Katherine Macdonald's Blog

It's official-- the Phoenix Project has a release date of the 28th February and is available for pre-order on Amazon!

I am very excited for my new book baby to hit the metaphorical shelves of the internet. It's been fantastically received by my beta-readers and really well-polished as a result. It's very different from "The Rose and the Thorn" in that it's set in a dark, gritty, futuristic world, but it retains some of my trademarks: namely witty banter and supportive love interests. Far from the slow-burn of my debut, this is an action-packed adventure, a sort-of "Maximum Ride" meets "The Hunger Games."

I really hope people enjoy it. :)

I have always loved the story of “Beauty and the Beast”. It was an obsession that began in childhood, when even a six-year-old me knew that there was something different about this fairy story, first shown to me through Disney’s marvellous 1991 adaptation. It wasn’t until I was a little older I could explain it, though. I loved that the heroine didn’t form an immediate attachment on the hero of the tale. I loved that you could see them falling in love, slowly and then all at once.

“Beauty and the Beast” has its origins in the Greek story of Cupid and Psyche, but the title comes from a 1740 French novella, La Belle a la Bete, by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. It is one of the few classical fairy tales penned by a woman and its moral is supposedly not only about not judging by appearances, but also being patient and not afraid of change. Its primary audience was young girls, many of whom would be facing arranged marriages. De Villeneuve wanted to spread a message that their husbands need not be monsters and they should not be afraid of marriage.

This message is a little outdated, but the elements of love, fear and patience are still predominant within my retelling. Our heroine is shown not as afraid of marriage, but of afraid of falling in love. She watched her father be torn to pieces by the death of her mother many years ago, and has quietly resolved never to let herself be that dependant on another person. The Beast, of course, needs her to love him to break the curse, and therein lies the bulk of the conflict within the tale.

While the 1991 Disney adaptation is spectacular, it deviates greatly from its source material, which I was keen to return to. I wanted a classical setting, a truly enchanting, fairy-tale castle, but I twisted it slightly in making the castle completely abandoned and devoid of any life when our heroine first appears. As her heart softens towards the Beast, the castle slowly blossoms into a palace reminiscent of the sumptuous palace depicted in de Villeneuve’s original version.

I also made significant changes to our heroine, previous epitomised by her beauty and goodness. This “beauty” is only moderately pretty, has a fiery temper, and isn’t even particularly kind- at least, not to begin with. The Beast, by contrast, is unfailingly patient and kind (like the original) and he is not the first one to undergo a transformation. Both characters also receive new names. It always bothered me that the Beast was never given one, as it seemed to me that placed their relationship already on shaking, uneven footing. I called Beauty “Rose” instead, after the gift that brought them together in the classical stories, and the Beast “Thorn”- a name that she gives him as she feels uncomfortable with the premise of calling him Beast. It is after this moment that the love story between them finally begins to take root. They are equals.

There are two “problematic” issues with almost every adaptation I’ve ever read that I was keen to avoid. Firstly, that it is the Beast that imprisons her. This issue is done away with in the first chapter, when Rose becomes trapped not my him, but the magic that surrounds his castle. Again, this was done to foster an innate inequality between the two of them, and to highlight the Beast’s goodness. He is as much a prisoner as she is. It also alleviates any possible argument of Stockholm syndrome with has often been critics first comment regarding this tale.

The second issue I’ve always found problematic is the Beast’s courting of Beauty. In the old version, he asks her to marry him every night, which by modern hands is harassment. I also found it hard to accept how quickly –or perhaps suddenly- her feelings towards him shifted. This romance is very much a slow burner, and the audience is aware she has fallen for him before she comes to that realisation herself. Reviewers have mentioned how believable they find the love story, how it perfectly encapsulates two people falling in love.

I was also heavily inspired by gothic fiction, and the works of Angela Carter. There is a direct allusion to The Bloody Chamber in an early joke told by the Beast. These inspirations worked their way into the descriptions of the castle and grounds, but also created a villain; a dark fairy trapped within the walls of the castle, a true antagonist for our heroine to fight against. De Villeneuve’s version alludes to her –the person that cursed the prince in the first place- but she never materialises on page. This addition to the tale allows for plenty of action and mystery in a story that is otherwise very slow-paced.

My aim when writing this adaptation was to provide the retelling I’d always wanted to read. A captivating, mesmerising rewrite than encapsulated a beautiful fairy-tale setting but left behind outdated concepts. A story that felt classical at its roots, but modern in its approach. I wanted a timeless tale that made people believe in true love, and I really hope I’ve accomplished this.

...It's like creative writing, only way more... frustrative. (Not a word.)

If, like me, you do a lot of editing, and if, like me, you do a lot of reading about writing, you may find yourself developing some very particular pet hates.

I've developed a sudden hatred for the word "seems" after discovering I used it 87 times in my 100,000 word novel.

I did a similar thing with the word “very” after reading a post a while back. Don't say “very quickly” was the advice. Say “rapidly”. It's allowed for dialogue and probably for thought processing as that's the way people talk. I wasn't as annoyed about very as I am about seems. Perhaps that's because seems just slips into the sentence, the crafty, sly bugger that it is.

What can we use instead? Looks, appears, sounds, feels, conveys the impression/feeling/sense of... they aren't precisely better, but they are more specific. "Seems" is often completely unnecessary, and can be used to commit that ancient writing sin: showing rather than telling.

For example, one of my dialogue tags said something along the lines of “he seems confused”. How could I be so juvenile? HOW does he seem confused, Kate? HOW CAN YOU TELL? It is much better writing to say, “his brow furrowed”. Obviously.


I left a few "seems" in. Sometimes it creates mystery, e.g "the detail on the painting was so exquisite, that her dress almost seemed to shimmer in the sunlight." You could remove seemed entirely from this sentence, but I think the added sibilance makes it more vivid?

But the word is often just wishy-washy... it doesn't actually SEEM to be important. It is! At one point, my character has her lover dying in her arms and says “it seems so important that he understand...” It shouldn't seem to be unimportant. It is.

Or, so it seems...