Thursday, July 29, 2010

Nyxen Interviews Alexandra Bracken

Today I am giving you an interview from Alexandra Bracken, author of Brightly Woven! I'm so excited to have her on the blog so let's get started!

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1) Thank you Alexandra for doing this interview! In honor of Fairytale Week here at Nyxen's Adventure, what are your top five favorite fairytales?


AB: Thank you for having me! :) I have to confess my fairy tale tastes are wide and somewhat varied... I hope you don't mind me using a "loose" definition of the genre and going global on you!


1. Beauty and the Beast
2. Hansel and Gretel
3. The Goose Girl
4. The Snow Queen
5. East of the Sun and West of the Moon



2) As a kid, did your parents read you fairytales often?

AB: This may come as a surprise, but not really. I didn't actively seek them out. Disney movies, yes, because let's face it--I grew up in the golden age of Disney and later experience an extreme let down when I realized I wasn't guaranteed a head full of fabulous hair and a handsome prince. When I was younger, I was REALLY into Greek mythology since I'm Greek from my mom's side of the family. Fairy tales always seemed so much smaller in scope and far less epic--I didn't come around to them until much later, when I finally discovered how deliciously dark the original tales are.

3) If you could be apart of any fairytale, which would it be?

AB: That's tough! The first one that leapt to mind was East of the Sun and West of the Moon, because it involves all of my favorite story elements: a girl with gumption, an epic journey, curses, and love. Though, honestly, I have to confess that I wouldn't mind being in the Goose Girl story--if only because I love the taste of sweet, sweet revenge. ;)

4) Which fairytales gave you the most fright as a kid?

AB: The Red Shoes REALLY freaked me out as a kid, even more than Hansel and Gretel and the whole yummy-delicious-kiddies element of that story. I know The Red Shoes technically has a "happy" ending, but damn did it give me nightmares. Feet gross me out in general, so the idea of severed feet in these red party shoes following me around gave me nightmares. I didn't own a pair of red shoes until I was in Middle School...

5) Brightly Woven is your debut novel that is now out. While writing it, did you feel like you were writing your own fairytale?

AB: In the sense that I was writing a story about magic, or in the sense that I felt like was writing my own personal fairytale for myself (with the happily ever after being the moment I first saw my book on the shelves)? Both are true!

6) And one last question before you go. Could you tell us about a memory you had when you younger that involved fairytales?


AB: This is probably cheating, but one of my earliest memories was the day I went to see Beauty and the Beast with my family in the movie theater. I was maybe four at the time, and my sister and were so scared of the scene with the wolves that we hid behind our seats and my mom had to bring us outside until we were finished crying.

2 comments:

  1. What a great interview. I recently read Brightly Woven and really enjoyed the novel. Definitely can't wait for more from Bracken.

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  2. Lovely interview. I have not yet read Brightly Woven, but I'm looking forward to reading it-- I've heard good things about it! :)

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