A culmination, and a beginning
How the Daughter of Arden Trilogy came into the world
Today a new book launched into the world, the third book of my Daughter of Arden Trilogy.
We’re a little excited over here, to say the least. This book is the culmination of a dream, one that began around the time Kraig and I got married in 1995. I’d read a few novels that were fairytale retellings, and thought it would be fun to try my hand at one. I’ve always loved fairy tales, and one that I grew up on was the Brother Grimm’s tale, “Maid Maleen.” It’s not as well known as stories like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella,” but it was one that lent itself to all kinds of questions that could be expanded into a longer story.
In the original tale, Maid Maleen is a princess who loves a certain prince, but her father wants her to marry another. In a rage, he walls her and her maid servant up in a tower for seven years, and the story goes on from there. There is the destruction of a kingdom, suffering, a false bride, a true bride, and a happy ending. All the good stuff of fairy tales.
“But what if,” I thought, “the princess’ father isn’t actually nasty, but has good reasons why he’s chosen one prince over another? What if Maleen is a bit spoiled and wants her own way, no matter what?” From there the story opened up, and a world started to form. When Kraig came in on it he gave his own opinion: “Don’t just make it a romance! There are a bunch of other interesting things that can happen!” Thankfully I listened to him, even though it meant that my simple retelling kept growing bigger, and the writing of the story took far longer than I originally imagined. Twenty-five years, in fact!
But God’s timing is perfect. In 2019 I joined the online writing community, The Habit, and gathered enough courage to start posting stories based on my bigger work. Each time I wrote something, the response was so encouraging that I kept writing more. Pretty soon I had a few writing friends who wanted to read my whole manuscripts for books one and two (the third book wasn’t written at that point). At the same time, Kraig and my daughters hit their teens and wanted to read the book as well. Suddenly I had a stronger motivation than I’d ever had to sit down and finish the books. Nine months later, on Good Friday of 2020, I laid down my pen after writing the final words.
Of course, that was still early in the journey. I hoped to publish the books in some form, even if it was just nicely bound copies for the family. That year, though, my sister Carrie and two of her friends launched the independent publishing company, Bandersnatch Books, and in 2021 they accepted my trilogy for publication. Their goal was to put out the whole thing over the course of a year.
By this time we knew we wanted Clare and Evie to draw pictures for the heading of each chapter—they’re both gifted artists (as you’ve seen from previous posts!), and it was a fun way to involve them in the project. We started looking for an artist to do the cover art, but couldn’t seem to land on someone whose work fit the vague image we had in mind. Meanwhile that year Evie took a graphic design class, and she started to play with various ideas Clare had sketched out, just for the fun of it. In February of 2022 I was at a conference with Carrie and one of her Bandersnatch partners, Rachel. We were in the final editing stages of the first book at that point, but still hadn’t decided on the cover art. I showed them Evie’s latest picture: “Something in this style, I think,” I said. Carrie and Rachel looked at the picture, then looked at each other, then looked at me. And that was how Evie became our cover artist. A couple months later when we needed my rough map redone, Clare took it in hand and made it beautiful. Last November, book 1, Exile, entered the world. Wandering followed last June, and today Promise debuted.
It’s been a busy year, and we’ve all learned a lot through the process. There are plenty of other stories that I hope to share with you as time goes along, but for now, I will share the journey and the book. I hope this trilogy will come to mean as much to some of you as it has to our family.
Bandersnatch Books has some nice sales happening this month. Check out Daughter of Arden at Bandersnatchbooks.com, along with a bunch of other great titles and their annual merch sale.
You can find links to more of my writing at A Shaft of Sun Through the Rain and my old blog, Willing, Wanting, Waiting.
I love that you now define yourself as a writer. Thank you for sharing your "origin story!" :)
I love your origin story. It makes the trilogy even more meaningful. I thoroughly enjoyed it, read through them too fast and can see myself reading the series again a little more slowly. ;)