A warm welcome to author Rhys Ethan joining us today here at Love Bytes
Rhys talks about his fairy Tale release “Snow White & the Seven Angles” , shares an excerpt and there is also a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome Rhys Ethan 🙂

Title: Snow White & the Seven Angels
Series: Queerky Tales
Author: Rhys Ethan
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale, LGBT, Retelling, Kids’ Books
Length: Novella

The classic tales you know, the characters with secrets you don’t 
Synopsis
White has a secret. One he has shared with his family to no avail. When he meets the Prince of his dreams, he decides he can no longer live a lie, but in order to do so, he will have to face his worst nightmares.

Queerky Tales is a series of classic fairy tales retold with LGBT characters. Snow White & the Seven Angels is about fighting for your happy-ever-after, whatever shape it comes in.

For children and adults alike.

Buy Links

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon AU
Amazon DE

Paperback

Amazon
CreateSpace

“The Boy Who Wanted A Happy Ever After”

When people used to ask me how steamy my fairy tales are and my answer being “no steam, no smoke whatsoever”, their next question was why fairy tales? Why retellings and why for kids?

“There’s no market for them.”

“People want to read sexy romances.”

“Kids can’t read that much.”

“Schools would never allow them in their libraries.”

Those are all the things I’ve heard as criticism or comments about Queerky Tales. Well, today, I’m going to shed the light on why on earth a grown man would retell lesbian, trans and gay fairy tales for children.

Growing up, not so surprisingly, I loved reading. When I asked my mom while in my teens why I loved reading so much and why I had so many books, her response made me think. She told me “We were always reading to you when you were a baby and a toddler”. Now the reason that made me question myself was because my memories didn’t correspond to that story. Whenever I tried to remember a time when they’d read to me, I couldn’t. Not to say they were lying, but I just didn’t have that recollection. But at the same time I always remember myself with one book or the other, always reading ahead of my age range. Before I started nursery, I could read and write and before I turned 11 I was reading murder mysteries aimed at young adults. So, me not remembering my parents reading to me, might have had something to do with the fact that I started reading on my own when I was very young. Somehow I never progressed to adult fiction until I became an actual adult, partly because I found the genre boring and unimaginative and partly because children’s fiction appealed to the creative raging child still inside of me.

You see I loved, and still do, fantasy. It was my escape from the harsh reality I had to face daily at school. Yes, I did have my friends, far and few in between, but they could do little to shun me from a batallion of apathetic, intolerant classmates when they were only beginning to establish who they were themselves. Reading was my escape from an environment of name-calling, mockery, threats and hostility.

Looking back now, none of the books I read when I was younger really spoke to the person that was hiding inside, battling to fit in. My favorite faiy tale was one called “The Little Duck Who Didn’t Like Its Feet” by a Greek story-teller. The story was a simple one, the young duckling goes on a journey to try and change its yellow feet into something that makes him feel at home. As a closeted, gay child that was as far as it went to having my feelings explained. At least, there was a happy ending. But when the hormones kicked in and I started feeling the need for companionship, the mere thought of being with someone of the same-sex made me feel like I was sick and in need of therapy. Which I did go through. Just a couple of sessions. On which the psychologist tried to deduce my homosexuality by a series of ink images and what I made of them and by asking me, a shy, insecure, 12-year-old boy whether I masturbated. So, of course after that, I was having none of it. That had only been the beginning of my long journey to accepting myself. I moved countries, changed lifestyles, found myself and lost it again but eventually I came to being happier with myself than I’d ever been.

And having found myself, it killed me that thousands of other kids had to go through the same or even worse things. Now I’m not a superhero, or a figure with lots of power, but if there’s one place where I can be both, it’s on paper. And so the idea came to my mind while watching “Once Upon A Time” and thinking “where are the gay couples? Where are the lesbians?” and I knew I had to rewrite these classics and make them relatable to my peers, my generation, my brothers and sisters who had never felt like they belonged and give them the happy ever after that would probably speak to their hearts in a better way than the original ones.

I know the market for fairy tales is not big, but if there has been one child out there who has read them and brought them home, then I care not about the market, because I’ve been succesful. Kids can read more than we give them credit for and more schools are accepting the reality and adding LGBT books in their school libraries. That might not be as big in the USA yet, but I’ve seen a drastic change in the UK and the rest of Europe. And if you want to read a sexy romance, perhaps the Queerky Tales are not for you. If on the other hand, you want to read how the one true love and the happy ever after comes in fairy tales for us queers, than by all means this series is for you.

When she opened her eyes again, she was buried in snow, seven angels standing in a circle around her.

‘She’s awake,’ one angel cheered, jumping up and down.

‘Sh…don’t scare it,’ another one shushed.

‘What’s your name, pretty one?’ a third angel said. They all looked similar. All wearing green and brown garments and wings the colour of the clouds.

White lifted herself from the ground, dusting the snow off of her.

‘How are you feeling, dear?’ another one asked.

White nodded. ‘I, uhm, don’t know. What happened?’ she enquired.

An angel explained, ‘You, my dear, almost died. But not before you called for help. And like the good seven angels that we are, we came to your rescue.’

‘Thank you,’ White said looking around her to all the angels.

‘You’re welcome…and what would your name be?’

White still hadn’t announced her name and with good reason. After all that had happened to her, she didn’t know what her name was. White was a person who had been rejected by her mother and had almost died. She had died. And now she was born again with the help of the seven angels. A new name seemed fitting.

‘I’m…’ she said looking around her. The snow had covered the entire forest. It wasn’t the eerie, dark place she had been scared of the night before. Today, snow made everything look beautiful.

‘I’m Snow,’ she decided and her lips carved into a smile.

Prize: $5 Amazon Gift Card

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Rhys Christopher Ethan is by no means a scientist, but he is an architect of his own fantasy worlds; an illustrator of emotional and multi-dimensional characters; a doctor of creativity and inspiration and a chemist of genres; mixing two or more, to find the perfect fit for his creations. He lives in a small, dusty lab he calls Home in London and works hard to bring his experiments out into the world. His companions (for now) are his pet-Laptop and his coffee-Booster and a bunch of notes, digitized and paper-wise. He voices his obsessions on his website http://www.rcethan.com, rants on twitter @Rhys_Ethan, shares messages on facebook.com/rcethan1 and pins his muses on pinterest.com/rcethan. You can contact him at rhysethan@hotmail.co.uk, or if you’re telepathic, he will probably meet you in your dreams.