Featured Interview With R.M. ArceJaeger
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Like the president, I wear a lot of hats. I’ve been an author, publisher, computer scientist, and teacher (believe it or not, there were a couple of years where I was doing all that at once!) My first novel, Robin: Lady of Legend (The Classic Adventures of the Girl Who Became Robin Hood), was a #1 Amazon Bestseller and 2nd prize winner in Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award. I recently released a trilogy of short novels that merge the fairy tales Beauty and the Beast & Sleeping Beauty into a single story, and I am also the author of the Astounding Animals series for children.
I am a California Arts Scholar for excellence in Creative Writing, and possesses degrees in Computer Science and Education. I was a columnist for the Gold Country Times for two years, and the Sales Executive, Website Specialist, and Editorial Assistant for Manzanita Writers Press. In 2011, I started my own publishing company, Platypus Press, which is devoted to helping independent authors achieve success by providing quality formatting, editing, publishing, and website design services.
On a more personal note, I love to dance (but only with a partner—I’m terribly self-conscious about dancing by myself!) My near-impossible-but-I-can’t-help-hoping-for-it-anyway Dream is to one day to be on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaking of stars, I live in the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Before that I lived in the Bay Area, and I can still remember how amazed I was to see the blueness of the Sierra Nevada sky for the first time. It is a wondrous feeling to wake up surrounded by pine trees and cedars, and to hear only the chirping of birds and the footsteps of deer without the ceaseless roar of traffic drowning it all out. At night, I can look into the sky and see a star-spangled void, and the Milky Way ribbon sweeping across the heavens.
My family has a dog named Shasta, two pygmy goats, and a bunny rabbit.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started to write stories when I was around five years old. At first, these were retellings of the scary stories my uncle used to tell us around the campfire, or new tales featuring my favorite book or TV characters. Although my writing is far more advanced now, I still love doing that more than anything.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love to read stories that take me on great adventures. I prefer fantasy because it takes me away from my normal existence and into a realm where magical things can happen. For that reason, I love Harry Potter, Dragonriders of Pern, fairy tales, and so forth more than any other type of story.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My latest book is Cursed: A Merged Fairy Tale of Beauty and the Beast & Sleeping Beauty (The Enchanted Rose Trilogy: Book 1). It is the first in a trilogy of short novels that weaves the tales of Beauty and the Beast & Sleeping Beauty into a single story.
I got the idea for this book from the rose that is featured in both tales, but its strength came from a desire to keep the romance of the original stories without simply gliding over the darker elements: abandonment, captivity, and true evil. I also wanted to provide an explanation for the parts of the original stories that never made sense: Why couldn’t the fairies undo the enchantment? Why send the girl away until the day the curse was fulfilled? How come the wicked fairy didn’t just kill the child to begin with? My book does all that and more!
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