The Would You Read It thread :-D

I thought this was a very helpful one in the old forums so I'm resurecting it with new rules; Before you can post a summary- you must give at least one person feedback. That way everyone should be able to get some kind of commentary on their NaNo project.

I'll post first and then come back and comment when people start posting their summaries. My biggest concern right now with my project is that I want people to know what it's a retelling of without it being too similar to the original events....

Working Title: Dear One

Summary:
After a mind-sickness called The Suspicion causes neighbor to turn on neighbor, the remaining population is fractured into gang-run mini societies where the strong prey on those who feel they need protection in case the Suspicion hits again. When she was eight, Joan was pulled out of the water the that rest her family was drowned in and carried to the safety of a makeshift orphanage by a tall, dark stranger. She learned how to survive by keeping her head down, staying in the shadows, and taking care of her own- no one else. But now, the stranger's back, calling himself Michael and calling in her debt. He says that it's time to start putting the world back together again and wants to start by giving them a leader- the infamously arrogant, careless faction leader Charlie. Together with her best friend and protector, Cameron, Joan must find Charlie, convince him to unite the survivors, and convince the people to trust him; A mission she has no interest, and no choice, in undertaking.

@KatBrown: Your story sounds very interesting. I think it would be very interesting to have a MC who does not like the mission she's being sent on. I also like how a lot of the characters, and society as a whole, don't seem to trust each other. The Suspicion also sounds very interesting, and I'm wondering why Michael wants Charlie in charge. I'm afraid I don't know what it's a retelling of.

Here's mine:

Working title: How to Raise a Teen, Save the World, and (Hopefully) Not Get Killed Over the Summer

Summary: Jacob believed his life of adventure was long behind him, until one day a girl, insistent she is his daughter, shows up. Things go from confusing to crazy, as the two of them end up on the run from men trying to kill them and are pulled into an adventure, along with a bookworm, a biologist, a pickpocket, and a brooding young man, involving Jacob’s former fiancee and a buried treasure.

@MarcyT: It's very vague so far, but you have my interest. My main questions are: What kinds of adventures did Jacob go in again, and why are these men trying to kill them? I'm thinking that girly took something that she's not supposed to have in my head. Also, is the book worm hanging out with the biologist? Because the only thing I can think of is an actual worm.

Mine! :D It's sorta longish

Working Title: Red Alice--Suit of Diamonds

Wonderland--here travels the Alices, the Hares, and everything in-between. Where in the dank dark of the woods and deep into the swamps, Bandersnatches and their ilk wait to tear you into tiny little pieces. Where The Red Queen is fighting with her sister The White Queen, and the Mirrored World where the Alices were supposed to have come from is starting to look more appealing to more than a few of wonderland's citizens by the day. In all of this, the Red Queen has made a very simple request: Find for her the Black Alice who started the mess with her twin sister.

Xander wanders separated from his friends, his world, and all things that he held familiar. One month seperated him from the Real and got him trapped in the Digital and in the servers that host Wonderland. In audience with The Red Queen, he is offered riches, fame, forgiveness and protection just as long as he brings back the Black Alice to the red queen-- dead or alive. A tall order, when no one really knows who she is and what she looks like, but Xander is sure that he knows who the queen wants--and that she's his ticket out of wonderland and back to the familiarity of home. Desperation drives him to accept the suspicious offer--and madness will make him try to follow through on his vow.

But, like everything else in Wonderland, nothing is ever simple. After all, if that were the case, he wouldn't have to go hunting for The Black Alice in the first place.
Excerpt

@Vmullen: I love anything Alice in Wonderland related :D. Your story sounds amazingly interesting. It seems like a good addition to the Wonderland world, rather than a retelling. The one part that confused me in your summary was that Wonderland is on a digital server? I think you should elaborate on that a little more, and also how there is more than one Alice. Other than that, it seems great!

Here's mine. Also longish :P

In Penny’s family, a box is passed down to every woman, generation by generation. The first owner of this box was a girl named Pandora.

The women’s job is to the protect the box and to never open it. There is one thing still trapped inside that can never be let out. Nobody has ever had a problem with this, until the jar reaches Penny. The box whispers to Penny, tempts and cajoles her, trying anything to get her to open it. She resists it for years, pretending the whispers are in her dreams. But one day, when she is seventeen, the worst day of her life occurs: she catches the boyfriend she loves cheating on her with her best friend. When she gets home the box seems to detect her anguish and goad her more than ever before. Too emotionally weak to resist it, she lets it take her in. The box commands her to open it on the people who betrayed her, and she does it.

But when she opens the box, it’s in a dark room. And so who she thinks is her boyfriend turns out to be his cousin, Ethan. Ethan, who had nothing to do with all of it, absorbs what is left of the jar. The thing that could never be let out: hopelessness.

Now, Penny and Ethan have to figure out how to get it back in the jar, before it spreads to all of humanity. It’s already taking over Ethan, making the eternal optimist see the world as bleak and dark. If it spreads, it could mean the end of all hope, all faith, all dreams. Everything that keeps people living will be lost. Forever.

@ Fredtheflyingfish. A modern retelling of Pandora's Box does sound interesting. I'd definitely put that on my reading list. There is plenty of scope for the box tempting Penny in the early stages of the story. The only thing I think may cause a problem is Ethan's character becoming unlikable after he is effected by the hoplessness. You'll need to show that without making him too depressing to the reader. I hope you can manage the challenge because it is definitely a story I'd like to look at.

Now for my story:

Olivia Stone is ten years old, a student at St. Giles Old Priory School and a defender of the city against all the nightmarish creatures that slip across the shadow path. Olivia used to be popular, until the accident. Now the other kids think she is strange and Brother Westerman Carver calls her an abomination.

Trouble with Trixies is the first installment of "The Guardians of St. Giles."

All the gargoyles have been taken down from the roof of St. Giles Old Priory School after one fell and injured a student. Now there are no guardians to protect Haven from the creatures who slip across the shadow path. Olivia’s injuries have robbed her of her confidence and she has developed a rare disorder that is turning her skin to stone. To make matters worse, she could be going mad. She hears whispers inside her head whenever she is near the maintenance storeroom. The whispers are coming from Yip, the tiny gargoyle who caused her accident and left the Trixies to run loose in the city. He needs Olivia to break him out of the storeroom so he can make amends.

Although usually loners and minor mischief makers, something has rallied the Trixies into a pack large enough to wreak havoc on the streets of Haven. Yip needs to convince Olivia to help him stop the creatures. Olivia and Yip soon realise they can’t do it alone. The only person they can turn to for help is old Brother Westerman Carver, a ninety-two year old former teacher who believes it is an abomination that girls are even allowed to attend St. Giles School.

Can Olivia and Yip discover how to out-trick the Trixies.

@jefferyedoherty: I love the sound of that! I would definitely give it a read. It's nice to see a story with a gargoyle sidekick (at least that's what Yip sounds like - nice name btw). Reminds me of Scree from Primal, and I loved that. The whole thing is a great premise and set up for any number of possible storylines and threats. The only thing I don't like the sound of is the misogynistic sounding ninety-two year old religious guy, Carver. He sounds like the kind of character that I would really hate, and unless he was handled well he might put me off reading altogether.

Here's mine:

Simon Laplace lost his parents to a fire two years ago. It was no accident. They were murdered by a cabal of sorcerers named Faust - men who quite literally sell their souls for power. With the help of his demon servant Mr. Scratch, Simon hunts the members of Faust down one by one in order to exact revenge. Scotland Yard aren't about to stand idly by while he does this however, and have enlisted the help of occult detective Thomas Carnacki, who is hot on his trail. What follows is a lethal game of cat and mouse that will take every ounce of cunning and resourcefulness Simon has if he is to evade the police and complete his vigilante mission.

A historical fantasy story set in 19th century Victorian London, inspired by various Faustian works and adaptations.

@Lempicka. I love historical fantasies. I like the name of your MC and revenge stories are usually pretty easy to like. Who hasn't wanted to exact vengence on someone or other. It will be interesting to discover what was special about Simon's parents to warrant the wrath of the cabal. Use all your sensory writing. You need to capture the sounds and especially the smells of Victorian London. Good luck with it.

It's strange but I really like Brother Westerman's character. He has taught at an all boys school his entire adult life then the school board lets girls in... He's a cranky old goat and he's part antagonist - part helper to Olivia and Yip. He's also the last of the Guardian's of St. Giles and he's allowed the gargoyles (grotesques, actually) to be taken down. He's a very flawed character - I think thats why I like him.

@ fredtheflyingfish - I love Pandora's box! That is so neat, I would definitely want to read that.How much will you be pulling from the Greek myth to tie things together? (Just curious)

@jefferyedoherty - Interesting premise. I rather like the concept. I'll be watching for more! :)

So here's mine. It's kind of short, but I don't want to give too much away. :) :

Working Title: Finding Prince Charming

This is a sequel to last year's novel Charming Academy (for more on that see the website link in my profile). It is a retelling of The Frog Prince.

When Adrian disappeared from school at the Winter Ball, his princess, Allegra, was heartbroken and angry. In a twist of fate it would be she going on a quest rather than her prince. As she finishes her final year at Fair Damsel's Academy for Young Ladies, Allegra must come to terms with the nature of her quest and prepare herself to break the spell holding Adrian captive. But first, she must find him in the most unlikely place of all. When she does, will Allegra be able to overcome her greatest fears and be the heroine of her own fairy tale? Or is Adrian stuck as he is forever?

@pianogirl101: Your story sounds really interesting! I love stories with strong female leads. It's definitely something I'd read.

Here's mine:

Title: The Albion Bridge

Twelve-year-old Jack lives with his grandfather, author of the fantasy series set in the realm of Eberum. In this fictional world, civil war ravages the realm as the traitorous Brotherhood threatens the rightful ruler, King Mathias, and the young hero restores order to the realm by killing Alastor Atheron, leader of the Brotherhood and pretender to the throne. The best-selling books have found their way to the heart of the nation.
When his grandfather is kidnapped, Jack learns one of the biggest secrets of all time: Eberum is not the fictional world of his grandfather's stories, but in fact a very real and very dangerous world parallel to our own. Jack's grandfather is more than just a storyteller, he is the hero of the Eberum tales.
But the realm of Eberum is not quite the way Jack's grandfather described it. There is something wrong in Eberum, and when Jack has a run-in with the Brotherhood he discovers that the antagonists of his grandfather's stories, the ones his grandfather helped defeat so many years ago, are not the traitorous rebels his grandfather described. Led by rightful heir to the throne Alodia Atheron, a bitter girl still mourning the death of her father, they seek to restore balance to the realm.
Can Jack right his grandfather's wrongs, restore the rightful heir to the throne, and save his grandfather in the process?

@underredskies. That sounds so cool. Is it weird that it briefly reminded me of Yu-Gi-Oh? It looks like it could be filled with delicious plot-twists. If I read that on the back cover of a book, I would really be interested. (I also noticed that you're a Nerdfighter... DFTBA).

Title: Destroy Yourself (Working title for now. Subject to change).

The year is 2094. Society is encouraged to have low opinions of themselves. Rebel forces are imprisoned daily by a brutal system of justice. Sixteen-year-old Dust Scane, from a wealthy family, joins the elaborate prison guard system, in hopes of following in his dead sister's footsteps. Fifteen-year-old Hollow, born and raised in a prison, spends her days plotting her way to freedom. When Hollow's newest escape attempt goes horribly wrong, the two are forced to work together when they become players in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.

@ASongInMyHead: It sounds interesting, but I want more information! I'm curious to know more about this prison system, and what exactly forces Dust and Hollow to work together. But it certainly sounds like a cool dystopia to play with.

Title: Shift [Not enamored with it. At all]

"Magic is changing. My siblings are reacting. And few of them have ever cared about the human body count. Someone should." But no matter how many confusing, vaguely prophetic dreams she has, that is all the crossroads god will tell Val -- all he claims he can tell her, since it's his sister who prophesies. And whether he's lying or not, he won't say what he wants out of her.

Not that Val is any stranger to fulfilling roles she doesn't want or know how to fill. She's under enormous pressure to be her father's son, her convictions about her own gender be damned, and as the only child of the duke's with the necessary reproductive equipment to inheret, she's tried -- with little success -- to make peace with the role. But she can't even fathom why the god is targeting her, a teenage confidant of the crown prince of Kerrowyn, when there are sorcerers and magic peddlers all over the Orchestan Sea who have noticed something is amiss.

But gods are persistant. The phase goddess adds prophecy to the dreams, giving her something to work with and virtually guaranteeing she acts alone -- because, as gratifying as it is for two deities to address her as a woman, few mortals are going to see said prophecy her way.

@KatBrown: My big question is why is she doing this if she doesn't want to? Does she feel like she owes Michael, or is he somehow forcing her to do this?

@MarcyT: I love your title, but your summary doesn't really tell me much about the book. You give us a list of characters, but absolutely nothing about the actual conflict.

@vmullen: Sounds interesting. It reminds me that I still need to try "The Looking Glass Wars". I really like how you use "Alice" as a term for travelers

@Fredtheflyingfish: Love the idea of Pandora's box still being around. I'm a bit apprehensive about her accidentally hitting her cousin instead of her ex-boyfriend because it was too dark to see, but that's the type of thing that might work much better in prose than it sounds in a brief summary.

@jefferyedoherty: Major props for the gargoyle lore. This sounds like it could be a really great adventure series.

@Lempicka: I'd definitely give it a chance. If you haven't already, I'd recommend you try to find some stories where the main character straddles the line between hero and anti-hero and see what you can learn from them.

@pianogirl101: I would read this in a heartbeat. It sounds like a great deconstruction of the fairy tale story.

@underredskies: While I admit I'm not terribly well read in YA (something I'm working on fixing), I don't think I've heard of many stories doing the whole Narnia thing lately. It sounds like your doing some deconstruction at the same time, with his grandfather not being the hero he made himself out to be.

So, my turn

Title: Angel Falls

Emily's had a crisis of faith ever since her brother returned from Afghanistan a different man. But things start to change one day when they find three winged beings not far from Angel Falls. These angels have no memory of who they are, but Emily is determined to help them.
Emily's search for answers about the angles will only lead her to more questions, not just about the angels, but herself and everything she knows. Once word about the angels leaks out, things can only get worse. And there's something else lurking near Angel Falls - something decidedly not angelic.

@Beacon80: I wouldn't read it, but mostly because that's just not my genre. But you definitely have elements in there that are strong. The brother's PTSD or whatever is afflicting him is a nice trigger for a crisis of faith. Discovering something secret about the world, something that could radically change society's conception of what the world is, has powerful implications, especially since that enlarged conception of the world comes with a dark side (the "something else lurking") to mirror what Emily has discovered. As story elements go, those are pretty good. What feels missing to me in everything after the first sentence is the brother. How does Emily's discovery, and the aftermath of it, involve him?

Ultimately you need to resolve her crisis of faith, right? Because that was the central issue brought up in the beginning. To do so, the rest of the plot needs to affect that central issue in some way that can bring it to a resolution. So, how do the angels and the "something lurking" affect him? Can they help heal him from the war? Or if not heal him, at least bring him peace? Can there be a tie-in there, that in some way allows Emily to restore her faith? If so, then I think you have the makings for a pretty good story.

Mine:

Nebraska Territory, 1863. Ten-year-old Maria Browning, the American-born daughter of German immigrants, befriends a wild horse on the grassland prairie surrounding her family's homestead along the Platte River. Little does she know that corrupt railroad baron Thomas Durant has his own designs on the family's idyllic stretch of riverfront. Beseiged by Durant's dirty-tricks campaign to drive them and other nearby homesteaders off the land they've worked so hard to make their own, Maria discovers that she and Pebblehoof hold the key to upsetting Durant's nefarious plans.

Yes, this is a "girl and her horse save the farm" novel, set in the old west. I'm writing it as a birthday present for my niece, who loves horses almost more than breathing, and I do hope she likes it. :)

@ Beacon80 I'm not usually into angels and the like. It depends on how much religon and God comes into play. I don't like being preached at. It could be interesting to see where these angels come from though and just what what they will/can do.


I guess it is my turn.

The story starts of with children and teens waking up one morning to find that the world has been destroyed. They have no idea as to how it got this way, but is has obviously been that way for some time. Everyone over sixteen and younger than eight is presumed dead (They are dead in fact, as there are piles of charred remains left in streets. Literally piles, like someone dumped them there) Oddly enough, they were left untouched. In fact, when they woke up they were still in their beds. Their houses had either burned down or been destroyed yet their bedroom and bed where left oddly untouched.

Along with trying to survive and figure out what happened, some of the kids start discovering powers. Along with said powers though, they begin to change. The changes are not physical, but psychological. They start to turn mean and violent. They want to cause harm and they start developing a downright hatred for the kids without powers.

The story will likely focus on a fourteen year old girl and how she deals with the whole ordeal, as well as her just trying to adapt to the new world. I have a plot idea where her best friend starts developing powers and turning against her. No love intrest between tem thankfully.

I am going go ahead and spill a big secret. Aliens are behind it. The whole reason behind all this is experimentation. Think of it as a huge science experiment. They wanted to see what children would do if left in control of the world. To them we are nothing more than lab rats, something to be studied. As for the powers, I haven’t decided if that should be accidental or on purpose due to them wanting a variable in the experiment. The children under eight where deemed to be to much of a hassle. They didn't want kids being mommies and daddies.


The aliens don't pla ya huge part. It is more about the kids coming to grips and trying to adapt to the new world. There will be clues left behind that suggest "aliens" are behind but they will not play an active role for the most part. They are more keem to sit back and watch.

@cloister: Sounds like an excellent birthday present. [I know it would be right up my little sister's ally.] I do like the little details in the summary, of geography and time period.

@Agent Pendergast: Sounds intriguing, and certainly a situation that will force change out of the characters -- fast. I do like that it's about the kids and not the alien experimentation, and just trying to sort through the logistics of society should make for an interesting tale.

Mine is still a couple posts above/on my profile, and I could use a good critique.

@Agent Pendergast: It wasn't really a secret that aliens were behind it. What other explanation would fit the oddly un-touched bedrooms and piles of bodies, especially if done on a planet-wide scale? Has to be aliens. :) That said, the powers should be an accident, if for no other reason than experimental design. If you're doing an experiment, you control as many factors as you can in order to make the effect of the thing you're investigating stand out more clearly. If the aliens wanted to see how kids would react to suddenly being in control of the world, then they would do that but leave _as much as possible_ otherwise unaltered. Hence, no powers.

Now, if the kids suddenly developed powers anyway, well, that would be a very interesting experimental result, wouldn't it? :)

But that kind of thinking also suggests that the setup for the story should change a bit, too. Since the aliens have all this power, why kill all the parents and burn all the houses? What if everybody outside of the aliens experimental parameters simply... vanished? Leave all the infrastructure intact. It's the minimum amount of intervention which still puts the kids in charge. I can see the dead bodies thing as sensible if it were important to the aliens that the kids know, for sure, that the grownups weren't coming back. After all, their behavior would be different if they thought they were in a temporary situation versus a permanent one. Food for thought, anyway.

Now, since apparently we both posted at the same time after @Beacon80, somebody scroll up a ways and critique mine, eh? :)

@cloister: Definitely not my genre, but I hope your niece likes it.

I'm a discovery writer, so while I'm pretty sure her brother will be an important part of the story (if not, I'll have to edit him out and re-engineer her crisis of faith), I don't know entirely how it will effect him yet. It's definitely something I'll be keeping in mind as I write, though, and I should probably retool my summary to reflect that better.

@Agent Pendergast: This got my attention, if for no other reason than I've had a similar idea (aliens mess with the Earth just to see what happens). I think having the aliens in such a distant position is likely to make getting a satisfactory resolution to the story more difficult, but if you can do it, it'll be that much more rewarding.

I'm not a fan of preachy books, either. I'm actually agnostic, and this story idea kind of caught me by surprise. My basic mentality going in to this is that while Emily is searching for answers, the story is going to me more focused on presenting the right questions to ask. I'm not sure where she'll be by the end of this, but I'm not going to give her an easy answer.

@vmullen - I have to say I read Alice in Wonderland and thought snap. XD But mine's different from yours.

I really like your summary there, it definately sounds interesting although if Wonderland is hosted on servers, is it all online then? And how many Alices are there?

@underredskies - This definately sounds interesting! I'm guessing that the Albion Bridge is something that links the two worlds? Since that's your title and it's not mentioned in the summary at all? But there definately seems like a lot could happen in it. :D

Mine:

Title: The Un-damsel in distress [temporary]

Summary:

"Little Red Riding Hood was stupid to get eaten by that wolf. And she wouldn't have been saved. If she'd been swallowed, she would have been DEAD."

Alice Lewis was a very frank child. She grew up in a normal house-hold, with her parents, two brothers and a cat in a very normal town in England. From the day that she could talk, she argued and from the age that she could read, her nose was always deep in a book. But not fairytales. Not Children's books. Rapunzel was too stupid, Cinderalla was too weak and Alice in Wonderland - oh, Alice Lewis did wonder at how stupid a girl could be!

This was when Winifred came in. White horses, dashing princes, dragons and damsels-in-distress, Winfred was everything Alice was not. So when Alice insults Winifred's favourite heroine, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, she was in for a surprise when she wakes up in her very own, and slightly more sinister Underland where everything is not as it seems and Alice is about to get taught a lesson of her own. Fairytales aren't all as happy as they seem and one might be sure that Alice will be glad of a prince, or two to come and save her, when the going gets tough! Being a heroine isn't all as easy as it seems.

Certainly there's one important lesson to learn from this all; how can one ever grow out of happily-ever-afters?

@KatBrown - It sounds really interesting, and I would definitely read it, although I'm not sure what it's a retelling of.

@MarcyT - Sounds interesting, but very vague. And from your title (and part of your description), it would seem like this book is told from the point of view of the father, so I'm wondering if it maybe shouldn't be YA/Youth?

@vmullen - Very cool! I'd definitely read it! I love Alice in Wonderland stuff, and this story sounds really cool!

@fredtheflyingfish - That is a really cool idea! I'd love to read that one, too! You could go a whole lot of different ways with that story!

@jefferyedoherty - Oooh, gargoyles! Sounds cool! A very clever new idea, I think!

@Lempicka - I really enjoy Faust stories, and this sounds cool! Have you ever seen the movie The Phantom of the Paradise? It's a kind of rock opera from the 70s that plays on both Faust and The Phantom of the Opera. A bit weird, but a very cool film!

@pianogirl101 - That's cool that you did a retelling of The Frog Prince! I'd be interested in reading the first book and the second as well!

@underredskies - Hey, I'm a fellow Nerdfighter! DFTBA! I like your story idea, it sounds really cool! I'd definitely read it!

@ASongInMyHead - Another Nerdfighter! DFTBA! Oooh, I really like your plot idea, and I love the names Dust and Hollow! I would love to read this someday!

@Loki Mischief-Maker - I like the whole gender identity thing! It could make for a very cool story and I'd be interested to read it!

@Beacon80 - I like the fact that the main character is undecided about her faith. That could create a lot of tension and interesting twists, since she's helping angels. Cool idea!

@cloister - Sounds like a very cute story for your niece, and if I had a daughter I'd steer her right towards it!

@AgentPendergast - Very cool idea! One of my favorite books that I read in 6th grade (and I still love it to this day - I adapted it into a screenplay for Script Frenzy '09) is The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson. In it, all children over the age of 13 I think have died from a virus. And the story is all about how some of the kids turn to gangs and steal from the other kids, etc. But I love your twist on this idea. The powers and the alien experiment. Sounds great and I'd definitely read it!


Okay, now for mine.

Working Title: The Moirai

Seventeen-year-old Prudence “Pru” Hartley wants to follow in her father's footsteps and become a political journalist. Well, at least, that's what her father wants. But Pru doesn't know the first thing about politics or investigative journalism, and she can't seem to get over her innate shyness. Plus, her father is THE political journalist in the tri-state area, and has recently published an article so controversial that news stations all over the U.S. are calling him for interviews. So, no pressure or anything.

So, in her senior year in high school, Pru has joined her school paper. But now her editor, being a huge fan of Pru's father, has given her an impossible assignment: interview the presidential candidate when he comes to town. Pru's got connections after all, doesn't she? Luckily Mr. Hartley has agreed to accompany Pru to the rally, but makes no promises that he'll be able to get her an interview.

But Pru never gets the chance to prove herself, because on the way to the rally, she and her father get into a horrific car accident that proves fatal to Mr. Hartley and leaves Pru in a coma for months. Pru awakes from the coma to find a mysterious woman by her side, who claims to be part of a group called The Moirai. She says that Pru has been “chosen,” and therefore has been “given a Destiny.” Pru has no time to grieve for her father. Instead, she must figure out three things. Who is this woman, who are The Moirai, and for what, exactly, has Pru been chosen?

@takecare - Sorry, I was typing mine when you wrote yours, but I think it's a cool idea. I really enjoy the retelling of fairy tales, and I think yours is cool because it seems to include several different stories within one book. I'd definitely like to read it!