Authorpreneur Dashboard – Nita Marie Clark
The Royal Search For Shenanigans
Children's Books
Can Princess Lillian, her royal cousins, and her two best friends, work together to end the spell and free the hidden kingdom that has been locked in isolation for the last three hundred years. There is no crystal ball or the luxury of time travel to help them on their quest. The group must rely on each other, their own humor, intelligence, ingenuity, and a mischievous new friend named, Shenanigan O'Toole, to find and figure out the clues left by other princesses from centuries before and solve this riddle. If they fail the Land Of Shenanigans and the O'Toole Dragons will remain hidden FOREVER! Prologue: The princess felt her entire body shaking as she hid behind the large flower bed, frozen in fear, with a hundred panicky questions swirling around in her head. Could she trust her new friend not to give her away? What was going to happen to her if she was discovered? What if she never got home? If she did not get back home, how would her family ever know what happened to her? Why did she believe she could do this? Tears welled up in her eyes as she considered the consequences of her choice to embark on her big adventure. Oh my, what had she done! Stop! Rewind! We need to start this story at the beginning.
Book Bubbles from The Royal Search For Shenanigans
The Castle Historian, and Lillian's personal conne
Making the book personable to the real life Princess Lillian, I tried to include names of real people in her life. Her maternal grandfather's last name is Doherty, he is a history buff, and he has in the past portrayed Santa, (very convincingly I might add). Having a version of his name as the Castle Historian seemed the perfect fit.
Queen Flora
Using family names such as Flora, (my own grandmother's name) I was able to give The Royal Search for Shenanigans more heart and an extra connection to my great-granddaughter Lillian. Throughout this book as well as the series The Secrets of Zen Castle, it is important to me that I use names that will give the series a connection to my great-grandchildren and their heritage. Hopefully this connection will encourage other readers to seek out their own heritage.
A Dragon Singing my Birthday Ditty song
To add humor to the book, I decided that Shenanigan should like to sing. A singing green and yellow dragon is a funny thing to imagine. I chose to have him singing in the park while the Royal P.O.S.S.E. was looking for him. The thought of a dragon singing a birthday song to grandparents sounds like it would cause quite a stir. Not wanting to use a song someone else might claim copyrights to, I decided to have him sing is actually a song I wrote a couple of years ago for another one of my businesses, The Birthday Ditty. For the complete song check out the Facebook page for The Secrets of Zen Castle.
A Hiccuping Fire Breathing Dragon
Lighthearted humor is always fun, and what could be more fun than a hiccuping fire breathing. With each hiccup the dragon left a trail of smoke and burnt flowers. This chapter of the book was set to originally explain the nickname I was going to give the princess, "The Bubble Gum Princess." However, after the book was finished, the use of the nickname in the book's title did not seem to be the best fit. To find out more about how the hiccuping fire breathing dragon is helped Princess Lillian grab a copy and read it for yourself.
Every Child Loves Pizza
Adding a bit of humor to the story, the cook believes there is a monster stealing food. With her refusing to go back into the kitchen there would be NO lunch. Princess Lillian comes up with the idea to order out and have some pizza from her favorite pizza shop. In real life our princess Lilli loves Italo's pizza, however when she was younger she referred to it as Pizzalo's. This is where I got the name for the world famous pizza shop in the story. The real Italo's Pizza shop has been a family favorite for 50 years.
What has Princess Lillian done?
Doubting herself for a moment, having to fend for herself for the first time in her life. Princess Lillian has to find the courage to continue her journey to solve the 300 year old riddle. What kind of danger the princesses of the past led her into?
