Karen Sandler

Tag: kayla russo

  • RTW – Fairy Tale Remake

    This week, YA Highway‘s blog prompt is to name a fable or story we’d like to see a retelling of. We’re also encouraged to be creative and come up with our own version.

    I have always been fascinated with fairy tales and fables. I even played around with an updated retelling of Cinderella in one of my romance novels (His Make-Believe Wife, under my pen name, Kayla Russo).

    I’d actually intended to write a few more fairy tale-based romances, and had even started one based on one of my favorite fairy tales, Rumpelstiltskin. It was to take place in a modern-day wrecking yard (where old cars go to die). The woman who owned the wrecking yard would discover an odd little man wandering around the yard. I don’t remember the details, but likely it was something like the woman would have to figure out his name to find love.

    I ended up completely jettisoning that version of the idea. I did go on to write the book, which was originally published by Berkley as Unforgettable, but is now available as The In-Between (again using my pen name Kayla Russo). The little old man was replaced by teen ghosts, Laura and Johnny. Rather than figuring out their names, the heroine (and hero) have to figure out how Laura and Johnny died to free the dead lovers from their bondage on earth.

    I’ve had another idea cooking for a long while that likely will never see the light of day. In that story, a fairy godmother appears in the apartment of a hard-driven, type-A woman. But before the fairy godmother can grant any wishes, she has a heart attack and drops to the floor. Just before she dies, she transfers the mantle of fairy-godmotherness to the type A woman. Now the woman has to be fairy godmother, which of course ruins her life.

    So, what are your favorite fairy tales and fables? What would you like to see retold?

  • RTW: A Rose By Any Other Name

    Today YA Highway‘s Road Trip Wednesday asks: If you couldn’t use your own name, what would your pseudonym or pen name be?

    I feel like I’m cheating here, because I already have a couple of pen names. Back when I was writing adult romances exclusively (as Karen Sandler), I decided to write a children’s book so my then-young sons could read at least one of my books. I ended up publishing that book, then titled Time in a Bottle (but soon to be re-released as Timewrecked), under a pseudonym. I thought it would be better if young readers didn’t stumble across my very sexy romances, so Time in a Bottle was published under my pen name, Karen Anzalone. Anzalone was my grandmother’s maiden name.

    Now I’m focused exclusively on writing children’s books (my first being Tankborn). I don’t intend to write any new adult romances. But last year, I got the rights back to several of my older romances and decided to re-release them myself as e-books (as I’m doing with Timewrecked). Since those romances are entirely different books than Tankborn or the other YA books I’m planning to write and hoping to publish, I decided to market my self-published books under a pseudonym.

    So I stole the name of my main character in Tankborn for a first name (Kayla) and appropriated my mother’s maiden name, Russo. I only have two paranormal romances published under the name Kayla Russo so far (Dark Whispers and The In-Between), but there are more in the queue.

    It’s a bit ironic that when I re-publish my middle-grade book, Timewrecked (I’m currently waiting on cover art), I will be using my real name, Karen Sandler. Now I have a bit of a track record in children’s literature under that name, so I want to take advantage of that.

    But maybe I ought to have a few other pen names on the back burner for future books. Like for that mystery novel I haven’t been able to sell, I could be Agatha Agapantha. Or I could pen that dessert cookbook I’ve always dreamed of writing under the name Chocolate LaRue.

    How about you? Have any cool pen names in mind for yourself?