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When I was six years old I loved Cinderella. It wasn't so much the Fairy Godmother as her beautiful transformation... and all the birds and mice and squirrels working together to sew a gorgeous blue dress. Plus she was blonde, with blue eyes. Like me.
I also loved this book, THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN by George MacDonald. The princess' name was Irene. Need I say more?
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My sister, on the other hand, adored Sleeping Beauty. Probably the blonde hair and green eyes had something to do with it. And the fact that she was born beautiful... as was my sister. And now her daughter, my niece, calls this princess "Sleeping Booty." Which I think is maybe the most adorable thing I have ever heard in my entire life.
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When we were teenagers both my sister and I loved THE PRINCESS BRIDE. We dreamed of a Wesley all our own. And you know what? We got our Wesleys.
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A decade later I gave birth to my third baby boy, and I had no idea what to name him. We settled on Eric, which happens to be the name of Ariel's prince.
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Then today I took the Which Princess Are You? quiz at Facebook, and I got none of the above. I got the kind of princess who doesn't let a little thing like gender get in her way. One whose story started out as a poem. And for whom love and honor and loyalty are things worth fighting for. She doesn't look a thing like me on the outside. But on the inside...
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And I can't write a post about princesses without mentioning Lindsey Leavitt, author of the forthcoming PRINCESS FOR HIRE. Lindsey is also one of my fellow panelists at Saturday's What to Expect When You're Expecting a Book in Florence, Alabama, along with cool chick Rachel Hawkins, author of HEX HALL.
Y'all come!
I so wish I could come! I'd love to schmooze with local writers, particularly ones who don't necessarily write scifi and fantasy (lots of those in Huntsville, Engineering Capital of the Earth). But we're having a bday party for my aunt that very afternoon. Hope you guys have fun!
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