“Faery Beautiful” is in Beauty and Wickedness, the first volume in the anthology series Ever After Fairy Tales. In this collection, sixteen authors retell and reimagine some of the most enchanting fairy tales ever told – and make up some brand new fairy tales as well. Within these pages, you’ll find beauty and treachery, magic and courage, innocence and wickedness…and at least some happy endings.
Meet Deb!
Deb Logan writes light-hearted fantasy tales for middle grade readers and young adults. She also writes fantasy and paranormal romance as Debbie Mumford. She loves mythology, and is especially fond of Celtic and Native American lore.
“Faery Beautiful”
Claire appears to be a normal teenager, but what most people don’t know is that she’s also a real live faery princess. In “Faery Beautiful” she learns how Princess Rhiannon and Eoin the Strong met and began the series of events that led to Claire becoming the heir to the throne of Faery.
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Rhiannon’s faery steed raced along the enchanted river that divided Faery from the mortal realm. She glanced over her shoulder and urged the stallion to greater speed with hands and heels. She knew I would catch her if she allowed her pace to slacken. My charger, heavier boned than Rhiannon’s mount, couldn’t match her mare’s speed, but the charger’s depth of chest meant he could maintain his pace far longer.
Rhiannon, stop this nonsense. I sent my thought winging to her mind.
She bent lower over her mount’s neck and replied in kind. It’s my life, Rhydderich Drest Guerthenmach. I won’t be auctioned like a prize heifer.
You are a princess of Faery, I countered, layering my mind-voice with soothing overtones. You’ve known all your life this day would come, especially once we made it clear that we didn’t wish to marry.
Her misery bled through our mind-link and I fought to stay calm, to keep from empathizing with the tears I felt stinging her eyes. Her will faltered, and the mare slowed her pace. I had won. Rhiannon acknowledged my argument.
My princess had been raised with every comfort: beautiful clothes, rich foods, precious jewels, faery folk to entertain or obey her slightest wish. Every indulgence had been granted my dear friend. Everything but the desire of her heart. More than anything, Rhiannon craved her father’s love. The King of Faery had ensured his only child possessed every physical trinket a girl growing to womanhood could need or desire, but he had denied her his love.
– from “Faery Beautiful” by Deb Logan
The Interview
Claire, the protagonist in “Faery Beautiful,” is a teenage girl who attends high school and lives at home with her parents – but what most people don’t know is she’s also the heir to the throne of Faery! Why did you decide to have Claire have a (mostly) normal life even though she’s a faery princess?
Hmmm…this may be a convoluted answer! Claire is also the protagonist of my novel, “Faery Unexpected”, which tells the story of how she discovers that she isn’t just a normal teenager, but is in fact a faery princess.
The very first short story I published, “Deirdre’s Dragon,” held the seed of my Faery universe. It was a simple, 800-word tale written for the preteen set. But when I finished that story, I knew there was a lot more that needed to be discovered, so “Faery Unexpected” was born, and later “Faery Unpredictable” and “Lexie’s Choice.” This story, “Faery Beautiful,” is a frame story – beginning and ending with Claire and Roddy, but returning to the roots of Claire’s family and explaining how it is that a seemingly normal American girl came to be a princess of Faery.
What elements of traditional fairy tales have you incorporated into this story, and into the other tales in your Faery Adventures series?
The tale of Princess Rhiannon and Eoin the Strong is based on Welsh folklore of the Gwragen Annwn, fairy maidens who consent to wed mortal men … under certain conditions. Obviously, I arranged the details to suit my world, but the Gwragen Annwn provided the inspiration.
The rest of my Faery universe is simply inspired by a lifetime of reading, and absorbing, fairy tales!
Do you plan to write more stories in this series?
Undoubtedly. I adore Claire and Roddy and Lexie and Brent. I’m sure those characters, and the Realm of Faery itself, will call me back eventually!
In addition to Celtic mythology, you love Native American legends as well. What specifically calls to you about Native American mythology?
I’ve always been entranced by mythology in any form and dragons in particular. When I was working on “Deirdre’s Dragon,” one of the members of my writing group asked me what an obviously Celtic dragon was doing in America? Well, obviously, dragons can be wherever they want to be, but the question made me think. There are stories of dragon all over Europe and Asia, were there dragons on the North American continent as well? That’s when I decided that the Native American legends of the Thunderbird could be interpreted as a dragon … or possibly a dinosaur.
That train of thought led to my middle grade novel “Thunderbird” – featuring Native American twins Justin and Janine Prentiss who live in Bozeman, MT with their father, a renowned paleontologist. Since I once lived in Bozeman and happen to be the mother of boy / girl twins, I had a blast writing that one! A dragon-ish thunderbird and 12-year-old twins, what’s not to love?
Why are dragons your favorite fantasy creatures?
Honestly? I haven’t got a clue. They’ve just always appealed to me. Not the evil, demonic version so common in books and movies, but the misunderstood creatures of great intelligence who just want to be left alone to live their lives.
When I discovered Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series, I was in heaven. Finally, someone who understood dragons! One of the highlights of my writing career came in 2005 when I met Anne in person at a Writers of the Future function in Seattle, WA.
In addition to writing middle grade/young adult stories, you also write fiction as Debbie Mumford. One of your series, Sorcha’s Children, is set in a world where a human sorceress and a dragon lord fall in love and create a new race of beings who can change form from human to dragon at will. What do you enjoy most about this series?
“Sorcha’s Heart,” the origin of the series, gave me the opportunity to play with an entire community of dragons, but from the perspective of a human woman. Sorcha, a young and rather reckless sorceress, finds herself transformed into a dragon and taken under the wing (literally!) of a creature she’d believed to be an enemy. I had so much fun allowing Sorcha to get to know these dragons as individuals of intelligence and grace, to find that many of her preconceived ideas were based on misunderstandings, and that humans had much more in common with dragons than anyone had ever imagined.
“Sorcha’s Heart” is a love story, but it’s also a tale of looking past our biases and discovering that our similarities matter more than our differences.
What story (or stories) are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?
As Debbie Mumford, I’m working on the final novel in my “Sorcha’s Children” series. “Dragons’ Destiny” has waited a long time to be told, and Luag and Eibhlinn are getting impatient to discover their happy endings … at least, they’re hoping I’ll give them happy endings!
As for Deb Logan, she’s launching a middle grade science fiction series tentatively titled “Galactic Cadets.” The first tale, “Cinnamon Chou: Space Station Detective,” is due to be published in May.
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A prolific copywriter by day, Deb Logan has been published in WMG Publishing’s Fiction River anthologies, Dreaming Robot Press’s Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide anthologies, Windrift Books’ Chronicle Worlds anthologies, and other markets. She has also released several short stories, short story collections, and novels for young readers, including the popular “Dani Erickson” series. Find out more about Deb’s work at her website or follow her on Facebook. Be sure to join Deb’s newsletter list to receive an exclusive link to “Deirdre’s Dragon”!
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