Tag Archives: Grimm Tidings

Guest: Shiloh Walker discusses [a different!] Once Upon a Time

Hi friends! Today we’ve got the awesome and wonderful Shiloh Walker visiting with us! Shiloh is one of the very first authors I ever met. (I’m pretty sure. Actually she might be the very first…) and she’s here talking about her Grimm book[s]. Shiloh also has had a lot of great news to share lately, so major congratulations!

Once Upon a Time…

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful young woman…and she died.  A really horrible death. But it’s okay!

I wonder if I started a story that way, would people read it?

I write books like that…my Grimm series have people dying lots of nasty, horrible deaths…and it really is okay, because they come back.

My Grimm are bastardized fairy tales…as in they have their basis in fairy tales.  The world is filled with the Grimm, guardian angels who protect unsuspecting mortals from demons we can’t recognize.  And the fairy tales we read about were created to hide the truth of what really happens… Yes, for those who watch the show, this might sound familiar, but…um… I was doing it like two years before they were. 😉  And it’s a little different.

The first story was Greta’s, from Candy Houses, yep, Hansel and Gretel, but Hansel isn’t in the book.  He was a bad, bad boy and he died a bad, bad death.  Then there is Ella, and yes, she is Cinderella, but she didn’t have two wicked stepsisters or a mean stepmother.  She did have a Prince Charming, but he was a bit of a jerk and ends up having to spend 200 years trying to win her back.

I don’t just do fairy tales.  There’s Ren–I do love Ren.  He’s lot of fun and he’s more than a little crazy, but if you want to know who he is, you’ll have to read the book.

Sometimes I twist them up a bit more, like Perci…Percinette.  If you are into fairy tales, you may know who she is.

Then there’s the latest story.  The hero’s name is Jacob.  His story won’t be as hard to guess as some, but it was still fun to write.

I had somebody ask me how I figure out who I’m doing next and there’s no particular method to my madness.

It’s just whatever idea catches my fancy at the time.  Jacob’s story actually came from the heroine, somebody who was very tormented by the mortal life, and the husband, she’d left behind when she’d died.  That life is no longer hers, but all the regrets and miseries still cling to her–she’s only been living this life a few years and the night she died was a night that would torment anybody.  She needed somebody who could help break those chains.  And nobody does chains quite the way this guy does.

But the ideas just kind of come in odd ways.  I’ve got one side character that you’ll meet in this book, Rob, and although I know why he’s the way he is, I’m not entirely sure who he is.  I think I do, but can I make it work?

I got an idea from watching one of the Shrek movies not too long ago.  That will be fun if it ever pans out.

This entire series is fun, really…which goes to show how weird I am.  Because I can sum up the basic idea for the story by saying… Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful young woman…and she died.  A really horrible death. But it’s okay!

An excerpt…

“There are no buts. You weren’t happy. The two of you barely managed to co-exist together. You wanted children. He did not. He wanted to pursue a writing career and you were terrified it wouldn’t happen. You had different dreams for your lives and somewhere along the way, you fell out of love.”

“Wrong!” She spun around and glared at Jacob. “I still love him.”

“There is love, and there is in love. Have you forgotten the difference?”

She sneered at him. “What in the hell do you know about love, you damned iceberg?”

She never even saw him move. One moment, he was three feet away. And then he was only inches away, his long body, so lean and warm, caging hers in against something cool and metal–a car? Truck? She didn’t know, didn’t care. One hand rested by her shoulder. The other cupped her chin. “More than you would think, sweet. Far more than you would think.” Then his mouth was on hers.

An iceberg.

She thought he was an iceberg.

Little fool.

Her mouth was still under his, for the briefest moment. He knew it wouldn’t last long, and he intended to make the most of it. She wanted to wither away and die, did she?

Perhaps she needed to see just how much life she still had inside her.

Oh, but she was sweet…he’d known she would be. Her mouth was soft, even though she was still frozen with shock. Soft, and she tasted like soft, warm woman, cherries and Coke… She lived on Cherry Coke, it seemed. He could live on the taste of it on her, he supposed.

Stroking his tongue along the curve of her lower lip, he teased her lips apart, delving inside the second he had an opportunity. He didn’t believe in wasting those.

Her fingers curled into the front of his coat and over the roaring of blood in his ears, he heard the soft, broken sound of her breath…and even sweeter, the erratic beat of her heart. Her body wilted against his–he felt the push of her breasts, the softness of her belly, the long lines of the body she treated so carelessly. There was wanting in her body, needing…she wanted, she needed. Him…she wanted him.

For that moment–he felt it.

And then he felt her fist.

He took that first punch, staggering back a little. Damn, she was strong. When she would have hit him again, he caught her hand, stopping the blow before it landed. “Don’t,” he warned quietly.

If you’d like to read more about them, you can check them out at my site here… and if you’re interested in trying one of them out, this story (Grimm Tidings) releases this Tuesday (April 24th).  The stories are written to stand completely on their own, so if you’ve never read one, feel free to dive in wherever…

I’m giving away a $10 GC to Samhain to one commenter…it can be used internationally, on both print and ebooks.  Any costs over the $10 will be the winner’s responsibility.

So what do you think? Have you ever read any of Shiloh’s Grimm books? Do you enjoy twisted fairy tales? Or Modern myths? Which would you most like to read about? Or… even be in/have experienced? Inquiring minds and all… 😉