Tia Nevitt and the Sevenfold Spell …

• Posted in Guest blogs

Today, I’m thrilled to have Tia Nevitt, my online friend, blogger, and author of The Sevenfold Spell, here on the blog to talk about why she writes fairy tales and for a giveaway (details at the bottom of the post). Welcome, Tia!

Thanks, Jennifer, for having me at your blog—especially since I’m apparently your first guest ever!

Hi, everyone. I’m the author of The Sevenfold Spell, a fairy tale retelling published through Harlequin’s new digital-first imprint, Carina Press. It’s short—a novella—based on Sleeping Beauty. As the original story goes, when the king and queen had their daughter, Aurora, christened, they invited all the good fairies in the land to give their blessings to the child. This naturally left out the evil fairy. And naturally, she was annoyed. And so, in her evilness, she cast a curse on the child, that before she turned sixteen, she would prick herself upon the spindle of a spinning wheel and DIE!

Why would she choose such an innocuous device as a spinning wheel—one that has nary a sharp point? Who knows? That’s one of the many, many plot holes I attempted to fill during my retelling.

Maybe she chose it because she knew of the economic ramifications. The king, naturally, bans spinning wheels, and all known spinning wheels in the nation are destroyed. That’s why the opening of The Sevenfold Spell goes like this:

The booted feet stopped before me as I sat on the ground, hugging my knees. A well-worn, black military boot kicked forward, thumping against my shins. It smarted, but it could have hurt far worse. I looked up at the harried constable. He frowned down at us—a troubled frown, but not an angry one. He was portly and balding, and was a common sight in our part of town. This wasn’t an evil man, but a good man who had been sent out to do an evil task.

“Get up,” he said, his voice so dispirited I almost felt sorry for him.

“Don’t move,” Mama said. It had been her idea that we wedge ourselves hip to hip in the narrow doorway of our shop.

He sighed. “Come now, I don’t like this a bit more than you do.”

“You’ll have to move us,” Mama said.

The constable looked over his shoulder. The fairy hovered there. She was tiny—no larger than my hand— with shimmery pale green leggings and tunic. Her beauty made it difficult to look away.

“Can you move them?” he asked her.

“I am not here to do your job, Constable,” the fairy said, “only to see that you do it honestly.”

So why fairy tales? Because I love them. There is a definite soft spot in my heart for any story that involves a maiden in distress—princesses are even better—especially when she lacks the power to fight whatever put her in distress. I do prefer the fairy tales where the princess gets herself out of her bad situation, which is why Beauty and the Beast is my favorite tale. She gets to rescue the prince!

But the catalyst came when I was watching Disney’s Sleeping Beauty with my daughter, and got to the part where they burn all the spinning wheels. I thought, what about the poor spinsters? So I decided to tell the story. When it stalled, I researched the other stories. Beauty and the Beast is terribly unjust—all the inhabitants of the Beast’s castle are turned invisible. For Cinderella, I wondered what might have happened if the fairy could not have conjured Cinderella’s garments out of thin air. And for Snow White, I speculated on that face in the magic mirror—you know, the one who thought the evil queen was so lovely before he decided he liked Snow White better.

These stories are all simmering on back burners, except the Cinderella story, which I am actively drafting.

Mostly, I like these tales for the sense of wonder. Since the original stories were not for children, mine aren’t either. Don’t adults deserve fairy tales, too? I think so. But we like our fairy tales somewhat gritty, with unexpected bits of humor along with the tragedy and wonder, and maybe with a heroine that is not as pure as the wind-driven snow. At least I do, for this particular story. And I hope you do as well.

Thanks for being here, Tia! I thought The Sevenfold Spell was a cool fairy tale retelling, and I’m looking forward to reading more from you. Folks can find my review of the book here.

For more on Tia, visit her website. Tia is also giving away a copy of The Sevenfold Spell. To enter, just leave a comment on this post about why you do or don’t like fairy tales or what your favorite fairy tale is. The contest will be open through midnight, Friday, Jan. 7, and I’ll announce the winner sometime next week.

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34 Responses to “Tia Nevitt and the Sevenfold Spell …”

  1. RK Charron says:

    Hi Jennifer & Tia 🙂
    Thank you for a wonderful post Tia. I really enjoyed reading about your take on the fairy tales. Yay! for a Cinderella retelling coming up! I enjoyed reading the dark Grimm’s when I was in Grade School and Hansel & Gretel (sp?) stuck with me.
    All the best,
    Rob

  2. Tia Nevitt says:

    Thanks, Rob! My Cinderella retelling will be a bit different from The Sevenfold Spell, but they both have the same worldbuilding. Thanks for coming by! And for the tweet!

    And thanks, Jennifer, for hosting me!

  3. Rita says:

    Fairy tales are an enigma for me. I mean, were they developed to scare, give a history? I think, like all story telling, they contain some truth. But, which part is the truth? Geeze I can make a mystery out of anything. LOL. Any who I don’t have favorites. Some say that’s very Zen -I say I just can’t make up my mind.
    Tia, you have the art of storytelling down quite nicely. What could be better than taking an old story twisting it and making it new?

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      Rita, many of them were originally political statements! Take “The Princess and the Pea”. What would be the point of such a silly story? Why, to illustrate that royalty is so pampered that they can detect one tiny pea under fifteen mattresses.

      The stories had already been around a while when authors such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm retooled them as children’s tales. So I am retelling retellings of stories that were probably retellings.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Natascha says:

    Hi Tia,
    Great blog post! I can’t say that I a huge fan of fairy tales and if I had to choose one that I liked then THE LITTLE MERMAID would be the one I would pick. I do, however, look forward to original adaptations of fairy tales by current authors. Congratulations on your book.

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      Thank you! I must say I like what Disney did with The Little Mermaid quite a bit better than the original, which didn’t even have a happily ever after!

  5. Caridad Pineiro says:

    Hi Tia! Great post. Thanks for sharing the inspiration for your novel. I love fairy tales and can’t wait to read your spin on this classic. As for a favorite, I’d have to say Beauty and the Beast is my favorite.

  6. Zita says:

    Hi Tia,

    My favourite fairy tale just happens to be Sleeping Beauty. Mostly because of the Disney version and Maleficent. I wanted to be her in the worst way. She could turn onto a dragon! A gorgeous black dragon who spat green fire! There’s no way some puny little pretty-boy would ever be able to kill me! Heck, I would have had Aurora for a snack ages ago. I’ve often wondered why she bothered keeping her alive all those years. To gloat, I suppose…

    I must admit that I never thought about the banning of the spinning wheels and what that did to the economy. Now you’ve intrigued me, thank you! I will enjoy reading this story, I just know it!

  7. anne harris says:

    I love fairy tales!! I like a happy ending! As to my favorite fairy tale, it has to be Beauty and the Beast. I gotta admit, when I watched Disney’s version I cried when the Beast died..then turned into the prince.

  9. CandaceB says:

    Hi Tia,

    I absolutely love fairy tales. I learned to read on fairy tales, so they will always have a special place in my heart. I also love the re-telling of well-known fairy tales.

    My favorite is Beauty and the Beast. It has been ever since I read Beauty by Robin McKinley. As a close second, I also loved the 12 Dancing Princesses.

    I can’t wait to read your story.

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      Just so you keep in mind that my novella is probably not much like Robin McKinley’s. I have not read her story, but since it is YA, it is going to be very different from my story, which is frankly sensual–not for teens. I do hope you enjoy it.

  10. Donna S says:

    I love fairy tales and their retellings. My favorite is still Cinderella. Im sure that has to do with wanted a HEA like that. But I also love when we get to see the other side a bit. Gregory Macguire, while not romance, has done a couple of interesting ones too. Looking forward to reading yours.

    bacchus76 at myself dot com

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      I have a definite soft spot for Cinderella. I think it is the fairy tale that I have the most movie versions of, including two versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella, Disney’s version and Ever After. Of COURSE, they’re for my daughter. Of course they are.

  11. Jennifer Estep says:

    I know I’m late chiming in (had to do some writing this morning), but I just want to say thanks to Tia for being on the blog and for everyone dropping by and commenting. 😉

    My favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast. Love, love, love the Disney version and Robin McKinley’s Beauty. It’s one of my all-time favorite books.

  13. Evelyn says:

    I love fairy tales because of the HEA endings! My all time favorite is Beauty and the Beast with the The Little Mermaid a very close second.

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is their best fairy tale, I think. I just love it. And The Little Mermaid has one of my favorite Disney princes!

  14. Deborah Blake says:

    Hi Tia! (And Jennifer)
    Great post 🙂
    I love fairy tales and their modern retellings. Most people don’t remember that the original versions tended to be (you should excuse the expression) very Grimm, and not at all Disney-like.

    I also loved Robin McKinley’s BEAUTY, btw. And I just finished writing a short story based (losely) on Beauty and the Beast for Kate Austiin’s yearly online anthology. I’m not sure which my favorite would be, though. There is Baba Yaga, the Russian witch tale. ANd Sleeping Beauty…and…Rapunzel…

    Sorry–just can’t chose! But I’m sure yours will be up there 🙂

  15. Deborah Blake says:

    Ack–the mean interwebs just ate my comment. I’ll try again. Ogres, maybe…

    Great post. I too loved BEAUTY by Robin McKinley. And I just wrote a short story for Kate Austin’s yearly online anthology that was based on Beauty and the Beast, so I guess that’s my current favorite…

    Other than yours, of course 🙂

  17. Liz Kreger says:

    Hi Tia. Great post. I love fairytales. Something about those happy endings. Then again, I also like Grimms’ fairytales where the endings aren’t usually so happy. LOL.

    Gotta say that my favorite has always been Beauty and the Beast.

  18. Jennifer Estep says:

    Hi, guys! I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for dropping by and leaving a comment. From the looks of it, I’d say we’re all suckers for fairy tales. And I think that’s a good thing. 😉

  19. Laurel says:

    @ Tia: I’ve always had a soft spot for the damsel in distress trope, too, as long as she’s not completely dying swan. As for favorite fairy tales, I’ve always loved Hans Christian Andersen in general and The Snow Queen in particular. Gerda is the heroine of the story and rescues the hero but not without a lot of help and luck along the way. I also really loved the detail about the demon fashioned mirror that would twist anything reflected in it into something ugly.

    @ Jennifer: I found the Elemental Assassins series in October. I love them so much that I keep checking Amazon hoping the pub date for the next one nudges up a bit.

    • Tia Nevitt says:

      I’ll look into the Snow Queen. I had not considered doing a retelling of that one! My daughter also has me looking into the Swan Maid. I believe that is an Irish tale, which would be like a homage to me Irish mum!

  20. Erin says:

    Hihi,

    Thanks for introducing Tia, and the new Harlequin’s Carina Press. (I became a Harlequin Ambassador a while ago, and just love trying their new types of books.) I will be looking into the Sevenfold Spell soon!

    ~Erin~

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