What Really Happened To Cinderella?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: How do you choose your next book? Do you ever look at the tag line on the cover? I just read: "The serial killer is not on trial—he’s on the jury." SOLD, right?

Lisa Scottoline’s new book is: "Not guilty doesn’t always mean innocent."

We all get what that’s going to be about, right?

And The Murder List is : A high stakes game of cat and mouse... and cat.

You know that’s some kind of a triangle.

But Ann Aguirre’s new book THE THIRD MRS. DURST has a great one, too:

"Some people just need killing."

And not to mention the perfect line in the description:

"But nobody ever wonders if Cinderella was happy after she married the prince."

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ann Aguirre knows her suspense stuff, and romance, too. She’s written—wait for it--forty-two novels and novellas with Penguin, Macmillan, Harlequin and others.

And now (look at that fabulous cover!) THE THIRD MRS. DURST. It's dark and dangerous and edgy and daring--not for the faint of heart! But whoa.

The setting? The place that turned out to be the author’s favorite place.

MAGIC CITY

by Ann Aguirre
One awesome thing about being a writer is combining a work/ research trip with a vacation. A few years ago, I was about to start writing The Third Mrs. Durst and I knew I wanted to feature a variety of locales in the book. Coincidentally, I had been invited to Germany to attend Love Letter convention for romance writers that year as well.

I decided to take advantage of that offer and plan a longer trip around that weekend booklovers conference. We flew from Mexico City (where I live) to Frankfurt and I made notes about everything I saw while I was in the city. Then we continued on to Berlin, where the convention was held. There, we did a bit of sightseeing and I made more mental notes, imagining my heroine living in that city, living alone for the first time. I envisioned how she would feel about being there and took pictures to remind myself later of the setting. I experienced sheer awe when I beheld the remains of the Berlin Wall for the first time.





From Berlin, we took the train to Prague. It was loud and disorganized; I recorded those details as well, because I planned to have my heroine follow in my footsteps. My first glimpse of Prague was magical. The architecture is so romantic and the city is incredibly clean. Even the air smelled sweet and balmy, unlike most urban environments.




I loved walking along the bridges with my husband; I took photos of the padlocks left by lovers in a traditional that has spread around the world.

Even the buildings were covered in little stories. On a random one, I found a stone engraving of a man offering a bouquet of flowers to a bear.






Of all places in the world that I've ever visited, Prague is my favorite.

Without spoilers from the story, I'll say that I wish I could have spent longer describing the city in The Third Mrs. Durst, but it didn't make sense in the scope of the plot.

And that's the point of my post. It's so funny how we can do reams of research and have all this great information ready to go, but when we actually start writing, we only need a glimmer of it, like glitter sprinkled on top of a child's painting.

I know I struggle with the desire to show off. "Look how much I learned about this! Seriously, I know what I'm talking about!" and include a lot of details that slow down the action, an absolute no-no in a pacy thriller.


That means I was constantly paring back, asking myself, does it make sense that Marlena would notice that when she's got all this other stuff on her mind? Usually the answer was no, but it was cool to have such a wealth of personal experience about the places I was writing about.

In the end, I hope I managed to balance verisimilitude with a cracking good read, although I wasn't entirely shooting for realism. Primarily, I wanted this book to be a plausible revenge story--and for readers to get a sense of vicarious satisfaction from the villain's downfall.


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Cinderella gets her revenge—in Prague! So let’s see. Have you ever been to Prague? Did you love it as much as Ann? Or: what’s the best tag line you’ve ever heard? (May the odds be ever in your favor? Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water?) 

 And a copy of THE THIRD MRS. DURST to one lucky commenter!


THE THIRD MRS. DURST

Marlena Altizer Durst lives in her husband's shadow. He controls her every move―what she wears, the food she eats, and the friends she's allowed to make. If she disobeys, there are...consequences. And he has all the power.

To outsiders, it seems that she leads a fairy-tale life. But nobody ever wonders if Cinderella was happy after she married the prince. Marlena has traded freedom and safety for luxurious imprisonment, and most days, that seems like a bad bargain. Death may be the only exit she's allowed. Just like his first wife. And his second. Unless she flips the script.

Some people just need killing.

Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author and RITA winner with a degree in English Literature. She writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens, and has published forty-two novels and novellas with Penguin, Macmillan, Harlequin and others.
Before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes books, emo music, and action movies.

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