A few years ago, on New Year’s Eve, a wedding florist named Colleen Oakes decided to chase her dream of being a novelist.
“People always told me, ‘You have a dream job,’ but it wasn’t my dream job,” said Oakes. She had always wanted to write fiction, having graduated from Concordia College in New York with a degree in creative writing.
She and her friend set a goal of writing a novel in a year, and Oakes buckled down, writing “Elly in Bloom” in the chick-lit genre. She self-published the book, which was discovered by an independent publisher. One thing led to another. She kept writing and became fascinated with the world of fantasy.
Today, on New Year’s Eve, she’s celebrating a year of major milestones. She’s reinvented herself as a writer of fairy-tale retellings — putting new twists on classic fairy tales.
The first volume of her new series “Wendy Darling,” a darkly twisted tale based on Wendy from J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan,” was published in October — about the same time that her first fantasy trilogy “Queen of Hearts” sold to HarperCollins and then was optioned for film by Universal Pictures.
Grant Pierce Myers, who wrote the screenplay for the dystopian sci-fi thriller “The Maze Runner,” is now writing the script.
In a way, she’s living in her own fairy tale.
The wife of a pastor and mother of a toddler, Oakes lives in a two-story suburban home near Denver. She has the regular rhythm of a stay-at-home mom, a medley of play dates and tending to her family. So she wasn’t expecting anything unusual when she picked up the phone one day to learn that Hollywood was interested in “Queen of Hearts.”
“It was surreal,” she said. “I was feeding my baby, and apple sauce was smeared all over his face and all over me. It was so glamorous and unglamorous at the same time.”
The negotiations took a year, so she had to keep it secret. But once things were official, the news hit big.
“Universal Pictures picked up hot Alice in Wonderland prequel trilogy ‘Queen of Hearts’ written by Colleen Oakes,” reported industry publication Tracking Board, comparing the upcoming movie to Disney’s “Maleficent” and Universal’s “Snow White and The Huntsman.”
This year is the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” and Oakes’ prequel is part of the pop-culture renaissance of fantasy and sci-fi tales. HarperCollins bought “Queen of Hearts” for its HarperTeen imprint at a time when the juvenile category in the publishing industry is hotter than the adult category, according Publishers Weekly — and the top selling segment of the juvenile market is fantasy, magic and sci-fi, which rose 38 percent in 2014.
The first two books of the “Queen of Hearts” series, “The Crown” and “The Wonder,” were originally published by indie publisher SparkPress.
HarperCollins will release the first book under a new title, “Prisoner of Hearts” in 2016, and the next two books will be out in 2017 and 2018. It’s the publisher of such classic epic fantasy writers as J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote “Lord of the Rings,” and C.S. Lewis, author of “The Chronicles of Narnia.”
“Some of my most favorite writers are with HarperCollins,” said Oakes. “When I went to buy Harper Lee’s new book, I thought, Oh my God, this is my publisher.”
She’s a writer who can’t write at home. Two days a week, her husband takes care of their son and she goes off to write in places like Caribou Coffee and the local library. She puts on giant headphones and listens to music — like “A Kaleidoscope of Music” by James Horner — that inspires her creation of “dangerous and whimsical” alternate realities.
There’s Wonderland, with the massive lake Todren, home to mermaids and sea monsters, and the Twisted Woods, where many adventurers were killed by the sinister Yurkei Mountain tribes.
And there’s Neverland, an island paradise of turquoise seas, mermaids and crushed-pearl sands — a place where fairy magic reigns and pirates hoard secrets rooted in blood and greed.
“I love creating these worlds,” said Oakes, who credits her husband, Ryan, with inspiring her to delve into fantasy.
“He dragged me into the nerdy pop culture with ‘Battle Star Galactica’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ” she said.
He kept urging her to read George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy “A Song of Ice and Fire” that starts with “Game of Thrones.”
“It was the best reading adventure in my whole life,” she said.
And then, because the San Diego Comic-Con was on his bucket list, they went to the comic-book and sci-fi convention.
“We geeked out on nerdy stuff,” she said. “We had the best time. It’s like nerd culture meets fangirl culture.”
The fangirl phenomenon — a pop-culture scene of girls ages 12 to 18 — accounts for a large segment of her fans, and at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, “Queen of Hearts” will be heavily promoted by HarperCollins.
Fangirls are also a driving force behind the first volume of her “Wendy Darling” series.
“I was very surprised by the fangirl reaction to Peter Pan,” she said. “I didn’t realize they would be so in love with him. He’s a naughty character.”
This New Year’s Eve, looking back on that resolution she made to write a novel, Oakes focuses on encouraging others to follow their dreams.
“I thought this is something that happened to other people,” she said. “I thought writing a novel would be so hard. But there’s no trick to it. You just sit down and put one word after another. Anyone with a good idea and time to learn about writing can write a book.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083, coconnor@denverpost.com or @coconnordp
Learn more about Young Adult Literature
Colleen Oakes is teaching a free class from 1 to 3 p.m. Jan. 9, “Exploring YA: Trends, High Concept and You” at Anythink Wright Farms Library, 5877 E. 120th Ave., Thornton.
Colleen Oakes’ top five fairy-tale retellings
1. Bitter Greens, by Kate Forsyth
2. The Lunar Chronicles, by Marissa Meyer
3. A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas
4. Wicked, by Gregory Macquire
5. The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Neil Gaiman
Colleen Oakes’ top five YA fantasy series
1. The Giver Quartet, by Lois Lowry
2. The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling
3. The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S Lewis
4. The Inheritance Saga, by Christopher Paolini
5. The Grisha Trilogy, by Leigh Bardugo