Visit the official Agony/Ecstasy website
Amazon     |      Barnes & Noble      |      Kindle      |   Book Depository
ISBN-10: 0425243451     |     ISBN- 13: 978-0425243459

Tomorrow Janine and I are going on an expedition to find A/E in the wild (a.k.a. a local Barnes & Noble’s). I’ll post pics if there are any. Also, look forward to interviews with fellow A/E authors Lily Daniels and Cameron Belle. Their stories are two of my favorites in the antho, and both have given me permission to ask them questions.

P.S. I’ve moved my blog. http://www.bettiesharpe.com/betties-blog

If it’s of interest to anyone, I actually re-edited most of the content before I transferred it over. Ember is now minus a few typos and a bit of awkward phrasing. I’ll be uploading the new PDF version to the site, and the Kindle and Nook versions to their appropriate retail outlets soon. My news page is also up to date.  It includes pre-order links to the Agony/Ecstasy anthology* Actually, I just killed my news page. It was okay, but I wanted more. Now it’s a mess, and I have to go to sleep. I’ll fix it tomorrow

News:
Superfabulous and awesomely talented author Sherry Thomas (her debut novel, Private Arrangements is in my TFE – Top 5, Evah), interviewed me for her blog about fairy tales, badass heroines, and what I’m writing next.

Reviews:
Lynn Spencer at AAR (All About Romance) blog gave Cat’s Tale a “Desert-Island Keeper” Review.

…Bettie Sharpe’s novella Cat’s Tale ended up being wonderful. This inspired retelling of Puss in Boots is definitely a Desert Island Keeper read for me.

DearAuthor.com posted not one, but two dueling reviews of Cat’s Tale here. A few choice excerpts:

All in all, Cat’s Tale: A Fairly Tale Retold is a charming novella that made me hope for more stories in the same vein. Beauty and the Beast, anyone? My grade for this one is a high B+.

– Jennie

It occurs to me that many readers probably aren’t going to like Catriona much. She’s selfish, shallow, spoilt, ruthless, and, occasionally, downright mean. But I liked her. In fact, I think Catriona is the cornerstone and foundation of this book. She’s the one driving it, both as a character and as a narrator. I was rather charmed and delighted by her bad behavior. I appreciated it. I’m tired of these heroines who can’t wait to crawl up on the cross and crucify themselves for the most asinine of reasons. It is rather relieving to read about a heroine is does the exact opposite.  Catriona makes this book. Like Scarlett O’Hara and her own namesake, she always lands on her feet. She’s the one who drives the story…overall, this is solid book, an enjoyable and engaging read. B-

– Lazaraspaste

 

The blog, Escape by Fiction gave Cat’s Tale 4 of 5 Stars

I like this retelling of Puss in Boots. It’s humorous, easy to read and wicked hot! Cat is a selfish, lying, manipulator…Cat’s character grows a lot in the story and so does Julian. The chemistry and affection Cat and Julian feel for each other is sweet and passionate. I look forward to more fairytale retellings from Bettie Sharpe.

And on those fine notes, I end my post and return to my current work in progress. Want to know what it is and what it’s about? Check out that interview on Sherry’s blog. Good night.

Wonderful post! So insightful and well-put. In the future, instead of trying to explain my motivations for writing difficult and/or unlikable heroines, I’m just going to link here.

Plenty of people out there are loved and they do not deserve to be. And plenty of people who deserve to be loved, aren’t.

This. This, exactly. And to add to it, the amazing, wonderful thing about love is that true love sees flaws and loves not despite, but because of those flaws. Love is diverse, love stories should be, too. There is no universal standard of lovability. The very qualities that make me hate a person could be the reason someone else is head-over-heels in love–and I think that’s awesome.

I know quite a few very nice men who are married to very mean women. For a long time I wondered what they saw in each other, until I realized that perhaps each saw in the other qualities that they, themselves, lacked. The reason those men are so nice is because they don’t have to be mean. Their wives are the ones who demand better seating in restaurants, and tell people talking in movies to shut the hell up, and bitch out people who don’t treat their husband right.

As cheesy as the phrase “you complete me” is, if we’re lucky, that’s just what we get when we love–we are complete. Not completely good, but whole and functioning and happy. And when I get to the end of a romance novel, that’s the way I want to see the hero and heroine–not shagging from sunrise to sunrise, not having scads of babies or fostering deserving orphans, just happy, whole, and better than they were before.

Stella's Spotlight on Fairy Tales Retold

I get around…admittedly, not far and not often, but in honor of Cat’s Tale, I’m guest blogging a few different places. Stella at Ex Libris is doing a two week feature on fairy tale retellings with a great line-up of authors (yours truly, among them) including fellow Carina authors Tia Nevitt and Nadia Lee (I enjoyed Nadia’s A Happily Ever After of Her Own and I’m looking forward to reading Tia Nevitt’s Sevenfold Spell–it’s loaded on my reader, all I need is a bit of time to read.)

I’l also be at the Carina Press blog discussing my problem with princesses, and at Booklovers, Inc. with a post on Who Deserves a Happily Ever After.

Also, my agent–yes, I did just say that, my agent! — Diana Fox of Fox Literary is giving away a copy of Cat’s Tale through her blog.

In other good news, Stella liked Cat’s Tale. Her review is here. A few quotes:

Bettie Sharpe’s writing has everything one would wish for in a great story: wittiness, humour, emotions and great characterisations, all packed together through excellent and fluent writing.

Cat’s Tale is an amazing modern fairy tale retelling, one that I believe every fairy tale fan should read!

Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Cover: 10/10

However, I don’t feel comfortable putting up that great review, which really made my day, without admitting that Cat has also taken a drubbing from readers who didn’t like her character. I’m taking the Hendrick’s Gin approach to this issue and just saying flat out that I know the story is not for everyone. I knew it when I wrote it, but I was having too much fun to stop. So, you know, consider yourself warned.

Catriona was a horrible character… Imagine Catriona as that girl you went to high school with, you know who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the pretty popular girl who lied and cheated to get whatever she wanted…She was quite vile…

–Mocha Latte on Goodreads

“What shall I call you?”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him my name, but then I thought better of it. The Lady Catriona was a dream to him, a prize to be won. He would not want her if he learned she had been turned into an animal by her ex-lover. I did not want to alter the image of Catriona he had in his head—the glimpse of my face through the carriage window those years ago.

And so, I did what I have always done in order to get what I want. I lied. “We cats, among ourselves we do not have names.”

“Well, then, I shall have to make up a name.” He was silent for a moment. “I know. Let’s call you Boots.”

“Let’s not.”

“Puss—”

“Definitely not. ‘Puss’ isn’t a name, it’s an invitation to ribald puns.”

“What am I to call you, then?”

“Call me Cat.”

Update: My mom just called to tell me how much she liked Cat’s Tale.  I’ll post (good) reviews if when they come in, but, for the record, that’s the one that means the most.

CAT'S TALE, Available June 27, 2011 from Carina Press

Wow. It’s a little more than a month before CAT’S TALE: A FAIRY TALE RETOLD will be available for purchase from Carina Press and many other fine e-tailers–I’d better get pimping.

To the left, you will see the lovely, lovely cover done by the fabulous Frauke of Croco Designs.  I’ve always loved Frauke’s work, but I’m just over-the-moon about this cover. Not only is it 100% Mantitty-Free, it captures the focus and mood of the story wonderfully.

Here’s the back-cover blurb:

Once upon a time there was a scheming, lying tart who cared for nothing but her own pleasures and her shoe collection.

Once the peerlessly beautiful Lady Catriona, consort to the king, Cat’s fortunes fall far when her aged husband dies. The king’s wizard turns her into a cat and tries to drown her in the mill pond. Fortunately Cat is a clever survivor and enlists the help of Julian, the miller’s youngest son, in her plan for revenge.

She originally sees Julian as a mere pawn for her plans to break her curse, but as they work together Cat comes to know and care for him. Even if the curse can be broken, can a good-hearted man love a woman who has been as vain and selfish as Cat?

34,000 words

CAT’S TALE will be available June 27, 2011. In the mean time, keep an eye on this blog for an excerpt or two.

Normally, an incident like this might make a gal disappointed with humanity. You go to the trouble to share your work for free, and then some jerk comes along and steals it? That sucks!

But I’m not disappointed with humanity because of the way the fanfiction.net community reacted to the plagiarism. When a reader pointed it out to them, they took down the story and closed the plagiarizers’ accounts. Fans of the story spread the word among themselves that the story was stolen, and linked to my web page for the original.

This incident shows that while there are some dishonest jerks out there in the world, there are a whole lot more wonderful, honest people who care about giving credit where it is rightfully due.

Bettie’s faith in humanity? Restored. Thanks fan fictioners.