The Princess Blog Turns Four!
I wish had a brand new princess book to offer this year, but I've been so distracted between my job and my upcoming out-of-state move that I haven't had much time to work on my writing. My latest project is Forgotten Love Spell, a screenplay that I am working on with my husband. You might recall that I recently shared a short story from one of the scenes, but the script is only halfway done so far. What I can share with you are some other fantastic promotions on princess books I've reviewed in the past that happen to be free this weekend. This is a great opportunity to stock up on your princess reading materials and decide whether or not you agree with my reviews. First up is Princess of Shadows by A.G. Marshall, from one of my absolute favorite princess series, Fairy Tale Adventures. The first book in J.M. Stengl's Faraway Castle series, Cinder Ellie, is free this week well. "Beauty and the Beast" retellings Enchantment by Camille Peters and Kingdom of Beauty by Deborah Grace White are joining the princess bandwagon along with Deborah Grace White's fantasy novel, Heir of the Curse. Hurry up and collect these magical adventures while you can!
When I started this blog, coming up with new princess content was easy. There were four different princess shows on the air at the same time, three of which were on the same channel. Disney was heavily milking their princess franchises for remakes, and princess culture was reaching the tail end of its peak era. Today, finding new content is a bit more challenging. Overtly feminine characters are now considered sexist or taboo by modern western media, and Disney is celebrating a very different type of princess for this year's Ultimate Princess Celebration. I'm beginning to find that I need to expand my reach a little further to find the sort of princess content that I love to write about. Time Princess, my favorite new app, is made by IGG, which is based in Singapore, and releases new princess stories with beautiful fashions once a month or more. Anime from Japan is still embracing empowering feminine archetypes with shows like Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. Aside from that, I've been depending on indie authors to bring me new imaginings of the adventuresome and kind princesses that I love.
At the end of the day, my blog means very little without people like you to read it so I want you to know that I'm grateful for each and every one of you, whether you email me and leave comments or silently lurk on my social media pages waiting for new posts. If you have any suggestions to improve my blog or new content that you would like me to write about, never be afraid to reach out in the comments or by email. I've been fortunate enough to be introduced to many wonderful new authors through my blog who reached out to me for reviews that I never would have known about. Thanks to an avid reader, I learned about Andrew Lloyd Webber's new Cinderella musical, which I absolutely adore! I write these posts to keep other princess fans informed, so I love hearing from you, even if it's just to say "hi."
Four years ago, I wasn't sure how long I could keep churning out new content for such a niche audience, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn about all sorts of wonderful shows, books, and media through my readers. At this point, I think I can confidently say that I will never run out of things to write about as long as I have people who want to read them. Thank you for all that you've done to give me the confidence to keep writing. It's been a crazy couple of years, and I'm more glad than ever that we have such beautiful fantasy stories to escape to.
Comments
Congratulations to four years!
I’m very happy that I found this blog!
I’ve always been a fairytale and folklore nerd but for a long time I was ashamed that I liked princesses, that I liked “girly stuff”. Your blog made me realise how stupid that was and I learned to fully embrace my love for princesses. That’s probably why I’m so avid. I’m making up for lost time xD
Now, I can’t leave without dumping some more princess content on you! Yesterday I came across a trailer and an exclusive clip for an upcoming anime called Fena: Pirate Princess. The anime is for adult audience but the main character seems to be the most adorable sweetheart! <3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51LUmsywZyw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8qQaNAUWQ
Funny story: I started watching the videos you linked to, and my husband walked in and complained that he already told me about this anime, and I completely blew him off! It's just that when I typically read or watch anything about female pirates, they are always women who dress like men and act like men and often keep their true gender a secret. If you're not familiar with it already, I recommend looking up the musical The Pirate Queen since it was inspired by a real person, and the woman who starred in it, Stephanie J. Block, is amazingly talented, and I actually met her at the stage door when she was in Wicked. Usually, anything with pirates is an instant turn-off for me because they pretty much represent all the things I hate--obscenity, drinking, disrespect toward women, and criminal behavior. However, after watching these clips, I was surprised to find that the protagonist seems to be nothing like that, so I guess I owe my husband an apology. :)
Speaking of anime, did you see my post from a while ago about Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle? It is such a cute show that's filled with light-hearted humor!
Haha! That’s funny! xD I think you indeed own him an apology. xD
I can understand your distaste to pirate stories. I pretty much have a hate-love relationship to the genre.
I’m pretty sick of stories where a woman needs to keep her gender a secret in order to do what she wants to do. Especially if it’s in fantasy media! If it’s based on real history I of course understand why it is the way it is.
I want more fantasy stories where the whole “You can’t do this or that because you’re a woman” sexism does not exists.
From what I saw in the trailer it looks like the main character will hide her gender but it seems more to be to keep her safe from the people who are hunting her, while the crew she’s with knows that she’s a girl. A better use of the trope I think :)
Thank you very much for the musical tip! I had heard about this musical before but completely forgotten about it. Sadly I can’t find the full soundtrack anywhere… Some songs are on Youtube and I like them :)
I wish more stage musicals could be released for streaming for us who are too far away from broadway.
I must have missed your post about Sleepy Princess. I will check it out! :)
Thank you so much! I'm glad you were able to find me. :) You can follow my new posts on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/theprincessblogger and Twitter at www.twitter.com/PrincessOfBlogs. Have a lovely day!