RonVitale

Once Upon A Time: Episode 7:15 A.M.

What if you loved someone and believed you were meant to be with that person, but they're married to someone else? What would you do? In the "7:15 A.M." episode of "Once Upon A Time," this theme is explored in a way that's insightful, character driven and with emotion that dips deeper than your typical TV script. Take for a moment, the fanciful idea that you and another person are meant to be together and, in an alternate fantasy world, you eventually overcome many obstacles to marry and explore your love. Mary and David keep skirting around their emotional pull toward each other, wondering how they can "do the right thing" and not break David's wedding vows. David is married to Katherine and yet he feels this undeniable tug of emotion for Mary. He is drawn to her, wanting to see her and find more time to be with her, but has chosen to remain faithful to his wife. He wants to live up to his promise to love and cherish Katherine and yet their life is lacking that quintessential spark of friendship and love that a married couple often has.

Yet, marriage, I would say, is a magic roller coaster ride that is filled with challenges and some of the most heartfelt of experiences. Maintaining a long term marriage that spans decades takes work. Plain and simple. Love and the romantic belief that the emotion will conquer all is sometimes overplayed. Do we not all wish that "Love is patient, love is kind" and the "greatest of these is love" were always true? But what happens when a person falls out of love and is drawn to another. David is experiencing that doubt. He has woken from his comma and is told that he loves Katherine and is married to her, but he is not feeling that. We, the viewers, know that Snow White and Prince Charming are meant to be together--we want to see them unite because we believe it is right.

But what of Katherine? She longs to have a child with David. She is married to him and is working hard to make their marriage work, recognizing that all the cylinders aren't firing in their relationship. Thankfully, she is not pregnant, but there's some confusion here: If I understood the storyline correctly, Katherine takes a pregnancy test, but isn't pregnant. If David doesn't love her, why is he making love to her? When I first saw Katherine take the pregnancy test in the store, I misunderstood and thought she had cheated on him while he was in a comma and was concerned that she was pregnant by another man, but that's not the case. David is being with her.

If that is true, and David kisses Mary at the end of the episode, then has he not crossed the line and broken not only his vows, but he's trying to have his cake and eat it too (pardon the pun). Is that fair to Mary? I think not. I like David and Mary together. I do. What would I want to have happen? David needs to divorce Katherine and to move on. Staying with her is not solving any problem, but is only stretching out the issue over time.

Do you love someone else? If you do, then a decision needs to be made: Stick it out and work hard on fixing the problem or leave. Yes, it is that simple (though understanding how you feel might take a good amount of time). David is trying to do both at the same time and, for that, he is no Prince Charming. He is complicating not only his own life, but he is hurting both Katherine and Mary. There is a lot to learn in this episode and it has a lot of great plot points to debate over some tea and crumpets (or beer and chips if that's more to your liking).

Again "Once Upon A Time" is showing that it has some legs and I believe this is one of the strongest episodes so far this season. I await next week's episode with great anticipation! What do you think?

Ron Vitale is the author of the novel "Cinderella's Secret Diary" and a has been a lifelong fan of re-invented fairy tales.

Cinderella's Secret Diary: Why I Wrote the Book

First a quick blurb about Cinderella's Secret Diary:

What happened to Cinderella after she married the Prince? Set in the late 1700s as Napoleon is rising to power, Cinderella embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she tries to come to terms with her failed marriage and her inability to have a child. Torn between the Queen's insistence that she try all means necessary to conceive and her own desires, she agrees to travel to Paris to consult with a witch to help her become pregnant. Her journey leads her to find her long lost Fairy Godmother and aids her to solve the mystery behind her mother's death. Yet the Fey Lord, the Silver Fox, also takes notice in her and her world is suddenly turned upside down...

Back on January 12, 2010, I was reading Disney’s Royal Princess Homes book to my then 2-year-old daughter.  She sat next to me on the rocking chair and I turned through a page in the book and read how Cinderella was in her bedroom showing off her scarves and shoes. Yet tucked away in the corner was a desk that had a book on it entitled “Cinderella’s Secret Diary.”

A light went off in my head. I do not know how else to describe it. A thought, like lightning, zapped me and I started wondering what would be in that book. I knew at that instant that I had stumbled upon an amazing idea. I kissed my daughter goodnight, tucked her in and then did a search on Google. I stumbled upon an out-of-print Disney book entitled Disney Princess: My Secret Diary by Cinderella but I could find nothing else online. From what I could tell from eBay and reviews, the Disney diary book is about mice costumes and other such things from the Disney movie. Ideas kept flowing through my mind and I jotted down some notes for a short story idea I had. I kept wondering what Cinderella’s secret diary would really be like. Why was it secret? Is she happily married? Does she have children? I could not stop the flood of ideas.

I have read about writers who talk about being a conduit for their work and now I understand: As I wrote this book, I could see the scenes playing out in my head. On my long runs while training for a half-marathon, I’d envision what the characters were doing and when I sat down to write the words just flowed out of me. Often, I’d sit on the back sofa with the laptop and try desperately to type the scenes out as I could see what was happening—like a movie was playing in my head.

As weird as this might sound, I often felt that I channeled the words of Cinderella or the Silver Fox—that I was their personal medium. I told my wife this and she said, “But you wrote the story. You created the characters.” I agreed, but when I wanted Cinderella to go down one path, she’d often go down another. I couldn’t make her do what I wanted her to do. While writing, her personality crystalized for me and I clearly began to know who she was, what she yearned for and why. I listened to her and wrote her story. I know that I’ll be asked many questions about the Silver Fox and I will simply say this: In the first draft, I didn’t discover his character until more than 2/3 of the way through the book. Once I created him, I realized that I had to re-write the book as he was central to it. My first readers really loved him and wanted more and I couldn’t disagree. He makes the book worth reading.

While writing Cinderella’s Secret Diary, I knew that I wanted the central theme to be about female empowerment.  My closest friends know that I am not a fan of Disney and the whole Princess thing. I wanted to write a story about a young woman who was a Princess but then had to overcome many challenges to find out who she truly is. With that said I’ve dedicated the book to my daughter.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the book and am already planning on writing the next. I hope you choose to read it and, if you like it, share it with friends and family. I believe it’s a story that needed to be told.

Cinderella's Secret Diary (Book 1: Lost)

• Purchase the Amazon Kindle version* for $3.99.
• Purchase the print version for $8.99 on Amazon.

*Remember, the Kindle app is available for free for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices so you need not own a Kindle to read the book.

Starting 2012 Off with a Bang

My wife and I ran the Ocean City 5K "First Day" race yesterday. What was so amazing about the race is that there were near 600 people signed up to run on the boardwalk in January and afterward many of them then plunged into the icy ocean. Luckily, the weather was insanely warm being in the 50s. I was down the shore with my family and friends to celebrate the new year and now am back home and have some time to decompress.

For the last 11 days, I've been busy on the home front with the holidays yet I did make some time to sit down and do one of my favorite things: Watch movies. In the past two weeks, I've seen: The Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Hugo, Moneyball, The Help, Chipwrecked (I love my kids THAT much) and The Names of Love. I also squeezed in seeing the new Doctor Who Christmas special and a few great episodes of Absolutely Fabulous (one of my favorite all-time TV shows). And when I wasn't watching movies at night, I was reading and reading some more. I started reading END: An Apocalyptic Anthology. One of my stories is published in there but I haven't had time to read the other authors' works. When I didn't feel like reading about the end of the world, I jumped back to reading George R. R. Martin's Storm of Swords.

I didn't get time to play many games (no Magic: The Gathering playing, unfortunately), but I was happy that I had some time to see so many movies. I'm an extremely visual person and just love immersing myself into the imaginations of other people. Out of all the movies and TV shows I saw this week, I'd highly recommend seeing The Help and The Names of Love. I've written a lot about The Tree of Life and how much I loved it, but The Help and The Names of Love are both great flicks that are easily accessible.

I love it when I watch a film and learn something about life while also being entertained. I have to thank my wife for suggesting to watch The Names of Love. I had never heard of it and I try to keep up on French films. Just wasn't on my radar. Same goes for George R. R. Martin's books--they sold millions of copies and I call myself a lover of fantasy writing and I hadn't even heard of them. The challenge in being a writer, working full-time and raising a family is that it's hard to make time to watch films or read. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, my actual reading/watching TV time is pretty minimal. When I'm free, I'm usually writing, talking to other writers on social media or learning all I can about writing and promoting. But it's essential for a writer to make time to read just as it is essential to sit one's butt in the chair and write.

But these past two weeks have been about family and the holidays and fun. Sure, life has been hectic. Yet it's great to make time to watch such great films and read. Now with 2012 upon us, I've started writing my next novel (the sequel to Cinderella's Secret Diary). I have been humbled by the great reviews the book has gotten and the awesome support from readers. Now I need to "sit my butt in chair" and start writing again. The challenge with that is making the time to write. When I write, time needs to be taken away from something else. Most likely it'll be sleep and watching TV that will take the big hits. Yet it also won't be impossible. It'll just take time, patience and discipline.

I wanted to share the picture above from yesterday's run/plunge because it's a great tradition in Ocean City (though I've yet to partake in the plunge part): On the first day of the year, hundreds of people get into their bathing suits to plunge into the ocean on January 1st. Yesterday I saw old and young lined up on the beach. People in costumes and even a few bikinis. At around 2 p.m., a countdown takes place and they all run into the freezing water. Yesterday was a warm day so everyone got lucky, but the symbolism is still there. It's goofy to strip down into your bathing suit in the winter and run into the freezing water. But it's also allows people to show that they'll do something crazy, fun and just plain wacky to prove to themselves that it's okay to be different or to be goofy for a few hours.

For me, I started off 2012 right. I ran the fastest 5K of my life (26:03), have begun writing my next novel and spent time with family and friends. But to get to where I am now in running and writing has taken me years of hard work. I've been running seriously now for more than two years and writing for decades. I've earned degrees, tried new things, failed, succeeded, watched hundreds of movies and read thousands of books--all of this is a continuing process that will (hopefully!) continue as long as I live.

So for me, I'm starting 2012 off with a bang and am headed on the path that I see is best for me. I wish you all a happy New Year and hope you have a blast too!

END: An Apocalyptic Anthology

S.M. Reine contacted me a while back and asked if I would contribute a short story to an end of the world anthology. I thought about it for half a second and then sent her my story "Such Sinners We Are." Now it's months later and I'm happy to say that END: An Apocalyptic Anthology is for sale. What's different about this book is that all proceeds from sales benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which ensures children with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses can get treated regardless of their ability to pay. How cool is that?

So what are the stories about? END features six stories about the end of the world from indie publishing's rising stars. The Mayan Calendar ends on December 21st, 2012, and some people believe that heralds apocalypse. What better way to go out than with a collection of shocking, thrilling, and sexy stories? So please go check it out and purchase a copy of END to help support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. You'll not only be helping children in need but you'll be supporting six indie authors. Thank you!