2/17/2015

Get Lost in Regency Magic with Rebecca Paisley

A Basket of Wishes is magical. Seriously, magic. There's this fairy, you see...
Well, I'll let you read for yourself.

From Amber House Books
 Can love’s tender spell melt the icy heart of a duke?

      Jourdian Amberville, the Duke of Heathcourte, is looking for the perfect bride. A practical and staid companion who will fit into his perfectly ordered life and never tempt him to fall in love. What he is not looking for is a violet-eyed sprite who tumbles right out of the sky to knock him off his horse.
     Jourdian doesn’t know that Splendor is an actual fairy princess seeking the human mate she is destined to love. After they are forced to wed to avert a scandal, Jourdian realizes his new wife is no ordinary duchess, but a tender-hearted temptress who talks to animals and weeps diamond teardrops. 
     The delightful chaos the mischievous beauty brings to his life threatens to make him lose not only his temper…but his heart.  
     If Jourdian is to keep Splendor, he must learn to surrender that heart to the strongest, most dangerous magic of all—the magic of true love.

In this morsel from A Basket of Wishes, Jourdian Amberville, the Duke of Heathcourte has just been unseated from his horse by a peculiar young woman who seemed to tumble right out of the sky…

     Jourdian saw a burst of silver light, then a flash of white before Magnus shied, bucked, and reared.
Unprepared for his horse’s sudden panic, Jourdian fell off the frightened stallion and toppled to the cold ground. Pain surged through his head; his thoughts swayed dizzily through his mind. He felt displaced, as if he wasn’t really there but was only watching what was happening from another place.
     He shut his eyes.
     Stars danced before him. Not unusual, considering the hard fall he’d taken. But why did he think he smelled spring wildflowers? The fresh fragrance was so real, it was almost as if he were lying amidst a bed of the fragile blossoms.
     May flowers in November? God, his fall must have been worse than he’d realized.
     He lay motionless, still watching stars twinkle. A moment later, he felt as though something pressed against his chest. It didn’t weigh much, but it was there, just like the scent of wildflowers that lingered around him.
     He opened his eyes and saw other eyes. Violet eyes, and they gazed at him with a combination of curiosity and pleasure. Full of sparkle and fringed with long, thick lashes, they were the sweetest, most mesmerizing eyes Jourdian had ever beheld, and he felt powerless to look away from them.
The owner of the pretty lavender eyes lay fully upon him, and it wasn’t at all difficult to discern her sex. The only thing she was wearing was the cloak of her copper hair, the alluring perfume of spring wildflowers…
     And stars. The tiny lights shimmered all over her.
     She looked like an angel.
     Disbelief slammed into him. “Am—am I dead?”
     She shook her head.
     An angel wouldn’t lie, Jourdian decided. He wasn’t dead. Closing his eyes again, he strove for a plausible explanation.
     Maybe he’d been knocked unconscious. Perhaps the naked, sweetly scented girl was but a dream, a figment of his senseless state. A real person wouldn’t go strolling through fields without clothes on—especially on a chilly November day. A dream would also explain her slight weight. After all, she was composed of nothing but his imagination and a myriad of silver stars.
     But he didn’t feel asleep. Indeed, he was fully aware of every sight, scent, and sound around him.
What the bloody hell was happening to him?
     He opened his eyes, looked at the girl, and again saw the sparkles swirling around her. Either she was a fantasy or a constellation had fallen from the sky into his arms. And since a fantasy was more believable, Jourdian realized then that he was definitely in the throes of a dream, the most realistic he’d ever experienced.
     “Hello,” she said.
     The fragile dream spoke, and Jourdian decided her voice was softer than the stirring of a bird’s wing. Her breath wafted across his chin, warm like a sunbeam, and her pale pink lips curved into a shy, lovely smile that wrinkled her small nose in a most enchanting manner.
     “Your scent is supremely pleasant,” she told him. “’Tis the sort one might come upon while meandering through the woods in the winter.”
     Ordinarily, Jourdian would not have returned a smile given him by a naked stranger lying on top of him, but since he was obviously out cold he felt perfectly free to participate in and enjoy his dream to the fullest. Not only did he smile back at her but he also lifted his hands from the ground and gently clasped her tiny, bare waist.
     She was warm and soft, and her scent of wildflowers flowed through his senses like petals drifting on a gentle breeze.
     “Oh,” Splendor whispered when he touched her. Strength began to trickle through her limbs. 
     Gradually the energy she’d lost during her chaotic flight across the meadow returned to her, and it was with great relief that she realized she would not be forced to shrink to fairy size to regain what little vigor she possessed.
     She shifted, lifting her head from the Trinity’s broad shoulder and trailing her fingers lightly across his temple. His pulse thumped beneath the tips of her fingers. A strong and steady beat, it reminded her anew of the power locked within his massive frame, and she understood then that the strength she felt flowing through her was not her own, but his.
     Excitement rushed through her. Her great-grandfather and father had been right! Just being close to a human bolstered a fairy’s vitality. 
     “You’ve wonderful eyes,” she told him, her gaze locked with his. “There are some who believe rain has no color, but I will tell you now that they are wrong. Rain is silver and iridescent, like the wing dust of certain butterflies and moths. When you rub those wings, the dust glistens on your fingertip. ’Tis a lovely thing to see. Your eyes are such a silver, like rain and the glistening wing dust, and I do not think staring into them for hour upon hour would be a difficult task.”
     Jourdian thought about what she’d said. No woman had ever commented on the color of his eyes before.
     “And your lips…” Splendor said. “Full and soft and slightly parted, and I have a glimpse of your teeth, which are as white as the water lilies that float in the pond where I bathe. You have no hair on your face. I am glad for that, for if you wore a beard I would nay have discovered the mole on your right cheek. ’Tis a mark I find quite dashing.”
     “You chatter,” he said, grinning.
     “Aye. I cannot help it. I have tried to help it, but there are so many, many things that occur to me that I fear I would burst if I could not somehow release them. Sometimes, however, I am as quiet as the flailing of a snowflake. Many believe me ill when I am so quiet, but I have only been ill once in my life. A cat scratched me. He was a black cat with eyes as green as poison. My skin is sensitive, and the cat scratch caused me such torment that I took to my bed and did not rise for a full fortnight. The cat would have eaten me alive, and I’m sure that there can be no death more horrible. I do not like cats. Not at all. I am fond of hens and rabbits, however, because they don’t chase me as cats do.”
     “Rabbits,” he echoed, his mind spinning with all the things she’d told him. “Cats chase you?”
     “Aye, but rabbits and hens do not.”
     He smiled again. He simply couldn’t help it. There was something so sweet, so good about her. “Sprite,” he said softly, touching one of her shimmering red curls.
     She frowned slightly. Did he already know of her Faerie origins? “Why do you call me so?”
     “Sprite? You remind me of one.”
     “You have seen sprites?”
     He smiled indulgently. “No, but I’m sure they look like you. Delicate. And shimmery, with impish smiles and whimsical ways about them.”
     He didn’t know what she was, she realized. Sprite was only a pet name. “I am supremely certain,” she said, “that you are the most beautiful creature ever to draw breath.” Her gaze caressing his face once more, she grinned at him.
     And no power on earth could have kept Jourdian from kissing that dreamy, dazzling smile. Drawn to her ethereal beauty and intrinsic goodness, he gently pressed his lips to hers and knew he had never encountered such sweetness. She tasted like warm honey—literally—as if she had just partaken of the luscious substance and it yet clung to her lips.
     “What—what is this you do?” Splendor whispered, her mouth still touching his.
     Jourdian ended the kiss and saw true bewilderment floating within her luminous eyes. Well, she was only an illusion, he reminded himself. A beautiful and innocent chimera who had no way of knowing what a kiss was.
     Far be it from him to allow her to end before he’d tutored her in the art of sensuality.
“It’s called a kiss, and we were kissing.
     She thought about that for a moment, but could make no sense of it. “Why do you do it?”
     “You didn’t like it?”
     She looked at his lips again. “It didn’t repulse me in the slightest.”
     Her answer rankled. This was his fantasy, damn it all, and he would dream it the way he wanted, with her writhing in his arms.
     He clutched her slight shoulders and touched his lips to hers once more. A low moan escaped him as he drove his tongue into her mouth, seeking and finding more of her delectable sweetness.
     Surprised though she was by his strange actions, Splendor felt filled with such incredible strength that she was certain she could fly around the world. At the very least she felt she could remain human sized for several days without having to shrink.
     “Now how do you feel?” Jourdian asked smugly.
     “Strong! Why, I have never been this strong! ’Tis magnificent this kissing!”
     Strong? Jourdian repeated mentally. He’d rather hoped that his kiss would make her weak with desire.
     Slowly, he slid his hands up the sides of her body, then moved them over her chest. Her breasts barely filled his palms, but their size didn’t disappoint him in the least, for they were two handfuls of exquisite softness.
     And the sudden stiffening of her rosy nipples assured him he was making sensual progress. Gliding his hands downward again, he moved her hips so that they fit into the cradle of his.
     Splendor felt his loins pressing into her. Confused, fascinated, and curious, she rotated her hips over the thick, turgid feel of him. “You have become hard and hot, like sunbaked stone. And you grow in size. The way you have changed… ’Tis as if by magic.”
     “Magic?” He smiled. “No, sprite. It’s your beauty that brings about such changes.”
His statement made her forget to take her next breath.
     “You say I’m beautiful,” she whispered. “That can only mean that you have succumbed. You will now admit to your enchantment with me.”
     At her bold demand and imperious tone of voice Jourdian raised a brow. No one but the queen and a dream would dare to speak to him thus.
     “I am waiting,” Splendor said.
     He decided to indulge her. She was, after all, only a fantasy. “Very well, I am enchanted, miss,” he complied, smoothing his hands over the pale swells of her bottom. “Exceedingly so. But I hardly think that being enchanted with a dream will serve much purpose other than allowing me a small time of enjoyment before I wake up.”
     Splendor raised her head from his shoulder, her action spilling her thick hair over the side of his face. He thought her a dream? Sweet everlasting, how was she to convince him she was real?
Delicious solved the problem for her. The graceful swan descended from the sky, landed next to Jourdian’s head and, with one quick motion bestowed a stinging peck upon His Grace’s ear.
     “Bloody hell!” Jourdian shouted.
     “One cannot feel pain in a dream, can one?” Splendor asked, sliding her finger down the length of the great bird’s neck. “This is Delicious. I’m sure he gave you a love bite when he nipped at your ear, but I shall nay know for certain until I have a word with him later.”
     Jourdian’s ear stung viciously, and it came to him then that his head continued to throb, though only slightly now.
     He felt pain.
     This was not a dream! The naked girl was real, and he’d touched her breasts and derrière. He, the duke of Heathcourte, had lain in a field pawing a girl whose name he did not even know.

Meet Rebecca

Since her debut novel was published, bestselling author Rebecca Paisley has become known for creating her very own unique brand of magic on the page. She decided early in her career to write the sort of books she wanted to read. Her determination earned her a slot on the Publishers Weekly bestseller list and the Romance Writer's of America Honor Roll. She's been a RITA finalist, won the Romantic Times’ “Lifetime Achievement Award” and “Career Achievement Award,” a Reviewers’ Choice Award for “Historical Romance Fantasy” and a “Best Love and Laughter” Award.

Rebecca currently lives in North Carolina with her menagerie of beloved pets, still believes in magic, and still relies on the “pixie voices in her head” to inspire her as she works on a brand new book.

Visit Rebecca’s website http://www.rebeccapaisley.net
Join Rebecca on Facebook 
http://www.facebook.com/RebeccaPaisleyAuthor
Learn more about Rebecca's books at 
http://www.amberhousebooks.com
Follow her on Twitter: @Rebecca_Paisley

E.E.: What prompted you to write A BASKET OF WISHES?
Rebecca: I have a fascination with fantasy.  Anything magical.  I think that’s why I chose romance to write as well.  I have the precise sort of unbridled imagination needed to write A BASKET OF WISHES.  There were no rules.  No “That could never happen.  Please edit that out.”  Because everything COULD happen.  And it did.  I had more fun with WISHES than anything else I’ve ever written and am already working on another story very much like it.

E.E.: What is in your heroine’s reticule?
Rebecca: Nothing.  She’s naked for almost the whole book.  Fairies don’t wear clothes, a shocking fact that has the hero constantly trying to throw a robe or blanket on her.

E.E.: What is your favorite fairy tale?
Rebecca: Cinderella.  I think that story ribbons through every book I’ve written.  I realize women are perfectly capable of saving themselves most of the time, but I will never stop loving the thought of a powerful man rescuing a heroine who needs rescuing.  And, really, in all my books the heroine rescues the hero too. 

Also, I love the fairy tale in my own book, A BASKET OF WISHES.  Splendor is a very innocent, yet outrageous fairy with an aversion to clothes.  But her heart is the purest heart God ever gave to anyone.  (Yes, God takes care of His fairies too.)  Splendor’s hero, Jourdian, is a man who is sick to death of the wiles of the women who only want him for his fortune and the title of Duchess.  Splendor captured me from the first word of the book until THE END.  I miss her and still think about her all the time, which is why I want to write another magical book.

E.E.: What is your hero’s kryptonite? What brings him to his knees?
Rebecca: When the heroine gets her feelings hurt.  She doesn’t have to cry (like I do because I have a mini geyser inside of me), but if he sees even a tiny flash of hurt in her eyes - however fleeting - it will immediately make him want to take every smidegeon of hurt away from her.  And this is because my heroines are strong-minded.  The hero is used to her strong will.  So when he sees hurt on her face, he knows whatever hurt her is really, really bad.  Sometimes it’s the hero himself who has hurt her.  Sometimes it’s a mean secondary character.  Sometimes it’s a memory.  But whatever it is, the hero cannot rest until joy lights up her gaze once more.  And sometimes he struggles to make her hurt go away before he even likes her!

E.E.: Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Rebecca: Ummm…  Like TV cartoons?  That would probably be Frieda.  She was the girl with the naturally curly red hair in the Charlie Brown cartoons.  But while she loved her red curly hair, I hated mine.  I used to roll my hair with beer or coke cans to make it sort of straight.  I’d sleep with the cans on, which meant my head was about 4 inches off the pillow.  I’d have a raging headache in the morning, but at least my hair was kind of a little bit straight when I went to school.  But then by 2nd period (around 10 a.m.) it was all the way curly again, wild and probably laughing at my pitiful attempt to make it do what it didn’t want to do.  Now I love my hair because I don’t have to do anything to it.  No permanents, no rollers, no relaxing chemicals, nothing.  I just slap some leave-in conditioner on it, and it’s done.  Of course, it is still wild and my head looks like a red dandelion puff, but now I appreciate the hair God gave me.

E.E.: What sound do you love most?
Rebecca: When my children, Paisley and Emo, tell me they love me.  After those sweet words…  I think my kitty’s purring and my dogs wagging their tails on the floor.  I live near lots of horse pastures, and I love to hear the horses neigh and whinny, and the sounds of their hooves beating the ground when they run makes me feel so good.  Non-alive sounds I love are beach waves, rain, and the quiet nothing of snow.

E.E.: What feeds your creativity?
Rebecca: I like to watch unusual people.  I like accents and the stories people tell about most anything. Old things fascinate me.  Recently I went through a stage that had me seeking very old chimneys.  They were usually in the woods, the houses they’d once been in long gone.  I sat on or near those old chimneys.  Old things tell stories if you allow them to do so.  I saw an old chimney one time that had a very loose brick.  It was almost falling out, and I wondered why.  Because the rest of the chimney was very strong.  So why was that one precise brick about to fall out?  My imagination did a jig, and ideas started coming to me instantly.  My creativity is never satisfied with normal things.  It takes a normal thing and turns it into something quirky.  I can’t write about normal things.  I’ve tried, but just cannot do it.

E.E.: What book is up next? 
Rebecca: I have several started.  One is a contemporary that I am having a very hard time with.  I don’t think contemporary stories match with the way I think and feel.  I have also begun an historical that deals with a lot of animals and my feelings about those critters who are unwanted.  There is some magic in that story that keeps my creativity happy.  A third book has to do with a piece of metal.  We see the piece of metal in very odd places throughout the course of the book.  That, too, allows my imagination complete freedom with no fences.

Commenters can enter a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card, awarded by Rebecca's publisher, Amber House Books

What is your favorite fairy tale, and why?

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190 comments:

  1. The time-honoured and dramatic BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is a favorite. A dark tale of selfishness & redemption.

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    2. Wow! I had a terrible time getting logged on here. The bad Internet witches kept telling me I didn't exist! Luckily, heroine Splendor came and helped me. Yes, I love Beauty and the Beast too. I think there's something inside all of us that wants to find good wherever we look. Finding goodness comforts us and reinforces our hopes that good will always win over bad.

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    3. Beauty and the Beast. It's a fairy tale that shows us all that beauty comes from within, and that a person's appearance is not what makes them beautiful.

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    4. I used to have 394 BILLION pimples. My face was like compost soil for them. They grew and reproduced for about 7-8 years. I think I even had pimples growing on each hair on my head. I used to wish so hard that they'd go away so someone might think I was a little bit cute. I didn't wish for beauty because I thought being greedy would get me nothing at all. Now the pimples are all gone, but I need to lose weight. Clear complexion, roly-poly body. Sometimes I look at myself and think, "Oh dear Lord, Beckie. You need to go dig a hole, throw yourself in it, and stay there for all of eternity." Then other times I look at myself and think, "Well, Beckie, you're not a ravishing beauty, but that shade of eyeshadow sure does bring out the blue of your eyes." It's a day-to-day thing. I do love to take care of sick people, though. And sick animals. I think maybe that makes me a little bit pretty inside. :)

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  2. Beauty and the Beast is a favorite because of the lesson about looking beneath the surface.
    mce1011 AT aol DOT com

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    1. Yes! You'll never know what you might find unless you take a chance and look beneath the surface!

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  3. Welcome back Rebecca! I'm honored and delighted to be able to introduce A BASKET OF WISHES to new readers. And the interview is so...you! It's sweet, funny, a little zany, and emotionally honest...just like your books. Must be why I love them so much. Thanks for sharing you and your books with us today.

    My favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast. I love the redemption theme and write it over and over in different ways.

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    1. Elisabeth, the Beautiful Sweetheart of Blogs! :) I'm thrilled to be here with you. After an initial battle with the Wicked Witches of the Internet, it's nice to finally get in here. I enjoyed answering the questions you asked for this interview; they reminded me of why I wrote this book in the first place. Love is the most powerful magic in all the land, you know. It's important that we all remember that.

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  4. Welcome back, Rebecca! Sounds like another hit !!

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    1. Thanks you, Angi! I do hope readers will enjoy Splendor and Jourdian's story. Splendor was such a joy to characterize!

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  5. I like Beauty and the Beast stories because this theme is about looking beyond physical appearances and really seeing the person inside.

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    1. Forgot my email address:
      castings at mindspring dot com

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    2. Things are not always as they seem. Sometimes a little poking around and a deeper interest reward us with wonderful things, beautiful feelings. This theme, plus Cinderella, are woven through every book I have ever written. I believe in them.

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  6. Beauty & the Beast. I love that the scarred hero is redeemed by the heroine who loves him regardless of his physical appearance & of course he gives her a library. Doesn't get any better than that.

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    1. HAHA!! You're so right, Linda! Any man who gives a woman an entire library is a man to keep and cherish forever! In Beauty and the Beast one of my favorite things is how slowly but surely the Beast begins to show his heart to the Beauty. Every time I read that story or see the movie, I just melt when the Beast can no longer retain his ferociousness.

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  7. Thanks so much for hosting Rebecca today, E.E.! A BASKET OF WISHES has always been one of my favorite romances and I'm so delighted to see readers discovering it for the very first time :)

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    1. And here is one of the loves of my life - Teresa Medieros! Amazing author, savvy editor/publisher at Amber House Books, and she loves cats! She's a writer's DREAM!

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    2. I love hosting Amber House authors. You have the BEST (including you, and I can't wait for the next TM book).

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    3. And you, dearest EE Burke, need to know and remember you are the BEST too! I really love the way you support our romance genre. Thank You for all that you do, darlin' lady!

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  8. The hubster banned me from getting any more books until I finish the ones I have loaded on my Kindle, but I'm revolting and getting this one today!

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  9. Patti! I hide my collections. And I have some really strange ones. For example, I have this thing about cardboard boxes. I always think, "I have to save this box. I might need to put something inside it, or I might need it to mail something." They're all flattened so as to be easier to hide. If you can think of any space that a flat cardboard box would fit into you will most assuredly find one of my boxes. So........back to books and stuff! I've been surrounded by thousands of books for so many years that they are as much a part of me as my own hand. I wouldn't know how to act if I didn't see stacks or shelves of books. And now, of course, there's my iPad and Kindle... If the food industry figured out how to make book meals, I would eat them breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

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  10. Welcome back Rebecca! I'm honored and delighted to be able to introduce A BASKET OF WISHES to new readers. And the interview is so...you! It's sweet, funny, a little zany, and emotionally honest...just like your books. Must be why I love them so much. Thanks for sharing you and your books with us today.

    My favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast. I love the redemption theme and write it over and over in different ways.

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    1. I think I already replied to this Welcome of yours, Elisabeth, but I talk a lot and write novels, so it stands to reason that I will be very happy to reply again! The "emotionally honest" part that you mentioned is true, I think, of what really takes hold of readers. Sometimes the readers don't even know they are responding to this unseen power. It's happens quietly, builds gradually, and it doesn't let go. When I write I try to remember all the many emotions people are capable of feeling. I want them to swim in emotions, drift in them. My favorite emotion is that which makes us laugh. Is there anyone in the world who doesn't like to laugh? If there is, I don't want to meet that person!

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  12. Beauty and the Beast because of the unconditional love.. I think it's the truest form of love.

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    1. It's very telling that Beauty and the Beast is getting a lot of votes for favorite Fairy Tale! There are so many scary, awful things going on in our world at any given time. We do really want to dig through all the bad to find the good. We need good. It's our hope. And we WISH for it all the time.

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  13. My favorite is Cinderella.
    The lesser sister transforms into beauty and magic.
    thank you

    barbara (dot) montyj (at) gmail (dot) com

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    1. Cinderella is my favorite Fairy Tale too! The underdog character being noticed and, finally, loved forever. When I was doing dog rescue I thought the happiest and warmest adoptions I ever saw were the ones when people adopted the ugliest mutts we had available. And I mean to tell you we had some of the strangest and homeliest dogs you could imagine! So mixed that only God could know what dog genes made them what they were. And sometimes we would see those dogs again - like some weeks later when they came to visit us during Adoption Day - and they were all groomed and well-fed and sporting bejeweled collars... And they were happy. They couldn't stop smiling. If you've seen a genuine dog smile, you know it can light up the world. All those dogs deserved their moment to shine. Like Cinderella.

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  14. I like Cinderella. Dreams do come true.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

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    1. Dreams really do come true! I am so sad for people who don't believe in dreams. I've met a few in my lifetime. Sometimes you have to work really, really hard to make a dream come true, and other times the dream just falls into your lap. But the result is the same. Dreams coming true not only make us happy. They remind us to be ever watchful for the bits of magic that are all around us, perfectly visible if only we would look just a bit harder!

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  15. I won't leave it on the blog but you an contact me thru my google account.

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  16. I think I have to go with beauty & the Beast too! Unconditional love & understanding. You can't judge a book by it's cover. ;-D
    gsryley(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Yet another vote for Beauty and the Beast! Maybe WE think we're not pretty or worthy of love, and we wish someone would come along and see inside us. People can be so frail with self-doubt and embarrassed by the "not good" things they perceive they are. In A BASKET OF WISHES Jourdian Amberville can't see anything good about himself. He's made himself forget all the fantastic nonsense of his childhood. He's just this very wealthy duke, and all he wants is a normal-nothing-special wife who will give him his heir and then leave him the heck alone. Ummm... He gets anything BUT a normal heroine! It was hysterically fun to make Splendor into the exact opposite of what Jourdian thought he wanted. There is absolutely nothing whimsical about Jourdian. He does not dream or even wish on stars! Can you believe there are people who don't wish on stars? However do they get by in their lives?

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  17. I always loved Cinderella. It was my favorite as a little girl.

    glindathegood@bellsouth.net

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    1. When I was little I tried to make glass slippers with plastic Saran Wrap. I looked like I had ice shoes on, and Mama got mad at me for wasting the Saran Wrap.

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  18. I guess Red Riding Hood because red riding hood proves she is tough. sclickner@juno.com

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    1. Yes, she stood up to the wolf! Very powerful things come in the smallest of packages! Goliath was felled by a rock, and my little almost-19 year old kitty routinely turns a Newfoundland dog into quivering mass of horrible fear!

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  19. Cinderella. Gotta love these HEAs!
    seytype at hotmail dot com

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    1. It's such a romantic tale, yes. And the Happily Ever Afters always make us smile. Oh, and we all have Fairy Godmothers. They are our Guardian Angels!

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  20. Hmmm, my fav fairytale... Beauty and the Beast..... seeing the real person inside... no matter what they look like on the outside.
    greenshamrock at cox dot net

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    1. I wrote about a scarred hero in RAINBOWS AND RAPTURE, which has a new title now -- HAPPILY FOREVER AFTER. That hero, Santiago Zamora, has a horribly disfiguring knife scar on his face. That, added to his reputation as a legendary gunslinger, makes people deathly afraid of him. He hides the hurt this makes him feel and plays the part of the extremely dangerous man. But his heroine, Russia Valentine, looks right past that terrible facial scar of his and finds his gentle heart. She was so funny. And she and her cat, Nehemiah, irritated the spit out of Santiago. And she made him laugh. He wasn't used to laughing at all. Ever. Laughter can heal the most awful of wounds!

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  21. Beauty and the Beast

    morganvl@yahoo.com

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    1. Another vote for Beauty and the Beast! And it's not really a Fairy Tale at all. It's a true thing, and the world needs more people who believe in it. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world?

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  22. When I was a little kid, The Princess and the Frog mesmerized me. Unfortunately we have to kiss a lot of frogs before we find our prince.

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    1. I think both women and men must kiss a lot of frogs before finding the best kiss of all. And that's okay. Because I like to think that the rejected frogs are eventually found and loved too!

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. My favorite fairy tale Midas. So often what we want isn't what is best for us. Also there can be hidden consequences we never imagined. Learning lessons can be painful.
    Iamshortanote@yahoo.com

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    1. I haven't thought of the story of King Midas in a long time. Thank you for mentioning that story, Melody. You're right. We are sometimes SO SURE we "need" a certain thing, and we try and try for it, only to realize we already had something even better all along. Gold didn't make Midas happy at all. But his daughter did. *Sigh* Wonderful to ponder! For the longest time I thought I wanted a brand spanking new house with all the most modern things in it and around it. What I ended up with is a house that is around 100 years old, with just about everything out of date, no bells and whistles at all ... but there is magic in this house and the pine forest that surrounds it. I feel it everyday. This house hugs me.

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  25. I have 4 older sisters that loved to read me fairytales, so I have many fond memories of most of them. Snow White, Rose Red is one of my favorites because the girls are so kind, and I always identified with them more than the other princesses.

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    1. The best thing about stories is that there is a tale for everyone. No matter your taste in reading there is a book or little story that will speak to your heart. You know, it's like that thing where I say potato and you say potahto. Neither is wrong. So it's a truly beautiful thing that we have so many talented authors. You can give those authors a story premise, and you will get a different tale from each of them. Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast have been told about 97 billion times, but we always succumb to the lovely endings. And P.S. I say "taters" instead of potatoes or potahtoes.

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  26. My favorite would probably be Beauty and the Beast ...
    but I do love several more

    celticmajic@hotmail.com

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    1. I used to think fire ants were the worst creatures ever to crawl the earth. I still don't like them much, HOWEVER -- they eat termites. Who knows how many times those dang fire ants have saved my house from being eaten up? So see? The mean and stinging little beasties DO have at least one redeeming quality!

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  27. I love this concept:
    There were no rules. No “That could never happen. Please edit that out.” Because everything COULD happen

    What fun to work with! Can't wait to read this one

    Ekaf2022 AT gmail (dot) com

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    1. I can't wait for you to read it either, mk! And it's true -- when you are writing fantasy anything can happen. And it really DOES happen in A BASKET OF WISHES. I was able to make up so many quirky things in that book. My imagination thought it had died and gone straight to heaven. One of my favorite scenes is when the heroine's pet, Delicious, turns himself into a crab and scuttles right off the dining room table and on to the floor. When I wrote that part of the book I laughed until I felt like I was going to turn my stomach muscles into mush. And I still have no idea in the world what it was about that little crab falling off the table that tickled me the way it did. Rules are so boring. Give me impossible any day!

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  28. Replies
    1. When I was a little girl I loved drawing Snow White in her glass coffin. No, I was not preoccupied with death. I just loved drawing her inside a pretty see-through box. And I'm Catholic, so of course Snow White always held a rosary in her folded hands. :)

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  29. I don't have a favorite fairy tale per se, but I love all of the modern takes on them!

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    1. Me too! It's so fun to see them come back the way they have! Maybe we needed to concentrate on fairy tales again since so many evil things are happening in real life. It's a relief to be embraced by magic, even for just a few minutes. Keeps our hearts from forgetting how to sing.

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  30. Beauty and the Beast. Who wouldn't want their own library?

    AquarianDancer at gmail dot com

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    1. Yes, indeed, who wouldn't want their own library! 'Tis a true thing of which you speak, AquarianDancer. I love your user name. Now I want to write about a mermaid, thanks to your name! Maybe a mermaid who doesn't know how to swim, so she has to dance in the water to keep the waves from sucking her to the bottom of the sea! Hmmm... Sounds like just the kind of story I love to write!

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  31. My favorite fairy tale is also Cinderella. Growing up as the youngest girl in the house always made me really relate to her and I couldn't wait for my Prince Charming to show up. Turns out I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself but it was a nice dream.

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    1. Hi, Denise! I'm the oldest girl in my family, and I freely admit I was mean to my little sister sometimes! We can laugh about it now, but it wasn't very funny back then! One time I cut all the hair off her favorite Barbie doll.

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  32. I would say that my Fave is The Snow Queen. I love the detail and perseverance. Amazing read. I love fairy tales.

    robinblankenship at gmail dot com

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    1. The Snow Queen! I forgot about that one! I'd like to read that again. Maybe I can find it on Amazon.

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  33. Beauty and The Beast... It so easy to just assume and jump to conclusions but it takes the one to see the real person inside and his inner soul. Really enjoyed the excerpt of Basket of Wishes.

    jeanlhm18 (at) gmail (dot) com

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed the excerpt from A BASKET OF WISHES. Right after Jourdian's encounter with the naked Splendor in the meado, the preacher of the parish sees them together, and Jourdian stumbles all over his words as he tries in vain to explain why he is with a girl whose only covering is her long red hair. He, the Duke, cavorting right out in the open with a very naked girl! And what's more, Splendor very calmly explains to the preacher that she is there to give Jourdian all the pleasure she can give him. Ha!

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  34. Oh, definitely Conderella! In adulthood,
    Cinderella became Elizabeth Bennet...

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    1. She sure does! Another perfect example of how well-loved the Cinderella tale really is!

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  35. Cinderella is my favorite. I played the wicked stepmother in my first grade play.

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    1. I wish I could have seen you in that play, Nancy! Was it fun playing the wicked stepmother?

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  36. Snow Queen. Mom bought it for my sister and me when we were little and read it to us. Great memories

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    1. I know what you mean. Fairy tales always bring good memories back to me too. We just don't let go of such special times in our lives.

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  37. Cinderella, always dreamed of a Prince Charming.
    skpetal at hotmail dot com

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    1. Don't most little girls dream about their Prince Charming? I know I did! And my Prince Charming ended up being a man born and raised in Mexico and hardly spoke a word of English! To this day I cannot fathom how we managed to fall in love. I guess hearts speak and understand the same language!

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  38. Oh my word, I hate to jump on the band wagon, but my favorite is Beauty and the Beast as well. She's a strong heroine. She saves her family and then she dismisses what scares the crap out of others by seeing beneath the surface. If we go with Disney's version, she loves books above all else. Boy can I identify with that!

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    1. Book lovers are the best! I do know some people who never read. They barely scraped by in high school because they hated to read the required literature! I thank my Mama for giving me the profound love of reading. Not only did she read to us when we were too young to read, but she took us to the library all the time once we did learn to read! What a good Mama I had.

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  39. Cinderella, mostly because there was a gorgeous illustrated version of it at my library and I loved to take it out and read it all them time.

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    1. Hi, Rhi! I have an illustrated book of Cinderella too. I used to put tracing paper over my favorite pictures in the book and try my hardest to make my own copies of the illustrations so I could color them with crayons. I could never get all the good details in my tracing though. But it was still fun. And I still have that very special book of Cinderella!

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  40. I always enjoyed Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella also for the reasons given above. However, I think my favorite was The Princess and the Pea. I always enjoyed it because the princess felt the pea underneath everything.

    kscathy AT yahoo DOT com

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    1. She was a sensitive soul, that Pea Princess. Again, in that tale we learn about how special it is to be able to see and feel things that many people do not see or feel. I use that theme in all my books in one way or another. It works every time because it is so truly important!

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  41. Cinderella. After all she has been through with her wicked stepmother and step sisiters she still believes in true love and she doesn't give up her dreams of happiness.
    Sue B
    katsrus(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Wonderful point! It's very sad to give up on a dream. Maybe the dream is only a millisecond from coming true! But you'll never know if you give up!

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  42. Beauty and the Beast for the ability to see under the surface.
    I just pulled out my copy of A Basket of Wishes and think it is time for a reread

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    1. Hi Cheryl! I recently re-read my own book too. There were so many little things I had forgotten about it. And, like you, I have some books that I re-read for the sheer pleasure! I hope you like A BASKET OF WISHES again!

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  43. Always loved beauty and the beast stories, as lots of us are not born " beauties "but still are nice people

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    1. Hello Pattycake. Your user name makes me think of my dog. Not that you're a dog, but my dog, Lincoln, does pattycake. He sits down on his haunches and raises his arms so that his paws are pointed at the ceiling. He will then touch his paws to my hands for as long as I am reciting the Patty Cake rhyme. He loves this game so much that even when he outside running at full speed, he will stop instantly and raise his paws to the sky. And it doesn't even matter if I'm on the far side of the field. He just waits with his paws raised until I get there! You wrote a nice message. Inner beauty is the best kind of beauty there is.

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  44. Cinderella. We all could use a fairy godmother

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    1. My Fairy Godmother is my editor/publisher, Teresa Medeiros! I love her to pieces and pieces and pieces, and she has made so many of my dreams come true! Do you have a Fairy Godmother too?

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  45. Favorite Fairy tail is probably Beauty and The Beast. Makes people see the beauty inside not just outside.

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    1. forgot my email

      robin dot nichole79 at gmail dot com :)

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    2. Sometimes the most physically beautiful people are ugly on the inside.

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  46. I've always loved Sleeping Beauty just because I like happy endings.

    mybeach52 at yahoo dot com

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    1. We used to play Sleeping Beauty when we were little. Mama began to supervise that game when she discovered we were using real needles that drew real blood.

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  47. Cinderella! Even though she has some against her, she has more sweet friends that help her find true love & happiness forever. Thanks for sharing!
    Robin in NC rw620 at aol dot com

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    1. Isn't that the truth! She had lots more sweet friends than did her stepsisters! And all that sweetness did, indeed, help her find her HEA. There's nothing like truly wonderful friends! It's good to be surrounded by sweetness. And the smell of a cake baking. Good friends and good cakes are the stuff of a wonderful life.

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  48. Beckiesweet! Great interview! Being frighteningly different from everyone else - heh heh - my favorite fairy tale is the Shoemaker and the Elves.

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    1. MARISWEET! Lovely lady that you are. The Shoemaker and the Elves reminds me so much of when my kids were little. I'd be writing so hard, so feverishly, that I would forget to write permission notes for my kids to attend various school activities. Yeah, their mother was an author, but she couldn't write a letter to the schools! One time my little boy missed an outing to the zoo. I cringe when I remember that. It actually make me cry! I was probably in the middle of writing a love scene with sex and boobies and turgid staffs, and he was sitting in a classroom while his friends were at the zoo. That's one of the things in my life that I wish so much I could do over!

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    2. The school should've called you. Don't give it another thought. To be a truly bad parent, you must do MUCH worse things! Really!

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  49. My favorite fairy tale was Rapunzel with the long beautiful hair.
    Great interview.
    Carol Smith. penelope223(at)yahoo(dot)com

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    1. Hi, scaro! Thank you for liking my interview. I liked Rapunzel too, but I could never understand how her hair stayed on her head after so many times people climbed on it. It's a wonder she wasn't snatched bald.

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  50. My favorite fairy tale is Cinderella because of the HEA!

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    1. Email is reeskarae@yahoo.com

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    2. Yep! Gotta have that HEA! It wouldn't be a real fairy tale if love didn't win in the end! Do you know that even after I'd been an author for several years, I still didn't know what HEA meant? And I was too embarrassed to ask. Ha!

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  51. Welcome to GLIAS! I was captivated with weeping diamond teardrops. Wow. Congratulations on your book.

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    1. Thanks for the welcome, Vicki! Yes, the diamond teardrops were fun. Just think -- if you could weep a few diamonds every now and again, you'd always have a ready source of income!

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  52. My favorite fairy tale has always been Beauty and the Beast.

    This is a wonderful excerpt! Thanks for the introduction to a new to me author!

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    1. Glenda, I do hope you enjoy A BASKET OF WISHES. I hope you have a lot of fun with it. I sure had fun writing it. I'm working on another magic book, and it's proving to be another really fun story! I just LOVE magic. Everything about it. And I believe in it, too.

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  53. My favorite fairy tale is Cinderella

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    1. My sister and I were little girls when Daddy dropped us off at the theater to see Cinderella. That was before children got kidnapped. Plus, we lived on an Air Force Base, and it was very safe. After the movie, Daddy picked us up and took us to the store, where he bought us Cinderella coloring books and boxes of brand new Crayons. And not the little boxes, either! The biggest ones! First thing we colored on the pages were the lips. Every coloring book female had to have lipstick on. Magenta was my favorite lipstick color for them.

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  54. My favorite fairy tale - The Ugly Duckling - a wonderful uplifting and hopeful story.

    And I never knew that fairies did not dress for dinner or anything else.

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    1. The Ugly Duckling. I have a dog who was an ugly duckling. Olympus. He was a stray who ended up with Dog Rescue, and I fostered him. He was red/bronze for the most part -- except for his head and neck. His head and neck were covered with stiff gold hair. Not soft. It was like whisker hairs. And the hair there stood straight up and out. He looked like a weird lion. At Adoption Day, people would look into his crate and comment on what an ugly dog he was. Well, that hurt my feelings to death. I felt so sorry for him. So I adopted him myself! I remember taking him to the dog park one afternoon, and this lady took one look at him and said, "Great dye job, doll!" But lo and behold, when that golden puppy hair fell out and new hair grew in, Olympus was a thing of astonishing beauty. That's when we discovered he was about 90% Newfoundland and 10% fill-in-the-blank. Then people stopped to stare at the gorgeous dog he had become. You just never know what babies - any kind of babies - are going to look like when they grow up!

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  55. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  56. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  57. Cinderella for the singing

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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    1. You mean like Bibbity Bobbity Boo? Loved that song. Still do!

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  58. I love Beauty and the Beast. Love that someone that thinks they are flawed can find love. theresafischer(at)bellsouth(dot)net.

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    1. We all have flaws. Mine would cover a small country. It really is a fabulous thing, though, when someone or something teaches you that maybe your flaws aren't as terrible as you might think they are. I am a crazy person. Everything I do is strange. If I were just a half a pinhead crazier, I would be in a mental institution. But you know what? My craziness writes books. I love my crazy flaw. :)

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  59. I think my favorite fairytale is still Cinderella. It is somehow so fulfilling to see Cinderella's suffering come to a great end. She is so kind and loving, and truly deserves her happily ever-after.

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    1. No matter how many times you read or think about Cinderella, it can make you smile and feel happy. And I always wished I could have a really big pumpkin.

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  60. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite, mostly because of the Disney movie from 1959. It is such a beautiful creation. The background artwork is gorgeous against the sharp angles of the main character. Beautiful contrast!! The modern day stylization (did I create a word?) RUINS her! A close second is Bearuty and the Beast for the beauty of the story itself.

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    1. And just think -- she slept for 100 years and woke up just as beautiful as she was before she fell into her deep sleep. When I get up in the mornings I am a Sleeping Horror. The dogs still love me though. :)

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  61. Beauty and the Beast. It tells how you need to look beneath what you see. A second is Cinderella because the end shows that being persistence wins . the prince is determined to find her.

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    1. It's a really wonderful thing to look beneath to find what glorious thing you might find. Except one time I lifted up a flat rock, and there was a snake beneath it. It was one of those Fight or Flee moments. And since I was relatively sure that snake was the most venomous serpent ever to slither upon the face of the earth, I fled. It was "Feet Do Your Thang." And I screamed the whole time I ran. That memory still scares me!

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  62. Snow White--I had a Snow White coloring book as a little girl.
    Denise

    dholcomb1 (at) aol (dot) com

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    1. I didn't have a Snow White coloring book. :( But I had Cinderella. And old as I am now, I still love to color in coloring books.

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  63. It's always been Beauty and the Beast :) I just have so much in common with Belle
    amy2read (at) yahoo (dot) com

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    1. You must be a really sweet, gentle, and wise woman to have so many things in common with Belle. I try to be sweet and gentle and wise, but sometimes I lose my temper and become the bearer of poisoned apples. I have to be mean sometimes, or how else could I characterize the villains in my books? :) :) :)

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  64. The Frog Prince - although I'd refer to have a talking frog than a prince. :)

    cgnemesis [at] yahoo [dot] com

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    1. What if you could have any animal you wanted? That really does happen in A BASKET OF WISHES! :)

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  65. Cinderella stories have always been one of my favorite. Love the rags to riches stories. Maybe because I am in rags and have never made it to the riches.

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    1. Forgot to say I am entering under the name of Virginia

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    2. Let me tell you a story about a dishrag. When I was little we had red and white towels in the bathroom. I loved those towels. But after some decades they became rags Mama used in the kitchen. There is only one left in the whole world, and I have it. I treasure it, that old raggedy dishrag. It reminds me of all the fun I used to have in the bathtub with my sister. I don't really know why I am telling you this story except that your mention of rags made me think of it. :)

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  66. Cinderella - because she never becomes bitter about her circumstances.

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    1. I remember trying to be really really nice and forgiving and wonderful like Cinderella. I think the longest I succeeded was about a minute and a half.

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  67. My favorite was Cinderella because it had a happy ending.

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    1. So many things can have a happy ending. This is where the animal lover comes out in me, and I say "Adopt! Don't Shop!" :) I really am a sap when it comes to happy endings for unwanted animals!

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  68. I really don't have a favorite but the remakes of the old favorites are a lot of fun.
    gshefty@gmail.com

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    1. I agree! Sometimes the remakes aren't too good, burt sometimes they beat all! I did a remake of my hair one time. I have very, very curly hair, and my daughter straightened it with one of those straight iron things. When I came out of the bathroom, my dogs barked at me.

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  69. My favorite is Beauty and the Beast. I like that she loves him for who he is inside.

    Marcy Shuler
    bmndshuler(at)hotmail(dot)com

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    1. She loved his inner wonderfulness. All this talk about inner beauty is making me feel really good about myself tonight. My outer self looks like a hag! I'm still in my pajamas from this morning, and my hair looks like Medusa's. I tend to pull at my hair and wind it around my fingers when I'm thinking really hard, which makes it stick out every which way. Oh, and also I didn't take my mascara off last night because I was too lazy. So today I am a Medusa raccoon.

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  70. I have to go with Cinderella because despite growing up just wanting to please and be loved by her step-family and it not being reciprocated, she's still kind, strong, thoughtful and in the end gets her happily ever after.

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    1. Sorry, for email.
      vanillaorchids69(at)gmail(dot)com

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    2. You have a pretty user name, VanillaOrchids. I loved Cinderella too. For the same reasons you mentioned, plus the fact that all the animals loved her. I think if many, many animals all love you, you must be a very good person.

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  71. I love all kinds of fairy tales. I read and reread all of the Andrew Lang fairy books, as well as Celric Fairytale collections. I think my favorite part was the hero or heroine triumphing over evil for a happy ending. So many great tales! Fair, Brown, and Trembling is one, as is Iron Hans. Two really great tales!

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    1. Yes, sometimes we forget that there are lots of tales from other countries! One time Mama was all excited because she had ordered a book of Russian Fairy Tales to read to us. But she was never able to read the stories because they were all in Russian! Who'd a thunk?

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  72. I don't have a favorite. I've enjoyed everyone I've read, though. Thanks.
    turtle6422 (at) gmail (dot) com

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    1. Glad to see you here, Jana. Thank you for stopping by! :)

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  73. Love Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty!

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    1. You could combine those two tales, you know. Like, when Sleeping Beauty wakes up she sees the Beast staring down at her. She becomes so frightened that she falls back into her coma for another 100 years. :)

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  74. Definitely Beauty and the Beast showing that what's inside and not outside counts. Besides who doesn't want to help someone. You just may get what you wish for in disguise.
    laineslite at gmail dot com

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    1. There's a lot of truth to finding your wish in disguise. The hero in A BASKET OF WISHES never dreamed he really wanted a woman like Splendor. I guess most men never dream of wanting a fairy. Unless she's naked, which is what Splendor is for most of the book.

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  75. I've always loved Cinderella, I think it's mainly because of the Disney movie, those singing animals were just so cute. :D
    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

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    1. I had a singing dog! My little black mutt, Rita! She died a few months ago. She was just a little black dog that people didn't really "see" when they were looking for a dog to adopt. That's a true thing, and it's called Little Black Dog Syndrome. A lot of people just kind of pass on by the little black dogs. Anyway, of course Rita came to live with me because I collect misfits. Rita loved to sing. (Howl) Her favorite song was Old McDonald Had a Farm. She would sing her heart out to that song. Then the other dogs would chime in too, and we'd have a regular little chorus performing in the house. Rita got diabetes and became blind and stopped eating. She was suffering, so I had to put her down. OMG, it still hurts so much. But while she was on that table and the vet was administering the drug that would send her to heaven, I sang Old McDonald to her. She opened her eyes while I sang. It was the last thing she ever heard.

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  76. Love the excerpt, think I may have to change my tbr pile. I bought the book when it was released! Thank you for the Q&A too. Loved your answers. I too have to pick Cinderella, always has been. I love watching it with my girls. Just got my daughter who's turning 3 in a couple weeks, the Disney Princess Little People Cinderlla Tea Garden Party set.
    Email mskind81_1999@yahoo.com
    Thank you!

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    1. A tea set! I love tea sets! I used to collect miniature tea sets. I wonder what happened to them? I haven't seen them in years. Maybe a tea-loving fairy came and stole them! I'm glad your daughters know about Cinderella. That tale has such an important lesson in it, as do many other fairy tales. I hope you like A BASKET OF WISHES, Tracey. Thank you for coming to talk to me today!

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  77. Love the excerpt, think I may have to change my tbr pile. I bought the book when it was released! Thank you for the Q&A too. Loved your answers. I too have to pick Cinderella, always has been. I love watching it with my girls. Just got my daughter who's turning 3 in a couple weeks, the Disney Princess Little People Cinderlla Tea Garden Party set.
    Email mskind81_1999@yahoo.com
    Thank you!

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  78. My favorite fairy tale was always Rapunzel. I just liked the story and of course there was a wicked witch in in.

    shawn113(at)hotmail(dot)com

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    1. Yes, you can't have good unless you have some bad. If there was no bad, how would you know if something was good?

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  79. Cinderella, because we all want the happy ending

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    1. Yes, Ma'am, we all want that Happy Ending! And I think sometimes we might already have it and don't know it. Maybe sometimes we need to pause and think about all the really good things we have. They are Happy Endings that just might keep becoming happier and happier!

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  80. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite. I love that Beauty had a beautiful heart that could see past the Beast's outward appearance. Julieshops4you at hotmail dot com.

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    1. This is how Splendor feels about Jourdian in A BASKET OF WISHES. Goodness gracious, Jourdian was a real SOB in the beginning of that book. But he had his reasons. Splendor never gave up on him. In fact, she had begun to believe in his goodness when he was but a little boy and she flew around him without his knowing. When he was a lad he found little diamonds in the grass around his palatial home. Little did he know then that they were Splendor's tears. Tears she'd wept when something sad happened to him as a young boy.

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  81. I have to say it, Beauty and The Beast has always been my favorite. It's when we look into a person and listen we'll be amazed what's inside. Just goes to show that we never know. :) I really can't wait to read this book. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity.
    Carol L
    Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com

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    1. Oh, Carol, thank you so much for coming today! It's always so fun to talk to readers! I hope you love A BASKET OF WISHES. I hope it makes you laugh and think of things you haven't thought about in a very long time. Good things. Happy things. :)

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  82. Beauty and the Beast, because I like the message of beauty being within.

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    1. I actually had open-heart surgery a few years ago. The day after my surgery, my surgeon told me, "You have a really beautiful heart. I saw it with my own eyes." I loved him. :)

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  83. Cinderella is my favorite fairy tale because it shows that o matter your lot in life good things can happen to you.
    JFWisherd(at)aol(dot)com

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    1. On Ash Wednesday, after the priest had smudged ashes on our foreheads, my sister and I used to argue over who could be Cinderella. Because, you know, Cinderella wore ashes. Mama pinched us because we made such a racket in church. We would continue this ashes fight in the car after Mass. Daddy would declare that the ashes were supposed to make us holy and good, and Mama would try to swat us from the front seat. Then Daddy would say we weren't going to the cafeteria. (We always got to eat at the cafeteria after Mass) and my sister and I would instantly become little saints. We tried really hard to keep the ashes on our foreheads from being rubbed off. Didn't even want to go to bed for fear the ashes would get wiped off on our pillows which, of course, they did.

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  84. Looking forward to reading your books (I have several in my out of control TBR pile)!

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    1. Thank you, Dee! I'm sending some pixie dust your way. Be on the look out for it!

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  85. I always liked Snow White. She was able to charm the dwarves, and the wildlife.

    Charlene
    gmgypsiesf1@aol.com

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    1. Ha! When I first read your post I thought it said, "...she was able to harm the dwarves and the wildlife." Thank you coming by, Charlene!

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  86. Rebecca, as always, it's been a delight having you on GLIAS today! Your magical gift comes through with every word you write. Can I share my nickname for you? I think it fits perfectly--like Cinderella's glass slipper.
    Pixie Princess of the Southern Pines.

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    1. I'm having a wonderful time, EE! And I do LOVE the nickname you have given me! Sincerely, The Pixie Princess of the Southern Pines. :)

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  87. Beauty and the Beast because she could look past the looks and see the real person under his look's.
    sasluvbooks at yahoo dot com

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    1. Looks are utterly deceiving. I once sat in a paper chair and ended up sprawled on the floor. That paper chair looked just like the real thing to me! And of course this happened in a mall. Near Christmas. So there were 83 trillion people around to watch me destroy a paper chair and fall down.

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  88. Fun characters...I love the way Splendor says whatever she likes.

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    1. Everyone should say whatever they like if it doesn't hurt anyone! I love to listen to people talk!

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  89. Cinderella is my favorite.

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    1. Cinderelly! In this contemporary book I am failing to write, I have a rather senile senior citizen woman named Aunt Pippa. She has just been let out of a mental hospital. She didn't need to be there. But she read in The Enquirer that many movie stars enjoyed going to restful spas to meditate and get back in touch with their true selves. Aunt Pippa couldn't find a restful spa in her area, so she checked herself into a mental hospital, figuring she'd probably get some of the same kind of rest her favorite movie stars got at their spas. And there she meets a little cleaning woman who does many chores in the hospital. Aunt Pippa takes a strong liking to this hard-working young woman and brings her home, where her nephew, Jerome, meets them both at the front door. He hasn't been able to find his Aunt Pippa in days, and he's been wildly worried! And now he has to deal with this cleaning girl his aunt has brought home. The cleaning girl's name is Isabella, and I'm sure you can guess what fairy tale this story is based upon. :)

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    1. A very popular choice. Cinderella and the Beauty seem to have tied for First Place in the Favorite Fairy Tale contest!

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  91. I would have to away the ugly duckling, because no matter how others see you, your beautiful in your own way.

    Pbradbury6@yahoo.com

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    1. Everyone is beautiful in his/her own way! Here's to untold amounts of unique beauty in our wonderful world!

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  92. Cinderella because she gets love at the end

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  93. Cinderella. Love that the quiet, hardworking& ignored sister gets the prince.Underdog wins against a pushy step-mom who favors her 2 mean self-centered daughters.

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