So, my story in this lovely hot book, "Toads, Diamonds and the Occasional Pearl" is not based on what you would call a particularly titillating fairy tale. I should say that I love fairy tales, especially the ones where the female characters get to have a lot of agency. But "Toads and Diamonds" is not, in its original form, one of them. There are two sisters, one fairy, a good deed, a rude word, a perceived blessing, a curse, and the tale is done. The good sister is beautiful--and is forced to spit out gem stones with every kindly word (ouch). The bad sister is ugly (natch) and creates a new ecosystem of toads and sundry such beasties whenever she speaks harshly. Which is often.
I wanted to make something new from this odd morality tale warning girls to always speak nicely to others, and make it something else. The two sisters become one princess and her blessing/affliction becomes...something different. And this time around, she gets a companion who sees more to her than serving as a living treasure chest or cursed harridan.
Here's an excerpt from my story "Toads, Diamonds and the Occasional Pearl"
(From shortly before things start to get a tad more steamy):
All the
stories begin the same way: three princes go on a quest. Maybe they’re rivals
for a throne. Or a princess. But whatever the goal, the youngest one always
wins. Unless it’s the eldest. They never have sisters. Or if they do, they’re
left safely at home.
When I told my father, the King, that I wanted to go on a
quest like my two brothers, he laughed. He made my request a joke, as if he had
not known that I practiced all that my brothers learned from the armsmaster
since we were small. Perhaps I had kept that secret too well.
The
whole Court buzzed with the news, except for my younger brother, Fenar. He
longed for the peace of the library and the quiet of the monastery. And that
was where I parted from him when we left our father’s castle, taking his sword,
his horse and his name with his blessing.
Our father had forbidden me all three and I intended to
prove him wrong. I could win the throne, if not the princess. Princess Eliann
was lovely to look at, but she’d never glanced at me. Not since I kissed her
once when I was on a visit to her mother’s court and found myself barred from
it until I “could learn to behave like a princess.”
I sighed. When I saw Eliann next, we were both of marriageable
age and things had changed. She was proud and cruel, no longer willing to meet
my eyes, not even when I made my brothers stop teasing her. In any case, Eliann
would never accept being consort to the Princess Shalene when she could be
Queen to my eldest brother, Greir, so my wishes were of little significance.
That was, of course, if Greir chose to claim her hand
along with the throne when he returned. I thought it unlikely.
Eliann’s...affliction had put off braver men than he. Few would choose to be
married to a princess who spat out diamonds or toads with every sentence.
Mother had said that true love would break the fairy curse, but I had my
doubts.
I shrugged off my thoughts, which made my horse snort at
me and toss his head, eager to run. I felt the same way. Once I had seen other
lands, I promised myself that I would find a princess and a throne of my own
and never return here, just as my great aunt had done. The day turned brighter
and my road clearer at that picture. I nudged the horse forward into a loping
run and I smiled to think of leaving all I knew behind me.
I smiled less when I reached the edge of the great forest
of Adin. The sun was setting and the figure on the path in front of me was in
shadow, but I could still see the outline of a bow, its string stretched taut.
The arrow was pointed straight at me. I pulled my horse to an abrupt halt. “I
mean you no harm,” I tried to make my voice as deep as my brother’s.
The arrow stayed right where it was. “How do I know
that?” It was odd, the quaver in that voice, almost like someone trying to
sound older and larger than they were. I wondered if there were others on the
road who traveled in disguise tonight. Did my brother’s light armor make me so
very terrifying?
Not that the arrow would make me less dead, terrifying or
not. Something moved in the shadows at the figure’s feet, but it was too small
to be threatening. I hoped. I tried again, “I seek only to pass. Will you let
me by?”
“Give me your horse.” This time, I could hear the desperation
in that voice. That, and something more. Something familiar. I wondered how
well they could shoot, this person in shadow who wanted to steal my horse. I
wondered what I would do if they succeeded. I pictured my return to my father’s
court, my quest at an end, and me the utter failure they thought me already. A
boiling rage filled me then. Kicking the horse forward into a full gallop while
I drew my sword was a matter of pure impulse.
END OF EXCERPT
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June 26th: A.D.R. Forte-“Warrior’s Choice”