Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Each of them surprised me in their own way but none more than Aurelia George.
Aurelia was a welcome change from the heroines I typically write. I adored her. She was thorny and mean and spoiled. She was a villain who got her happy ending. Aurelia didn’t always say or do the right things, but she was also soft, sweet, and selfless on her terms. Hate or love her, Aurelia made for a compelling character to write (and hopefully read). Even though she wasn’t always easy to like, she made me feel a range of emotions that never made for a dull moment. I often find myself thinking about some of the things she said or did even when I’m not immersed in the story and all I want to do is dive back in.
Character development is important to me because there is nothing that bores me more than a flat character—who they are when you meet them is exactly who they are when you say goodbye. When that happens, we don’t get to experience their growth and feel those tingles that follow from watching them yield and soften for the people they care about. For me, not shying away from showing characters at their worst is crucial. It makes for a truly relatable character because we’ve all had cringeworthy moments that we wish we could take back but can’t. All we can do is embrace our chrysalis when it comes.
The second biggest surprise was Zeke. My decision to give Zeke DID came from the frustration of writing him in the beginning. I needed him to be too many things. His personality literally kept changing based on the scene and it made his character far too inconsistent. Rather than resist it, I embraced what he was showing me, and I got Seth and Bane out of it, who will forever be some of my favorite characters. Bane was my third and final surprise. His evolution did not start until I began writing Chrysalis and I finally got to fully meet him. After that, I was hungry for him. He’s sort of unique. He was never meant to be more than a side character and even now, I would not categorize him as a main character, though he is part of the group and an official love interest of Aurelia’s.
As for the cult—I went back and forth about diving deeper before deciding against it. Cults are intricate and compelling and naturally carve a world of their own, which leaves the risk of yanking on too many threads and deviating from what this story actually is—a Goldilocks retelling. I felt that I would do cult-hood a disservice by limiting that part of Zeke’s story to flashbacks. I’m a “do it right or don’t do it at all” type of gal.
And of course, this story of Goldilocks wouldn’t be complete without Thorin and Khalil—or—Papa Bear and Mama Bear. Thorin’s brute force and Khalil’s nurturing presence elevated this retelling from just a girl with golden hair and a cabin in the woods.
Thank you so much for reading my twisted version of Goldilocks. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope you come back to visit these characters as often as you need, and I can’t wait to see which retelling I do next...*wink*
Without these people I would be just a girl with a story and no one to tell it to. Thank you to Christa Désir and Kylie Hagmann for braving the trenches with me and helping me mold this retelling into one that I can look back on with no regrets.
Georgana Grinstead, you are my champion, and because of you I actually sound like I know what I’m doing.
Thank you to Madison Nankervis for working so hard to get this story into as many hands as possible. Thank you to Almeda Beynon for helping me get the perfect cast for the audiobooks. Let’s scorch some headphones and make some bookworms blush. Thank you to Kimberly Hunt and Susan B for untangling the chaotic thoughts that my too-fast fingers and sleepless nights would have inflicted on the world.
Thank you to Julie at Books and Moods for helping me with Chrysalis’s original covers. Thank you to Amanda Simpson at Pixel Mischief for being there always when I need someone reliable.
And of course, thank you to my Sirens, whose allure and generosity are unmatched.