Life is Better with Fairy Tales and Parables

I was sixteen years old the first time I penned a fairy tale.

My best friend and I were talking about the basic fairy tales and how they’d all been around for so many years—why wasn’t anyone writing anything new?

This was, of course, before Enchanted and Frozen.

So we sat down and started writing stories. Her story was delightful and included dresses made of sunsets. Mine included a girl who couldn’t love, an enchantment, a not-so-bright prince, and a quest.

Every few years I would revise Sapphire, but I was always bothered by her story.

First of all, it was just a love story.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I adore love stories. I write about my own quite often. 

But love stories aren’t the only stories.

And second, the story didn’t have a purpose. It didn’t teach anything or show anything. (Well, except how sapphires got their name and the peculiar tendencies of Queen Mothers.)

It was about then that I realized, it’s not just fairy tales that I love. I adore parables. Stories that teach deep truths in delightful ways.

And I wanted to mix them together in the worst way.

So I did. I went back to the drawing board and started writing new stories.

The first one I wrote was titled, The Warrior and was about a girl named Alana. That particular story wasn’t anything of great worth, but the character, Alana, ended up being a keeper. Alana met a girl named Emberlyn who carried around armloads of stones, and eventually the two of them met beautiful Claire, the baker’s daughter who could wield a sword like no other, and those three brought forth a whole slew of tales that are now a collection titled Daughters of the King.

Keep your eyes and ears open for those books because they’ll be coming out next year and whew! they are quite the epic stories. Fairy tale, parable, allegory—and all kinds of lessons for young and old alike.

(side note: if you want to keep track of our progress illustrating the Daughters of the King books, follow me on Instagram!)

But I wanted to write more than just one epic series. I wanted bits and pieces, like those old dusty books full of fairy tales. So I started scrawling ideas into notebooks.

Eventually, The Princess and the Seeds was born.

A Hispanic princess, a crown that can turn to dust, a wise-woman with deep brown skin and a strong spirit, a brokenhearted servant… and a biblical truth that is a solid rock to build your life upon.

All written simply enough that a small child can enjoy it.

Not too difficult to follow, but profound Kingdom-truths all the same.

I hope to eventually have a whole series of these parables for you (and next year you can fill your shelves with Daughters of the King books that will whirl you away to a land of swords and stone steps and battles for freedom) but for now, today, here is a small story with a big heart lesson.

The Princess and the Seeds is now available right here.