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From the diary of Ann Kerwin (heroine in A Royal Engagement):

Being the queen of an entire planet can’t be easy.  And what’s worse is that I’m not up to the challenge.  I know Hathor thinks I am, but he’s wrong.  I’ve seen queens on TV and in the movies, and they are always graceful.  Always.  But that is not me.  At all.  Case in point, the scene below where Hathor and I were in a cave that was really weird…

Ann looked down. The ground appeared to be made of steel, but it was hard to maintain balance on it since it felt like the material used in bouncy houses. She let go of Hathor and tried to take a step forward, but she landed flat on her behind. Her face warm, she glanced over at him, wondering if he would laugh, but he didn’t.

Extending his hand to her, he helped her up. As much as she wasn’t comfortable with a stranger putting his arms around her shoulders and supporting her as she fumbled across the floor like an idiot, she supposed it couldn’t be helped.

“Some queen I’m going to be,” she said as she stumbled again so that she was pressed right up against his side. “I can’t even walk without your help.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s the cave. Nothing in here will follow logic.”

            She continued down the passage with him, still losing her balance from time to time. It wasn’t her intention to prove how ungraceful she could be, but it seemed that she was proving it all the same.

***

Or the scene when Hathor and I were thrown into the Great Prison…

Ann barely had time to see what was behind the door when someone pushed her. Startled, she screamed as she slid down a metal slide. The thing seemed to go on forever, and there was nothing but darkness in front of her, which made the whole thing even creepier. But then she caught a glimmer of light up ahead. She didn’t have time to figure out where it led, though, because it seemed that as soon as she saw it, she landed—hard—on a steel floor.

            This time she didn’t land flat on her behind. No, this time she landed face first on the floor with her butt sticking right up in the air. Oh yeah. She was very much the queen no matter how she fell.

And that’s just two cases where I lacked grace under pressure.  *sighs*  Why was I chosen for this role?  I was much better off in college, even if the professor put me to sleep.

More lessons to come over the next few weeks.  In the meantime, the book will be available September 28.  I decided to give it another month to allow more time for me to work in writing His Convenient Wife between final edits.  (I’m currently halfway into His Convenient Wife.)

If you’d like to preorder A Royal Engagement, I now have the links where you can do so and will post those below:

iBooks

Barnes & Noble

Kobo