In both these romances, love blooms for the heroine in a completely different fashion. To be honest, after the subtlety of the romance in Searching for Sara, the common sense and determination of Princess Nia and Mayor Shamus O’Neill in My Fair Princess came as a relief! In fact, it was a blast to write the boyish and clumsy charm of Shamus, especially in direct contradiction to Nia’s natural social grace and confidence.

Many of us can relate to Shamus as he fumbles and stammers through his wooing of Nia. At least, I know I can! I chitter like a nervous chipmunk when faced with an uncomfortable situation. In fact, I know my own experiences of less-than-graceful moments helped me craft the cute & frustrating scenes between these two adorable people.

Isn’t it amazing how love can bloom despite our efforts!

My Fair Princess | Courtship

Shamus adjusted his seat in the saddle as he watched Nia with an absent smile. She walked ahead of the caravan with her friend, Dray, and laughed over a shared memory. Her wingtips flutter when she laughs. He adjusted his seat in the saddle, his gaze dropping to the reins held in a loose clasp.

During breakfast she insisted he call her Nia. Shamus respectfully declined, although he did promise to work up to it eventually. He just couldn’t imagine himself calling a princess by her first name. She’s a princess of the oldest family line ever documented. A popular legend being they descended from the faery folk from a distant land long since forgotten. Shamus considered himself nothing more than a farmer with good organization skills. A farmer! He grimaced. All I wanted was a trade contract. Why would the king marry me to his only daughter?

Her laughter drew his focus. With her bright eyes and smiling lips, looking at her made his insides tumble like a wall of hay bales. And the way she laughed? Fireworks went off in his head, making it impossible to rub two half thoughts together. Nia Alaera O’Neill. It was more than his mind could grapple at the moment.

Shamus intercepted a smile cast over her shoulder, his neck and face aflame as he returned it with what he felt sure was a silly grin. Any thoughts couldn’t survive the shock of his pleasant predicament as he looked away, his eyes seeking the dense forest that surrounded them.

A sudden, brief touch on his foot drew his glance.

Nia smiled up at him. “Why do you not come and walk with us the rest of the way, Shamus?”

“My pleasure, Princess.” He couldn’t get down from his horse fast enough. He secured the beast to the nearest wagon and fell into step beside her. To his surprise, instead of hurrying her pace to walk beside Dray, she matched his own.

“Father will likely wish to meet with us once we arrive.”

Shamus nodded, holding his hands behind his back as he glanced toward her. “I know,” he confessed. “We still need to settle a few things.” And I need to make sure he wasn’t joking when he offered your hand. Marrying into the royal line thrust an entirely different level of expectations and responsibilities onto his shoulders.

“Oh?” She blinked at him, eyes wide. “All arrangements have not been decided upon?”

“Uh, well, d-dowry for one. Alaerian involvement with O’Neill for another.”

“I doubt Father will opt to be too terribly involved. He is quite impressed with how you have managed to help the community flourish.”

He shot her a glance, which she met with her usual smile that sent thoughts scattering to the four winds.

“As for dowry, what were you going to suggest?”

What do I offer an Alaerian king for his only daughter when that daughter is Nia? “I don’t rightly know. Normally I would offer whatever the father needed most. Your father doesn’t really need anything.”

Nia laughed, the flutter of her wingtips a caress against his shoulder. “That is not necessarily correct. Everyone needs something at some point in their lives. The hard part is discovering what that is.”

“Isn’t that the truth.”

“Did you have any ideas at all?”

“On the dowry,” or on how this could possibly be happening? “Actually, I’m expecting a few champion-blood foals this year. Is your father at all interested in horses?”

If possible, Nia’s expression brightened to an even lovelier version of herself. Her wings fluttered with excitement. “Father adores horses! He has tried–without success, the poor dear–to begin his own line of champion stock.”

“I’ll see about offering him his choice of mares. Maybe free studding for the first five years of our marriage?” Shamus thought his head would catch the forest on fire.

Nia smiled up at him, her eyes like stars and her touch on his arm a flare from the very sun. “He would love that!”

Too soon, the main road into Alaera proper came into view and Nia’s hand fell away. Shamus gulped as the trio halted just outside. The caravan continued on. Nia embraced her friend, the tenderness pressing a sharp stone in the middle of Shamus’s brain. He shifted his gaze to anywhere else.

“I wish you could stay,” she murmured. “Visit again soon. And if you see Ana, tell her ‘hello’.”

“I will.” Dray stretched out a hand. “It was good to meet you.”

“Likewise. Don’t be a stranger.”

Then Dray moved off toward east Alaera, Nia waving after him.

Shamus watched her with an absent smile. Friends meant a lot to her, and she seemed to make them easily. I guess that’s what comes from being a princess. Nia shifted her gaze to catch him in his new-found hobby. He smeared a smile on his lips and hoped it didn’t look goofy . . . much.

Navigate to the Candlelight Reads Blog (link below) and leave a comment for a chance to win a swag pack. OR, enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance at a Amazon Gift Card worth more than $50!

• a Rafflecopter giveaway
• Candlelight Reads Blog

Other blogs in the blog hop & giveaway:

1. Gloria Harchars Steampunk Audacity!
2. Bonnie Blythes Pure Romance
3. RuthRobertsRomance. wordpress. com
4. Amber Gilchrist: Glitch {A Comedy of Errors}
5. Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia
6. Pauline Creeden, Author
7. Elaine Cantrell
8. Word Obsession
9. Nona King: Spirit Driven Fiction
10. The Readers Realm

If there’s one thing we love about birthdays, it’s the presents and celebrations that come with. So, I’m making my romances–Searching for Sara & My Fair Princess–available on Kindle and Nook for 99 cents. If you don’t have a Kindle or Nook? You can also purchase the books from Smashwords.com. Here are the links:

Searching for Sara

• Kindle
• Nookbook
• Smashwords (all digital formats, FREE membership required)

My Fair Princess

• Kindle
• Nookbook
• Smashwords

Don’t want an eBook? You can purchase the print books at 50% off the regular price directly from me though PayPal. Simply follow these steps:

1. Send the $$ to self@nonaking.com: $6.45 for Searching for Sara, and $3.45 for My Fair Princess.
2. Include a note as to
   1. which book you are purchasing
   2. where to mail the book
3. Let me know if you would like the paperback inscribed to a specific person.
4. YOU’RE DONE!

In celebration of Earth Day, and hand-in-glove with Candlelight Reads’ Earth Day Blog Hop, I am offering Searching for Sara for 99 cents at Smashwords. Simply enter coupon code: NL25B

But more than that, if you buy two books from the list at Candlelight Reads for 99 cents, you can receive one book for FREE! In fact, my books To Save A Soul and My Fair Princess are on that FREE list.

There is also the possibility of winning a gift card for Amazon worth more than $40, and a cool “swag bag”, including a mug and cap from my publishing label, Angel Breath Books.

 This is an incredible opportunity to buy a lot of great books at fantastic prices! Check it out!

For me, fear and pride have been great obstacles, a daily struggle to overcome. That was one of the subconscious reasons I began writing Searching for Sara. Through Sara, I was able to show my heart what could come from facing my fears and stepping forward regardless. Pride was the driving force behind Broken Angel, the heroine Rachel suffering because she wouldn’t back down or compromise. Now, in Releasing Yesterday, I have no idea what I could learn, or what I can pose as a question to my characters to teach me.

Until I think about my floundering passion and stagnation. I just stand–or sit–here and think about all I need to do without doing any of it. In Releasing Yesterday it has taken Sara’s absentee father more than 20 years to finally step forward in action and seek her out, determined to repair their non-existent relationship even against the wishes of his family.

Once before he allowed his family to dictate his future. Ten years later, he discovered that, not only did his wife die alone, she left a daughter whose only means of support was the kindness of others and the work of her two hands. It has taken him nearly fifteen years to finally track her down, and now he stares into the mirror image of his wife only to see all the years squandered and lost.

And then she looks away.

Because of his lack of action so many years before, she has suffered–then and now–and he faces the daunting task of seeking not only her forgiveness, but her love.

I think I’m in these same shoes. Because I left the sequel unfinished–and even un-outlined–I stare at the maw of my encroaching deadline and wonder how I’m going to craft book 2 into some semblance of order. How will I do this series justice? So I stay in one place and don’t even attempt a beginning. But the sequel calls to me, as do my obligations, as do the characters. “Just write!”

But what about all the “do this” and “don’t do this” that leer at me in the back of my brain. I forget what to look for, what to be mindful of while writing when I write. It can’t be fine to simply write the story as it unfolds in my head, can it? What if I do it wrong? But is it better to not write at all?

No.

So I stare down at the pages I have just printed–the physical often helps me find my footing–and look at all the scenes and pages cut from book 1 that I would love to weave into book 2, and whimper. There is so much to keep in mind! But that isn’t necessarily true. I have book 1, and I have an idea of what I want for book 2. Everything else is a blank page waiting for my pen. The future is bright and unfettered, my characters free to whisper to me their story.

Like Sara’s father, I only need to take that first and then second step forward, and keep going. The future doesn’t come to us–we go.