Today I am here to talk a little bit about Fellowship of Fantasy’s newest anthology, Tales of Ever After, and how my writing theme shaped my contribution to the collection. First, about the anthology!
About Tales of Ever After
Rescue a princess, meet a mermaid, win your reward.
The authors of the Fellowship of Fantasy tackle fairy tales from once upon a time to happily ever after. Explore twists on old tales and brand new magical stories. Meet feisty mermaids, friendly lampposts, and heroes who just might be monsters themselves.
This fourth anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy will lead you on a quest for entertainment and storm the castle of your imagination. So make a wish and enter the deep dark woods to find stories that will make you laugh, shiver, and maybe even fall in love.
Add Tales of Ever After to your Goodread’s Shelf!
So, what is my writing theme and how did it help shape my short story, “Tears of the Sea”?
I specialize in creating gritty story worlds pierced by the light of God’s love. That’s my theme. It is, ahem, posted right here on my blog header. So that’s no secret or big surprise. But how does my mermaid tale fit into a theme that focuses on dark worlds and a Christian worldview?
“Tears of the Sea” is not a religious story. You’ll not see God’s name mentioned in it, but it is a moral tale. Fairy tales are, at their heart, instructional. In my story, a determined mermaid with a mangled fin sets out to prove that humans, the Sand walkers, are not what the Mer believe them to be. They don’t seem like monsters to her. She has a choice to make: she can be like all the other merlings and stay in the safety of the deep waters or she can venture to the cove and learn for herself what makes the Sand walkers dangerous. Along the way she will have the opportunity to prove her courage and compassion as well as discover a few things she didn’t know about her own heart.
I wrote this story years ago when I lived in Florida, as a memorial for a lady who tragically passed away at a very young age. Ms. LeRae was a vibrant lady who’d been scarred by her own personal tragedies, and when I first wrote “Tears of the Sea,” I made it a tragedy. The ending was very sad. The ending never felt right to me, and finally one day I realized why. By making the story a tragedy, I was dwelling on only one small part of a person’s life. The part that was sad. The part that was tragic. But these dark moments are not what define us. It’s the things we do, the decisions we make, the memories we leave behind, the impressions we make on those we leave behind. So I turned my little mermaid tale into a little love story about courage and compassion. And finally…the story felt right.
If you’d like to learn more about Tales of Ever After and the other amazing stories in this collection, head on over to Kendra’s blog and she will direct you to the other participating bloggers. I hope you enjoy this diverse and magical collection.
And don’t forget to enter these amazing Giveaways:
US ONLY
(All books are paperbacks, and possibly signed.)
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INTERNATIONAL (All books are ebooks of the winner’s file format of choice) a Rafflecopter giveaway
Also, be sure to comment on all the blog posts this week. The person who comments the most times will win a small collection of sneak peeks to some of the authors upcoming works!
The cover for ‘Tears of the Sea’ looks so pretty! And reading through the titles in the collection for ‘Tales of Ever After’ I’m intrigued. The title ‘How to Hide a Prince’ in particular caught my attention. I think I’m going to have to put this book in my leaning tower of TBR.