Welcome, Shonna! What 5 things should readers know about you?
- I’m always cold (bring a sweater wherever I go)
- I live in Phoenix, which is terribly hot, but the buildings are heavily air-conditioned….so I freeze.
- I’m terrible at remembering names (sorry!)
- I’m even worse at remembering numbers. Numbers fly right out of my head.
- I prefer cookies over cake unless it’s a Blackforest cake.
Numbers! They’re the instrument of the devil, I’m sure of it 😉
Where did the inspiration for this book come from?
I wanted to write another fairy tale similar in style to Cinderella’s Dress and Cinderella’s Shoes. So, by pure brainstorming I started working with ideas to create Spindle. Throw in a little of that “author’s gut feeling” and there you go.
Fantastic!
How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?
A bazillion years! I first realized in about 5th grade that I wanted to be a writer. My teacher that year kept reading amazing books to us, and I was hooked. I just wanted to be a part of the world of books, to give back to that which I’d gained so much already.
That’s fantastic! I love when teachers have a hand in it too 🙂
What are you working on right now? What can readers look for from you in the next year?
I’m writing another historical fairy tale—another of the “big” fairy tale stories. I’ve also got an original fairy tale sitting on my computer that I keep looking at. It doesn’t match my current line of retellings, but it’s cute, and I might self-publish it next summer. You heard it here first.
Awesome! Can’t wait!
What are you currently reading, and what are your thoughts about it so far?
I’m one of those people who has several books on the go all at once, currently I’m reading: Winter by Marissa Meyer, By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson, and Tombstone from a Woman’s Point of View (the correspondence of Clara Spalding Brown in the 1880s.) This last book has been interesting since Clara was in Tucson when the famous shoot out between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday and the “cowboys” took place at the O.K. Corral.
Wow—quite a selection!
If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?
The evil fairy’s magic is wrapped up in the cursed spindle, and to be free of it she has to see a girl to the death.
Perfect!
About the author:
SHONNA SLAYTON writes historical fairy tales for Entangled TEEN. Cinderella’s Dress and Cinderella’s Shoes, set in the 1940s are out now. Spindle, a Sleeping Beauty inspired tale set in the late 1800s, will be out October 2016.
She finds inspiration in reading vintage diaries written by teens, who despite using different slang, sound a lot like teenagers today. When not writing, Shonna enjoys amaretto lattes and spending time with her husband and children in Arizona.
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Spindle
by Shonna Slayton
Publication Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Entangled Teen
In a world where fairies lurk and curses linger, love can bleed like the prick of a finger…
Briar Rose knows her life will never be a fairy tale. She’s raising her siblings on her own, her wages at the spinning mill have been cut, and the boy she thought she had a future with has eyes for someone else. Most days it feels like her best friend, Henry Prince, is the only one in her corner…though with his endless flirty jokes, how can she ever take him seriously?
When a mysterious peddler offers her a “magic” spindle that could make her more money, sneaking it into the mill seems worth the risk. But then one by one, her fellow spinner girls come down with the mysterious sleeping sickness…and Briar’s not immune.
If Briar wants to save the girls—and herself—she’ll have to start believing in fairy tales…and in the power of a prince’s kiss.
Excerpt:
She never asked Henry to walk her to the cottage. But that was the way with a Prince, as everyone said. They acted out of habit, and once a habit was established, it stayed that way. His new habit appeared to be trying to keep her mind off of Wheeler.
“They’re ridiculous,” he said scornfully as the couple in front of them touched hands for a few moments before separating again.
Briar’s heart cracked a little more. She remained silent, but fingered the fancy comb holding up her hair. The comb that Wheeler had given her for Christmas. And now they’re going to our pond. Is there no other place he can take her?
“You can hold my hand if it would make you feel better,” Henry said. He held out his calloused, grease-laden fingers for her to grab. His hand had grown since the last time he’d offered it to her.
She sighed. Henry. He was there when her family moved into the valley and would likely still be there when they moved out. She was told there’d never been a time when Sunrise Valley didn’t have a Henry Prince in it. From son back to father to grandfather and beyond, and none of them had ever gone anywhere. They were known as a reclusive family, hardly leaving their farm. Except for Henry. He was different.
Briar’s family had only been in the valley since Pansy was born. They were supposed to be traveling through, but then Da got a job at the new factory and they stayed. Mam worked, too, but developed the coughing sickness from all the cotton in her lungs. She died when the twin boys were born, and then when Da died of consumption, the Jenny children were stuck there, like weeds that nobody wanted.
Briar didn’t intend for them to stay any longer in Sunrise Valley than they had to. She would find a way out for her sister and brothers. Back to the Old Country like Mam wanted for them. Back to where they would fit in. And Henry Prince was not that way.
He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
Unguarded, she laughed. This particular Henry Prince was also known for being an audacious flirt.
Thanks for hosting a stop on the tour, Becky! Did you know there’s a quilt in Spindle? In fact, the majority of my books so far have had some kind of handicraft in them–tatting, smocking, spinning.
Awesome 🙂 Every book should have a quilt in them…
Thanks so much for visiting!