Midnight’s Curse Blog Tour: Author Interview

Welcome to the blog tour for Midnight’s Curse, book two in the Beyond the Tales series by Tricia Mingerink. Beyond the Tales is a series of fairy tale retellings with hints of allegorical elements set in a world based on the Appalachian Mountains.

Today’s blogpost includes an interview with Tricia about the book and its themes. Continue reading for some cool insights and a behind-the-scenes look at her thought process for writing Midnight’s Curse.

Don’t miss the giveaway at the end of this blog post nor the invite to the Facebook party for more giveaways!

About the Book

The glass slippers might be her dreams come true…or her worst nightmare. 

High King Alexander rules the Seven Kingdoms of Tallahatchia—a divided nation on the brink of yet another war. When an invitation arrives from the king of Pohatomie, Alex knows it must be a trap, but could it also be his opportunity to unite the kingdoms?

Daemyn Rand has lived a hundred years, served an arrogant prince, fallen in love with a princess, and lost himself somewhere along the way. He has already died for his loyalty. Will standing at the high king’s side cost him his last chance to truly live?

Elara Ashen is a lowly, miserable servant. All she wants is to spend even one night in a fancy dress dancing with the high king. When she is offered a pair of glass slippers, it seems that all her dreams have come true.

But dreams have a price, and gifts can be curses in disguise. What will it cost to stop this curse from tearing Tallahatchia apart yet again?

Fairy tales meet the Appalachian Mountains in this adventurous fantasy retelling of the classic Cinderella story.

Add to Goodreads – Buy on Amazon

Interview

In Midnight’s Curse, there are very clear themes/lessons of contentment, loyalty, and humility that correspond to the character journeys. As you wrote this book, did you know ahead of time what themes you wanted to communicate to the readers or did they kind of grow out of the story?

I knew ahead of time that contentment would be a main theme of this book, but I didn’t realize going into it that it would be such a theme that would touch pretty much all the characters. After his rapid change of heart at the end of the last book, I already knew that this second book would have Alex trying to apply the lessons he’d learned. As this was a Cinderella retelling, humility definitely ended up a major theme that is already integral to the fairy tale and something I wanted to keep in my version. And loyalty, well, that seems to be a theme I write about a lot, even when I don’t mean to. 

Did you know you wanted to do a Cinderella retelling after Dagger’s Sleep? 

Actually, no. I had been planning on writing a Beauty and the Beast retelling after Dagger’s Sleep. I even announced it in the back of Dagger’s Sleep and everything. 
But after Dagger’s Sleep released, I realized that darting off to a side character for the second book wasn’t what this series needed. The readers needed to be fully connected with the world and characters before I started making side trips within it. 
Instead, I’m now planning to stick with the main characters of Alex, Daemyn, Rosanna, etc. for Alex’s complete character arc before I move on to other side characters like Mirabelle, Rosanna’s brothers, and the other fairy tales I’ve given hints about in Dagger’s Sleep and Midnight’s Curse. Even then, Daemyn will probably make at least a cameo appearance in those books. He has a tendency to be where the action is. 
As it stands now, there are two more books with Alex as a main character, the upcoming Poison’s Dance (planned currently for release next year) and a fourth book whose fairy tale I won’t give away just yet. But I have some epic things planned for them, and I really hope everyone enjoys the direction Alex’s story takes him! 

What were some of the challenges of merging Alex and Daemyn’s story with Elara’s?

After brainstorming with a close writing friend of mine, I had the brief bullet-point list outline for this book well hashed out, and that planning beforehand made this book come together very cohesively. The hardest part was remembering in Elara’s scenes that she didn’t know who Daemyn, Rosanna, and all their friends were. It was a lot easier merging their storylines than juggling the time gap that I had when merging Rosanna’s and Alex’s stories in Dagger’s Sleep. 

Daemyn, Alex, and Elara all have some pretty intense character development in this book. Which character journey was the most challenging and/or which did you have the most fun with?

Elara’s was the most difficult. She’s such a not-likable character at the beginning, and after every single early reader mentioned it, I went back and tweaked her to be a little less unlikeable at first. She still isn’t very nice, which is a big departure from most Cinderella characters. 
I had way too much fun with Alex’s part of the story. I had fun putting in references to The Scarlet Pimpernel and Romeo and Juliet and pretty much every unhealthy romance cliche I could possibly think of (and then a few that one of my writing groups brainstormed for me). The hardest part with his was making it clear that he could have stopped all the silliness if he’d really wanted to. That he willingly fell into everything that happened just as much as Elara did.

Thank you so much for your interview, Tricia, and for allowing me to be a part of your blog tour again! Readers, if you are interested in my review of this awesome book, CLICK HERE! Continue reading for some awesome deals, opportunities to win a copy of the book, and launch party details!

The first book in the series Dagger’s Sleep, a Sleeping Beauty retelling where the prince is cursed to sleep and the princess must wake him, is on sale for $.99 on Kindle! Follow this link to snag this deal while it lasts!

About the Author

Tricia Mingerink is a twenty-something, book-loving, horse-riding country girl. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn’t writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.

You can connect with Tricia on her blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Facebook Party!

The Facebook party should be a blast with giveaways of Midnight’s Curse, Dagger’s Sleep, and over ten other Cinderella retellings by indie authors! Follow this link to join the Facebook party. 

Giveaway!

Enter to win signed copies of Dagger’s Sleep and Midnight’s Curse (it will be the actual copy, not a proof copy as shown) as well as a Currently Reading 4oz candle from Novelly Yours Candles.

Due to shipping, the giveaway is open to the US only. Void where prohibited.

**** a Rafflecopter giveaway****

Blog Tour Schedule

Monday – August 5

• The Florid Sword – Author Interview & Book Review
• Scribeheart – Author Interview

Tuesday – August 6 – Release Day!

• The Music of a Story – Book Review
• Jaye L. Knight – Author Interview
• Perfectly Quirky in Every Way – Book Review

Wednesday – August 7

• Liv K. Fisher – Author Interview
• Blooming with Books – Author Interview & Book Review
• TJ’s Musing – Book Review

Thursday – August 8

• Imperial Scribis – Author Interview
• Dream Write Now – Author Interview & Book Review
• Morgan Huneke – Author Interview

Friday – August 9

• The Page Dreamer – Book Spotlight
• Elizabeth Koetsier – Book Spotlight
• Brie Donning – Book Review
• Facebook Party 8-10PM EST

Saturday – August 10

• Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors – Book Review
• M.H. Elrich – Book Review

Links: 

Facebook Party: https://www.facebook.com/events/359183854756989/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triciamingerink/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TriciaMingerink

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triciamingerink/

Blog: https://triciamingerink.com/