I'm so excited to launch my special guest Tuesday blog with Ann T. Bugg, author of the Before Happily Ever After Series. Welcome Ann!
Thanks for having me, Sara!
Even though I had been encouraged since grade school to
write, it took a single encounter many years later to get that ball rolling.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth, or in this case, a gift possum.
The first book in the Before Happily Ever After Series is Through the Mirror and Into Snow. Valerie and Samantha, being the duo of
double-trouble that they are, sneak out after bedtime to the barn to search for
the possum that scared Valerie’s mother earlier that night. You guessed it;
that was me. The fat pony, Leroy, is real as well and that is pretty much how
things happened. I guess fear is a great motivator!
After the brief encounter, I booted up my laptop and began
my tale. The main characters are based on my daughter and her best friend. They
are very much themselves in the books, giving me great characters to build
from. It was no surprise for the book to take on a magical twist since fairy
tales re-told have always been my favorite stories. Once it was rolling, I
asked my daughter to read it to see what she thought. I was greeted with
squeals of glee and threats to hurry up and finish it. Offers to go outside and
take care of the chores were not easy to come by, so I took that as she liked
it.
What surprised me even more was that the one book turned
into nine. I never outlined out or planned them, they sort of just happened. I
wrote one then wrote a women’s fiction then went back to these again. After a
few queries, I had given up getting them published, but I still enjoyed writing
them as a sort of record of the girls and their antics. I figured they were just for us, and that was
okay.
When one of my publishers found the modest site I had set up and asked to
see them, I still didn’t hold too much hope of anything becoming of it. To my
surprise, they wanted them. With some fine tuning & the addition of my
narrator, the series was now seeing print. It’s been many years since I wrote
them so the editing process on them has been especially fun for me. I forgot
some of the little “ditties” my daughter and her friend shared as well as some
of their mischief and quirks. I hope that somewhere down the line, parents
don’t want to beat me as Val & Sam’s
“loser loser double loser” routine and others like it… go viral. ;)
The series is geared at middle grade but it has been enjoyed
from ages 5-85. Loving fairy tales, folklore, and all that is magical knows no
age. I look forward to the rest seeing the light of day and maybe fitting in
another… we’ll have to see what presents itself to me in my barn next. ;)
By the way, Valerie is the cover artist & illustrator
for the series. She did the cover for book #1 when she was only 14.
Happy Reading!
Ann T Bugg (June Kramin)
