THE STORYBOOK CORONER Press Release
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(Leading) Questions:
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Why is the Storybook series so exciting to the entertainment industry?
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Storybook is uniquely poised to involve any mythological or fictional character, either in the public domain, or original.
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For mythical mashups, we can look to Neil Gaiman's wonderful American Gods, or perhaps Tom Robbin's classic Jitterbug Perfume. For fictional character mashups we can certainly look to the Marvel multi-universe, and even fictional 'takes' like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.
As far as we know, Storybook is the only 'world' that brings all these possibilities together.
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Like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series with 'the Witches' and 'the Guards' and 'Death' as subseries, Storybook can have (for example) a 'Valhalla' and 'Fables' and 'Horror' subseries.
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Add to this a central love-at-only-sight romance with our hero and heroine impossibly sundered-- but prophesied to unite our mortal world following the end of days-- and we've got a winning series with broad interest from YA to the YAH (young at heart) of all ages and demographics.
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(Biggest trends from the London book fair: Greek myths rumble on, Women in dark scenarios... Article from The Guardian)
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How do you classify the Storybook series?
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The characters are all fantastical, so fantasy is always our general classification, and the storytelling elements involve humorous, literary, mythological, romantic, and horror classifications.
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Are the next Storybooks already in the works?
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Yes and no. There are already a great many characters and threads sketched out, but the next books won't begin in earnest until more public reaction has been learned from the first book.
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Since we don't establish "The End" (the realm where storybook characters go when they die) until "The End" of the first book, we are most likely looking to pick up with storybook characters (as opposed to gods) as the predominant subplot for the next book(s).
That said, both fictional and mythological characters will almost certainly be involved in any Storybook, since Persephone (our heroine, 'the nameless lady') is imprisoned in Hades, and Max (our hero, 'the man with the moustache') cannot leave 'The End' without breaking the laws of physics.
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A few favorite characters that have been sketched out for potential inclusion in next books include:
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- The Witch from Hansel and Gretel who is having an existential crisis ('am I really evil, or is this just the function I fill, and if so, why is evil necessary...')
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- 'The Snow Queen of Summer' a riff from H.C. Andersen's 'The Snow Queen' where we see her struggle to find purpose-- possibly, suicidally so-- when there is no snow. This may lend itself to an eco-angle, but we lean towards featuring 'the mirror' in the story that shows only the worst in its reflections. ​
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- 'I'm the one whose name you can't remember' an original character; 'everyman POV' and/or a valuable 'bridge' between realms.
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- Fluffy Bunny also original, an absolutely adorable fluffy bunny from a fictitious best-seller 'Fluffy Bunny Loses His Carrots Every Time You Open This Book;' when Fluffy Bunny isn't gamboling in an illustration, he is an aggressive revolutionary bent on taking down The Hare's regime (from Aesop's Tortoise and The Hare).
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And on the god-side, we'd like to introduce some lesser-known religions (including Raëlism, the largest UFO religion = sci-fi), and establish some characters we've only alluded to the in first book: the biggies mentioned are Zeus & Hera, The Muses, Thor & Sif, Worldserpent, Fenrir the Wolf, and Hel (Loki's kids).
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What is the central question behind Storybook?
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What happens to storybook characters when they die?
Can we learn more about the gods' plans for humanity, by looking at what we do with our very own Creations?
(We believe every great story has a simple question to answer, and that this question holds an increasing fascination, charm, and worth in our post-post-modern worldviews.)
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Read the first chapter of The Storybook Coroner (book 1) HERE
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And remember: never turn down a sandwich.