Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.
This week’s topic:
In honor of this month’s Bookmobile book, Marissa Meyer’s CINDER, name a fable or story you’d like to see a retelling of. If you’re feeling creative, come up with a premise of your own!
I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know that many fairy tales other than the ones Disney made into animated—and kid’s friendly—movies.
You guys probably studied some during High School, or were instigated to read some, but as I grew up in Brazil, we don’t tend to look much at fairy tales there.
Anyway, the one that comes into mind is Hansel and Gretel.
Why? Cause I love siblings stories (please, note that I HATE stories where the brothers love the same girl. *cough* The Vampire Diaries *cough*). I want to see more friends-slash-siblings stories out there.
And I just found out about the Hansel and Gretel movie coming out soon:
Huge change from the original tale!
I bet that after this, there’ll be lots of retellings of Hansel and Gretel in our future ;)
Update: I saw Colin’s post (I think I copied something from Colin’s post yesterday too!) and now I want to write a query for a novel I haven’t written—heck, I just came up with this idea two seconds go! So here it is (I wrote this in under 5 minutes, so please, be gentle!):
Abandoned in the foster system since toddlers, siblings Anna and Peter live with the sweet Auntie Dolores. The middle-aged woman is widely known for her kindness and easy smile. But only to outsiders. With Anna and Peter, she’s a mean old bitch. Her heavy hand lands on them every time she thinks they are out of line, and that’s every day.
One night, Dolores spanks Anna until the girl bleeds. Consumed by rage, Peter reacts and hits the old hag for the first time. But one punch isn’t enough. He can’t stop, until the woman is still under him.
Shocked with what he did, Peter runs away with Anna. They try to hide in a small town, lying to whoever comes near. When Anna makes new friends and starts falling for the boy next door, their lies become too fragile. If they want to keep out of trouble and out of the foster system—and away from the police—they have to run again. Feeling like she finally found a place she wants to be, Anna heart is ripped in two: she has to decide if she wants to keep running, or unravel the lies that hold her brother prisoner.
Anna and Peter is a young adult contemporary romance with a dark twist inspired by Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
What about you? Which fable you would like to see a retelling?
Cheers,
Thanks for the shout-out, Juliana. That’s pretty good for a five-minute query letter! And your re-telling is very interesting–a bit dark and edgy, which I suppose Hansel and Gretel is, in a way. I believe it was a Brother’s Grimm fairy tale (or one of their re-tellings of a classic folk tale)–and their stories tended to be a bit on the nasty side (in their original Cinderella, the step-sisters cut pieces off their feet to make the slipper fit–that bit didn’t make it into the Disney cartoon for some reason…).
Oh I love your query! What a fun idea. A Hansel and Gretel retelling would be awesome.
Oh man, I feel so bad for these guys! Talk about awful luck :( I don’t think I’ve heard of any other Hansel and Gretle retellings, so it sounds unique.
This does read more like a synopsis though. Your query starts at the moment that Peter kills the mean old bitch. Flip things around a bit and it’ll be solid :)
Um…WHOA. You wrote that in FIVE MINUTES?! I would love to read that story! Great post!
Hansel and Gretel would definitely be a fun one to retell. When I saw that movie trailer a couple of weeks back, I wasn’t sure if it was real or not (like maybe it was a spoof or something). Could be interesting. :)
That trailer is WICKED! Teehee, I’m laughing myself silly.
That Hansel & Gretel movie looks awesome. I saw some previews awhile back and was very intrigued! i think we’ll see a lot more retellings come out in the next year or two. I like it when the concept is turned on its head or thrown into another time period. I read someone’s query in a contest (and am crossing my fingers for her to find an agent and publishing deal) where the story is from the ugly stepsister POV in Cinderella. It was all kinds of sassy and awesome.
Here’s my YA Highway Post
Haha, that film looks great! What a fun retelling! I’m definitely going to see that in the cinemas. :)
Anything with Jeremy Renner and I’m in! And what a great query! You should write that ASAP.
Oh I LOVE it!!!! I havent seen the trailer up until now but I’ve been looking forward to this movie! Thanks for sharing! :-D
The Hansel and Gretel movie will be cool.
I’m terrible with queries so not even going to offer my bad advice.
Whoa. I had not heard about a ‘Hansel and Gretel’ movie, and you know I’ll be watching that opening night! That looks fantastically campy and fun.
I like your ‘Hansel and Gretel’ twist, and I totally agree — sibling teams are so much fun, both to read and write. It’s part of why I enjoy ‘Supernatural’ so much.
Hansel and Gretel is SUCH a good idea! It’s such a classic story that I feel hasn’t had any real retellings of it, but it can be so dark and mysterious… there are also a number of ways it could go as well!
Awesome query! I’d read that. And that trailer looked so cool. As for a fairy tale I’d like to see retold, I’ll take Rumpelstiltskin. Wouldn’t that be cool?
I can’t tell if that movie will be incredibly awesome or super cheesy, but I think your quick-query sounds great! I would read that! Thanks for checking mine out, too. I think we might all be on to something, here. Write the query before you write the book. :)
I had no idea I was so on trend picking Hansel and Gretel too:)
Your query and story idea is great…can’t believe you wrote it so fast!
And that trailer…a badass Gretel…don’t know if I would have ever come up with that one.