Hello, and welcome back to the blog for Tattered Slippers day three! Today, we are welcoming into the world Poison's Dance, the third book in Tricia Mingerink's Beyond the Tales series. To celebrate, I have another author interview for y'all, but first, a little bit about the book and author.

About . . .

Poison's Dance

Beyond the Tales #3
If he falls to the lure of the curse, the dance might trap him forever.

Alex has survived his first year as high king. The new counsel has improved cooperation between the kingdoms, and peace seems achievable. When the Tuckawassee queen sends him an invitation he can’t refuse, Alex must once again face his greatest threat for the sake of peace.

Princess Tamya of Tuckawassee, along with her eleven sisters, has danced from sunset until sunrise every night of her life. It is her gift and her curse. When Queen Valinda wishes to use the power their cursed dance gives them to rule all of Tallahatchia, Tamya must decide if she will do what is right even if it betrays her own sister.

Daemyn Rand has survived a hundred years' worth of battles. All he wants to do now is safely marry his princess. Will he be forced to choose between the love of his life and the high king he has loyally served for years?

They have faced certain death before. This time, they might not make it out alive.

Don’t miss this re-envisioning of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale.

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

Tricia Mingerink

Tricia Mingerink is a twenty-something, book-loving, horse-riding country girl. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn't writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.

Find her online at: Website || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Amazon

The Tattered Slippers

The Tattered Slippers are six retellings of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale, each one fantastical and magical. You don't want to miss any of them! You can learn more about the books and find the full tour schedule on the tour page.

The Tattered Slippers are the result of the 2019 Arista Challenge. The Arista Challenge is hosted by Kendra E. Ardnek; it invites fairy tale authors to come together in community as they work on unique retellings of a selected fairy tale.

Interview with Tricia Mingerink

Hello, Tricia! Welcome to the blog! To start out, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Who you are, favorite hobbies (other than writing), favorite books (outside your own), coffee or tea?

I'm Tricia Mingerink, author of The Blades of Acktar (a Christian YA kingdom adventure series) and Beyond the Tales (a fairy tale retelling series). I live in Michigan, but I love taking camping trips throughout the United States, especially anywhere that has mountains and waterfalls. Other hobbies...reading, I guess. I don't have time for other hobbies right now, lol. Some of my favorite authors are K.M. Shea, Melanie Cellier, W.R. Gingell, and J.M. Stengl, just to name a few. Coffee or Tea? Neither. I'm a Mountain Dew girl all the way.

Ooh, I didn't know you were a fellow W.R. Gingell fan! That's so cool! Where did you get the initial idea for Poison’s Dance? And were there any other sources of inspiration along the way?

I had the idea for Poison's Dance all the way back when I was writing Dagger's Sleep (book 1 in the series). I love the 12 Dancing Princesses fairy tale and knew I wanted to retell it. The various versions of the 12 DP tale provided a lot of the inspiration. Some versions have the princesses poisoning or drugging the princes and soldiers who try to figure out why they are dancing. Sometimes princes end up stuck with the princesses dancing (and the princesses marry all the princes in the end). In some versions, it is a prince who discovers why they are dancing while in other versions, it is a common soldier. I took elements from many of these versions to craft my retelling, which has both a prince and a commoner figuring out the curse and trying to avoid being poisoned/drugged.

My other main source of inspiration is all the hiking trips I have done, which have provided lots of ideas for the setting of my books. Many of the waterfalls in Beyond the Tales are based on real waterfalls in the Appalachian Mountains.

What were some of the most challenging parts of writing this book, and how did you deal with those challenges?

The most challenging part was balancing the number of characters, since there are 12 sisters that I had to keep track of and develop to various extents. I also had to make sure the nights of dancing didn't end up feeling repetitive. In my first draft, I was so afraid of the nights feeling redundant that I cut a night. It ended up throwing the natural progression of the book off, and I added it back in during edits thanks to very helpful suggestions from my dad.

Ah, I love it when family is able to help with storytelling. So, almost any retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses will necessarily have at least some emphasis on music and dancing. Are there any particular songs that you associate with this book?

The soundtrack to the Barbie 12 DP movie, lol. The music in the Barbie movies is surprisingly amazing, and I adore that music of that one.

I will agree with that, honestly. At this point, you’re a pretty well-established and well-respected author in the Christian indie fantasy sphere. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in this sphere?

Make sure you do your research so that you can put out a professional book inside and out. Connect with other Christian indie fantasy authors and treat those fellow authors with respect. Be prepared to do a lot of marketing. And, most importantly, pray about your writing. You're going to hit a lot of walls of exhaustion and burn out and disappointment and struggles while writing. Pray that God gives you the strength to write the words that He wants you to write for His glory.

That sounds like very good advice. As we get to the end of the interview, let's have a more fun question: if you could spend twenty-four hours with one of your characters from Poison’s Dance, either in their world or ours, who would you pick and how would you spend it?

I would want to go hiking through Tallahatchia with Daemyn, though I would probably want Rosanna along because that would just make it awesome.

Oooh, that would be fun. Finally, now that Poison’s Dance is out in the world, what can we expect to see from you next?

Up next is book 4 in the Beyond the Tales series, which is a Goose Girl/Wild Swans retelling. I also have a Bluebeard/Robin Hood retelling that will be coming out as a novella sometime in 2021, though the details are a secret yet until I have the ok to share more.

That sounds awesome! I can't wait to find out more about both of those, especially the Bluebeard/Robin Hood story! Thanks for sharing with us!

And thanks to everyone for reading! So, are you excited for Poison's Dance? Please tell me in the comments! And don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops!
Thanks for reading!