{Guest Post/Giveaway} "Families in Fiction" with Alethea Kontis {Author of HERO}

Launching on our adventure!!

On Tour with Prism Book Tours


I've previously reviewed Alethea Kontis' novella BLOOD AND WATER, her debut novel ENCHANTEDinterviewed author Alethea Kontis, and interviewed ENCHANTED cover designer Christine Kettner!

Check out Alethea's Flash Fiction piece "Well Behaved Mermaids Rarely Make Fairy Tales!"

Win a SIGNED COPY of both ENCHANTED and HERO at the bottom of this post!

Check out today's review of HERO by Alethea Kontis!

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New York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a goddess, a force of nature, and a mess. She’s known for screwing up the alphabet, scolding vampire hunters, turning garden gnomes into mad scientists, and making sense out of fairy tales. Alethea is the co-author of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter Companion, and penned the AlphaOops series of picture books. Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in a myriad of anthologies and magazines. She has done multiple collaborations with Eisner winning artist J.K. Lee, including The Wonderland Alphabet and Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award in 2012 and was nominated for both the Andre Norton Award and the Audie Award in 2013.

Visit Alethea's websiteYouTube ChannelFacebook, and Twitter!

Families in Fiction 
by
Alethea Kontis

Orphans and loners run amok in fiction: Harry Potter, Taran Wanderer, Frodo Baggins, Odysseus--throw a rock and you'll hit one. (Okay, don't really throw a rock in the library...you know what I mean.)

In real life, we have families. Some of us have REALLY LARGE AND OBNOXIOUS families. And though we feel alone sometimes in those awkward middle school years, we're never really alone-alone.

Even when we want to be.

Fairy tales have their share of evil stepmothers and children going off to seek their fortune, but they also have girls under spells with six brothers...or eleven. Sometimes there is a nice sister and an evil sister. Sometimes they're both nice (Snow White & Rose Red). Sometimes they're both evil (Cinderella).

I come from a big family. We're very close. If I walked through the wardrobe and into Narnia one day, someone would notice I was missing pretty quickly.  Part of me feels like authors who kill off the main character's parents are cheating a little bit. Christopher Guest certainly did: Buttercup's parents are the best part of The Princess Bride.

I watched Pride & Prejudice (the A&E version, duh) a lot while I was writing Enchanted. At the time, I just thought it was comfort food for my soul...but I realize now what P&P has that I needed to connect with: a large, complicated, fully-functioning family. Mr. Bennett is a cut-up. Mrs. Bennett is hysterical (literally). Not all of the five sisters take center stage, but they're all there, they're all different, and their existence matters to the plot.

P&P also contains aunts and uncles and cousins and people who live in the village. A whole world is created through these characters and their society, just like in a fantasy world. And it is real to me, because my life is full of people like this, every day...and I have adventures all the time both with and without them.

I don't think that's impossible for readers today to relate to--in fact, I wish there were more functioning families in fiction--especially ones where the parents or guardians are concerned in their children and have a vested interest in the outcome of the story (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory).


I'd be interested to hear suggestions of readers' favorite fictional families!

Thank you so much for such a great post, Alethea! I always love having you by!
My favorite fictional family du jour is the close-knit Hale family from Caitlen Rubino-Bradway's debut middle-grade novel, ORDINARY MAGIC. I love the family to pieces, especially the way they truly love and support one another!
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O F F I C I A   I N F O:

Title: HERO
Author: Alethea Kontis
Release Date: Oct. 1, 2013
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Received: For Review (BEA Copy)
SUMMARY:

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.



My favorite fairy tale writer, Alethea Kontis, pulls off another slam dunk with HERO, the second of her stories about the Woodcutter sisters. HERO is a gender-bending, swash-buckling tale...  Saturday is a strong and willful girl with plenty of heart (plus some added snark). Alethea has a knack for reminding readers why many of us love fairy tales to begin with. In this entry we are once again given a delightful story with some obvious (and some not-so-obvious) nods to classic tales...  but her overlying story and characters... are wholly unique and distinguishable – not to mention they have so much more personality. - Jenna {does} Books Giveaway of ARC 'til Sept 30!
There is hardly a fairy-tale or gender trope that Kontis doesn’t turn on its head, and readers don’t need to know about Hercules cleaning out the Augean Stables to find Saturday’s impossible task of cleaning the witch’s bird’s nest both hilarious and revolting... readers will await her next with joyful anticipation. - Kirkus Review


Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
Enchanted (Woodcutter Sisters #1)
Hardcover, 305 pages
Published May 8, 2012

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?


Alethea Kontis

Alethea KontisNew York Times bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a goddess, a force of nature, and a mess. She’s known for screwing up the alphabet, scolding vampire hunters, turning garden gnomes into mad scientists, and making sense out of fairy tales.

Alethea is the co-author of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter Companion, and penned the AlphaOops series of picture books. Her short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in a myriad of anthologies and magazines. She has done multiple collaborations with Eisner winning artist J.K. Lee, including The Wonderland Alphabet and Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Her debut YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award in 2012 and was nominated for both the Andre Norton Award and the Audie Award in 2013.
Born in Burlington, Vermont, Alethea now lives in Northern Virginia with her Fairy Godfamily. She makes the best baklava you’ve ever tasted and sleeps with a teddy bear named Charlie.



Sail Away on the 
Fairy Tale Adventure Tour*
*Family Welcome

Sept 22 - LAUNCH
Sept 23 - The Missing Piece - Althethea Kontis
 - Video Rant on Debz Bookshelf
 - Celebration on Deal Sharing Aunt
Sept 24 - Interview with Miss Print 
Sept 25 - Interview with Carina Olsen  
 - The Grandfather Pirate on Living a Goddess Life
 - Meet the Inspiration Part I on The Wonderings of One Person
Sept 26 – Review on Shannon’s Blog
 - Meet the Inspiration Part II on Bookmarks
Sept 27 – Families in Lit on Leeana Me 
Sept 30 -- USA Today Happy Ever After interview
 - Review of Enchantment on Colorimetry
Oct 1 - RELEASE DAY!
 - "Release Day" at Waterworld Mermaids 
 - "My Favorite Bit" guest essay (with Cat Valente) - Mary Robinette Kowal
 - Review at Libraryof a Book Witch
 - Interview & Review at Tressa's Wishful Endings
Oct 2 - Video Rant Geek Girl In Love 
  - "The Big Idea" John Scalzi's blog 
  - My Bookshelf on Mel's Shelves
  - Did You See? on Cu's eBook Giveaways
Oct 3 – Highlighting The Missing Piece on I Am a Reader, Not a Writer 
 - Review at Books for Kids
Oct 4 - Podcast with Bennet Pomeranz
 - Review of Hero on Colorimetry
Oct 5 - Hero LAUNCH PARTY at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA
Oct 7 - Character interview with Saturday Woodcutter at I Smell Sheep
 -  Craft "Stealing from the Best" on Romance Writers of America & Fantasy Futuristic &Paranormal Chapter
Oct 8 - "A Twist in the Tail" at A Backwards Story
 - Review at JL Mbewe
Oct 10-15 - GRAND FINALE



Tour-Wide Giveaway
Sept 22 - Oct 17

Fairy Tale Gift Basket (US only): Signed copies of both Enchantment and Hero by Alethea Kontis plus swag!

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