Author’s Note

 

I almost didn’t publish Wicked Ugly Bad, the first book in this series.  When I finished it, I worried it was a little too strange.  A romance novel-y mix of Prison Break and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.  I was concerned that no one would get it.  It was my sister, Elizabeth, who insisted that people would like it and she ended up being right.  It is the bestselling book I’ve ever written.

Beast in Shining Armor, the second book in the series, was also sort of an accident.  I had a dream about what should happen in Avenant’s story and that’s why he got one.  I have never dreamed about any of my other characters, before or since, so I took it as a sign his book needed to be written.  I finished the first draft in about six weeks, which is SUPER fast for me, and that book also sold very well.

I was now flushed with success.

Clearly, fairytales were --like-- my new thing.  Ideas flowed and fans were telling me I’d done a good job and everything was coming up Cassie.  Yay me!  I immediately started to write the third book of the series, which would be about Esmeralda, the witch.  What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, as it turned out.

Esmeralda hated every single hero I gave her.  I am totally, totally serious.  I’ve tried at least six.  I have spent tens of thousands of words trying to convince her to pick one, but she’s just not that into them.  That’s okay, though.  I’ll win her over eventually.  And, in the meantime, I found Midas.

One of the many, many, many drafts of Ez’s book featured her meeting up with a fellow inmate from the WUB Club:  A gangster named Midas.  Midas is actually mentioned in the first chapter of Wicked Ugly Bad, when Avenant is bitching in Tuesday share circle that he wants to join the other, better support group with “that guy who touches things and they turn to gold.”  Midas didn’t actually appear “on screen,” but he was there.  So it made total sense for me to stick him in Ez’s book.  Within a chapter, I had scrapped the whole idea of him living in Wonderland, though.  I couldn’t think of a single reason he’d want to be there.  But there was this tiny moment of the two of them walking in a garden, which completely sold me on his character:

Midas glanced at Esmeralda.  “I’ve heard that everyone in the Enchanted Forest is desperate to find you.  Give them time and they’ll save you from this nightmarish land.  The money Prince Avenant is offering for your return is obscene even by my standards.”

That made Ez feel better.  “Did he convince Belle to marry him yet?”

“I don’t know or care.”  Midas accidently brushed his hand over a rocking-horsefly that had landed on a leaf.  Instantly, the delicate creature turned to gold, forever frozen in mid-flight.  For a second, something like regret flashed in Midas’ eyes and he yanked his fingers back.

Esmeralda felt bad for him, even though he was a dickhead.  It must’ve been hell never to touch anything living.

Annnnnd… I was pretty much done with that draft of the book.

That rocking-horsefly allowed me to see inside Midas and his real story was suddenly right there in front of me.  This flashy, misunderstood mobster of a guy had everything except what he most longed for.  Almost immediately, I began The Kingpin of Camelot.

Guinevere’s character was not nearly so clear to me.  …Not until the Contract.  Once she came up with her plan to create a clause for every aspect of their “fake marriage,” she ran with it and dragged poor Midas along for the ride.  And he did not resist real hard.  Except for vainly trying to edit his constant swearing, Midas couldn’t have been more cooperative with my mission to give them a happily ever after.  He was just crazy in love with Gwen, which made my job simple.  Writing their relationship was only difficult in the sense that they talked a lot, which is why this is the longest book I’ve published to date.

Avalon’s character was originally added because King Midas has a daughter in the Greek Myth. Trystan came from (surprise) another abandoned draft of Ez’s book  Honestly, I’m not sure when I decided to bring him over here, but he liked it and decided to stay.  Both of them became much bigger parts of the story than I initially intended, as their characters developed.  Especially Trystan.  He was very pushy about being included.

That is one of the great joys (and sometimes frustrations) of writing.  Once the characters start talking on the page, they go their own way and you just have to try and keep up.  This is why you sometimes wind up with 112 unacceptable versions of a book about a witch in Wonderland.  It is also why you sometimes wind up with a gryphon trying to pass on his culture to a little girl as they play with fashion dolls.  Maybe it’s because my sister and I used to create epic murder-mystery, action-adventure plays with our bedraggled heaps of Barbies, but that scene is probably my favorite part of the whole book.  I always think it’s better to let the characters decide how their story will go.  They usually have better ideas than I do.

If you were wondering, catur was a real game in sixth century India.  It’s believed to be the ancestor of chess and it did indeed have elephant pieces.  The version Midas played is in no way accurate to the real game, though.  It really couldn’t be.  Apparently, no one knows what the exact rules were or how the elephant pieces moved, but I am intrigued by the whole idea.

The very basic outline for the plot of The Kingpin of Camelot came from the Sing a Song of Sixpence nursery rhyme:

Sing a song of ,

A pocket full of .

,

Baked in a .

When the pie was opened

The birds began to sing.

Wasn't that a dainty dish,

To set before the king?

 

The king was in his ,

Counting all his money.

The queen was in her parlor,

Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes,

When down came a blackbird,

And pecked off her nose.

 

Midas = King, Scarecrow = Blackbirds, Gwen = Queen.  The other hundred and thirty thousand words are just filling in the blanks.  Also, I tossed in some Arthurian legend stuff and pieces of the King Midas myth, obviously.  And Dark Science, which I see as the logical antithesis of the natural magic that inhabits this world.

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up reading romance novels, most of which were purchased in secondhand bookshops and published in the 1990s.  Many of them were Regency Romances, featuring feisty heroines and brooding heroes.  (Think of The Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood.)  I would say the Kingpin of Camelot ended up as my funhouse-mirror version of that genre.  The couple’s marriage comes early in the book, there is an underlying focus on social position, and the real plot is figuring out how two very different people from two very different spheres can make a relationship work.

I would like to write a story for Trystan and figure out where perfect, beige Galahad wound up, but I’m not really sure when that will happen.  My next foray into a Kinda Fairytale book will almost definitely (probably) be yet another attempt to get Esmeralda to cooperate.  Pray for me.

Please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments about this book or any other at: .  The same email address can be used to sign up for our mailing list for news about our upcoming books and we also have a Facebook page, which we update fairly regularly.  I hope to see you there!