This week TBR and Beyond Tours is hosting a book tour for Gold Spun by Brandie June. Gold Spun is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling and sounds like a lot of fun. I got to interview this author for this tour and I always love reading more about the author behind the new books I read. So keep on reading for more about Gold Spun and the interview!
Gold Spun by Brandie June
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publishing Date: June 8, 2021
Content Warnings: One mild scene of cutting for blood magic.
If Nor can’t spin gold, she can always spin lies.
When seventeen-year-old Nor rescues a captured faerie in the woods, he gifts her with a magical golden thread she can use to summon him for a favor. Instead, Nor uses it for a con—to convince villagers to buy straw that can be transformed into gold. Her trick works a little too well, attracting the suspicion of Prince Casper, who hates nobody more than a liar. Intent on punishing Nor, he demands that she spin a room of straw into gold and as her reward, he will marry her. Should she refuse or fail, the consequences will be dire.
Book Links
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Author Interview
About the Author
What inspired you to start writing?
I didn’t used to be much of a writer, though I’ve always been a storyteller. Growing up, I wanted to be an actor, and even briefly ventured into stand-up comedy. The theatre company I was with started doing short play nights and writing a 5–10-page play sounded like fun. I realized I was happiest telling the story. I branched out into short stories and eventually into full-length books.
What is your all time favorite book? Why?
That’s so tricky! I gravitate towards different books depending on my mood, but an all-time classic comfort read for me is Pride And Prejudice. I love the interactions between Elizabeth and Darcy, made more interesting by the misunderstandings between them. And I also love a lot of the family dynamic, seeing Elizabeth with her father or her sister Jane.
What recent books do you think everyone needs to read?
It’s so hard to think of a book that everyone needs to read, because reading tastes are so different. I recently reread Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, and it is incredible. I love the idea that true, dark, magic takes places in Yale’s secret societies, but beyond that, her characters are so developed and feel so genuine, that I root for them, even when they make mistakes or questionable choices. I can’t wait for a sequel. Ninth House gets very dark though, so I’d recommend Glimpsed by G.F. Miller as a light and fun romcom-meets-fantasy about a modern teenage girl who happens to be a fairy godmother.
Besides writing, what are other hobbies and interests you have?
I’ve gotten really into nail art over the last year when everything was closed and I was spending all my time at home. Now I look at it as my tiny, weekly art project. I also have two dog, so I try to get to the dog park at least once or twice a week. Fun fact, my husband and I adopted our second dog right after I signed the deal for Gold Spun, so we decided to name our puppy Nor, after my main character. Like book Nor, puppy Nor likes to steal things around the house!
About the Book
Describe your book in five words or less.
Miller’s daughter’s lying in Rumpelstilkin.
When you started writing this story did you know how everything would play out or did you let the characters take you on a ride?
It was a bit of both. I knew I wanted to have my main character, Nor, drive the action. The miller’s daughter is very passive in the original Rumpelstilkin story, and I wanted to change that. Nor gets to make decisions, even if they aren’t good decisions. And I wanted to see her evolve as a person when she has the luxury of deciding if she wants to remain a con artist. I also had certain elements I wanted the ending to include and tried to drop some breadcrumbs along the way for readers, while still hoping to surprise and delight them. But as I wrote about these characters and the story, I kept realizing that I had more of their story to tell and kept expanding the story.
What is your favorite quote from Gold Spun?
“I felt the familiar rush of starting a new con, but this time, I would have to fool an entire kingdom.”
If you could put yourself into this story, what kind of character would you be?
I love magic and mystery, so I’d want to be one of the fay, since they are the only ones with magic in this world. But I’d have to be pretty careful, since the human lands are rather hostile to the fay. With their mystery, also comes a lot of fear and prejudice about the fay.
Tour Schedule
During the tour there are a lot of amazing bloggers and bookstagrammers participating on this tour. Click here to see the full tour schedule!
About the Author
Brandie June loves storytelling in all sorts of formats, whether she is marketing animated movies or writing fantasy novels. Most of her early life she was on stage or at least as close to the front row as she could get. Initially an actor, she got her B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and branched out into costume design and playwriting, eventually getting her M.B.A. Her first stand-alone play, a dark comedy about Oscar Wilde, premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival to a sold-out run and won the Encore Producers Award. As a writer, she is especially passionate about fantasy and mythology, has published several pieces in anthology, and is a recent finalist with The Writers of the Future Award. Her debut novel, Gold Spun, is a fresh retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin tale through the miller daughter’s POV. Except now the miller’s daughter is a con artist and Rumpelstiltskin is a mysterious faerie with a dark secret.
Author Links
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I love seeing authors write retellings of stories we don’t see that often. I’m a big fan of stories with a twist! What are some of your favorite retellings? Let me know in the comments.