Today OOM welcomes Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series, which follows Abby and her brother Jonah as they adventure in modern versions of classic fairy tales.
Sarah is a bestselling author and has received glowing reviews from numerous publications including Justine Magazine and Kirkus Reviews. Her latest fairy tale, Cold as Ice, which is based on the story of the Snow Queen, has just been released and is perfect for the upcoming winter months!
Sarah is an enchanting storyteller and we’ve asked her to share a little bit about her thought process, her experience as a writer, and what’s up next for Whatever After. Take it away Sarah!
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got the idea for the Whatever After series?
When I was a kid, I used to write stories. A lot of stories. I had two favorite kinds. The first were about a little girl named Sarah who lived in Montreal, just like I did, but magic stuff happened to her. Like she had a magic umbrella that could carry her around the city, or a magic fork that could turn vegetables into chocolate. The second kind of stories I wrote were fractured fairy tales. When I retold Princess and the Pea, since I was not a fan of vegetables, I made the queen put M&M’s under the girl’s mattress. A few years ago, I found all my stories in a red storage box. I couldn’t help but wonder: What if I combined the two? What if a regular girl magically fell into a fairy tale and fractured it? And that’s how I got the idea for Whatever After.
Whatever After #6: Cold As Ice takes readers to the freezing story of The Snow Queen. What are your favorite and least favorite things about winter?
My least favorite things about winter are: chapped lips, cold ears, cold noses, cold feet, hail, and slipping on the ice and bruising my behind. Which I seem to do all the time.
My favorite things about winter are: earmuffs, cozy socks, my birthday, snowflakes, snow angels, snow days, and sitting by the fire and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Lots and lots of marshmallows.
Which fairy tale would you personally most like to visit and “mess up”?
The Little Mermaid. Do you know what happens at the end of the original story? The Little Mermaid DIES! Really! Is that not the saddest ending ever? I’d like to mess it up and give poor Little Mermaid a happy, non-dead ending.
What’s your favorite part of being a writer?
Meeting readers, for sure. Also I love that I can work at home. My commute is eleven seconds. And I can write in my pajamas. Not that I do. But I could. Okay, sometimes I do.
Where will Abby and Jonah go next, for Book 7 in the Whatever After series?
Book 7 is called Beauty Queen. Obviously Abby and Jonah visit Jack and the Beanstalk. Just kidding. Abby and Jonah visit--and mess up big time—the story of Beauty and the Beast. I just finished writing it. Look for it this May!
You can learn more about the Whatever After series and watch a book trailer for her new book Cold as Ice here. Be sure to visit Sarah online at www.sarahm.com, on Twitter @SarahMlynowski, and on Instagram.
Photo Credit: Heather Waraska
