Author Talk: Interview with Katherine Noll Author of Mirror Mirror

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Interview with Author: Katherine Noll 

Did you have an alternative ending to Mirror Mirror? If it didn’t have a happy ending would the themes of the book have been as powerful?   

I made sure that the ending didn’t end with a marriage. To me, the true happiness was that Neve was able to find love for herself, as she was right at the moment. It didn’t hinge on a man, but having the attentions of a gorgeous, kind rock star sure helped build Neve’s self-esteem! (And was also super fun to write!) Being able to love herself helped open her up to someone like Taye.

Life isn’t one happy ever after. It’s always different, every day. Some days we feel like we’re living a fairy tale, others a tragedy, and most of the time it just feels mundane as we’re doing the day-to-day stuff to get by. So I wanted to keep the ending open a bit. Would Neve and Taye stay together? What did the future hold?

If there is enough interest, I’d love to continue Neve’s story one day. Life can’t always be happy, but when you start building up a strong tool kit to deal with the problems you’ll face, it can be a lot easier. So it would be interesting to visit Neve as a celebrity with a rockstar boyfriend and a famous actress friend. (I see Lindsey becoming a huge star, don’t you?) How would the limelight affect Neve? What would she want to do with her new voice if people were listening? That’s something I’ve been thinking about, and there will be a preview of what direction Neve’s life has taken in The Not-So-Little Mermaid.

 

 

Click here to pick up your copy of Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll.

Whatever Works, But Perhaps Don’t Take Advice From Your Cat By Katherine Noll

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In honor of National Novel Writers Month, Author Katherine Noll gives insight into how she pushed through when facing a writing deadlines… 

It’s November and National Novel Writing Month. I’ve never participated in it, yet I’ve earned my living as a writer for over 14 years. I have had to push out work in ridiculously short amount of times when I thought it was absolutely impossible. Yet I never missed a deadline!

I’ve written over 50 books and numerous articles, and I wish I had some magical answer as to how to stay on track when faced with a tough deadline. Mostly I make it happen with a mixture of silly and practical things. The practical preparations include writing a detailed outline and coming up with a writing schedule. I figure out how many chapters (or words, depending on the project) I will be able to comfortably get done in any given day. Then I figure out the number of chapters or words I realistically need to get done in a day. I allow myself to cry for a little bit. Then I do it.

Here are the other things I do when I’m facing a deadline:

Laundry. I get up and walk a lot when I’m writing. It helps me think. Doing laundry gives me movement with purpose, plus I get a household chore done, which is one of the biggest benefits from working from home. The days I’m writing at my best, my clothes are always clean, folded and put away. So if you ever run into me and my Muppets t-shirt is stained and rumpled, pretend you don’t see me and walk off in a different direction. You’ll be glad you did.

Talk to my pets. It must be an unwritten law that you’re not allowed to be a writer unless you own a cat. I have two plus a dog. The problem is not talking to your pets, but having them answer. That’s when you should start to worry. Or should you? If you’re a writer, of course they are going to answer! The cats always suggest my characters take a nap. If my characters encounter a sunny bench, they say nap. A laundry basket filled with fresh, clean clothes, still warm from the dryer? Nap. The keyboard of a writer’s computer? Nap. The dog, on the other hand, suggests all my characters eat. A lot. “Why can’t they go to an all-you-can-eat buffet?” she asks. “What do you think I would be doing right now if I could drive?” This is why my next book is entitled “The Art of Eating and Napping Lots.” It’s absolutely scintillating.

Eat crunchy foods. It really helps me think, and no, carrot sticks don’t work the same as potato chips or pretzels or crackers. I don’t know why. I’m not a scientist, just a writer.

Mindless computer games. It’s the reset button I use to clear my head. When I first start in the morning, I play a few minute of something like Diner Dash or Plants Versus Zombies. Then I’ll play it after lunch, or if I’m stuck at a particular point. It tends to work for me. If you’re the type of person who starts a computer game at 8 am. and then before you know it it’s midnight, and you haven’t done anything else, then this will not be helpful for you.

I hope everyone out there participating in NaNoWriMo is having fun with it! Enjoy your time writing and the ability to express the story that’s inside of you. To be able to unleash it is a gift. Congratulations on taking that step!

Now all we need is a National Novel Reading Month, so we’ll have more than enough readers to enjoy our efforts. I’ve been trying to teach the cats and dog to read, but it’s been a bust. The cats are too busy napping and the dog is out having her first driving lesson. 🙂

Have a big, fat, happy day!

Katherine

PURCHASE MIRROR MIRROR BY CLICKING HERE!

Author Talk: Interview with Katherine Noll Author of Mirror, Mirror

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Chick Lit, Fairy Tale Re-telling, Katherine Noll, Mirror Mirror, Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll, The Fat Fairytales, Women's Fiction, Young Adult

Interview with Author: Katherine Noll 

Mirror Mirror is such a relatable book for the 21st Century. Would you ever consider turning The Fat Fairy Tale Series into a screenplay? If so, which actress could you see playing the lead character Neve Bianca?

Yes, that would be awesome! When I write, I kind of see the action in my head unfolding like a movie, so I think Mirror, Mirror would make a great film! Of course, I’m biased. 🙂

Brooke Elliott, the star of Drop Dead Diva, would make a great Neve. She’s got the Snow White look, with her dark hair and fair skin. Plus she’s got the curvy Neve look, too. And I know from her show she can dance! She’d really be able to pull off the burlesque scenes.

Actress Brook Burke  @thereal_brooke

Click here to pick up your copy of Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll.

A Cabbage Night Memory from Author Katherine Noll

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Halloween, Katherine Noll, Women's Fiction

Memento Mori

In Northern New Jersey, where I grew up, the night before Halloween was Cabbage Night*, a evening where children had implied permission to go out into their neighborhoods, play pranks and have some relatively harmless fun. Adults looked the other way at shaving-cream splattered sidewalks and toilet-paper covered trees, but if you were found smashing eggs onto cars you’d get in big trouble. Yet it still happened anyway. It was a night for taking risks, for escaping the rules and confines of your home, classroom or church. It was a night to be a bit of an outlaw.

This was in the 1970s and 1980s. We could roam the streets unsupervised on Cabbage Night. You could feel the danger and mystery of Halloween in your very bones, young as those bones were, and you could sense another world lurking very close to your own. Most children believe in magic and at Halloween it’s easier than ever to do so. The air is filled with the smell of decaying leaves and that chilly crispness so unique to autumn, along with the wind that whispers of something else, something you’d forgotten and would return to one day, but not quite yet.

Cabbage Night was the time to feel and experience all of that, to be just a little bad because when the bad things came a calling on Halloween, they might pass over you, thinking you were one of their own.

So go ahead and be a little bit bad tonight. It might come in handy tomorrow.

*It’s also called Mischief Night, Devil’s Night and various other names, depending on where you live in the U.S.

Author Talk: Interview with Katherine Noll Author of Mirror, Mirror

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Chick Lit, Fairy Tale Re-telling, Katherine Noll, Mirror Mirror, Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll, The Fat Fairytales, Women's Fiction, Young Adult

Interview with Author: Katherine Noll 

One of the strongest characters besides Neve Bianca in Mirror Mirror is her best friend Lindsay. She also is a little person. Did you design her to represent the seven dwarfs or was there a larger message of empowerment with your size choice?

When I was coming up with the concept of a modern-day, plus-sized, Snow White, I wondered how the seven dwarves would fit into it. Then it came to me. What if it was one little person, instead of seven, who could mirror Neve’s experiences? Lindsey dealt with bullying her entire life, and it made her strong. She refused to buy into the mean things people were saying about her. So Lindsey is really holding up a mirror to Neve’s own body image struggles. Lindsey was able to show Neve it’s okay to be different and to fight back against the people who try to make you feel bad about yourself. In some regards, though, Lindsey had grown too hard. She had a wall around her and it was keeping her from finding happiness. And that’s where she was able to learn from Neve. They both had what the other needed. I loved writing about two such different, and yet in some ways the same, women.

I’m currently writing the second book in The Fat Fairy Tales series:  The Not-So-Little Mermaid. It’s about Marina, a Jersey shore girl who has her own set of struggles. But fans of Neve and Lindsey will not be disappointed. The two are making a cameo in this book. They are just too fun to write about, I had to include them both!

Click here to pick up your copy of Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll.

Author Talk: Similarities and Differences in Mirror, Mirror and the Classic Snow White

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Chick Lit, Fairy Tale Re-telling, Katherine Noll, Mirror Mirror, Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll, The Fat Fairytales, Women's Fiction, Young Adult

Interview with Author: Katherine Noll 

In a previous post, you gave us insight into what led the the writing of Mirror Mirror, Book One of The Fat Fairy Tales. Tell us more about the similarities and differences a in your novel and the classic snow white fairytale?  

There are many similarities in both novels. In the classic fairy tale Snow White, the heroine had “lips as red as a rose, hair black as ebony, skin as white as snow.”  In Mirror, Mirror, Neve Bianca has the same, but she also has a very curvy body. A shy, sweet young woman, she was often bullied about her weight growing up.

Neve Bianca means Snow White in Italian.

In the original, Snow White’s stepmother is so jealous of her stepdaughter’s beauty that she plots to have her murdered. In my story, Neve uncovers her stepmother Vania’s illegal, mob-related activities. In order to silence Neve, Vania orders one of her associates to kill her. But like in the original fairy tale, Alek can’t go through with it. He drops Neve off in a deserted location and tells her to run for life and to never return home, or Vania will have her killed.

While Snow White found refuge in a cottage in the woods, Neve ended up at a touring music festival:  The Twisted Tour. Snow White was befriended by the owners of the cottage, seven dwarfs, who took her in and gave her a safe place to stay. Her first night at the festival, Neve meets Lindsey, a little person who worked on the tour.  Lindsey offers to let Neve stay with her and to help her find a job on the tour.

While in hiding, Snow White meets a prince, while Neve meets two modern-day princes:  Taye, a rock star, and Mateo, the tour manager. When Snow White’s stepmother discovers she is alive, she tries to kill her with a poisoned apple. Neve’s stepmother slips some poison into a caramel apple.

Snow White is in a coma after eating the poisoned apple. Neve has a car accident after eating the poisoned caramel apple and is unconscious for a week. They are both awoken with a kiss from their “prince.”

There are lots of differences in novels. It’s set in modern-times. There is no magic. And while Snow White and Neve are both beautiful, Neve is a curvy girl and the classic Snow White character is slender.

 

Click here to pick up your copy of Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll.

Author Talk: Why Do I Write by Katherine Noll

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Chick Lit, Fairy Tale Re-telling, Katherine Noll, The Fat Fairy Tales book series by Katherine Noll, The Fat Fairytales, Young Adult

Author Katherine Noll gives some insight into why she is a writer and what led her to write the fat Fairy Tales Series… 

Why do I write?

I’ve been wondering that a lot, especially since I started the second book in the Fat Fairy Tales series, The Not-So-Little Mermaid. Sometimes it’s so hard, in fact some days it can be wrenching.

Ugh. I hate saying things like that because I realize how pretentious and silly they come across. I know there are a lot harder jobs in the world, like being a nurse, or a soldier, or a miner, or a firefighter or police officer, just to name a few. I don’t want to say that sitting at my computer all day, teasing out the stories from my head, is comparable to any of those occupations. But for me, every time I write something personal and close to my heart, I have to leave this world for a little while to channel the story that’s inside of me. The transition back and forth can be rough.

One of my favorite authors, Roald Dahl, explained it best in his memoir “Boy: Tales of Childhood:”

“The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn’t go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If his is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He had no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.”

When I think of the worlds Dahl created, so human yet so fantastical, so dark and yet so filled with hope, it’s easy to imagine him needing a drink or two after coming back to reality.

Is there freedom in writing? Yes, but there is freedom in jumping out of an airplane, too, so maybe the thought that it can be terrifying isn’t too difficult to understand. As for Dahl, he wrote this description of his writing process after a very well-deserved long and successful career. For me, I’m still struggling with doubt and fear. What if everyone hates what I write? What if, even worse, nobody reads it? It’s as if my story isn’t real, doesn’t come alive, until the moment someone else reads it. I’ve done half the job, I’m waiting eagerly for you to volunteer to do the other half, if you so choose.

Why do it? For me, I write because I have to. I have these tales inside of me, and they won’t let me rest until I get them out of my head and onto paper.

As for the whisky? If you offered to buy me a drink after a day of writing, I would not say no. Glenlivet, neat, please. Cheers!

My (big fat) bottom line is in life you have to love yourself! By Katherine Noll

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Chick Lit, Fairy Tale Re-telling, Katherine Noll, Mirror Mirror, Mirror Mirror by Katherine Noll, Women's Fiction, Young Adult

Author Katherine Noll gives some insight into what led her to write Mirror Mirror, Book One of The Fat Fairy Tales… 

When I began my own personal journey of self love, The Fat Fairy Tales series was born. I truly believe self love is the key to everything. For some, being overweight can lead to an inner dialogue that is so mean, so ruthless, I believe it works against them in every aspect of their life. Imagine hating someone so much that every day you tell her how stupid, how fat, how ugly and disgusting she is. Now imagine that person needs help. Would you want to help a person you hate, who disgusts you? Even if you wanted to, would you be able to overcome your revulsion to take action? It would be extremely difficult for anyone to do so.

If you are overweight and not beating yourself up every day, no worries, the world is doing it for you.

In order to combat that, why not:

1. Love and accept ourselves as we are, right at this moment
2. Build self-confidence so the workings of the world do not erode that self-love
3. Treat ourselves with the love and care that all humans deserve. Give the same compassion to yourself that you would to a dear friend or a family member.
4. Be the healthiest you that YOU can be. Don’t compare yourself to anyone in a magazine or on the street. When you are doing good things for yourself, you’ll know it, you’ll feel it.

I’m coming from the perspective of a person who used to talk harshly to myself every day. I know what it’s like to be stuck with those voices in your head. And truth be told, sometimes I still allow them to take over and give their soul-sucking commentary. It’s not easy and it takes practice to stop this lifetime bad habit, but when I remind myself that:

THE VOICES ARE LYING TO ME. THEY ARE STOPPING ME FROM BEING THE PERSON I WAS MEANT TO BE.

It helps!

That’s just my experience and of course yours might be very different. If you’re having the same problem I’ve had, here’s a suggestion. Try starting small. Replace just one negative thought a day with a simple “I love you” to yourself. You can do it more if you are able. Then see what happens!

Have a big, fat, happy day!
Katherine

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