Retellings: Kirsten Fichter and Once Upon a Twist Tales

Another new-for-me author, and her books sound so amazing!

Meet Kirsten...

Kirsten Fichter is a twenty-something Christian writer who loves being the wife to her favorite person ever, mommy to two precious blessings, a piano enthusiast, a dragon buff, a serious bookworm, and an INFP synesthete. Fairytales have always fascinated her, and she has made it her goal to rewrite as many as possible and become known as the “Grimm Dickens” (i.e. mixing Grimm fairytales with a Dickens style). She is present in many online circles under the name "Kiri Liz" if you care about things like that. As you read this, she'll be somewhere under a maple tree - trying very hard to finish the seventeen and half other stories she unwisely started all at once.

LINKS

·         My blog (Lianne Taimenlore) -- http://liannetaimenlore.blogspot.com/

·         My book review blog (KiriBeth) -- http://kiribeth.blogspot.com/

·         My FB Author page -- https://www.facebook.com/kirstenfichter/

·         My Instagram page -- https://www.instagram.com/synesthetewriter/

·         The Rose and the Balloon on Amazon

Spindle Dreams on Amazon

Kirsten's Books...

Once Upon a Twist Tales are your favorite fairytales retold backwards and upside-down, with just a little bit of steampunk thrown in for fun.

A Beauty and the Beast Story (Once Upon a Twist Tales, #1)

In a kingdom where fauna and flora are held in higher esteem than breakfast, Dmitri is a prince who yearns for change and plans it in a single daring act that will alter his life forever. However, when his demented mother accidentally causes the destruction of a prized garden of roses, Dmitri is horrified when she proposes his hand in marriage to make up for it. Not only will a wife hamper his glorious plans, he doesn't even want one. Janelle has spent her whole life on her father's rose farm, tending the roses and staying simple. But she really yearns for something greater than the flower beds. But now there's a wrench thrown in the works – the crazy Queen Maeva wants her to marry the prince, and all for ruining her father's beloved roses. This is Beauty and the Beast with a twist like you've never seen it before.

Spindle Dreams: A Sleeping Beauty Story (Once Upon a Twist Tales, #2)
Marita Kadlec is the only daughter of Rohesia's poorest – and laziest – weaver. Her father prefers to spend his days gambling in the tavern, leaving the spinning up to Marita. She hates the family business because she's constantly pricking her finger on the spindle. She'd much rather be tinkering on an invention that she hasn't had the courage to show anyone yet. A special invention that will rid her of spinning for the rest of her life. Felix is a young nobleman plagued with the same nightmare – a giant machine, twisting and clanking, shrouded in fire, bent on pain and death. He's determined to find out what it means, no matter where the answers may lead him. This is Sleeping Beauty with a twist like you've never seen it before.

Coming 2020:  Diamond: A Rapunzel Story (Once Upon a Twist Tales, #3) – Teaser summary: She was never the one locked in the tower, but trying to hide him and his secrets may cost her life. 

Writing Fantasy Without Magic

A note from Kirsten...

I'll be honest with you -- it is very difficult to find fairytale retellings nowadays that don't include magic. It's even tougher to find FANTASY retellings without magic. Somehow, someway, magic must be included if it's to be considered a good fairytale retelling in a fantasy setting, right?

WRONG.

Scratching magic and magical components completely out of a fairytale doesn't make the story sub-par. True, most of the original fairytales include magic of some kind; that's what we've grown to expect of anything labeled "fairytale." But... if you know how to handle a good plot, memorable characters, and compelling dialogue, magic doesn't have to factor in for a second. It's a challenge -- but it's not impossible.

I appreciate a good challenge. That's what drove me to writing my own fairytale retellings. Besides myself, I know of very few authors who dare to approach retellings without involving magic of some kind. I've seen a lot of writers take to historical fiction as their genre, letting history speak through the fairytale instead of letting magic be the driving force. But I prefer to settle myself fully into fantasy, where I can control more of the details without having to worry about keeping things historically intact and accurate.

Plot and Fairytale Elements

When focusing on a fantasy without magic, plot is probably the most important factor of the story. Plot is always important, whether you have magic or not, since you have to have a good way to keep the story moving forward. But a fantasy story will fall apart if there's a boring plotline waddling down to the finish. For me, I let the "what if" and "but why" questions influence my plot greatly. A good way to do this with fairytales is to focus on one element of the original fairytale and flesh that out.

For example, with my Beauty and the Beast story, The Rose and the Balloon, I focused on the Beast's rose. Why was it so important? Why would it be so bad if someone messed with it/picked it? Even though the magical rose counting down the Beast's years from the Disney film isn't from the original fairytale, I knew I wanted to play with that. The trick was portraying the rose without its magic. Thus, a bit of steampunk entered my story, and we had a solar-powered rose. From there, the story kinda took off on its own. Magical elements don't have to remain magical; there are a million and one ways to explain why something happened without having to resort to magic.

Another fun thing to do with fairytale elements is to turn them completely upside-down. What if Sleeping Beauty's prince was the one with sleeping problems? That was the beginning question that sparked my retelling, Spindle Dreams. Right after that, I found myself asking "what if Sleeping Beauty was a spinner by trade?" Find ways to incorporate as much of the original as possible without involving magic to explain it for you.

Fantasy Genres

That's the other really fun thing about fantasy. It has so many sub-genres that you're never truly confined to the medieval-age tale with princesses and long dresses and tiaras. Fantasy has expanded to include aspects of steampunk, political epics, alternative history, and science fiction. And that's where you start when explaining a fairytale without magic. For the most part, we live in a world that is scientific and has an explanation for EVERYTHING. Let a book without magic do the same.

Consider this: steampunk alchemy would be a perfect solution for a Rumplestiltskin story, would it not? Ancient alchemists were always trying to turn something into gold. What about the magical fairygodmother? She supplies Cinderella with a dress and shoes, so it would make sense for her to be either a kleptomaniac or a seamstress. Rapunzel, honestly, is one fairytale that uses very little magic; instead of a witch, I turned the Gothel character in my retelling, Diamond, into an impulsive and successful gambler.

Fantasy sub-genres give you the leisure to explore a new side of fairytales. No one wants to open a retelling and have it match piece by piece to a Disney film adaptation. Disney is only another reteller when it comes to fairytales. And these sub-genres are something that Disney has yet to fully explore -- particularly without magic.

You can keep the fantasy-esque princesses and castles within the retelling, but you're not limited to that. And I think that's one of the reasons why we have so few retellings that tell the story without magic. We have a set idea that fairytales MUST include these elements, and so we include them. The beauty about a retelling is just that, however: it is a RETELLING. It doesn't have to be perfectly parallel with the original. We have the liberty to retell the fairytale in whatever way we want.

Magic: A Short Discourse

Now why bother with taking magic out of fairytales? Is there any harm to having magic in a fairytale? My answer: No, of course not.

Many Christians have problems with magic being present in literature of any kind. God is quite clear about condemning the use of magic in multiple Bible passages. I have done quite a bit of research on the subject, trying to learn for myself what God has to say about it. My convictions on the subject are pretty hardcore, and I realize that this is a highly controversial topic. But here's what my research has led me to believe and what I uphold within the world of literature. 

The danger with using magic in any book is that magic is real. The witchcraft that God condemns over and over in the Bible isn't a figment of people's imagination. It is a demonic power that can be copied in real life, and its source comes directly from the devil. 

Fairytale magic is just that. A fairytale. Legendary, mythical, and pretend. It stands clearly in a world of fantasy/make-believe and cannot be copied in our world. This type of magic, I believe, is not harmful, and is what makes up many of our beloved fairytales. 

For me, personally, writing with magic is a struggle. It can create a lovely, clean tale when used correctly, but it is also very dangerous. Because of that, I have decided to write my own stories without using magic at all. For me, non-magical fantasy, especially fairytale retellings, is an overlooked genre that deserves more attention, more fantastic books. So, if you're interested in following my writing journey, that's the niche where I'll be hiding.