Grimm Chronicles Vol 1

Today I am part of the Grimm Chronicles Vol 1 blog tour. I have an interview with the authors, my review and a giveaway ending March 15. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour stops.

Book
200 years ago, the Brothers Grimm unleashed their stories upon the world. Literally. Now the characters of the Grimms’ stories walk among us. With every day that passes, they grow more evil. They are the Corrupted, and only a hero can stop them.

For 18-year-old Alice Goodenough, that means taking precious time off from her summer vacation. In addition to volunteering at the local library, Alice must stop the Corrupted who are now actively hunting her down. With the help of her magic pen and her trusty rabbit friend, the world has suddenly gotten a lot more complex. The Corrupted are everywhere, and only Alice can see them for what they truly are.

This book contains the first 3 episodes of the critically acclaimed series:
Episode 1: Prince Charming Must Die!
Episode 2: Happily Never After
Episode 3: Revenge of the Castle Cats


Purchase links
Grimm Chronicles Vol 1 -- Book 1: Prince Charming Must Die! -- Book 2: Happily Never After -- Book 3: Revenge of the Castle Cats

Authors
Ken Brosky received his MFA in fiction writing from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He also teaches English at Madison College. This is his first Young Adult series.

Isabella Fontaine owns a farm in Wisconsin and enjoys reading weird books like House of Leaves. This is her first Young Adult series.

Connect with the authors
Website -- Facebook

Interview
1. What made you want to write this series? What were your aspirations?
I've been moving away from literary fiction for a while now, mainly because it doesn't offer much reward. That isn't to say it's impossible to get a short story published in a magazine ... it's just a lot more crowded with far fewer magazines than there used to be. Add on to that the fact that a lot of literary journals no longer pay writers and don't even offer any feedback with rejections, and it becomes a pretty lonely business. But Kindle gives writers the opportunity to reach an audience. The only catch is genre fiction sells best. Luckily, I had a few ideas that have been sitting on the back-burner for a few years.

2. Which author do you consider a mentor?
Ooooooh, good question. Right now, I would say Margaret Atwood is most influential. There's nothing specific about her writing that's influencing me ... just her creativity and the energy she puts into her stories.

3. Did you ever get “writer’s block”? What motivated you to finish your book?
I can honestly say I don't get writer's block. Usually, I have an outline plotted out for the book. You know what really helps when I'm stuck, though? Making sure I bring my iPhone with me everywhere I go. That way, when an idea pops into my head, I can either write it down or record it. I suppose you could just as easily carry a notepad, too. But carrying something really helps ... I can't even begin to describe just how many great ideas I've lost because I said to myself: "Oh, I'll remember this later. I don't need to write it down."

4. How do you feel when you get a bad review on your books?
It's a subjective process. What one person loves, another person might hate. As long as it isn't a vindictive negative review, I don't mind. I especially like reviews that mention something we could improve as the series goes on ... like the role of Br'er Rabbit. Book bloggers are worth listening to.

5. Do you ask for help when writing about your character’s profile? Where do you get the idea for the main character?
I like to rely on real life people. I mix and match their qualities to create a unique character. Alice (our hero) is part-Buffy, part-Obi-Wan-Kenobi, and about a dozen other parts mixed together. Plus a couple real-life people, too.

6. Which book has taken you the longest to write?
I'm writing a fantasy novel that's taking a long time. It centers around a siege, and I'm trying to make it as realistic as possible.

7. How did you feel when you finished your book? What was your first thought?
"Wow! That was cool." Then, I let it sit a week. Then my co-author and I revise it. When it's finally finished, I take one or two weeks off, then get right back to it. But during that time, I'm usually working on something else. So I'm never NOT writing.

8. Is your book exactly as you imagined it before you started writing?
I think it's even better. Every time we come up with a new idea to incorporate a fairy tale, this series gets more and more fun.

Review
Classical fairy tales mixed with crime in the real world. This was a great twist to the popular stories that every little kid has heard at least once in some way.

I love fairy tales of all kinds. I love them individually and I love them even more when they mix them all and they interact with each other and seem to exist in the same place.
I love a mystery story, filled with adventure and a quest to find someone or something. I like how authors keep using girls to be the hero and the main character of the story, giving us equal power. We are not inferior and I like how these plots make it clear. We, as women, are usually the damsels in distress, especially in the first fairy tales we got from Disney. I'm not saying is a bad thing, I do like being the damsel in distress sometimes but I also like feeling brave, strong and capable of taking care of myself.

This was a very entertaining book, filled with different stories that come together in our world, I found it funny, with great characters, good and bad and some in between. We do get those in real life as well.
It's funny because she tries to find a rational explanation to everything, even when there just isn't one.

I also felt like there was a very important part of the plot that involved knowledge and I thought of it as the moral of the story. So it's not just entertaining but also it's trying to teach us something, I like those kinds of books.

I must admit, I haven't read every fairy tale out there, or every story written by the Grimm brothers so there were some stories that I didn't know. That wasn't a problem though, you don't really need to know all of them in order to understand what's happening. The book explains the important details of the characters so you can feel part of their quest.

I like the way this was written, it was also set in our modern world so you relate to them even more. I like how you get to see different points of view sometimes but still focus on the main character.

Favorite parts:
"It's just a note to myself. It says 'Alice, please remember to return your book to the library.'"
"Forever. The word meant something entirely different to each of us."
"There was no hero coming to rescue me. I was the hero." "Knowledge as Briar would say, is power." "Here I was, stuck, while poor Seth was doing his best impression of a possum."

Aren't the authors great? Everyone has their own opinions and they understand that. Not everyone does. It's awesome that they know how to take constructive criticism, we should all be like that. Take the good things and forget the bad things.

Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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February 28th
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March 1st
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March 2nd
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March 3rd
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March 8th
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