Finished writing the new version of Bad Fairy!
Genre: Fantasy (fairy tale retelling).
Length: 40 chapters/550 pages/~170,000 words. (Oh no.)
Tag line: “What happened before Sleeping Beauty slept?”
Keywords: FANTASY: Fairy tale retelling, medieval period fantasy, Sleeping Beauty, fairies, magic, magick, dark fantasy, reincarnation, elemental magic, identity issues, quirky narrators, epistolary, autobiography (character).
Protagonist: Delia Morningstar.
POV: First person, past tense.
About:
Bad Fairy is the story of a famous half-fairy named Delia Morningstar who unintentionally inspired the story of Sleeping Beauty. As the “bad fairy” in the story, Delia has found herself immortalized in this fairy tale many years after the fact, and has decided to write her autobiography in order to set the record straight. She announces her intent to seek closure through writing her memoir, ridding herself of an undeserved bad reputation.
This first volume of the trilogy depicts Delia’s young life as a fairy child. Her story begins with infant Delia discovering her world and coming to terms with her half human/half fairy ancestry. She has an atypical appearance, very like a notorious relative in her family’s distant past, and she vows to avoid becoming another source of shame. As a toddler, she prematurely manifests the talent of magick, which qualifies Delia as a fairy by society’s standards. She is therefore expected to attend circle, the fairy version of school, and is enrolled at the early age of six.
At first, Delia struggles to keep up with her classmates, most of whom are nearly twice her age. Delia quickly discovers that her magick is “dark”—it doesn’t glow and it works differently—and because of that and her mixed blood, the other fairies find it difficult to accept her. But before long, Delia is recognized as a precocious magickal prodigy, drawing the ire of another class front-runner: Beatrice, along with her sisterhood members Chloe and Livia. The three “good fairies” declare a vendetta against their peculiar classmate. As they compete to win the role of Circle Mistress—class valedictorian—Beatrice finds herself regularly outclassed by Delia, and retaliates by trying to turn others against her.
Delia acquires tentative allies and pioneers her own studies in “black magick,” but the older she gets, the more her differences manifest and the more difficulties she has fitting in and finding a place for her talents. By the end, despite the astounding achievement records she’s able to set, she’s still at a loss as to how to be regarded as a fairy adult when she looks like a preteen human and pursues her passions in unrecognized black arts. When she finally butts heads with her three enemies, she finds she may have underestimated them, and this sets a precedent for a life of frustration and disappointment. . . .
Markedly disillusioned but still ready to revolutionize her world, this hopeful preteen fairy begins to plot.
Next up: Lots of editing! Thanks to everyone who’s volunteered to help.