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Regina Doman’s new books
Regina Doman has resumed writing and publishing Catholic books after taking a year off to grieve following the tragic accidental death of her four-year-old son. Here is the press release for her new book:
On August 15th, Virginian Catholic author Regina Doman, author of Angel In The Waters, released her third novel for teens and adults, Waking Rose: A Fairy Tale Retold after a year’s sabbatical due to a family tragedy.
Although she had finished the novel over a year ago, she stopped working on it after the accidental death of her four-year-old son, Joshua Michael, in July 2006. She took a year away from writing and speaking in order to spend time with her family and to grieve.
She was moved by many letters from fans of her other books who wrote promising their prayers and offering encouragement. Christmas of 2006, she and her husband decided to resume work on the book for the sake of those fans. They self-published the book this August under the imprint of Chesterton Press, and it is available at her website, www.fairytalenovels.com.
A Trilogy of Tales
Waking Rose is the third in her series of novels with Catholic characters and themes based on fairy tales. The series began in 1997 with the publication of the book that became The Shadow of the Bear: Snow White and Rose Red Retold. This contemporary story retold an obscure German folk tale about two sisters whose bear friend turns out to be an enchanted prince. Regina’s retelling centered on two homeschooled girls in New York who encounter a teenage boy living on the streets under the name of “Bear.” Bear turns out to have a mysterious mission that involves the unsolved murder of a Catholic priest and an abandoned church. This summer, Regina and her husband released the 10th anniversary edition of this book, which has become a favorite with many readers. “Some schools use it in their high school reading programs,” Regina says. “I’m honored.”
The series continued with the same characters in her 2002 sequel, Black As Night, based on the more well-known tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” “I retold it as ‘Snow White and the Seven Friars’,” Regina laughs. “I used some of my experiences working with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York before I was married.” This book, which Regina admits is probably the most intense, has Bear searching for his girlfriend, Blanche, who has vanished after a summer job unexpectedly threatened her life. Meanwhile, seven friars find a girl named Nora hiding in the storage room of their homeless shelter. Nora resembles Blanche but is hiding her identity. Several twists occur before a climactic and satisfying resolution.
Waking Rose, based on “Sleeping Beauty,” is the story of the second sister, Rose, who has had a crush on Bear’s younger brother, nicknamed Fish, for the past two books. Fish has always rebuffed Rose, sometimes humorously, for reasons that finally become clear in this book. “Fish feels his problems are insurmountable, and that they’ve cut him off from normal life,” Regina explains. “But Rose still has hope for him, even though she tries to move on with her life.” When a tragic accident occurs, Fish finds out that he might indeed be the only person who can save Rose. “I tried hard to make this a book that was as colorful and adventurous as the character of Rose Brier,” Regina said. “Partly to balance out how serious the problems in this book are, and partly to provide a fitting close to the trilogy about these four characters.”
She hopes that new readers as well as fans will find the book a riveting, thought-provoking, and satisfying read. “I’m encouraging adults to buy the books for themselves instead of just getting them as gifts for their teens,” she says. “Moms were constantly borrowing the books from their kids, and I finally decided to market them as adult fiction. Most teens read adult fiction anyhow.”
Why Fairy Tales?
Regina says she takes her inspiration for the novels from Christian author G.K. Chesterton, who once wrote that fairy tales endure because they feature ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and that they teach children not merely that dragons exist, but that dragons can be slain. “My heroes fight real dragons,” she says, explaining that her teen heroes often confront real, contemporary dangers like date rape, adultery, and sexual brokenness. “Because I’m not interested in depressing teens, I often deal with the subjects ambiguously, so they can get the message without having to wade through graphic descriptions. Teens who have encountered these problems in their own lives can recognize them in the books, while more innocent teens don’t quite pick up what’s going on. And that’s okay. The message of hope is there if they ever need it. Dragons can be slain.”
Right now, Waking Rose is available from www.lulu.com, an online print-on-demand bookstore. She and her husband are currently negotiating with a Catholic publisher to take over the series in 2008 to enable bookstores and national distributors to have access to the book as well.
More to Come
This August, Regina resumed public speaking, giving a talk on suffering at the Midwest Catholic Family Conference. She also spoke to the high school and junior high tracks about fiction writing and the Catholic imagination. “It was hard to share about Joshua, but people have told me that the talk helped them,” she says. “I’m glad.”
Right now, Regina is resuming work on editing the upcoming John Paul 2 High teen fiction series, about seven kids in a new Catholic high school whose interactions with the local public high school cause friction and adventures. The first book: Catholic, Reluctantly, is due to be released September 2007 by Sophia Institute Press. Regina is the editor of the series, which is being written by Catholic author Christian M. Frank.
Regina is working on a fourth book in the Fairy Tale Novel series, The Midnight Dancers, based on the story “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” She hopes to release this book, which is set near Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, in the summer of 2008. “I’m keeping some of the characters who appeared in Waking Rose but introducing new heroines,” she says. “I love this book because it’s a very different situation and has a very different heroine than the first three.”
At some point, she hopes to do more childrens’ books like Angel in the Waters, which has sold 85,000 copies to date. But for now, her focus is teen and adult fiction. “I know Catholic teens and parents are looking for good books to read, and I hope to fill that need,” she says.
Regina’s books can be found at www.fairytalenovels.com and www.johnpaul2high.com. For a list of all her projects, see www.reginadoman.com. Review copies of Waking Rose are available by contacting .
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