THE PRINCESS SPY - Melanie Dickerson - One Free Book

Dear Readers, I love Melanie’s books, retelling of fairy tales in the middle ages. They’re considered Young Adult novels by the publisher, but they’re really not just for young adults. Each of her novels are loosely connected to the ones that came before. With The Princess Spy, I loved the way the story fit with the others, but was totally unique. You won’t want to miss this one.

Welcome back, Melanie. Please tell us about your salvation experience.

My parents took me to church from the time I was born, and I grew up valuing the Bible as the absolutely infallible Word of God. I was baptized at the age of thirteen, which was a special moment. I can’t remember a time when I did not love God or believe in Him, and my faith and understanding have grown stronger and deeper over the years.

You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?

That’s really putting me on the spot, Lena. Ha ha! I have a lot of friends with whom I’d love to go on a writing retreat. We’d probably not get much writing done because we’d be talking. But it would certainly be fun.

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.

I have had the opportunity to speak to other writers, and I recently spoke to a group of Christian librarians, which was a great experience. I’m excited about speaking to a group of girls, 7th through 12th grade, at a Christian girls’ conference this summer. It’s wonderful how the struggles in my life have become a platform to speak to others. I have found that I actually love public speaking, especially when I can talk about my faith and how God has brought me through things and how He can be a beacon in other people’s lives as well.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

Hmm. I tend to block out the embarrassing things that happen to me, Lena! I’m not sure I remember any! Ha ha! One embarrassing thing that happened to me is I fainted at my very first writers conference, the big ACFW conference in 2005 in Nashville. It was during the announcements right after breakfast. I’d only fainted once in my life before that happened. This time it was due to taking an over-the-counter medication. The ambulance came and wheeled me out in front of everybody! So embarrassing. Although I was so out of it, I barely was conscious enough to be embarrassed about it until later.

I was at that conference and saw that happen, but I didn’t know you then. Most of us prayed for you. People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?

I tell them, “You should.” We make time for the things that are important to us.

Tell us about the featured book.

The Princess Spy is loosely based on the “Frog Prince,” or “Princess and the Frog,” fairy tale. It’s about Margaretha, the oldest daughter of Duke Wilhelm, who finds herself in a crisis and must trust a stranger to help her save her family and her town from one of her suitors, who turns out to have evil motives. And Colin is my “frog prince” who is from England and finds himself in Medieval Germany—and he doesn’t speak German.

Margaretha has a problem with talking too much. When an unconscious young man, who has been beaten and left for dead, wakes up in the healer’s chamber in Hagenheim Castle, Margaretha is the only person who understands what he’s saying. However, he won’t tell her his name because he says her life will be in danger if he does. When she asks who might want to hurt her, he refuses to tell her that either, for her own good. Margaretha is convinced he’s lost his mind due to his head injury, but when the young man recovers and tells her everything, and after Margaretha does a bit of spying on her own, she realizes she has to believe him.

Please give us the first page of the book for my readers.

I skipped the Prologue and am giving you the first page of Chapter One.

Margaretha sat in the Great Hall listening to her newest suitor, Rowland Fortescue, Earl of Claybrook, who had cornered her after the midday meal.

Perhaps it was unkind of her to use the word “cornered.” He was her suitor, after all, and she should be pleased that he wanted to talk to her. Some of her other suitors had barely said two words to her, but this man seemed to enjoy talking to her—in very fluent German for an Englishman, but his mother was from the German regions of the Holy Roman Empire.

Everyone, especially her brothers, accused Margaretha of talking too much, but Lord Claybrook often left her speechless. Could that be a good thing?

This morning, Lord Claybrook had been telling her of his prowess as a hunter, both with his falcons and his oh-so-remarkable hounds, a subject so boring that it wasn’t her fault if she was distracted by his hat.

Truly, it was an astonishing hat. But then, all of his hats were astonishing. Every day since he had come to Hagenheim Castle, Margaretha had found herself staring at the man’s hat.

Today’s hat consisted of a gray fur band as wide as her hand and padded to make it twice as fat as his head, with a large jewel inset in the front, and folds of red cloth protruding from inside, draped over his right temple like the coxcomb of a rooster. A piece of matching cloth hung from the other side of the hat, reaching to his left knee.

While his hat’s liripipe was ridiculously long, his tunic was scandalously short. He wore only tight hose underneath, so she was careful not to let her eyes stray too low.

But she must make allowances for him. He was a foreigner, after all. Perhaps everyone in England dressed that way.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

I have a website, www.MelanieDickerson.com and I’m on facebook all the time, https://www.facebook.com/MelanieDickersonBooks which is where you can get the latest news about my upcoming books. And I’m on Twitter @melanieauthor. So please say hello!

Melanie, I love featuring you on my blog, and my readers like to learn about you and your books.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

The Princess Spy - Christianbook.com
The Princess Spy- Amazon
The Princess Spy - Kindle

Christian Book Store

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