Avon Van Hassel

Ok, so maybe not ‘interactive,’ but I don’t know what else to call it. I’ve been super busy lately in my personal life,  so I don’t have the time to devote to my usual heavily researched blog posts. And then, as of Tuesday, I’m participating in my twelfth round of National Novel Writing Month (including 6 Camp NaNo events). I’ve never lost, and I don’t intend to now.

For those who are unfamiliar,  in the month of November,  we novel-inclined individuals pledge to write a whole 50,000-word novel in just thirty days. On top of personal obligations, work, Thanksgiving,  some people have kids who are in school or younger. I’m still getting Magic Beans ready to pitch and also writing the sequel, Golden. It’s a lot of fun, but also just a lot in general.

So I’m departing from my previous lecture style posts and using this one page to play a game I’ve started on my Facebook group for NaNo victims. It’s a 30-day writing challenge designed to let people talk about their books and themselves as writers, and hopefully learn as they go along. Every day, I intend to answer each of the 30 questions, so keep checking back to see what I’ve added!

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Day 1: Tell us about yourself as a writer. What do you like to write about and why?

Until I started this series,  I wouldn’t have called myself a reteller of fairytales. Honestly,  fairytale retellings kind of irritated me, like how everyone is remaking and rebooting everything these days. But then this idea exploded and took hold of me and wouldn’t let go.

Would say that grey areas intrigue me, the mysteries of history, the missing documents, stolen art, the things that vanish without a trace. The sorts of things that tickle the back of your mind like a detail that history forgot. I think that’s what attracts me to fairytale retellings. Fairytales notoriously make no sense. So how can I rework the story so that it does? How do we get from Point A to Point B? How can I make giants living on a cloud rational?

I like trying to find answers to the questions people have learned to ignore.

Day 2: Tell us about your story.

This month, I’m writing Big Teeth, a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood,  against the backdrop of the rest of my fairytale kingdom. Only in my version, Red works for the Big Bad Wolf.

Day 3: Who is your main character(s)?

My main characters are Alois, the beanseller from Jack and the Beanstalk; his partner, Sulat; Ooang, an orphan with a red cloak; and Croison, the Omega Wolf.