Photo courtesy of Caroline Mao ’22
Eleanor M. Rasor ’23 reads from her novel “Twelve Dead Princesses.”
BY CAROLINE MAO ’22 AND GABRIELLE RODRIGUEZ ’22
On Friday, Oct. 25 at the Odyssey Bookshop, Eleanor M. Rasor ’23 presented her debut novel, “Twelve Dead Princesses.”
Rasor opened the event by reading an excerpt from the prologue, then transitioned to a Q&A segment.
The book;s description on Goodreads states, “shortly before Lark, soon-to-be-queen of Belmarros, comes of age, she and her eleven sisters fall ill. On the brink of death, they are saved by Sol — a tattooed stranger with powerful magic — and find themselves owing him a debt.
It continues, “Lark finds it increasingly difficult to balance their secret visits, her responsibilities as future queen and her growing attraction to Sol.”
Rasor drew inspiration from numerous other writers; she mentioned “Beauty” by Robin McKinley, which centers on Belle’s family as well as her interaction with the Beast, as a primary influence.
“Crimson Bound” by Rosamund Hodge, a post-apocalyptic retelling of the “Little Red Riding Hood” story, which reinvents the original, inspired Rasor as well. As she pointed out, what makes these retellings so popular and appealing is that they are iconic.
“People know what you’re talking about, however they do need to have a twist,” Rasor said.
The idea for the novel first came to her as a sophomore in high school in her creative writing class. Rasor originally meant “Twelve Dead Princesses” to be a short story, but the project “spiraled out of control,” she said.
Rasor spent three years on the project from conception to the finished copy. She said that the novel changed dramatically during that time.
Rasor completed about two thirds of the draft manuscript by the summer before her senior year of high school and finished it during her Young Emerging Authors (YEA) fellowship at The Telling Room in Portland, Maine.
According to The Telling Room’s website, the YEA fellowship is, “[a] program that offers successful applicants the chance to plan, write, edit, design and publish their own books in a single year. In weekly sessions ... fellows work collaboratively, writing and sharing their work, and independently with professionals in the writing and publishing industries, including authors, editors, agents, designers and publishers.”
Rasor explained how she tackled the editing process. She said, “[I thought] ‘I’m never gonna be able to revise this in 10 months’ … so I cut down and focused on the eldest princess only. That kind of narrowed it down to one character and her story.”
Rasor isn’t seriously working on any other pieces. “I wanted to write a book to prove I could,” she said. She explained that she had other ideas for pieces but “really wanted to get one thing written.”
“I learned a lot about revising [from the fellowship],” Rasor said. “I looked at the thing as a whole, what changes need to be made but also scene by scene, line by line.”
Rasor said that she also learned “to revise really fast and be critical of your own writing.”