Finally - it's time to reveal this pretty baby!!

(Can you tell I'm excited?!)

“Imagine a prince,” I say dramatically, waving my hand in a wide arc through the air as if I’m setting the scene. “Prince Lachlan of Linden.”

Lachlan snorts.

My dad laughs.

I’m off to a rocky start, but I press on. “The prince, of course, is heir to the throne. Or, he would be, if it weren’t for his evil stepmother trying to steal his birthright out from under him to secure the crown for her own son…the spare.” I flash my eyes as I hiss the words. “Now, the only way Prince Lachlan can save his kingdom from the greedy, power hungry clutches of his step-monster, is to sacrifice his only child or,” I pause for effect, and also to make the following sentence the obvious solution…and not a ploy to commit fraud, “marry.”

“Ah,” my father says, understanding but playing along. “But how will he meet his future wife in the nick of time? A ball?”

“A bookstore.” I smirk. “A magic bookstore run by a fairy godfather who bestows the desperate prince his only daughter to take as his wife.”

My father’s eyes widen a bit and I have to give myself a mental pat on the back for delivering a plot twist even he didn’t see coming. “The spell won’t last forever,” he says slowly, though I can hear the hint of a question in his tone.

“Only until midnight on the final day of the second month,” I finish. “Then, the spell will be broken, the young maiden returned home, and the prince unmarried once more. All will be as it was, but for three significant differences. The crown will be his. The kingdom safe. And his daughter, forever, at his side.”

No one says anything for several seconds after I finish talking.

When the silence drags on too long to be bearable, Lachlan is the first to break it.

“Fairytales aside,” he pauses, clearing his throat and looking about a hundred times more uncomfortable than he did when he had to tell me what he’s about to tell my father, “I really am a prince. And -” He shakes his head, chuckling, though I sense it’s more in disbelief than amusement. “Actually, I’m not sure there was any part of that story that wasn’t true. Though even I’ve never heard it put quite in those words.”

“You’re a prince.” My father’s lack of emotion suggests he’s still grappling with the whole concept.

“Prince Lachlan of Linden,” I remind him. “It was right there at the beginning of my story. I have to tell you, I thought it’d be a stronger opening. The kind that hooks you right from the start, not the sort you skim over and forget about.”

“Oh, I was hooked,” my father assures me. “I just didn’t realize it was more documentary than fiction.” He turns back to Lachlan. “Linden. You’re famous for your yarn.”

Lachlan laughs in surprise. “Yes. As a matter of fact, we are.”

“That’s a weird thing to know about a place, Dad,” I mumble, breaking away from our pack to refill my cup. “It’s also a weird thing to be famous for. When I’m queen, that’s the first thing I’m changing.”

A release date is still in the works, but I’m planning for this spring so stay tuned!