What do you get when you mix three evil princesses, one cursed castle, the unlikeliest of heroes, and a ghostly woman dancing through his dreams at midnight?
The Queen Bee, of course!
Well, my Queen Bee at least.
I wrote this romantic fantasy novella in the style of an old time fairy tale. Sort of. Like most of my works, the number one goal is fun. You can expect witty banter, shameless subversion of classic tropes, and quite a few twists and surprises. And, um… a bit of spice. More on that later.
The Queen Bee
Some curses are best left unbroken.
But where’s the fun in that?
Witling, kindhearted miller’s son, is commanded to break the curse on an ancient castle. Yet a ghostly lady dancing through his dreams suggest there is more to this curse than meets the eye.
Curses can be vexing like that.
His quest is stymied by two avaricious brothers incurring the wrath of enchanted woodland creatures. And what do the trio of slumbering princesses of legendary beauty and wickedness have to do with the literal woman of his dreams?
It’s complicated. Love can be vexing like that too.
The Queen Bee is a witty re-imagining of a classic Grimms’ fairy tale, featuring a kindhearted hero, a host of enchanted creatures, a really neat castle, and a charming reverse age gap romance sweet as honey and sharp as a bee’s sting.
The Queen Bee is available as an ebook and paperback.
The Queen Bee started as a submission to a romantic fairy tale retelling anthology. Though the anthology never came to fruition, it did push me to write something I’d have never otherwise attempted, and so I’m grateful for that.
I spent quite a bit of time re-reading some of the more obscure Grimms’ Fairy Tales, until I found one that really sang to me, and this was it. Since the original, published in 1812, is approximately two pages long, I had a ton of creative freedom to fill in missing pieces. For example, the two elder brothers didn’t have distinct personalities or even names. The princesses had no names, no personalities, and not even any speaking lines. And I took quite a few liberties with the source material where appropriate funny.
And the spice? Well, it was supposed to be part of a romantic anthology, one of the requirements of which was spice. So this will be my first published work with a spicier romance. Don’t tell anyone.
