Image courtesy of Walt Disney World News

Disney’s success in the theme park and resort industry has always come from their ability to tell a good story. We’ve seen the Walt Disney company raise visitor expectations several times over the decades,and now they’re doing it again with the introduction of interactive storytelling adventures in Walt Disney World.

The concept of immersing guests in a story is nothing new for Disney. The original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, the Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion…all iconic Disney rides that draw you into the story. Let’s face it, none of these are particularly exciting rides! The story is what makes them unforgetabble.

A few years ago, Disney begain experimenting with interactive storytelling with Toy Story Mania, which gives you the chance to play along as you ride through the attraction. But you’re still riding though, passively going at the attraction’s pace. You don’t have many choices – and that’s key to interactivity! The ability to choose, and to affect the outcome of a situation, is what makes Disney’s newest attractions really interesting.

Remember – and maybe I’m dating myself here, but whatver – those Choose Your Own Adventure books? (Or for you geeks out there – text adventures?) Yeah, this is like that. But with cool special effects. And magic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUZOEV_k46I

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom debuted in the summer of 2012 as the first interactive storytelling adventure at Disney World. Sometime in the summer of 2013, rumor has it that Pirates will invade the Magic Kingdom, searching for the lost Treasure of the Seven Seas! I can’t wait to try it out.

The technology looks very similar to that used at Magi Quest, a fantasy themed adventure game with franchises in several resorts and high-end malls throughout the U.S. In Magi Quest, you wave your wand at an item, which may be anything from a treasure chest to a suit of armor or a video screen, and something happens. (For you techies – a radio frequency chip inside the wand sends a signal to a receiver in the object, which triggers a pre-programed response.) It really is a lot like walking through a simple video game.

From the video, it looks like the Disney version of this experience involves small cards – which makes sense, a more permanent talisman like a wand would not be cost effective. Most peope who play through A Pirate’s Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas will do so once, maybe twice. Magi Quest has players who return regularly to raise through the ranks and complete high-level quests.

The boys being inducted into Jack Sparrow’s crew

Have you played Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, Disney’s first interactive storytelling adventure? What did you think?

The post Interactive Storytelling Adventures at Disney World – Now With Pirates! appeared first on Return to Disney.

Welcome to those of you joining me from Magical Mouse Schoolhouse and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 3rd stop on our Magical Blogorail. This month we’re taking you on a virtual tour of our favorite Disney parks. If you’ll step this way, we’ll head into my pick:

The Magic Kingdom

Photo courtesy of My Dreams of Disney

Magic Kingdom resonates with me because of its continuity. I visited Disneyland as a child, so when I stepped through those gates as an adult, it really did feel like coming home to a part of my life that was easier, more carefree. There is something truly magical about a place that can transport you across decades and miles the instant you step inside. (Thanks to My Dreams of Disney for providing the perfect picture!)

Main Street, U.S.A.

The magic begins on Main Street, U.S.A. Say all you like about the dangers of romanticizing a past that never really existed, and out there, in the real world of work and responsibilities, it’s probably true. But here, in this place, the rules are different. Indulge in dreams and visions! Remember a past that never existed outside this magical kingdom. It exists here, and they have ice cream. What more could you want?

Most people rush right through Main Street, U.S.A. on their way to the more exciting stuff within the park. There are no rides here. But I’ve always wanted to slow down and wander, really immerse in this part of the park. I didn’t bother as a kid at Disneyland, and wasn’t really able to as an adult at Walt Disney World, but I’m hoping to take a couple of hours on our next trip and just wander and pretend that the world of deadlines and traffic and meltdowns is just something in a book, that the true reality is here, in this place.

Fantasyland

Walk through the castle at the end of Main Street, and you’ll find yourself in Fantasyland. It has changed so much since I was there, and I can’t wait to explore the world of Beauty and the Beast on our next trip. (Yes, I know…there’s more to the new Fantasyland than Belle and Be Our Guest Restaurant, but Ariel never really grabbed my imagination the way Belle does.)

This has always been my favorite part of Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. For me, it’s always been about the stories, and my first stories were fairy tales. Fantasyland brings those old and treasured stories off the page and makes them so real!

Enchanted Tales with Belle

Liberty Square

Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom

I’ll admit, Liberty Square left me a bit disoriented, perhaps because it’s the one land in Magic Kingdom that does not have an analogue in Disneyland. The primary attraction in Liberty Square is the Haunted Mansion. At Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion stands in New Orleans Square – in my opinion, the original got it right! The Haunted Mansion seems out of place in Liberty Square, as though it’s just stuck there because there was room, not because it necessarily made sense for the story.

Frontierland

Frontierland is where we begin our tour of the Disney Mountains: Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain are both located in Frontierland. The Walt Disney World Railroad station, located between the Mountains, offers an opportunity to sit down and relax. I like to hop the train here, because by this point in the day I’ve gotten past the rush of “Oh my goodness, I’m back at Disney!” and am ready to get my bearings. The Walt Disney World Railroad runs around the perimiter of the Magic Kingdom, and gives guests a sense of where everything is.

Antique steam train on the Disney railroad

Adventureland

We’ll take a break from the Mountains in Adventureland. Here we’ll hit two iconic attractions: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jungle Cruise. Watch for Captain Jack Sparrow – he likes to recruit outside the Torguga Tavern!

Pirates!

Tomorrowland

 In tomorrowland, we finish our tour of the Disney Mountains with, of course, Space Mountain. I’ll be honest, of the three, this has always been my favorite – and the one I didn’t get to experience on our last trip! I took the younger kids to Fantasyland instead while Bill took the older kids to Space Mountain. Back in the early 90′s, during my “I’m too cool for Disneyland” teenage years, Space Mountain almost made up for the existance of costumed characters and kiddie rides!

Space Mountain

Thank you for joining me today. This concludes your tour of the Magic Kingdom. Please board the monorail for your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop: Magik Mouse.

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
1st Stop ~ Delightfully Disney
2nd Stop ~ Magical Mouse Schoolhouse
3rd Stop ~ Return to Disney
4th Stop ~ Magik Mouse
Final Stop ~ DIStherapy

The post Virtual Tour of Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom appeared first on Return to Disney.

Welcome to those of you joining me from Magical Mouse Schoolhouse and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 2nd stop on our Magical Blogorail. This month we’re sharing our tips for preparing for a Disney vacation. Specifically, I’d like to share my tips for preparing a child with autism for a Disney vacation. (For those of you with typically developing kids – don’t leave! Most of the techniques that are essential for ASD kids also work really well with neurotypical ones too.)

As a Mom, I would love to surprise my kids with a trip to Walt Disney World. I daydream about packing them all in the car under false pretenses, only to casually remark as we get on the Interstate “Oh – yeah, our meeting is in Orlando. Mickey and Minnie are expecting us.” Unfortunately, in real life that kind of stunt might not go as well as planned. The kids would be thrilled. No question about that. But they might not be able to instantly switch gears from mundane to excited. Reality is, they need time to adjust to new plans. They just don’t do quick 180 degree emotional u-turns. Sudden changes in plans aren’t fun for them – even when they involve something as incredible as a Disney vacation!

Besides, I’m a pretty bad liar. I’m a good storyteller – but ask me to keep a secret? Forget it!

So here’s how we’re going to prepare our kids for our next Disney vacation:

Phase I: Planning

First, we’ll tell them that we’ve booked the trip. Finally! It’s been a lot longer than we’d hoped, but (fingers crossed and pixie dust!) we’ll be able to make it back to Disney later this year. We’ll sit everyone down at the kitchen table, and I’ll have the laptop and PC ready to go with the Walt Disney World websites up. I’ll spread Disney brochures out on the table. We’ll show them pictures of the resort we’ve chosen, and some of the experiences we didn’t have time for on our last trip that we think they’ll enjoy this time around. Then we let them go at it, and take notes on the things that are most important to each of them. This is their time to imagine up their dream vacation!

Next, I’ll go into planning mode. When we travel, we try to be a little more unstructured and spontaneous than we are at home. Some kids with autism need 24/7 structure. Ours need downtime – and so do we. But I’ve found that being really organized during the planning phase, and going into the vacation with a plan makes it easier for us to be spontaneous. We don’t spend too much of our time debating on what to do next, because we’ve already negotiated most of the big things. “On Monday we’re having lunch with the Princesses, and you will be polite about it because on Tuesday we’re doing something you want to do.”

The planning comes in three chunks:

Dining

Dining is tricky for our family. We have one child with a nut allergy, and I was diagnosed with a variety of obscure food allergies (like tomatoes. Who is allergic to tomatoes???) and Celiac disease last year. Managing our dietary restrictions means table service really is the only way to go for our family. Yes, we could do quick service, but then we’d be standing in line trying to decide what I can safely eat while a dozen other guests wait impatiently behind us. I don’t think well under pressure, and making snap decisions – especially about food! – stresses me out. So we’ll stick to table service and the deluxe dining plan.

For a 5-7 day vacation, we each choose one special meal. It might be a character meal, or a restaurant we really want to try, or even just pizza delivered to our resort room. Once those reservations are made, then I’ll fill in the rest of our dining slots. Since we try to travel at the least crowded times of the year, I don’t worry about making dining reservations for breakfast or lunch (unless it’s a character meal of course). We don’t want to be in line for Space Mountain and worry about missing our lunch reservation, or have to rush through getting everybody dressed just to make it to breakfast on time.

Meeting Minnie Mouse at Chef Mickey’s

Itinerary

Once we know where we want to eat, we decide which experiences we want to have and make those reservations. That will determine which parks we visit each day.

I’ll load our dining reservations and special experience reservations into a trip planner app on the iPod Touch (for the kids) and our iPhones. It is a lot easier to carry around the iPod than paper visual schedules, and our kids are much more comfortable with technological solutions anyway. Disney just released the My Disney Experience app, which looks like a competitor to Undercover Tourist. I’ll have to compare the two and report back to you!

These apps are useful for kids with autism before we even get to the parks, because they allow them to “rehearse” their vacation, and get comfortable with our plans before we arrive at the resort. They know exactly what to expect, and can look at their itinerary any time they need to, in order to feel secure about what is going on or where they will go next.

Undercover Tourist Home Screen

Travel

Finally – how are we going to get from the middle of Illinois to Orlando, Florida? Last time, we flew. We compared the costs of flying vs. driving and they were pretty close to equal, and the convenience factor won out. This time around, when we priced out flights they were three times more than they were last time. The flights alone would cost our family over $3,000 – putting the entire trip out of our budget. So we’ll drive this time around. The kids are older now, and we’re hoping they can handle the 18 hour trip. We’re planning to leave late in the afternoon and drive overnight to minimize the number of waking hours they spend cooped up.

I expect they will spend about 8 – 10 of those hours awake: about 6 hours on the first day, in the afternoon into the evening, then about 4 hours the next morning between the time they wake up and when we arrive at the resort. This will be a new experience for them. We’ve never driven more than about 5 hours at a time before. Like all new experiences, we’ll do a lot of preparation beforehand. We’ll find or write social stories about long road trips. I’ll make choice cards (basically just index cards with pictures of items they can choose) showing the activities they’ll have available in the car.

Before the trip, I’ll pick up several new travel games and activities that I’ll keep stashed until the boredom sets in, then I’ll trickle them out. Hopefully they’ll be good and exhausted for the trip home and sleep most of the way!

I also plan to load up a customized Google Map on the iPhones so they can watch our progress, and have several new audiobooks ready to go. Combine those with snacks for everyone and caffeine for the grownups and I’m hopeful that the drive won’t be too bad.

Quite a haul!

Phase II: Getting Ready!

About a month before the vacation, I start pulling out Disney Parks videos. They’re a little dated now, but they still serve as a great reminder of things we don’t want to miss, and they help us all immerse in the magic of Walt Disney World.

A week or so before, I’ll have each of them put a few books and small travel-worthy toys in a backpack for the car ride. Those get stashed away so they grow a little bit of novelty by the time we hit the road.

The day before the trip, the car gets a thorough cleaning out. If I’m going to spend a total of four days in the car with the kids, I want it to at least start out clean! I’ll also do a grocery store run to pick up road snacks. With our dietary restrictions, it’s much easier to buy food in the grocery store than to try to find fast food restaurants that we can safely eat at. That doesn’t mean I buy the same things I get on a normal Saturday grocery run! Road snacks must be fun. It’s the one time I actually go into the chip-and-cookie isle and let each of the kids pick something. Teddy Grahams find their way into the cart, along with Goldfish crackers, instead of the much less expensive full-sized graham crackers. Oh well, it’s a road trip! I splurge too, on gourmet gluten-free chocolate covered pretzels.

Since we won’t leave until late in the day, I can do most of the packing the day we leave. It will keep us all busy, so we aren’t tempted to leave too early, and it will keep the nervous energy down. We’ll keep Disney movies playing all day, and load up Disney apps on the iPad to set the mood!

Looking for more tips for experiencing Disney magic with a child on the autism spectrum? Check out Disney World with Autistic Kids.

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is DIStherapy.

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Magical Mouse Schoolhouse

2nd Stop ~ Return to Disney <– You Are Here!

3rd Stop ~ DIStherapy

Final Stop ~ Delightfully Disney

The post Preparing for a Disney Vacation with Kids with Autism appeared first on Return to Disney.

I get that a lot, when people who know me as an author find out I also homeschool four kids. And from my homeschooling friends who find out I have at least two books coming out this year. You see, I’m living a double life, and everyone who knows about one side is pretty sure it’s already a full one…until they find out they only know half of the story!

Not my real alarm clock. But almost cute enough not to hate!

My day starts entirely too early, at 4:45 am. Do I like getting up at that horrid hour? No. But my husband, who seems to like early mornings, bribes me with coffee delivered bedside, and who am I to refuse? Besides, if I want time to write before the craziness begins, that’s the sacrifice I have to make. So I get up. Ok, not actually. I actually work snuggled up under the blankets in bed, blessing the genius who invented laptops. And coffee.

From 5-7 am, I work on my project du jour. Right now, I’m deep in the outlining process for the novel I plan to complete this year. I’m hoping to finish outlining this week, before my editor sends my game module back for revisions next week. Once I get those back, the novel will go on hold while I pound out revisions and get them submitted. Those two hours in the early morning are when I can do my heads-down concentration work.

At 7, I go into Mom mode, fix breakfast and get the kids through their morning routines and chores, and get their assignments for the day put up on our assignment board. For us, independence is key. My kids learn best on their own, with me available to explain concepts or to add depth when their textbooks skim over the interesting bits. I also use this time to check their work from the previous day and add “See Mom” notes next to the appropriate subject when they’ve given into the temptation to slack off on an assignment.

We begin our schoolday together, all five of us, between 8:30 and 9. It takes a few minutes to go over the schedule, talk about anything coming up, or address any issues. Then the older kids scatter while I work one on one with the younger ones.

Our Daily Schedule

Lunch is between 11 and noon, depending on the day. After lunch, I take some much-needed break time to check email and make a second pot of coffee.

We come together again in the classroom at around 1, to take stock of the day. I usually spend the next two hours doing individual lessons with the older kids while the younger ones read or draw or work on other activities.

A Rare Quiet Moment in the Classroom

3-4:30 pm is Mom’s Writing Time. My four year old snuggles up next to me in bed for her nap, and the older kids finish any assignments they have left, or if school is finished they can have video games or (weather permitting) go outside for a while. The rule is, as long as they stay within the rules and don’t interrupt, they can goof off as much as they like. Kids, just like adults, need some time to just goof off! This is when I work on shorter projects, blog posts, answer more emails, and that sort of thing – stuff I can do around interruptions if they come.

We spend from 5-7 pm in various activities on most evenings. With four kids, even if each kid is only in one activity, that eats up most of the evenings in a week! We usually try to schedule quick, easy dinners during the week, with more elaborate and time consuming ones on the weekends.

8pm is bedtime for the younger ones, quiet reading time for the older kids. This is time for DH and me to recharge and relax. We watch a little TV, drink a beer or a glass of wine, and shift out of parenting mode back into husband and wife mode. That’s important, when so much of life revolves around everything else!

It’s a long day, and I get about 3 1/2 hours of dedicated writing time per day, plus time here and there to make notes, check emails, etc. It’s nowhere near as much time as I wish I had, but I have a feeling that even if I could somehow write 24 hours per day, I still wouldn’t have enough time to finish all the stories and projects that are floating around in my head!

So – to answer the initial question: How do I manage to homeschool and build a writing career, without losing my mind? It’s all about balance, organization, and planning. I know every day exactly what I’m working on, so I don’t waste precious work time figuring out what to do. Then when it’s time to work with the kids, I really try to keep my focus on them rather than on my writing projects. I don’t always succeed, but I try!

That’s a day in our homeschool. Any questions?

The post Homeschooling and Writing – How Does That Work? appeared first on Return to Disney.

Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Yellow. Enjoy the ride as we share with you what we consider the best examples of Disney storytelling in the parks. When you walk into a Disney theme park – whether it’s Disneyland in California or one of the parks at Walt Disney World in Florida, you know you’re not dealing with just another theme park. We live about halfway between two Six Flags theme parks, and we go at least once or twice every summer. You notice I don’t write much about Six Flags? Yet I’ve been blogging for almost two years about Disney, after a single trip in 2010. The differences between the two theme parks are both painfully obvious and incredibly subtle, and it all comes down to storytelling. Every theme park has characters and themed rides, just like Disney. But, as hard as they try, they never quite manage to tell a story the way Disney can. Maybe it’s because Disney started out as a storytelling company, then branched into theme parks and resorts. Most other resorts and theme parks set out to create a theme park or a resort, and have tried to copy the outer layers of what Disney does, without understanding the storytelling that goes on underneath. Or maybe Disney just hires all the really good creatives and there’s nobody left for anybody else!

Ok, enough philosophy. Our theme this month is the best examples of Disney storytelling in the parks. One of the things I love about Disney, that no one else does, is that they infuse a story into every single aspect of the parks. Even the misters are part of the story! You’ll never see a plain metal pole spraying mist at guests in a Disney park.

That’s not a mister – it’s a spitting tiki!

But I have to say that my absolute favorite example of Disney storytelling has got to be the Haunted Mansion attraction. The very first time I experienced it, at 8 years old, I was completely drawn into the story of this neglected old mansion. I believed in those ghosts.

Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square, Disneyland. The original!

The last time I experienced it, I was in my mid-30s, and I still had to remind myself “It’s only a ride.” To this day, I’m not entirely certain that there are only 999 happy haunts in that place. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out there was an extra ghost or two. After all, who has ever counted them?

Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom

If I absolutely had to choose between them, I’d pick the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. It fits so seamlessly into its surroundings, and every detail of the attraction and the surrounding area immerses you in the story of New Orleans. And we all know there are plenty of spirits down in the Bayou!

Thank you for joining me today. Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail Loop is DIStherapy.

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:
1st Stop ~ Return to Disney
2nd Stop ~ DIStherapy
3rd Stop ~ Delightfully Disney
Final Stop ~ Magical Mouse Schoolhouse

The post Disney Storytelling at its Best appeared first on Return to Disney.

This week, the challenge is to post a favorite Disney photo (that I own) to Pinterest, and to invite you all to follow me on Pinterest – which is no challenge at all! I’d love to hang out with you visually

Before today, the images on my Disney Pinterest board have all been from the Disney Dream Portrait Series. I absolutely love these works of photographic art. They tell such deep, layered stories in a single image. But I can’t share them here, because I don’t own the copyright. But you can see them on my Disney Pinterest board. So instead, I’ll share one of my favorite self-taken Disney photos: the castle, from the less-crowded side. I took this picture initially because I hoped to bring it home and paint the scene. I haven’t done that – yet! – but I hope to have a chance someday.

Cinderella’s castle, from the side

The post Disney Pinterest Board on Wordless Wednesday appeared first on Return to Disney.

Disney Vacation Club Sweepstakes

In November, Disney announced the Disney Vacation Club Sweepstakes game in which you could win a 3-year trial DVC membership. You can play as often as you want, but you can only gain a maximum of 10 entries between now and January 31, 2013. Disney will randomly draw one winner, whose accumulated points will be converted into real DVC points that will renew annually for three years.

Disney Vacation Club Sweepstakes Prize Maximized

Nice!

We’ve been on the fence about Disney Vacation Club for a while now. On paper, it seems like a pretty good deal, and we really love Disney vacations, but the up-front costs are pretty high, and if we decide to buy DVC, we’d rather pay cash. So…we’ll keep discussing and saving for it. Winning a three-year trial would certainly help us make that decision! But so would the ability to purchase a shorter trial membership. A typical Disney Vacation Club membership lasts 40 years. That’s a pretty major long-term commitment. I’d love to be able to buy a 3- to 5-year membership to see how we like it in real life. Maybe if the sweepstakes is as popular as it seems, Disney will take the hint and start offering trial memberships for sale?

What do you think – am I nuts for thinking a shorter trial membership in Disney Vacation Club would be a good idea?

The post Disney Vacation Club Sweepstakes Trial Membership appeared first on Return to Disney.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96U2gkgK0o4

The basic idea here is that you have Disney character action figures – it looks like the first set will include characters from Pirates of the Caribbean, Monsters, Inc., and The Incredibles – that you set on a baseplate. Whichever character you put on the baseplate shows up in the video game. Kinda cool. The technology first appeared last year with Skylanders, and it’s been a massive hit.  My kids love it.

Captain Jack Sparrow

The thing I really like is that you’re not just playing through pre-written levels. There’s a toy box area as well, where you can create your own levels to play in with the characters from the game. Again, nothing new here. Mod Nation Racers and Little Big Planet are both built around this type of game experience, where you don’t just play the game, you create it.

Disney Infinity Toy Box Mode

As a Mom, I love the direction video games have taken over the last few years, going from a relatively passive “go here and click this button” experience to a more creative “here’s your box of tools, go do something interesting” environment. Am I shocked that Disney is jumping on the bandwagon? Not in the slightest – they’ve been moving in this direction for years. Look at Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, where they took a passive experience – a theme park attraction – and make it into an interactive video game.

Disney Infinity comes out in June – I’m looking forward to doing a full review!

The post Disney Infinity Preview appeared first on Return to Disney.

Beauty and the Beast, Jenni James Faerie Tale Collection

I’ve got a full review to post later this week, but first I want to introduce you to the woman behind the page, author Jenni James.

Jenni James

Jenni, thanks for taking the time to chat with me today! Your first series is a modern-day young adult take on Jane Austen’s novels. What inspired you to shift from that perspective to fairy tale princesses?

Actually, it was the publisher who approached me about doing a series with them.  He was convinced I would be able to do a fun twist on the fairy tales.  I wasn’t convinced straight away that I’d have the time to do all of the fairy tales he was hoping for, but as soon as he discussed calling the series the Jenni James Faerie Tale Collection I was sold!  He had Beauty and the Beast published just a few months later.  I plan on redoing at least 20 of the fairy tales in all.  

Have your renditions of classic faerie tales been influenced by the Disney versions, or have you avoided them? What has your biggest influence been for this series?

I love that Disney portrays fairy tales with incredible romance.  Where the characters literally do fall in love very quickly and stay in love, just as they do in the fairy tales.  So, I do try to keep with that romantic theme.  There are so many other stories out there where the character development takes longer to be reached, but with these books, my collection, I want each book to feel as if it truly is a fairy tale–as if my story is the true version of the tale.

I realized the Disney fairy tale movies are what my readers will know best, so I do weave a bit of their stories into it.  But each of my tales are completely a unique twist that have such a deeper meaning and moral behind them, as all fairy tales do.  My biggest influence for this series, is just honestly wanting to get back to the roots of each tale and teach an amazing moral in a new twist children, teens and adults will like.  I love fairy tales.  All fairy tales, though Cinderella was my favorite growing up!, I have spent hours upon hours reading different versions of the tales and watching various movies, so it is all blending within me to create my own spin.     

If you could spend one perfect day with Belle, what would it be like?

Oh, goodness!  She and I would soo devour that library of hers.  Seriously.  All day long–reading. Searching.  Reading.  Exclaiming over books.  Reading.  Um, yeah… my life would be set.  

Who is your favorite faerie tale villain(ess)? Why?

I think Rumpelstiltskin is.  He’s just so incredibly complex.  Which is why in my version Rumple is the hero, rather than the evil king who would kill the village maiden.

What was one of the most interesting things you had to research while writing Beauty and the Beast?

Werewolves.  I had to remember what it felt like to be snuggled up against a beast.  Cecelia (my Belle) talks a lot to the prince when he’s in his wolf form.  She will plop right down next to him and lay her face into his fur and just hold him.  I love it.  I also had to remember and make sure my regency era of speaking and clothing was right, so I could keep true to the older fairy tale world I was trying to create.  

Who was more difficult to write – Belle or the Beast?

Well Alexander (the Beast) is both Prince and wolf in mine.  And it was quite complex to have the wolf speak and grin as an animal, and remember he didn’t have hands and feet–and would have to move as a wolf would.  Then when he was the prince during the day, I had to remember all the princely mannerisms he would have as a human.  It was quite challenging, but so much fun too.  

Before you go, is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

I think the biggest question I get asked by teens is if I’ve seen the Once Upon a Time series.  I haven’t.  I actually don’t watch TV at all.  So it will have to be something I buy on DVD and watch later.  However, movies on the other hand, I do watch!  Especially Disney ones.  

Thanks again for joining me, Jenni!

You can find out more about Jenni James and her books on her website at AuthorJenniJames.com, or look her up on Facebook or Twitter – just search for Author Jenni James. She blogs at http://authorjennijames.blogspot.com/

Enter to win a signed copy of Beauty and the Beast!

No mandatory entries, but be sure to leave some way for us to contact you if you’re a winner. We will make 3 attempts to contact the winner over the course of a week. If we cannot contact you, we will choose another winner.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t forget to sign up for free weekly installments of my own modern fairy tale, The King is Called Home:

(Don’t worry, I don’t have time to send you spam. All I’ll ever send you are stories and the occasional announcement when I’ve published a story elsewhere.)

The post Interview with Jenni James, Author of Beauty and the Beast appeared first on Return to Disney.

I’ve always wanted a straight path in life. I wanted to be one of those people who decided what they wanted to do with their lives, and marched single-mindedly toward the goal. I wanted to live in the same house for 40 years.

Sometimes we don’t get what we want. Instead of that nice, uncomplicated arrow, I got the squiggly one. But I’ve learned something very important along the way: I have something fundamental in common with some of the most successful people in history (including ambulance driver, Walter Disney!):

I can do a lot of different things, and do them well. But there is one thing – one crazy thing – that only I can do. There are a lot of great web developers and copywriters and travel agents out there, but not one of them can write the stories I do.

So today, I’m re-introducing myself (here’s my official bio!), and inviting you a little deeper into my world. Return to Disney has languished while I figured out what to do with it. I knew I needed to focus my energy and limited time on writing new stories, but I just couldn’t bring myself to walk away! At the same time, I had set up a writer’s blog but was struggling to update it regularly. Then the cartoon light bulb went off: the whole purpose of an author’s blog is to give readers a way to get to know the author. What better way for readers to get to know me than to bring them here – to my original blogging home? And what better way to share a little bit of everyday magic with my old blogging friends than through my stories?

One of the things Disney does so well is storytelling – even the recycling bins at Disney theme parks tell a story! – and that’s what I want to focus on. Disney took old, classic stories like Cinderella and Snow White, and retold them in new ways that brought them back to life. I’ve always loved fairy tales, and will be featuring artists, authors, poets, musicians, and other creative individuals who bring the old stories back to life. Oh – and I’ll be sharing my own versions of some of my favorites as well!

Be sure to check back tomorrow. I’m interviewing Jenni James, author of a new series of fairy tales, and giving away a copy of her newest book, Beauty and the Beast (I’ve read it, it’s wonderful!). In the meantime, I have a present for you – just a little something for being so patient with me  Most fairy tales end with the prince kissing his true love. This modern fairy tale begins there. Now the question is, will the royal couple survive?

Castle Scardaugh, site of the annual gathering

If you like the story, share it with a friend – and leave a comment! Part of the fun is shaping the story based on feedback from readers

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