visions that abound today. One only has to watch ABC’s Once Upon a Time to see how happy and horrible all exist in and out of myth.

I too have taken both the dark and the light that exist within these time-tested stories and built a slightly twisted model. In my world, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White may be waiting for their true love in the depths of the forest, but that doesn’t mean prince charming will make it out alive. In my world, it’s possible for a Big Bad Wolf to find redemption.

Like most fantasy, fairytales have a part to play in the very makeup of my story, but not everyone chooses to reshape legend. I know for myself, the fun comes in keeping the tale’s archetypal elements while making it something wholly new. And then putting a bad ass twist on it. Instead of a cape, Jess has fiery red hair. Instead of a basket, she wields an axe. “What big eyes you have,” she tells a Big Bad Wolf, just before she puts him down.

****GIVEAWAY****
To celebrate the upcoming release of Fractured Dream, the awesome folks at Booktrope have offered up seven ebook copies of the book to 7 lucky Fairy Tale Fortnight readers!  This giveaways if INTERNATIONAL, and ends May 10th, 2014 at midnight.  Please note: because the publishers want you to have a finished book and not an ARC, the winners of this giveaway will not receive their books until just prior to the book's release in June.
**To enter this giveaway, you have to be registered on the Giveaway Registration Form.  Please make sure you have registered, and please do not leave any personal info (like your email) in the comments.  Thanks, and good luck!

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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Fractured Dream (The Dreamer Saga) by K. M. Randall
Get It | Add It
480 pages
Expected publication: June 21st 2014 by Booktrope

Have you ever wondered where fairytales go once they’re created?

It’s been eight years since Story Sparks last had a dream. Now they’re back, tormenting her as nightmares she can’t remember upon waking. And yet, they may be the link to a past she is finding increasingly elusive. The black waters of Lake Sandeen, where her Uncle Peter disappeared decades before, may hold the secret to Story’s hidden memories, or a truth she’d rather not know. On a bright summer afternoon, Story and her two best friends, Elliott and Adam, take a hike to the lake, where they dive into the cool water and never reemerge. What they find is beyond anything they’ve ever imagined could be possible, a world where dangers lurk in the form of Big Bad Wolves, living Nightmares and meddlesome witches and gods.

Now Story must remember who she really is and somehow stop two worlds from ultimate annihilation, all while trying not to be too distracted by the inexplicable pull she feels toward a certain dark-eyed traveler who seems to have secrets of his own. The fates of the worlds are counting on her.

ABOUT KM Randall:

As a girl, K.M. always wished she'd suddenly come into magical powers or cross over into a Faerie circle. Although that has yet to happen, she instead lives vicariously through the characters she creates in writing fantasy and delving into the paranormal. When K.M. is not busy writing her next novel, she is the editor-in-chief of a blog covering the media industry, as well as an editor with Booktrope Publishing. She has a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree in English-Lit from Nazareth College of Rochester. K.M. lives in Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region with her husband and her extremely energetic little boy. Fractured Dream is her first novel.

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