Tales of Glass Series | Announcements and Extras

On Glass Maker a.k.a. why Katherine's story exists

Some of you may be wondering (or idk, maybe you're not) why on earth I decided to work on a "prequel" of sorts about Clara's mom in the midst of the chaos of getting a book ready to publish.

I swear there's a reason or two.

One of the biggest aspects of the new draft of Glass Slippers was reworking the internal logic of the story and the magic system to:

1. Better suit the vibes of the story.

2. Make more sense and have more consistent rules and reasoning.

3. Have importance for the plot.

My last magic system, may she rest in peace, was largely based on "oo I need a curse here, a fairy godmother there, and a dragon." I like to think of it as "stream of consciousness" world building because that's exactly what it was.

My other big issue was that people were mean and people died for no reason other than my own inability to find their humanity. Like, why was the King mean? Why was the Queen? Why did every parent have to die?

Like really? Does every parental figure have to be a monster or dead?

It's thoughts like these that remind me that the bulk of the story was written when I was 16/17 before I'd built a relationship with my own parents outside of being their child. I am now 26, have a great relationship with my parents built on mutual respect and kindness, and have gotten to experience life beyond living under their roof. 

It's also different writing parents when you realize that someday someone will know you as "mom" and that you're likely closer to that experience chronologically than you are to being a teenager writing a cinderella retelling. What a concept. I'd explain all the thoughts that go with that, but this is a wattpad post not a therapy session. You can probably use your imagination.

So, when re-approaching the overall plot, I wanted to ground the story in Clara's relationships in a way that is much more meaningful and true to life-- where her relationships have real stakes, her traumas have real effects, and her emotions have real reasons. It's no longer because she is a Cinderella character type that she has the family structure that she does. It is now that she has the family structure that she does because of who her parents are, who Linette is, etc.

Between the magic system and the need for depth in her parents' lives (also the stepmother problem, but that's a post for another day), I came upon the need to essentially plot out the entirety of Clara's parents' lives.

This lead me to a prequel that is some parts fairy folklore grounded, some parts Rumpelstiltskin inspired, but mostly a unique fairytale that creates the magic rules for the series, the significance of the glass objects and fairytale vibes, and creates a parental relationship built on love, magic, and lies. So many lies.

JK, JK.

Kind of.

However, all of that also enabled the rest of the series to now be built on the same stronger foundation, with the most notable changes being seen in Sophia's story (the Snow White retelling) and Harriet's (former Mulan retelling, now a different thing that is still being workshopped). Sophia needed a fleshed out, magical world with political intrigue. Harriet needed a stronger internal motivation.

Katherine's story lays the groundwork for both of these things, but doesn't require the stories to be read in any sort of order.

So-- why does Katherine's story exist? Because in order for Glass Slippers and co. to exist, Katherine needed to not just be a dying mom in a Cinderella story.

And further, I needed to have these things figured out prior to publishing Glass Slippers because once that thing is set in stone, I can't change it anymore. All of my cross-series scheming, all of my magical consistencies, etc. have to be well-suited to fitting not only Glass Slippers but also the future of the series, should I chose to publish the rest or write them.

Yay plots! Yay sequels! 

Anyway, Katherine's story will be started to be posted soon-ish, and I hope you enjoy it!