Kelly R. Michaels
The book I am working on now is titled THE MIDWINTER FAIRYTALE. And it's QUITE evolved from its original conception.
When I first wrote ARCHER OF THE LAKE, I had a dream that inspired a new story (much like how a dream inspired ARCHER). This original story was centered around a missing queen, medieval-type setting complete with monasteries, forbidden love, knights. That story was called "The Runewell Fairytale."
During the editing process for ARCHER, I became too busy to continue work on "Runewell." And the first six chapters sat abandoned for a while. When ARCHER's rewrite was finished (what most resembles the book now), my attention shifted to its untitled sequel (now PRINCE OF THE VALE). During the off and on phases of writing PRINCE, I would dabble on "Runewell" and other projects that never came to fruition. I restarted "Runewell" a few times. Decided to make it a 'lyrical' project, where its written in poetic (freestyle) format rather than prose. However, by then, the story grew stale on me, I wasn't as inspired by it.
That was over the course of the three years afters after I had initially finished ARCHER's first draft. I never made a concerted enough effort that had devoted enough time writing it to make a worthwhile project. Meanwhile, I wrote PRINCE OF THE VALE, edited it, and finished it. I was also attending college, and at some point, I took a required English class over medieval literature. My professor went over some medieval pieces that involved supernatural elements. And I became inexplicably inspired.
I didn't have a specific story in mind while taking this class. But I was inspired by texts such as "Thomas the Rhymer," "Troilus and Crisede," and "Land of Cockaigne." At the time, I was also experiencing some deep soul-searching concerning my spirituality. I won't go into too much detail about that, since it's all personal, but it also had effect on things.
At some point during this period of inspiration (I drew a LOT of inspiration from my college classes), I revisited the drafts for "Runewell." And suddenly, story elements changed. The missing queen became a princess and shifted away from being the sole protagonist of the story. I added a lot of medieval references--Thomas the Rhymer is a character, Cocaigne is actually a kingdom, Constanius is a reference to Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, Elf Land exists. Not only that, but I created a lot of Biblical and classical references and allusions--Cain is the name of the troubled hero, Lilith has a role, King Oberon, Maeve.
Then I realized that the name "Runewell" didn't have a place as the title. "Runewell" was a realm that didn't exist in this new story. Really, the only elements salvaged from Runewell were a few names (chiefly, Myria), the medieval setting, and the theme of a missing queen/princess. A new title was needed. "The Runewell Fairytale" never sat well with me anyway. The original story didn't feel like a fairytale. I switched between a few options and variations of "The King of Elf Land," but I thought that was too close to "The King of Elfland's Daughter," and I didn't want to ride off of un-originality.
So then, once I decided upon having "Oberon" and "Maeve" as characters (more in name than in appearance), I went to Shakespeare. And THE MIDWINTER FAIRYTALE was born, inspired from "The Midsummer Night's Dream."
It's still written in lyrical format. Also hailing back to Shakespeare, I decided to format the story into acts and scenes. Of course, now it's getting much larger than I had originally planned.
When I first wrote ARCHER OF THE LAKE, I had a dream that inspired a new story (much like how a dream inspired ARCHER). This original story was centered around a missing queen, medieval-type setting complete with monasteries, forbidden love, knights. That story was called "The Runewell Fairytale."
During the editing process for ARCHER, I became too busy to continue work on "Runewell." And the first six chapters sat abandoned for a while. When ARCHER's rewrite was finished (what most resembles the book now), my attention shifted to its untitled sequel (now PRINCE OF THE VALE). During the off and on phases of writing PRINCE, I would dabble on "Runewell" and other projects that never came to fruition. I restarted "Runewell" a few times. Decided to make it a 'lyrical' project, where its written in poetic (freestyle) format rather than prose. However, by then, the story grew stale on me, I wasn't as inspired by it.
That was over the course of the three years afters after I had initially finished ARCHER's first draft. I never made a concerted enough effort that had devoted enough time writing it to make a worthwhile project. Meanwhile, I wrote PRINCE OF THE VALE, edited it, and finished it. I was also attending college, and at some point, I took a required English class over medieval literature. My professor went over some medieval pieces that involved supernatural elements. And I became inexplicably inspired.
I didn't have a specific story in mind while taking this class. But I was inspired by texts such as "Thomas the Rhymer," "Troilus and Crisede," and "Land of Cockaigne." At the time, I was also experiencing some deep soul-searching concerning my spirituality. I won't go into too much detail about that, since it's all personal, but it also had effect on things.
At some point during this period of inspiration (I drew a LOT of inspiration from my college classes), I revisited the drafts for "Runewell." And suddenly, story elements changed. The missing queen became a princess and shifted away from being the sole protagonist of the story. I added a lot of medieval references--Thomas the Rhymer is a character, Cocaigne is actually a kingdom, Constanius is a reference to Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, Elf Land exists. Not only that, but I created a lot of Biblical and classical references and allusions--Cain is the name of the troubled hero, Lilith has a role, King Oberon, Maeve.
Then I realized that the name "Runewell" didn't have a place as the title. "Runewell" was a realm that didn't exist in this new story. Really, the only elements salvaged from Runewell were a few names (chiefly, Myria), the medieval setting, and the theme of a missing queen/princess. A new title was needed. "The Runewell Fairytale" never sat well with me anyway. The original story didn't feel like a fairytale. I switched between a few options and variations of "The King of Elf Land," but I thought that was too close to "The King of Elfland's Daughter," and I didn't want to ride off of un-originality.
So then, once I decided upon having "Oberon" and "Maeve" as characters (more in name than in appearance), I went to Shakespeare. And THE MIDWINTER FAIRYTALE was born, inspired from "The Midsummer Night's Dream."
It's still written in lyrical format. Also hailing back to Shakespeare, I decided to format the story into acts and scenes. Of course, now it's getting much larger than I had originally planned.
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