How Romance Has Been Influenced by Gothic Fairytales by Marina Myles

Please welcome Marina Myles, our guest blogger, to The Roses of Prose!

Sleeping Beauty. Beauty and the Wolf. Hansel and Gretel.  These classic fairy tales evoke visions of dark, gothic castles or of creepy shadowed forests. They also bring to mind the fight between good and evil as well as visions of wicked witches and frightening beasts.

Like many of us, I loved fairy tales as a child. I had my mother read them to me over and over again. That’s why their timelessness is ingrained in my brain—having secured a special place in my childhood memory bank.

But what makes them still appeal to modern readers?

There is plenty of evidence that they do. Consider all the current television shows and motion pictures based on fairy tales. From Grimm to Once Upon A Time to Snow White and the Huntsman to Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie, there is still a strong market for retellings.

To answer the question, I believe fairy tales appeal to modern readers thanks to the idea that love conquers all. Look around us. There is so much stress and tragedy in the world. We all need a little hope and romantic salvation…a little escapism, as it were. The other day, I turned on the news and watched a horrific story about the violent murder of a college girl. Following the story was an account of a restaurant customer offering to pay his waitress’s college tuition after hearing about her monumental student loans. He was her fairy godfather!! I was so relieved that a positive story followed the tragic one. It actually changed my attitude for the morning.

What could be more positive than a fairy tale? We are able to get lost in the magic of them, cheer for the hero, sympathize with the heroine, and shout with joy when the prince and the princess end up with one another. We know there will be a happily-ever-after, but isn’t that why we read them?   

I hope readers enjoy all of the stories in my Cursed Princes series. They contain a little mystery, suspense, and action, but you are guaranteed to get your positive ending!

Thanks for having me!

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 Marina Myles’s love of books began as soon as she read her first fairy tale. During her college days in Dallas, she received degrees in English Literature and Communications—and enjoyed the unique experience of being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Now that she lives under the sunny skies of Arizona, she hasn’t left her glamorous life behind completely. After all, she gets to divide her time between her loving family, her loyal Maltese, and worlds filled with fiery—but not easily attained—love affairs. 

Visit her at www.marinamyles.com

Represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency

www.facebook.com/marinamylesauthor

www.twitter.com/#!/marinaauthor

www.amazon.com/author/marinamyles

Works published by Kensington:    The Cursed Princes Series

BEAUTY AND THE WOLF

SNOW WHITE AND THE VAMPIRE

A WARLOCK’S DANCE (novella)

SLEEPING BEAUTY AND THE DEMON

CHRISTMAS AT THORNCLIFF TOWERS (novella)

CINDERELLA AND THE GHOST

What Makes a Classic by Marina Myles

The Roses guest today is Marina Myles. Take it away, Marina.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Who doesn’t love these tried-and-true stories? I certainly do!

I write fairy tale retellings, so it’s no surprise that I go gaga over anything that resembles a classic novel rewritten or a motion picture adaptation of a classic novel. (I LOVED the Leonardo DiCaprio version of The Great Gatsby. And wild horses couldn’t have dragged my eyes away from Gerard Butler in The Phantom of the Opera.)

These actors are uber hot. But what, I wonder, really makes a book or a movie a classic? Is it the storyline? The characters? A resounding social message?

Take Wuthering Heights. Timeless and provocative, the story tells of a rich girl and a poor boy whose love extends beyond the grave. Truth be told, Wuthering Heights wasn’t received well when it debuted. Rather, it was bashed. Written by Emily Brontë and published in 1847, the book was described as “strange…morose…depressing, even immoral”. One critic went as far as calling the novel “that fiend of a book”.

Granted, Wuthering Heights includes scenes of mental and physical cruelty and vivid descriptions of class inequity, but my guess is those shocking subjects are what made people sit up and take notice. Now Emily Brontë’s work is considered sophisticated, intelligent, and haunting. In a word: genius. But why wasn’t the book valued in its time?    

Another similar but less elegant example of something being scoffed at initially is the film sensation “Halloween”. A horror movie written and directed by the controversial John Carpenter, it premiered in theaters in 1978. The plot follows Michael Myers, a serial killer who murders his sister, gets locked in an asylum, escapes, and returns to his hometown to stalk teenage babysitters that, we assume, remind him of his sister. At first, the film was panned by movie critics. Subsequently, it bombed at the box office. That is, until John Carpenter added a spine-tingling music score and Roger Ebert gave the film’s innovative camera shots and vacant, motiveless killer an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Then the movie took off. Eventually, it grossed over five-hundred and fifty million dollars and spawned nine sequels.

“Halloween” is considered an American horror classic and rightly so, but in my opinion its nine sequels were silly. (Who came up with the title “Halloween H2O – 20 Years Later”?!) The point is: the film’s sequels weren’t as good as the original. I suppose that’s the challenge every author and director faces when he or she attempts a rewrite, a sequel, or a remake of something that’s been previously acclaimed.

So what’s the magic ingredient that turns a novel into a classic? Everyone has their own theory on that subject and I’m happy to give you mine here. I believe all classics have one thing in common: they were ahead of their time. Perhaps—through decades of change and modernization—that’s what makes them stand the test of time.

What is your favorite version of a story retold? 

SNOW WHITE AND THE VAMPIRE

Which is stronger:

Fate or Desire?

Alba Spencer thought her past in Romania and the dark magic that haunted it was behind her forever. She is one of the first female barristers now, safe in London. But London has its dark side, too. A man named the Ripper stalks the midnight streets. There are rumors that her hated stepmother has found her again, suggestions that the nightmares of her childhood are returning. And with them appears the cursed Gypsy boy she once loved, grown into a man more seductive and more terrifying than she ever could have dreamed...

Dimitri Grigorescu has become a surgeon, a gentleman - and a vampire. The lusts that drive his body are scarcely under control, and even he does not truly know what he is capable of. To fight evil and confusion, Alba must rely on her wits - and a desire that overwhelms her doubts...

http://www.amazon.com/White-Vampire-Cursed-Princes-ebook/dp/B00DV1IT0S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380318301&sr=8-1&keywords=snow+white+and+the+vampire

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/snow-white-and-the-vampire-marina-myles/1116110221?ean=9781601831002

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/snow-white-and-the-vampire/id672375741?mt=11

https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/marina-myles/snow-white-and-the-vampire/_/R-400000000000001114056

http://www.ekensingtonbooks.com/book.aspx/23292

You can reach Marina at:

http://www.marinamyles.com

www.facebook.com/marinamylesauthor

www.twitter.com/#!/marinaauthor

www.goodreads.com/marinamyles