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Interview: Jamie Ferguson, author of “The Wishing Thorn” in Stolen by the Fae

“The Wishing Thorn,” by Jamie Ferguson, appears in Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

The Interview

Why do you think the mythology of the changeling, in which the Fae steal a human and replace it with one of their own kind, is so intriguing to people?

Is there a recurring theme that appears in your writing? If so, what is it, and why do you think it keeps appearing?

Is there a fairy tale that you really enjoy, or which has stuck with you? If so, which one—and what do you find compelling about this particular story?

What aspect do you like most about your story in Stolen by the Fae, and why?

What are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?

About Jamie

Jamie focuses on getting into the minds and hearts of her characters, whether she’s writing about a saloon girl in the American West, a man who discovers the barista he’s in love with is a naiad, or a ghost who haunts the house she was killed in—even though that house no longer exists. Jamie lives in Colorado, and spends her free time in a futile quest to wear out her two border collies since she hasn’t given in and gotten them their own herd of sheep.

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A Procession of Faeries

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Story spotlight: “Family Fair and True” by Dayle A. Dermatis, in Stolen by the Fae

“Family Fair and True,” by Dayle A. Dermatis, appears in Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

Excerpt

My feet crunched over tiny snail shells as I descended, the air growing more moist and cold, and the darkness more complete. The weak moonlight couldn’t extend this far into the earth. I reached the bottom, breathing in the earthy scent of loam, and stopped.

I thought about why I was here, and what I wished for. I couldn’t go on if I had any doubts, any hesitation.

But this was what I had yearned for since I was old enough to understand what I was.

A plentyn cael . A changeling child.

My “parents,” Cerys and John (I couldn’t really call them my adoptive parents, as they’d had no choice in the matter), had brought home from the hospital a sweet, fair-haired baby and then found, shortly thereafter, a temperamental, black-haired thing in the crib. (The latter would be me.)

If they had tried any of the folk remedies to banish a changeling, they refused to tell me, but I couldn’t imagine that they didn’t make an attempt to get their real child back. Why wouldn’t they? Cerys was a professor of folklore and mythology at uni, and John was a renowned fantasy artist; they knew what had happened.

—from “Family Fair and True,” by Dayle A. Dermatis, in Stolen by the Fae

About Dayle

Dayle A. Dermatis is the author or coauthor of many novels (including snarky urban fantasy Ghosted and YA lesbian romance Beautiful Beast) and more than a hundred short stories in multiple genres, appearing in such venues as Fiction River, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and DAW Books.

Called the mastermind behind the Uncollected Anthology project, she also edits anthologies, and her own short fiction has been lauded in many year’s best anthologies in erotica, mystery, and horror.

She lives in a historic English-style cottage with a tangled and fae back garden, in the wild greenscapes of the Pacific Northwest. In her spare time she follows Styx around the country and travels the world, which inspires her writing.

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Story spotlight: “Problem Child” by Tami Veldura, in Stolen by the Fae

“Problem Child,” by Tami Veldura, appears in Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

Excerpt

Pane nudged Kipt with one bony elbow. “You’re sure about this? It’s bigger than normal.”

“Big enough to count for two infants, I bet,” said Kipt. “And probably old enough that its head won’t flop around. Humans babies are oddly fragile.”

Pane glanced at the bed, then back to Kipt. “Well?”

“Quiet, I’m thinking.” Kipt had been drawn to stealing this child because of its size, but now that he was here, he had doubts. Faeries could draw the veil aside with a thought, but humans couldn’t even sense it, let alone move it. Infants could be brought across because they were small, like carrying a bag, but this child—a toddler, the humans called it—might be large enough to cause problems.

But he was behind on children and was sure this one would count for two, at least. It was worth trying, anyway.

Pane crept forward and lay the changeling down on the bed beside the human. It was smaller than the human, more bone and less fat. The changeling had grayish-green skin, Kipt had been told once, while humans ranged from pink to darkest black. To his eyes, this one was a medium brown. Like an opal. The two didn’t match, even in Kipt’s limited color vision.

The changeling wiggled to face the sleeping child and touched its face with long, thin fingers. All at once, its natural glamor took over, and suddenly there were twin human children on the bed.

“Ok,” Kipt said. “You grab the arms. I’ll grab the legs. Then we both draw the veil at the same time so we can bring it through.”

“I’m not sure—”

The human child’s face scrunched as it fussed in its sleep. The changeling mimicked it.

“Too late, grab the arms!”

—from “Problem Child,” by Tami Veldura, in Stolen by the Fae

About Tami

Tami Veldura is an enby/aro/ace author of queer fiction. They have published short stories in anthologies Fresh Starts, Hauntings, Love Among The Thorns, Love Is Like A Box Of Chocolates, Street Magic (a Diamond Quill Book Of The Year winner), the magazine Galaxy’s Edge, and they are a contributing member of the scifi magazine Boundary Shock Quarterly. They publish new work every month, crossing every genre, but always featuring queer characters and found families.

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Story spotlight: “Hybrid Vigor” by Olivia Wylie, in Stolen by the Fae

“Hybrid Vigor,” by Olivia Wylie, appears in Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

Excerpt

The examining room smells of chemicals and cold meat. Sometimes I wish my sense of smell was more Human.

The metal drawer slides open on its rollers. It’s designed to hold a full-grown man; the little body on it seems dwarfed by the expanse of metal.

Pulling on gloves, I lean in, studying the child. Patricia coughs nervously. “So, what do you think?”

“I think that a wrong’s been done here,” I murmur, “but I imagine you mean do I know who did it…”

Gently, I lift one eyelid. Eyes completely dilated. I was afraid of that.

“Let me guess, these children didn’t die from drowning.”

“True. We can’t figure out what actually was the cause of death, we’ve listed it as massive systemic failure.”

“Close enough.” I agree, surprised at the sound of my own voice. It’s gone cold.

Straightening, I glance up at Patricia. “And why didn’t you tell the police your suspicions?”

The coroner shrugs guiltily. “Well, the last time something weird came up…you were a hell of a lot more use, to be honest.”

I nod, but I don’t drop my gaze from hers. “You need to tell them about these. They need to learn to keep records on murderers who are not Human.”

Patricia nods, her eyes gone wide. She swallows hard.

“Um…if this is a murder, we might have a bigger problem.”

That pulls me up and no mistake. “Explain?”

Patricia taps her forms.

“Yolanda had a best friend, Monika. She’s still missing.”

—from “Hybrid Vigor,” by Olivia Wylie, in Stolen by the Fae

About Olivia

Olivia Wylie is a professional horticulturist, business owner, and bard who specializes in the restoration of neglected gardens. When the weather keeps her indoors, she enjoys exploring the plant world and the complexities of being human in writing. Under her shared pen-name of O.E. Tearmann, she writes the hopeful queer cyberpunk series Aces High, Jokers Wild. Her solo work focuses on illustrated works of ethnobotany, intended to make the intersection of human history, storytelling, and plant evolution accessible to a wider audience. She lives in Colorado with a very patient husband and a rather impatient cat.

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Story spotlight: The Replacement by Ron Collins, in Stolen by the Fae

“The Replacement,” by Ron Collins, appears in Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

Excerpt

“Hello,” I say as I head toward the front. “You doing all right, ma’am?” I don’t get many put-together businesswomen in the store at 1:54 a.m. On their own, my eyes glance out the window to see if her car is parked at a bay, but there’s nothing there.

She turns then.

Her amethyst eyes make starlight of their own, but a starlight that cuts as much as it illuminates.

“Bron,” she says.

I stop, broom dangling from my hand, knowing things will never be the same again.

No one has called me by that name for a long time.

“Who are you?” I reply.

She smiles and I see heartache and pain as deep as anything I’ve ever felt.

A wind blows outside.

A discarded plastic bag tumbles past in the barren scape of the asphalt veldt.

“Adelaide,” she replies as if that says it all. “My name is Adelaide.”

Her voice is smooth and deep for a woman.

That’s when I notice the green breeches that finish off her outfit. They fit tight to her body, dropping just below the knee where they fall into a pair of dark boots laced on their outside with equally dark rawhide. The pants are the color of pine trees in winter, embroidered with a silky pattern of swirls and leafy outlines that seem to squirm and shift under the store’s stark light. Her scent arrives then, rich with woodsmoke and the outdoors.

“Welcome to Pick-Pack, Adelaide,” I say.

—from “The Replacement,” by Ron Collins, in Stolen by the Fae

About Ron

Ron Collins is a best-selling Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy author who writes across the spectrum of speculative fiction. With his daughter, Brigid, he edited the anthology Face the Strange.

His short fiction has received a Writers of the Future prize. His short story “The White Game” was nominated for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s 2016 Derringer Award.

He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has worked to develop avionics systems, electronics, and information technology before chucking it all to write full-time.

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Stolen by the Fae – A Procession of Faeries #6

Steal away to the wild world of the Fae!

In the darkest dark of night
The faeries come to see the sight

A sleeping child, sweet as can be
Its cheeks red as stolen cherries

They whisper, then sing the child a song
It stirs, and smiles, and slumbers along

Faster than the eye can see
They swap it with a sickly Fae baby

In the morn, the parents find the sight
Of a babe who looks like their own…but not quite

Stolen by the Fae, the 6th volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries, contains sixteen stories based on the mythology of the changeling, in which the Fae steal a human and replace it with one of their own kind. Sometimes their motivations are good…and sometimes they are not good at all.

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The Stories

A man in “The Replacement,” by Ron Collins, has always felt different. He finally discovers the truth about his past, and it is not at all what he expected.

An elderly resident disappeared from the care home in “Honeysuckle and Blue,” by Karen L. Abrahamson. But how did he manage to get out through the locked doors? And are the wanderings of Posey, a dementia patient who’s over ninety years old, related?

In “The Bonds of, Like, Sisterhood or Whatever,” by Brigid Collins, Alyssa has the best big sister ever. So sure, Alyssa is a fairy changeling and Linn is human and isn’t really her sister, but whatever! The only real problem they’re facing is that they need a singer for their band, otherwise they won’t be able to compete in the high school Battle of the Bands. But maybe they could bust their other sister—the one Alyssa was swapped for—out of Faerie and she could join the band…

Poppy, a sixteen-year-old changeling, enters the Faerie realm in search of her real parents in “Family Fair and True,” by Dayle A. Dermatis. But in Faerie, the adage “Be careful what you wish for” takes on a whole new meaning.

Over twenty kids have been found dead in Olivia Wylie’s “Hybrid Vigor.” It looks almost like they drowned, but not quite. Can the Ard Ri of the Good Folk, who is part Dratsie and part Human, find the murderer before the latest missing child is killed?

In Leah R. Cutter’s “Fairy Traps,” Old Fairy Smithers is a terrible gardener, and not at all fun. But worse than that, she’s stolen a human baby! Terrence’s parents don’t believe him when he tells them about the baby, but can’t allow Smithers to put the human-fairy pact at risk, so he’s going to have to take care of things all on his own.

Someone has replaced the faerie ambassador’s baby with a human child in “Bait and Switch: A Crossroad City Tale,” by Rebecca M. Senese. Faerie Maeve Hemlock, lead detective in the Spells and Misdemeanours Bureau of Crossroad City, is called in to investigate, and finds there is a lot more going on than it appears.

Bug is stolen from his home and taken to the Dark Court on orders from the Queen of Faerie in Anthea Sharp’s “The Bug in the Dark Court.” Will his older brother realize he’s been replaced by a changeling and save him, or will Bug spend the rest of his days trapped in the Faerie Realm?

In “Hunter by Night,” by Annie Reed, Colton’s happy life shattered into a million pieces when a changeling kidnapped his pregnant wife. The police never caught the kidnapper—difficult to do when a changeling can shift their appearance to look like anyone—so now Colton scours the city at night, hunting for that one creature who robbed him of everything that made life worth living. But what he hunts down this night will change his life forever.

A feral cat is given the chance to spend 24 hours in another form in Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “The Destroyer.” Can he use this opportunity to vanquish the destroyer?

Behind on his quota of stolen human children, Kipt decides to take a toddler instead of a baby in “Problem Child,” by Tami Veldura. To his horror, he learns why faeries only steal babies.

Carol and her husband tried and tried to have a child in “Two Pies out of One Pan,” by Thea Hutcheson, but she remained barren. Finally she asked Brigid, the Tuatha Dé Danaan goddess of the hearth, for a miracle. But miracles do not come for free.

Deb Logan’s “Flutterbies and French Toast” takes us to a world where when children born to survivors of a pandemic reach the age of five, they develop strange and inexplicable powers which they cannot control. To protect their populations, governments around the world are locking up children. Rick and Jennifer decide to go into hiding to protect their daughter…but at what cost?

A haunting magical melody draws Queen Simone out of the Faery Realm and into the human world she once was a part of in “Street Song,” by Leslie Claire Walker. The song triggers violence in the streets, endangering innocents—including humans she loves. Can Simone find the source and stop the music before it kills?

Butler buys some old books from a woman who claims her husband made her daughter disappear years ago in DeAnna Knippling’s “Estimated Value.” There’s no way of knowing what really happened to the girl, of course…or is there?

In Jamie Ferguson’s “The Wishing Thorn,” Leah never believed in her Irish grandmother’s stories about trees granting wishes, but after having her life turned upside-down, she decided to see if the stories were real after all. She chose to make her wish of a blackthorn: the tree of warfare and ill omens, and the keeper of dark secrets…

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The Wild Hunt: 13 Tales of Magic & Enchantment


Ride through the sky with the Wild Hunt!

A fierce host rides across the winter sky at night
In wild pursuit of whoever crosses their path

Peals of thunder follow the horses as they gallop through the clouds
Fire flashing from their hooves

The baying of the hounds echoes across the sky
Their sharp teeth glinting in the light of the moon

The Huntsman blows his horn, and the Fae ride behind him
Their faces both beautiful and terrible to behold

When the nights are long and the winter winds howl, stay inside
Lest you cross the path of the Hunt…and become their prey

The Wild Hunt contains thirteen stories based on the wide and varied folklore of the Wild Hunt. In some tales, the leader of the hunt is Odin; in others it’s King Arthur, Herodias, or Herne the Hunter. Sometimes the riders are Fae; sometimes they are specters, or skeletons, or strange beasts never before seen by mortal eyes.

But no matter who the hunters are, you definitely don’t want to be the one they’re after…

Let the Wild Hunt begin!

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The Stories

Go on the Wild Hunt as a hound in Thea Hutcheson’s “My Last Hunt,” and learn about the Fae—and humanity—from a new perspective.

Anthea Sharp’s “The Faerie Invasion” takes us to a world where the faeries have invaded the mortal realm. Ric and his little sister scrounge for food and hide from creatures they never imagined were real—especially after dark. But no matter how hard they try, they can’t hide from the Wild Hunt…

In Brenda Carre’s “Gigglebark Tea,” Lewis and his annoying neighbor are in the middle of an argument about a strange illness that’s going around, when Herne the Hunter shows up…and he and the hunt are after Lewis. Herne’s afflicted with the mysterious malady, and thinks Lewis is the cause. To buy time, Lewis brings out what’s left of his long-passed wife’s Gigglebark tea, not realizing what he’s going to learn as a result.

Emma is unable to move or speak in the real world, but in the virtual computer game of Feyland, her body is fully functional. Deb Logan’s “Emma: A Feyland Dryad” takes us along with Emma as she learns what it’s like to stand, to run, to dance…and to be chased by the Wild Hunt, which she discovers is as real as the Realm of Faerie, which Feyland is a portal to.

Linda Jordan’s “The Turning” tells the tale of a young woman who stands in between a man and the Wild Hunt, not realizing her stance will lead her to learn things about her past that she never even imagined could be true.

In “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” by Rebecca M. Senese, Detective Maeve Hemlock is looking forward to a well-deserved vacation from her job at the Spells and Misdemeanours Bureau. But the Wild Hunt has arrived, and as a faerie from the North Court, Maeve knows just how dangerous this is for Crossroads City, which lies between the mortal and faerie realms. There goes her vacation…

Mary, a Ute woman, is married one of the Aos Si in Shannon Lawrence’s “Of Earth and Fae.” Conor left his ancestral lands for the Americas, and thought himself safe from those who had persecuted his people for centuries. But as Woden and the Wild Hunt approach, Mary and Conor realize he’s in grave danger after all.

James spends his time being a nobody in DeAnna Knippling’s “The Last Private in the Gray Hoodie and Blue Jeans Brigade.” He found if he practiced hard at being unremarkable and unnoticeable for long enough, the walking trails in his neighborhood got seriously weird, and led to someplace—or some places—completely different from the regular world. It’s kind of cool. An escape. Or is it really that cool after all?

In Lousa Swann’s “Scraggles Goes Hunting,” Scraggles the cat expected his night to be like any other night. He certainly did not expect to find himself the steed of a pixie, compelled to fly through the sky as part of the Wild Hunt. And he definitely did not expect to run into a dragon…

An Unseelie Fey breaks free of her prison and begins her own wild hunt in Kim May’s “Of Blood and Bone, Earth and Air.” Can the genuis loci who cares for the land vanquish his terrible foe before she is beyond his power to contain?

In “Getting Good,” by Brigid Collins, Stelli realizes her friends have been taking the game of Feyland far more seriously, and now they’re cutting her out because she’s not as good as they are. Determined to get better at the game on her own, she begins the quest of the Midnight Huntsman…only to find that Feyland is not just a game after all.

Married to the tetrarch of Galilee in Jamie Ferguson’s “The Call of the Huntress,” Herodias lives a life of luxury, but also a life of misery. She prays to the goddess Diana, but of course Diana isn’t going to respond to the pleas of a mere mortal. When Herodias’ daughter Salome arrives for a visit, she disrupts the fragile balance of Herodias’ life. Herodias calls to Diana, just like she has so many times over the years…but this time, the goddess answers.

Twig hadn’t planned to spend her night running from the Wild Hunt, but that’s exactly what she finds herself doing in Annie Reed’s “Murder’s Revenge.” An elf who spent years undercover in a motorcycle gang so she could find a way to rescue the gentle water spirit they’d enslaved, she’d managed to save the water spirit—but earn the wrath of the gang’s leader, who now rides with the hunt and wants revenge.

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Interview: Alethea Kontis on “Blood & Water”

“Blood & Water” is in Water Faeries, the fourth volume in the anthology series A Procession of Faeries.

Jump into the waves, and enter the world of Faerie!

Meet Alethea!

Alethea weaves fairy tale fantasy in the realm of Arilland, and dabbles in other fantasy worlds as well. She’s been a guest speaker about fairy tales at the Library of Congress, and gave a keynote address at the Lewis Carroll Society’s Alice150 Conference in New York City, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“Blood & Water”

A mermaid falls in love with the man she rescued from the sea. She’s willing to pay any price to be with him, for she loves him more than life itself. But is the price of love too high?

Excerpt

Once the transformation began, the pain pushed all other thoughts out of her head. Water left her as suddenly as her soul had left her, her gills closing up after it. The pressure that filled her chest made her eyes want to pop out. She clamped her mouth shut, instinct telling her that she could no longer breathe her native water. She beat furiously with her tail, fleeing for the surface.

Halfway there, the other pain began. It started at the ends of her fin and spread upwards, like bathing in an oyster garden. The sharpness bit into her, skinning her, slicing her to her very core. Paralyzed, she let her momentum and the pressure in her chest pull her closer to the sky. Part of her hoped she could trust the magic enough to get her there. Part of her didn’t care. It wanted to die, and knew it could not.

That price had already been paid.

—from “Blood & Water” by Alethea Kontis

The Interview

How did you come up with the idea of combining mermaid and vampire mythology?

Back when I used to drive a lot more, I kept a small notebook in my car to jot down thoughts and inspirations when I was at a stoplight or rest area. While I was visiting my friend Brandi in Charleston, SC, she flipped through the book. She stopped on a page where I had scribbled “Vampire” and “Mermaid.” “What’s a Vampire Mermaid?” she asked me. And the seed was planted!

You minored in marine science, and used some of your knowledge about hydrothermal vents in this story. Has this knowledge come in handy for other stories as well?

Yes, indeed–I majored in Chemistry and minored in Marine Science. I LOVED the hydrothermal vents. Loved them. My dream was to spend my life out in the middle of the ocean on some great research ship, surrounded by stars and smelling like fish and maybe even going down in the Alvin (a deep sea research vessel). Sure, I was writing stories and starring on TV when I was eight, but at school I was 100% math and science girl. Every time I fall down a research rabbit hole, it’s usually science-based. Like binary star systems (for “Savage Planet”), or nanotechnology (“Pocket Full of Posey), or cryotech (“True.love”). For the novel Dearest, I spent an entire day researching nettles. Did you know you can make a nettle tea that changes color when you add a slice of lemon? THAT’S CHEMISTRY, BABY! #NerdAlert

In addition to writing stories, you also narrate audio books. What do you enjoy about narrating other people’s stories?

No matter how old a person is when they start acting, if they ever stop, they always miss it. When I write, I am the narrator, of course. But every time I sit in the studio and read, I become the narrator in a way that I could only ever touch while acting. The motivation, the dialogue, the delivery… Somewhere in the back of my mind it feels like all the monologues I used to memorize for auditions–only I don’t have to memorize these stories! Which leaves me even more energy to give the story my all.

Is there a fairy tale that you really enjoy, or which has stuck with you? If so, which one—and what do you find compelling about this particular story?

My favorite fairy tale growing up was always “The Goose Girl.” The girl/princess, though passive, is a magic user but not a witch. Her talking horse gets its head chopped off, but never really dies. The princess has a good heart and never changes, despite the horrible things that happen to her. In the end, the evil maid in the story ends up dying a gruesome death that she devises herself. (Unlike Snow White, who murdered her stepmother at her own wedding.) I think I loved “The Goose Girl” because everyone stayed true to who they were, and everything just worked out the way it should in the end.

My new favorite fairy tale is “Old Rinkrank”…but mostly because I got to retell it as “The Glass Mountain,” which might be my favorite story I’ve ever written.

What difference do you see between today’s fairy tale retellings, and the types of fairy tales that were told hundreds of years ago?

It’s interesting to see what contemporary people are “afraid” of, and what they will change in the story to make it more palatable to the masses. Interestingly, this topic has been a concern of fairy tale archivists since the beginning of time–Andrew Lang and J.R.R. Tolkien both wrote about how “modern” retellings took out a lot of the harsh realities of the “original” tellings…and whether or not they should. (Most–including me–agree they should not.)

You’re a storm chaser! Tell us what you love about chasing storms. And will you wear the same fabulous tiara as last year?

Going back to my science background–I have always been in love with the beauty of this world. (Seriously–my first best friend was a tree.) I remember stealing my dad’s Miranda camera with the giant lens and taking pictures of everything from sunsets to tree stumps. In May in Middle America, the skies are BREATHTAKING. And yes…sometimes even dangerous. As many beautiful things in nature can be. Plus, we often run into other chasers while on the road: similar nerds from all over the world with similar loves of photography, who worship the Giant Skies.

I will definitely be breaking out my Ozma tiara again, for sure! Be sure to follow my travels on patreon.com/princessalethea.

What story (or stories) are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?

Right now, I am in love with the middle grade manuscripts I’m working on. I just finished the novelization of “Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome,” and I’m about to start one about a young girl, a bunch of goblins and brownies, and four fairy queens. I’ve also got one in the works that involves storm chasing–of course! The working title is “Oz or Bust.” I’m super excited about all three of these!

About Alethea

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Alethea Kontis is a princess, a voice actress, and a force of nature. She is responsible for creating the epic fairytale fantasy realm of Arilland, and dabbling in a myriad of other worlds beyond. Her award-winning writing has been published for multiple age groups across all genres. She is the host of “Princess Alethea’s Fairy Tale Rants” and Princess Alethea’s Traveling Sideshow every year at Dragon Con. Alethea has narrated for ACX, IGMS, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, Cast of Wonders, Shimmer, Apex Magazine and Clarkesworld Magazine, and she contributes regular YA book reviews to NPR.

Alethea’s YA fairy tale novel, Enchanted, won both the Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award and Garden State Teen Book Award. Enchanted was nominated for the Audie Award in 2013 and was selected for World Book Night in 2014. Both Enchanted and its sequel, Hero, were nominated for the Andre Norton Award. Tales of Arilland, a short story collection set in the same fairy tale world, won a second Gelett Burgess Award in 2015. The second book in The Trix Adventures, Trix and the Faerie Queen, was a finalist for the Dragon Award in 2016. Alethea was nominated for the Dragon Award again in 2018, for her YA paranormal rom-com When Tinker Met Bell. In 2019, the third in her Harmswood Academy trilogy–Besphinxed–was nominated for a Scribe Award by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

Princess Alethea was given the honor of speaking about fairy tales at the Library of Congress in 2013. In 2015, she gave a keynote address at the Lewis Carroll Society’s Alice150 Conference in New York City, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She also enjoys speaking at schools and festivals all over the US. (If forced to choose between all these things, she says middle schools are her favorite!)

Born in Burlington, Vermont, Alethea currently lives on the Space Coast of Florida. She makes the best baklava you’ve ever tasted and sleeps with a teddy bear named Charlie.

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A Procession of Faeries

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