Every Friday, I will be posting something fiction related, and I thought...why not start with something near and dear to my heart...
Midnight is the novel I wrote for my thesis and workshopped with a Harvard professor. Mary Sullivan-Walsh was a fantastic and encouraging mentor during the whole process, and I am so grateful to her for all time and kind words she poured into this project.
Midnight is a fairytale re-telling and the origin story of Cinderella's fairy godmother. While Eveline (fairy godmother) is actually magic-less, she has always said that anything can look like magic through the right pair of innocent eyes.
But if there is no magic, you may ask, where did a pumpkin carriage, glass slippers, and a dreadful midnight curfew originate? Ah, these are good questions....
Our story begins in 1700s France on a small estate in the country....
When seamstress Eveline is saddled with the debt of her dead father, she must spend the rest of her life paying for dream she didn’t dream. Her dream is to marry her creditor’s son, Devon, and go to “Nowhere” a place invented in her own imagination where everyone is equal, transparent, and wears glass slippers. But marrying Devon would be like marrying the prince of France, and his own evil mother stands between them.
Sabella always felt she had her very own fairy godmother. Perhaps because of this, Sabella grows up a romantic, daydreaming of happily ever afters away from the dreary, little cottage she calls home and the abuse of her evil stepmother. When Stepmother holds a gala to find her a husband, she eagerly accepts in hopes of leaving. However, she soon discovers her stepmother's true intentions, and her fairy godmother decides that sending her off to a royal ball may be her only chance of escape.
Focusing on the relationship between an adoptive mother and daughter (and of course, a little romance too), this YA novel explores themes of freedom, adoption, and unconditional love from the eyes of both Cinderella and her “fairy” godmother.
As many of you know, the adoptive mother-daughter relationship is very personal for me, and I believe most any form of positive parent-child relationship is lacking in YA literature. So, it is my hope to share Midnight as a reminder to young people that motherhood—biological and adoptive—is a beautiful calling.
What is your favorite fairytale?
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