Posted on

Interview: “One Bad Wish” by Bonnie Elizabeth

Willow Vaughn grants wishes. She granted one just the other night. But now the world feels wrong.

Willow knows her world has changed but how? Cynical and self-reliant, suddenly she feels out of her depth. Though she hates to admit it, she needs help.

Willow is going to have to find someone who knows more about wishes before it’s too late. If not, she could be trapped in a world where she doesn’t belong.

One Bad Wish is available for a limited time in The Young Adult Charity MegaBundle.

Whether you’re looking for a pulse-pounding action in space, a witchy urban fantasy mystery, or a sweeter tale of unicorns and magic, this MegaBundle delivers! This bundle includes 28 books, including award-winning books from NYTimes and USA Today bestselling authors. Since money is tight for a lot of people right now, the floor of this bundle at a mere dollar, but if you’re in a position to spend a little more for this great collection, please do.

Half the MegaBundle profits will go to Mighty Writers, a non-profit organization benefiting children’s literacy.

Excerpt

Being a fairy godmother isn’t something I ever intended to become. I mean, I wasn’t born that way—now that’s a scary thought, me in a fairy dress and sparkles all over me as a baby. Yuck. No, I wished the fairy godmother gig into being kind of by accident, and I’ve been stuck granting wishes for the last six months or so.

It’s not all bad. Basically, I’d been lucky—or unlucky, depending upon your point of view—to have made the wish that started it all. In a nutshell, I met this creepazoid old guy at the Farmer’s Market who told me to make a wish. So I stupidly wished to make people happy, meaning someone, anyone, because although I had done exactly what I had told my mother I said I would do, she was still not happy. And wham. There I was. A Fairy Godmother. There’s more, of course, but that’s a whole other story.

Being able to grant wishes is kind of cool. About once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less, I get this urge, like a pressure and I have to go out and find someone wishing for something. It’s not that hard. I can think about a place that draws people to make wishes, you know, like wishing wells and crap like that, or I can just think myself over to someone wishing. Then I grant the wish.

I don’t get a lot of choice in how it happens. I mean, I grant a lot of cute kittens to cute kids and stuff. I’ve wanted to grant a zombie cat instead, but the magic doesn’t work that way. Probably a good thing, because I’m not really sure what would happen to the world if I was able to grant zombie kittens.

But yeah, that’s how I think. Even so, I’m not sure I’d really do something like that, but it’s kind of cool to think about the implications and everything, ya know? I mean, cute kid wants cat and I send them a re-animated creature straight out of the LOLcat version of the Walking Dead?

Unfortunately I don’t get to talk to people about this much. It’s a secret that I’m a fairy godmother. Although, would you really go around saying, “Hey, yeah, I’m a fairy godmother now!” Cause that’s just weird. Besides, I’d get everyone wanting me to grant their wishes.

It’s bad enough that I can always hear sentences that start with “I wish”. In high school, at least my high school, people are always saying “I wish this” or “I wish that.” Really, really annoying when you’re someone who hears about wishes. Fortunately, I can’t grant them all, largely because I don’t want to, not to mention that most of the things people say aren’t real wishes, even if they do start with “I wish.” But even if I could, there are rules. I’m not even sure what all the rules are. There’s this huge book of rules that I got when I became a fairy godmother—a file just appeared on my computer, can you believe it?—but besides being major league style boring it’s pretty vague about a ton of stuff. Come to think of it, there’s probably something in there about why I can’t grant zombie kittens, but I’m not going to go digging for it.

Last night, I think I granted a wish I shouldn’t have or something. Remember what I said about zombie kittens? I don’t get a choice. If you’re there wishing and I’m there with wish-granting power, well Kabam! The wish is yours. No matter what. Even if it’s a bad wish.

—from One Bad Wish by Bonnie Elizabeth

The Interview

What inspired you to write One Bad Wish?

I wrote the origin story of Willow Vaughn for a Fiction River anthology edited by Rebecca Moestra. She was an incredibly voicy character who had opinions about everything. She was also not the sort of person you expected when you heard the words, “fairy godmother.”

Because of that, I had to write more Willow Vaughn stories. Some of them ended up being YA novels rather than short stories. One Bad Wish, of course, explores what happens when Willow grants a really bad wish and what she has to do to make it right.

What are some of your favorite YA books as a reader, and what makes them stand out for you?

Like everyone else in the world, I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. I started reading them about the time the third book came out. In fact, I’d just finished books 1 and 2 when book 3 came out so it was perfect timing. I was working in a bookstore and this was before everyone was in love with Harry. I think that really hit our store about book 4. I remember we opened early the morning book 4 came out and we had costumes and such to wear for patrons.

As for why it stands out for me, as a reader, it’s just a darned good story.

I am also a huge Feyland fan. I love the world Anthea created and she writes with such a deft touch. It’s wonderful to imagine being able to walk into a fairy world, and be able to affect the world was fun. I liked how she set up the premise as well.

If you could be a fantasy creature for a day, which would you choose, and why?

I’d have to be a dragon. I mean, who wouldn’t want the power and the beauty of that? And they can fly!

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

Right now I’m between projects. I just finished writing one short story a week for a year and I also have a three book paranormal cozy mystery series that will be coming out in July or August. My main character is a psychic who can read impressions from objects. She can also see the ghost of her grandmother’s favorite Siamese cat.

I’m moving into something that’s more urban fantasy and I expect that that will be most fun because of the way I’m using the cats in that book. They are important to the story and I want them to shine. I’ve rarely used cats as spotlight characters, just secondary characters, so this will be fun.

About Bonnie

Bonnie Elizabeth has been a writer since she was eight years old. While she always kept writing, she also floated through a variety of jobs including veterinary receptionist, library assistant, cemetery administrator, and licensed acupuncturist, all of which color her stories.

Bonnie writes in a variety of genres. While most of her work is geared towards adults, her Teenage Fairy Godmother series featuring Willow Vaughn is geared towards younger readers.

Bonnie makes her home in Kentucky with her husband and three cats, one of which channels his inner Willow on a regular basis.

Find Bonnie

Website ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

Find The Young Adult Charity MegaBundle!

This bundle is available for a limited time at StoryBundle.com/YA.

Half the MegaBundle profits will go to Mighty Writers, a non-profit organization benefiting children’s literacy.

Grab the bundle today! You’re not only getting a fabulous deal, you’re also helping make the world a better place!

Posted on

Story spotlight: “A Used Pair of Shoes” by Bonnie Elizabeth

A little girl leaves her war-torn home with her parents, and learns that life is built on small kindnesses in Bonnie Elizabeth’s “A Used Pair of Shoes.”

~ ~ ~

“A Used Pair of Shoes” appears in The Golden Door, a collection of stories showing the impact on people when they’re treated as “the other,” whether they’re immigrants to a country, a group of targeted within their own country, or something else besides. The title refers to Emma Lazarus’s welcoming words inscribed on the plaque on Statue of Liberty, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Tales of mistreatment of “the other” abound in historical or religious writings from around the world and through all time. But there are also plenty of examples of people helping each other, caring for one another, learning about each other. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small—but they all add up.

All proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders and the ACLU.

Find The Golden Door

Universal Book Link ~ Amazon ~ Apple Books ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo ~ BookBub ~ Goodreads

Excerpt

Seasons began to change in ways I had never seen. Lina did not smile, not even her night smile. Her eyes faded and she watched. Some children played a bit, but not my Lina. She had seen too much.

Young boys, boys her age, that might have been suitors in another place, talked about the bodies they had seen. They talked about the bombs that had gone off and the severed arms and legs. One claimed to have seen his brother’s head.

The girls were quiet, even those who talked. The boys either bragged or were more silent that even Lina.

Their eyes did not have the spark that normal children’s eyes did. Their pain was as clear as the dirt on their feet, for few of them had shoes, and those that did had worn shoes with holes where toes peeked out like tiny mice.

—from “A Used Pair of Shoes” in The Golden Door by Bonnie Elizabeth

About Bonnie

Bonnie Elizabeth started writing fiction when she was eight years old. Fortunately that manuscript has long since been lost.


In between a variety of odd jobs, including working as an acupuncturist, Bonnie wrote articles about acupuncture and the business of being an acupuncturist for a variety of acupuncture journals. She also blogged as her cat while transitioning to her real love of fiction writing.


She writes the Whisper series, which begins with Whisper Bound, and has a number of other fantasy, urban fantasy and mystery projects in the works.

Find Bonnie

Website ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads

Find The Golden Door

Universal Book Link ~ Amazon ~ Apple Books ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo ~ BookBub ~ Goodreads

Posted on

The Golden Door: 14 Stories of Wisdom, Justice, and Love

The Golden Door is a collection of stories showing the impact on people when they’re treated as “the other,” whether they’re immigrants to a country, a group of targeted within their own country, or something else besides. The title refers to Emma Lazarus’s welcoming words inscribed on the plaque on Statue of Liberty, “I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Tales of mistreatment of “the other” abound in historical or religious writings from around the world and through all time. But there are also plenty of examples of people helping each other, caring for one another, learning about each other. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small—but they all add up.

All proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders and the ACLU.

Find The Golden Door

Universal Book Link ~ Amazon ~ Apple Books ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo

The Stories

In Adrianne Aron’s “The Envelope Trick,” an immigrant learns the very system that’s helping him in his new country is also hurting him.

A woman and her young daughter escape death in their home country, only to find themselves separated at the U.S. border in Steve Carr’s “Needle in a Haystack.”

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a young boy who dreams of emigrating to the U.S. to study at MIT comes across a pair of Soviet officers, and learns there’s more at stake than he’d ever dreamed in Tonya D. Price’s “Spy in the Sky.”

In Lesley L. Smith’s “Ke’s Symphony,” a family of aliens, refugees who escaped a disaster on their own world, is welcomed with both friendship and fear on the planet that took them in.

The president of the United States wishes for peace in “The Un-American President,” by Jason Dias. Sometimes integrity is doing the right thing because everyone is watching.

A little girl leaves her war-torn home with her parents, and learns that life is built on small kindnesses in Bonnie Elizabeth’s “A Used Pair of Shoes.”

Hedi Framm Anton’s “La Despedida” shows two sides of a story of farewell. A young girl lives with her grandmother in Honduras; they wait for a check from her mother, who works in San Francisco, so they can pay the fee the gang members demand every month.

Below the pristine mountains of Portugal’s countryside, a war rages on in Rei Rosenquist’s “Friends.” Thrown together in a dismal war camp, imported refugees share nothing but their suffering. No common culture. No common tongue. But friendship can spring up even in the toughest of times.

An American temporarily loses his sight in an accident in Beirut in Bob Sojka’s “Transient Pains.” While recovering, he tells his nurse stories about growing up in an immigrant family in Chicago in the 1950s, where stereotyped animosities arose among people of different origins.

In Adrianne Aron’s “Like a Snake,” an American is surprised to learn that the man she meets in a poor rural village that doesn’t even have electricity has two sons going to Mission High School in San Francisco. But is it really a surprise?

Jamie Ferguson’s “Something in Common” takes place in a small town in western Pennsylvania in 1910 where a young woman discovers she and a recent immigrant from Austria-Hungary have more in common than she’d realized.

A wealthy actress in Hollywood in the 1920s takes on a pair of immigrant faeries as indentured servants in DeAnna Knippling’s “Myrna and the Thirteen-Year Witch,” but she didn’t realize just how high the cost would be to keep them safe.

In Rob Vagle’s “Dispatch from the Other Side,” a young man who was separated from his family while trying to claim asylum in America follows the instructions on a postcard sent by his long-lost mother, and discovers things about his family he’d never expected to find.

A young woman, who moved from Afghanistan to California with her brother, has to make an important decision in David Stier’s “The Path.” Her choice will change both of their lives, forever.

Inspiration for the title “The Golden Door”

The title for this collection comes from the sonnet “The New Colossus,” which was written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”


—“The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus