It’s my birthday and I’m celebrating by giving away a $5 Amazon Gift Card in my reader group.
We’re still on snippets from Someone Else’s Shoes, my fairytale novella that’ll be in the box set Once Upon Another World.
For those catching up, it’s an F/F take on Cinderella with a trans princess and set in the same spellster series world as To Target the Heart and In Pain and Blood, except in another empire and a few generations back from what I call “the modern timeline” of those novels.
Carrying on from last week, where we met Odette…
Unlike most of the slaves living in the estate, she had belonged to Alla’s father from well before even he had been born. The woman’s collar still bore the family crest—etched into the steel plating that was riveted to the old leather. Only two such slaves were left now. There hadn’t been many before Alla’s father died fighting in the imperial army as he preferred having servants, an outlandish view for any noble in the Niholian Empire.
But once the news of his demise reached them, her stepmother had wasted little time in firing the servants and trading the few able-bodied slaves for whatever took her fancy. Odette and Uda where the only two who remembered Alla’s father and they were only here because not even the glass barons wanted them.
“My dear, sweet child.” Odette knelt before Alla. “Look at you. As wet as a squid and paddling about like a duck.”
Don’t forget to check out the other excerpts at Weekend Writing Warriors, Snippet Sunday or Rainbow Snippets.
Someone Else’s Shoes
Exclusively in the Once Upon Another World Box Set
Currently on pre-order for 99c
Aldrea Alien 
I love how much we can surmise about each of their characters in these few short paragraphs! ❤️
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I like the backstory about the slaves, but what strikes me most is that you don’t seem to understand how birthdays work. You’re supposed to GET presents, not GIVE them.
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Loads of information woven into this snippet. I like these rewritten fairytales!
Happy birthday, Suzanne! 🙂
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Forgot to mention in my comment, we’re posting promo spots on the wewriwa.blogspot page. If you’d like one, send me an email with an Amazon link to cypherbuss at yahoo dot com 🙂
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Well done, my friend. You have a way of pulling us right in.
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This world seems rather more Draconian than your average fairy tale. I like that shot of humor at the end.
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Interesting backstory details, gives a lot of context. I enjoyed the last sentence for sure! Great snippet.
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Really well done backstory! Pulls you into these characters immediately.
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Happy birthday! I enjoyed the bits of your story’s world you revealed in this snippet!
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Interesting backstory! Happy Birthday! Hope you had a wonderful day of fun!
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Happy Birthday! Nice bit of backstory, just enough to let the reader know how Alla and Odette got there.
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Love Odette’s turn of phrase! 🙂
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How very intriguing and happy belated birthday
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Great weaving in of backstory. The last line made me giggle a bit.
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