Tag Archives: literary romance

Happily Flarey…Ever?

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The third and final Marion Flarey book is now out!

Here’s the teaser:

Happily Flarey...Ever? by Kirsten Mortensen
She’s lost two princes. Is number three the charm?

She’s lost two princes. Is number three the charm?

In life, as in fairy tales, things happen in threes.

So when Marion Flarey’s third prince comes back into her life, it seems like a dream come true. He’s a fairy tale expert! He’s discovered a previously-unknown treasure trove of stories! He wants Marion’s help writing his next book!

Has Marion finally found her happily ever after?

Or maybe she still needs to learn an important lesson about the tales she loves so much…

It’s available on Amazon for Kindle or print.

Or click here to get a copy for different brands of e-reader (Kobo, Nook, Apple, etc.) here.

So what do I have to say about the novel, now that it’s out?

A few things.

One of the 2022 projects that lured me away from writing. Silly hens!
  1. It seemed like it took forever to get the series to this point. But in retrospect, I started working on the book in the summer of 2019, so it was “only” a little over three years. So: one book a year.
  2. My pace would have been faster if we hadn’t moved in 2021. Lived out of a tent for 9 months while we built a new house. Then all the new-house projects.
  3. In theory I could have been writing solidly that whole time, but in practice, novels take up a LOT of my headspace when I’m working on them. And it’s really hard to pick them up and put them back down again. When I’m writing, I’ve got one foot in another world, and it slows me down considerably when I have to play the hokey pokey. Left foot in, left foot out, argh!
  4. My pace wasn’t fast, but it also wasn’t awful. And I’ve accepted that this is how I write. I take a long time, because…
  5. I write from the inside out. I start with a gist of an idea: main characters, setting, a few major plot points. The characters then become the foundation, and I start working the novel out by working out what they do and how they react to one another.
  6. I don’t think I’ll ever do a series again. I disliked having such a big project hanging over me. I felt like I had to get it to completion even though I really wanted to work on other things.
  7. I’m super excited about moving to another project. The working title is Scratch, and it’s going to be very different from the Marion Flarey books. Darker. And definitely more literary.

And that’s it, for now. Please let me know if you enjoy the book.

It started with her name & nickname. (I love using notebooks this way. “Journaling” about my novel ideas really works for me.)

Romance

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I love Romance.

I write Romance.

Not in the sense of genre romance, but Romance in the sense of an affirmation of the centrality of the heart in human experience. Of the perils of our alienation from nature, and because Romance gives us a break from the sheer awfulness of life (Byron: “And if I laugh at any mortal thing, Tis that I may not weep.”)

My question is: can novels help people learn better (learn again?) how to think?

Yes, reading novels is a form of escapism.

But can they draw people into stories and then use those stories to train people, not what to think (blech) but how?

I hope so.

I’m so horrified by how poorly people think …

Fo Fum Flarey by Kirsten Mortensen

Out now! Book 2 of my Marion Flarey series :)

Available on Amazon for Kindle or Print, or click here to browse other e-formats.

New novel, Fo Fum Flarey, available for preorder

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Those of you who know me personally know that this past year has been incredibly difficult. Yeah, I know I’m not alone. COVID etc. But in addition to the social upheaval, my personal life was turned upside down as well. First, my dad passed in April. And now my mom is gone, too. January 9.

Fo Fum Flarey by Kirsten Mortensen
She’s got her prince. If she can figure out how to keep him…

I am not even sure how to process it, to be honest. Looking forward to when this is all something that happened instead of something that is still happening.

In the meantime, I have been getting some writing done, although work has been a bit slower than I would have liked.

Once Upon a Flarey Tale came out last August.

Now the second book in the series, Fo Fum Flarey, is available.

Here’s the description of Fo Fum Flarey:

A tale about love, life choices — and how trusting the wisdom of old stories is sometimes the best choice of all.

Marion Flarey has finally found him. Fletcher Beal.
Her Prince.
And when you find your rich, handsome Prince, everything is settled, right? The fairy tales say so! You live happily ever after. No more questions, no more stress.
But as much as Marion loves those wise old tales, there’s a limit to their magic. How is she supposed to make her place in her new prince’s world — especially when Fletcher is always busy, flying around the country, exploring new domains and adding conquests to his kingdom?
The stories don’t say.
To make matters worse, her family is gripped by stories of their own — and Marion can’t figure out what’s going on. Her mother is distracted and unhappy. What secrets is she hiding? And then Marion’s brother, Ace, shows up in town — and Marion learns why he left.
He’s a thief.
He stole from their family.
Worse yet? He stole from Marion’s prince.
Can Marion unravel her family’s secrets?
Can she rescue her brother?
Can she put her broken family back together again?
And should she even try?
Or will her family’s crazy problems sabotage Marion’s life, robbing her of the one thing she wants most: a happy future with her sweet, rich, sexy prince?