Friday, June 23, 2017

"Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms" Blog Tour Post

Please see my previous post for the blog tour schedule. Comment here or at one of the other posts to be entered to win a copy of this gorgeous book! (Also a buy link, because we are subtle that way).

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

Comment here to be entered and check out the next post in the blog tour:

June 26th: A.D.R. Forte-“Warrior’s Choice”


No comments:

Post a Comment