What I’m Writing
WHILE SHE SLEEPS
WHILE SHE SLEEPS is a fairy tale-esque story that alludes to the much loved Sleeping Beauty tale while still a solid story in its own right. New York Times Best Selling author of the Runelord Series, David Farland, described this novel as “delicious” with a “magnificent use of voice.”
Sixteen-year-old Meri knows the secret words to make a witch give her anything her heart desires, but her plan backfires leaving the queen dead, the princess under a sleeping spell, and the entire kingdom in peril. Orphaned as a babe and raised as the castle furniture polisher, Meri wants nothing more than to find her family–her identity and her home. Now she alone has escaped the witch and must flee into the wilderness, fighting robbers and outsmarting bounty hunters, while practically becoming a witch herself in order to find a prince whose “true love’s kiss” can break the spell and save the kingdom–she just didn’t expect to fall in love with him herself. Meri must chose between claiming her true identity or keeping her true love but neither will help her find her place in the world.
Along the vein of Meg Whalen Turner’s THE THIEF (but with girl-power) and Karen Cushman’s MIDWIFE’S APPRENTICE (but with more sass and adventure), WHILE SHE SLEEPS is a young adult fantasy complete at 85,000 words. It is a stand-alone novel with series potential.
My qualifications for writing this include: a love for fairy tales, which I gained while growing up in a doublewide trailer with six siblings, where by the age of 8 I had convinced myself that I had been switched at birth and my real parents were going to show up any day and take me away, preferably to a castle; and spending large amounts of time, mostly as a child, acting out princess stories complete with fainting scenes, daring escapes, and the wooing of many an imaginary prince charming. Now as an adult I have found my prince charming in a computer nerd, my dream castle in my country home complete with flower beds and a vegetable garden, and deep down, like most girls, I still believe that I’m a princess.