Blog Tour Stop : The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long
Summary (from Goodreads)
Author : Ruth Frances Long
Publisher : Dial Books
Publication Date : August 16th 2012
Goodreads - The Book Depository
A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction
The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.
Hi guys!
I'm really excited to be part of the The Treachery of Beautiful Things Blog Tour. For my stop, Ruth will be sharing with us the inspiration behind her story. I hope you guys enjoy it! :)
Guest Post
I always wanted to tell stories. Ever since I was very little. I don’t think I quite knew how or through which medium. But stories, yes, those were the things. My Great Uncle reading to me at bedtime is one very early memory, and the stories he read—Robin Hood, Greek Legends, stories of magic and heroes. I can also remember acting out bits of The Hobbit while it played on an old tape recorder. I loved music, but the best tunes were always those that told stories.
The first story of my own was written in an old copybook. It had pictures on the cover, drawn with markers and decorated with sequins and bits of glitter. It was clearly a point in time when I had a thing for stickers. And stars. All I remember about it is that there were seven sisters in it and they were actually the Pleiades. So my stories were nothing if not ambitious. And complicated. I’m not sure where it went or what happened to it.
The second one I remember was bigger than one copybook. I remember taping several together, adding another when I ran out of space. This one had pictures all over the cover and inside. It had maps and character sketches. It was a fantasy epic. And it was EPIC. I have it safely hidden away where no one will ever see it.
I can also remember (while writing the fantasy epic) being caught in my German class at school writing with the copy book perched on my knees under the desk. My teacher confiscated it and I had to go to the staff room afterwards and ask for it back. Even more mortifying she told me she had read it and it was great. Cringe!
But at least I got it back. I never did learn very much German though.
By the time I was going to university, the only thing I was interested in studying was English Literature. Lucky for me the University of Aberdeen also offered a course in Celtic Civilisation and another in History of Religions, both of which I studied in my first year. Three passions came together and all those interests have stayed with me ever since, feeding into each other. Pile on the stories, folklore and fairytales when I was little, and the beautiful woodlands near my childhood home, and the seeds of The Treachery of Beautiful Things were planted very early.
I worked in libraries, a video shop, database design and programming, but always came back to writing. It’s one of those things I need to do. And I’m lucky enough to still live near woodlands, where I go for inspiration whenever needed. Stories seem to come out of the trees themselves, like the forest fae of The Treachery of Beautiful Things. Some of them are stories that were always there and some are my own. There are new twists on old ideas, and as I started to work on this forest story, I found connections between folktales that just seemed to have been created to populate the Realm.
When the manuscript of The Treachery of Beautiful Things was finished, on looking at the first page one line stood out: “The trees had swallowed Tom whole.” It was one of the last lines I changed before I started to send the manuscript out. I moved it to the very beginning, to become the first line. And Jenny’s story began.
Author Biography
Giveaway
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