Got a question?
Please feel free to hit me up by email.
In the meantime, here are a few answers to some common questions…
Is there a sequel?
Yes, this is a four-part saga.
When is the next getting published?
Not sure. Still working on it.
Why write another princess book? What about all those cringy anti-feminist tropes?
I can’t lie—I do love a good princess book! But mine is a little different from a lot of the princess stories I grew up with. Like the Little Mermaid, my character starts the story on her birthday at age 16, but unlike Disney’s Ariel, my character doesn’t wrap up her future husband and home three days later. This fairytale retelling takes a look at the trauma of the princess trope. And it’s an examination of the worth of a princess…. Is her greatest purpose, like Iphigenia, Ariadne and Zelda, to sacrifice herself for the good of her people? Or, is she worth more alive and powerful and with agency to affect the world?
Why is a white woman writing about a BIPOC princess in Medieval Europe?
Love, honesty, justice…
I passionately believe in writing books about the good that I see all around me (as well as the problems, too, of course), and I’ve put a ton of thought and research into this choice. Many artists and leaders who I look up to are BIPOC, I would like to see more BIPOCs in those starring, leading roles. Yet, it is an important issue as writers to respect the ways we are not like our characters, and both appropriation and sloppy storytelling can cause harm. So, I worked very carefully with a sensitivity consultant on the story. I did a ton of research and talked with my BIPOC friends and family.
Thank you for being concerned, and please read more about this very interesting process and research, including working with a sensitivity consultant, here.
Please also check out my 2020 article on Black Lives Matter, originally published on Medium.
Why self-publish?
I decided to self-published because I’ve been working in professional fields for over a decade, publishing articles, directing and producing short films and collaborating with various talented teams of professionals. In short, I knew I could do it. I wanted to get the story out right now. And I wanted to have full control over my IP.
Why is the first book so short?
Time is money. Right now, I’m bartending and co-parenting a toddler child through a pandemic, so let’s just say I haven’t stopped writing, but finishing the other three books is going to be a slow burn. My husband, Nathaniel, gave me the super-gift of a lot more time off to write and create than he had in 2020. I couldn’t have done it without his extreme dedication.
Finally, you buying the book and sharing it around really helps me get to the other three.
Have you published trigger warnings?
Can you share some book questions with book groups?
Sure.
— At what point in the story do you most or least connect with the main character?
— Who do you consider to be the true villain in the end?
— What themes in the story connect to issues of our times?
— What moments in the story connect to your own experiences?
— What do you want to see happen in the next book?
— What questions do you still have?
Is there an ebook?
Working on it.
What writers inspire you?
I love reading complex sagas about women, like Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Ursula Le Guin’s Tombs of Atuan.
I love the way that these stories take me down intersecting pathways of love and survival. I love the greatheartedness mixed with compromise that makes the leading characters so interesting and lovable. I admire the leadership that they show, whether or not they get honor for it. They’re complicated, messy and very cool.