The Princess Blog

Did you know that this past Wednesday was National Tell a Fairy Tale Day ? That means this is a big week for sales on princess books ! I celebrated the joyous occasion by attending  another Facebook party  with many talented authors . Among those authors, Lucy Tempest  released her latest book in the Fairy Tales of Folkshore series  promptly time for the holiday. As the newest and shiniest release, Princess of Midnight  was the first book I read in honor of National Fairy Tale Day. I had mixed feelings about Lucy Tempest's  Thief of Cahraman trilogy  and Beast / Beauty of Rosemead  duology, so I wasn't sure what to expect from this reimagining of "Cinderella" and the "The Snow Queen."  To my delight, I found that it was not only more concise than the other Folkshore novels, but also one of the best adaptations of "Cinderella" that I have ever read. Princess of Midnight  tells the story of Ornella, a minor character from the other b...

I went to Epcot at Walt Disney World this weekend for the first time in about seven years. The Future World side of the park is going through a rough patch right now while they work on their huge 2020 expansion  that will include a new  Moana -themed fountain, interactive city, and more. That meant that most of Future World was walled up for construction, but that wasn't too much of an inconvenience because as every Disney Princess fan knows, the World Showcase is the true princess side of the park . I made lunch reservations at Akershus , went on the new Frozen  ride , and attended the new Beauty and the Beast  Sing-Along . Shortly before my arrival, I learned that I would be just in time for the tail end of Epcot's Festival of the Arts , a new seasonal event at the park that started three years ago. Similar to the Food and Wine Festival , this event set up stations throughout the world showcase selling sample portions of delicious and unique food items from a...

I know I rant about Disney a lot here , and while that isn't meant to be the purpose of my blog, the massive conglomerate of fantasy and dreams seems to be on a downward spiral with an exponentially increasing velocity. There were several new announcements over the past week which provided further confirmation things are not likely to improve any time soon. Last week, I posted about their forced revival of The Princess Diaries  franchise . Even though it's unnecessary, at least it's not another remake, right? Plus, with all the remakes released so far , there has only been one sequel produced. I've found it in my heart to forgive Maleficent 2  due to the fact that it takes place in an alternate universe from the original Sleeping Beauty  and never could have existed in the animated universe anyway. That is not the case for the new  Aladdin , which was a pretty good remake but a fairly literal translation of an animated franchise  that already has two sequels ...

This is a short prequel to The Stolen Jewel  that delves a little deeper into the backstory of Lady Denise, a disabled character  from the kingdom of Klingland . I was inspired to do this because I am currently working on the screenplay version  of The Stolen Queen , a sequel to The Stolen Jewel  about Lily, Charlotte's best friend . I discussed this project along with several others I've worked on in a recent interview with author A.G. Marshall . My ultimate goal is to create a trilogy that reveals what became of Charlotte, Lily, and Krystal respectively. Denise, who is Charlotte's aunt and Krystal's mother, had such a rich backstory that I wanted to pay her some homage as well. For more updates about the release of The Stolen Queen , you may sign up for my mailing list . *** The Stolen Jewel: Denise's Decision "I'm afraid I've done everything I can," said Margaret, a healing mage. Her green rune glowed eerily in the dim light of the small...

The past few years brought us a myriad of rumors about another sequel to the beloved 2001 Disney classic  The Princess Diaries . In 2017,  Anne Hathaway reported  that there was already a script for The Princess Diaries 3  and that most of the talent behind the original including Queen Julie Andrews herself were interested in participating in the project. Of course, it's one thing for them to say they're interested and another for Disney to actually produce it, especially when they are already up to their eyeballs in  sequels and remakes . The advent of Disney+  gives them a new platform for original content that makes the distribution of their smaller films easier and cheaper than worldwide theatrical releases. They are already taking advantage of this with several upcoming princess-related movies  that will be exclusive to the new streaming platform. Whether or not The Princess Diaries 3  will be released in theaters remains to be seen, but i...

After I reviewed The Stepsister Scheme  by Jim C. Hines , I didn't think I was interested in reading more until I learned that the next book in the series was based on my favorite fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid."  Though I reviewed a lot of "Little Mermaid" adaptations lately, I figured one more couldn't hurt. Or could it? I can say with some certainty that fans of the Disney movie would not enjoy this book. The Mermaid's Madness  is much darker than the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story, which is really saying something. It unapologetically dashed many of my fairy tale princess hopes and dreams, yet the book was a daring undertaking that focused on an aspect of "The Little Mermaid that often gets left out in other adaptations. This is a version in which our protagonist actually goes through with the proposition to kill her beloved prince in order to save herself. Since The Stepsister Scheme  centered around the adventures of Snow...