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In Which Princess Alethea rants about the Grimm’s fairy tale “Tom Thumb,” a great adventure starring a very precocious, very wee boy. It contains human trafficking, two B&Es, a demonic exorcism, two gruesome deaths, and a happily ever after.

WHY IS THIS NOT MORE POPULAR?!?

Hi, Mom!

So…here’s what I did on Thanksgiving: http://waterworldmermaids.com/2013/12/so-if-i-have-an-awesome-thanksgiving-and-it-doesnt-go-viral-is-it-still-awesome/

Read the article…I’m sure you won’t be surprised. Let’s just say, I enjoyed making a lot of people happy.

Love you!

xoxox

A New Fairy Tale Rant is Live!

Today, Princess Alethea rants about the Grimm’s fairy tale “Foundling.” This fairy tale was the basis for the character Trix in the Woodcutter Sisters series…fans of Enchanted will especially enjoy seeing how aspects of this tale were woven into the novel.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in the US!

In honor of these last few days of HERO being TMV Cafe’s BOOK OF THE MONTH, The Funky Werepig is rebroadcasting our infamous Princess Alethea Slumber Party Interview tomorrow night at 9pm!

Set your watch/phone/timer/TARDIS…and if you missed it the first time, be sure to tune in! (CLICK HERE TO BOOKMARK THE LINK)

It was a BLAST. With cookie-brownies and everything.

Much love to you all!

xox

Next year’s TBF (May, Rochester NY) is going to be AMAZING and I can’t WAIT.

I’m so honored to be a pert of this all-star lineup!

     Laurie Halse Anderson      Jay Asher      Jonathan Auxier      Leigh Bardugo      Charles Benoit      Cecil Castellucci      Joelle Charbonneau      Alexandra Coutts      Gina Damico      Simone Elkeles      Kami Garcia      Lisa Greenwald      Ellen Hopkins      A. S. King      Alethea Kontis      E. Lockhart      Alex London      Michelle Madow      Lauren Myracle      G. Neri      Nancy Ohlin      Marie Rutkoski      Tess Sharpe      Neal Shusterman      Andrew Smith      Meagan Spooner      Margaret Stohl      Cristin Terrill      Terry Tru

Which reminds me…I need to update my 2014 tour list soon…

*adds to to-do list*

World Book Night might not be here until April 23rd…but that doesn’t mean the World Book Night folks can’t celebrate every day until then!

Today, Enchanted has been selected as the Book of the Day. All day today on the WBN Facebook page and the WBN Twitter account (@wbnamerica / #BookOfTheDay), we will be celebrating ENCHANTED. Stop by, spread the love, share your favorite quotes, and find out some fun facts about ENCHANTED (and Alethea!) that you might not have already known.

Not available tomorrow? Worry not! The week of January 24th, ENCHANTED will be World Book Night’s #FridayReads. They will be reading and discussing the book all week long. You have PLENTY of time to gear up for that one.

So…Happy Enchanted Day!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Kelli Owen and I wrote an epistolary story about two teens–best friends with complications–at the end of the world. A teen-angsty-apocalyptic-sci-fi…sort of. But I will tell you this — it makes a REALLY FUN podcast. Thank you Cast of Wonders!

The story is narrated by Graeme Dunlop and Michelle Ristuccia. Michelle enjoys slowing down time in the middle of the night to read and review speculative fiction, because sleeping offspring are the best motivation. You can find out more about her rabid love of SFF, podcasting, and raising future geeklings at her blog, http://wakingdreamsblog.blogspot.com, stalk her on twitter at @mrsmica, or read her reviews at Tangent Online.

Click here to listen to “Black Hole Sun.”

Happy almost-Thanksgiving!

The Cat in this scenario is Cat Rambo, my Technicolor-haired friend, fellow writer, and mistress of the internet.

She has just released a book called CREATING AN ONLINE PRESENCE.

I get asked a lot about what advice I would give to writers, newbies and professionals alike.

While my answers rarely stray from “Never Stop Writing” and “Finish What You Start,” it’s no secret that in this day and age, an Online Presence is TOP PRIORITY. This is the way you will raise your visibility, reach readers, and grow your fan base.

Just like exercise, you will get out of it what you put into it, so LEARN TO LOVE IT. There are so many different sites, there will be SOMETHING that strikes your fancy. Try them all.

Cat’s CREATING AN ONLINE PRESENCE covers the basics of creating and maintaining an online presence for writers. What you need on a website, how to effectively use social media, how to find readers via social media, what free resources are available to writers, whether it’s worth it to pay for online advertising, and, most importantly, how to promote yourself online without using all your valuable writing time.

Right now it is available in e-book form (only $4.99 on Kindle!), but check back — it will be available soon as a tangible copy as well.

Thank you, Cat!

This is a tough post to write, but it must be done.

As Thanksgiving approaches, and more of my beloved friends and family start digging out their Christmas storage boxes and playing music as they decorate their homes, I start getting messages about my Christmas CDs.

Back in 2001, I didn’t know what to get all my new friends at Ingram for the holidays, so I put together a “Happy Holidays 2001″ CD. It only had about 11 songs, and I gave it to maybe 20 people.

The response was so overwhelmingly wonderful that I’ve done a Christmas CD every year since. I’ve borrowed (and even commissioned) artwork from notable artists to use on the label. The number of songs doubled, but one thing remained the same — while the CD was sent around Thanksgiving, I would not release the track listing until December 15th. I always want the first listen to be a surprise…that’s part of the gift.

At one point the number of CDs I made was close to 200. I used these works under a creative commons usage like back when we made mixed tapes…though the lines there blur a bit. I never received any money for them or from them. It was always a labor of love. I simply wanted my friends to know I was thinking about them, and to share some traditional (and non-traditional) music that would make them smile and maybe even think of me.

The last couple of years, the US Postal Service became the biggest burden. While they’ll happily mail a card-stock pop-up Christmas Card for 65 cents, if they find out you’ve put a CD in there, they’ll try to charge you upwards of $2 a letter. I don’t see the point of this…and I just don’t have that kind of money. So I tried my best to subvert the Postal Machine and get my tidings of joy out there anyway. Few things in this life have ever stopped me from doing what I want to do.

And yet, this year — the Thirteenth Christmas — there will be no holiday CD. Trust me — this bothers me more than I can convey in a simple blog post.

This year has not only been tough for me, it’s also been filled with sadness. Mom always listens to my Holiday CD and can sense what kind of year I’ve had based on the song choices with that extra-sensory-Mom-perception that she has. I did not want to bring you sadness this year.

Nor did I want to try and upend the process by making the CD a downloadable file — I have no problem making a “mixed tape” sampling of music I enjoy (and bands I encourage you to become a fan of), but I personally draw the line at sourcing a downloadable file for free music. I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that unless I had personal written permission from all the bands I included that year…and that’s a lot more work than I’m prepared to do right now.

It’s not that there won’t be a Christmas — I’ll certainly do my best to make this up to you. There will be cards and blog posts and videos…and possibly other things delivered in ways neither one of us has imagined yet. Yule is still my second favorite holiday (after Guy Fawkes Day), and I can think of no better way to celebrate happiness than ushering the light back into the world with a slew of fun things.

Gah–I hate doing this. I hate disappointing people. Please don’t think I don’t love each and every one of you, because I do. And if you have one or more of the CDs I’ve made in the last twelve years, I hope you pop it in and enjoy it as much as I did when I was making it. (And if you have 2003, PLEASE drop me a line because I’m still missing that track listing and my copy is in storage.)

I promise, I’ll come back next year, better than ever. If you are an artist or a musician interested n participating in next year’s CD, please drop me a line as well. As always, magic is better when shared.

*whew* So, with that confession out of the way, back I go to revising Book Three. I leave you all to have a wonderful day and (if you’re in the US) a Happy Thanksgiving holiday.

I’ll be thinking of you.

xox Alethea