The Fairy Tale That Wouldn't Leave Me Alone

How Magic of the Swan came to be. Some stories arrive quietly and wait to be noticed. Others show up and simply refuse to leave until you do something about them.

Magic of the Swan was the second kind.

The idea of retelling Swan Lake had been sitting in the back of my mind for longer than I can remember. Other author colleagues had done fairy tale retellings, and I always thought it would be fun to attempt one of my own. Fairy tales use the extraordinary to illuminate something deeply ordinary about human experience. But Swan Lake specifically kept returning. Something in the bones of that story — the transformation, the curse, the love that is tested by deception, the question of whether devotion is enough to break what darkness has done — wouldn't let me set it down.

Why Swan Lake

There are more familiar fairy tales I could have chosen. Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White. They've all been retold so many times they've become a genre unto themselves. Swan Lake is less traveled territory in fiction, which was part of the appeal. There was more room to make it genuinely my own.

But it was also the specific emotional architecture of the story that drew me. The curse at the center of Swan Lake is a distortion. It makes the true thing appear false and the false thing appear true, and the one who loves Odette has to find a way to see through that distortion and choose rightly in a moment when everything conspires against him doing so. That's not limited to fairy tales. Human nature has to grapple with that all the time. It's also a deeply theological struggle, if you're inclined to read it that way.

Why the Gilded Age

Or a little bit after. Setting the story in the Gilded Age felt right almost immediately.

The early twentieth century in America had a gilded appeal in and of itself. Glittering on the surface, complicated and sometimes dark underneath. The wealth and the beauty and the elaborate social performance of that era sit alongside labor exploitation and stark inequality in ways that create natural dramatic tension. It's a world where appearance and reality are frequently at odds, which made it a fitting home for a story about a curse that makes the true thing look false.

It also gave me rich historical territory to research, which, as I've mentioned before on this blog, is one of my genuine pleasures as a writer. The Gilded Age has texture and specifics I absolutely love and find fascinating.

The Book Launch

After the long season away from fiction, after everything the hiatus cost and required, putting a new novel into the world was an act of faith in the most personal sense of that phrase. Faith that the work still mattered, that the stories were still worth telling, that the return was real and not temporary.

The response from readers has been amazing. But holding the book in my hands proved the voice was still there, the stories hadn't gone anywhere, and the fairy tale that wouldn't leave me alone had been worth following all the way to the end.

I have a feeling these fairy tales won't leave me alone.

Is there a fairy tale or classic story that has always felt like it was trying to tell you something specific? One that stays with you or keeps coming back? I'd love to hear which one and why in the comments.

Two Purloined Pillows by Allie Pleiter: Spotlighting a Friend

Some books arrive at exactly the right moment.

I've known Allie Pleiter for years through ACFW and our writing journeys. Last time we chatted, I think we counted at least 20 years! If you've spent any time in the Christian fiction community, you probably know her too — or at least you know her work. She's the kind of author who brings genuine warmth and wit to everything she writes, and her newest release is no exception.

Two Purloined Pillows is Book 2 in the Nimble Needle Mystery series, and I'm excited to help spread the word on release day.

About the Book

Shelby Phillips never planned to stay in her small hometown outside Asheville, North Carolina. She came back to manage her mother's needlepoint shop temporarily, after an office romance and career implosion sent her life in an unexpected direction. More than a year later, she's still there — and still finding herself tangled up in things that go far beyond needlepoint.

This time, Shelby is overseeing two well-known designers participating in the town's first arts festival. Both have created one-of-a-kind pillows set to headline the festival auction. Both pillows disappear amid a string of shoplifting incidents. And the two designers couldn't be more different — one wound tight with anxiety, the other an egomaniac who's convinced his rival has been stealing his customers for years.

When one of them collapses and dies at the auction dinner, what started as a festival headache becomes something far more serious.

If you haven't started this series yet, you should begin with Book 1: One Sharp Stitch. But if you're already a Shelby Phillips fan, you already know what you're getting into, and you're definitely going to want this one.

Why I'm Recommending It

Allie has a gift for building small-town worlds that feel genuinely lived-in, populating them with characters who are funny and flawed and deeply human, and layering in just enough mystery to keep you turning pages well past when you intended to stop.

For book 2, we return to the unique setting of the Nimble Needle and the small southern town near Asheville, NC, where Shelby is managing the shop. Once again, she gathers her ragtag team of family and friends with a little more of that romance from book 1 thrown in. And in addition to the reader-favorite cozy mystery tropes, there's some unique twists you won't see coming.

The clues — and even a few red herrings — are plentiful, but the variety of quirky characters like the NYAGs provide most of the entertainment. I'm not going to spoil anything for you, though. You have to read the book yourself to find out more.

A needlepoint shop. A pillow that disappeared. An arts festival gone sideways. Poison. A needlepoint rivalry. A killer still unaccounted for. This is another fantastic Allie Pleiter story, and that's why you should pick up this book today!

Where to Find It

You can find Two Purloined Pillows at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as wherever books are sold, and you can learn more about Allie and her work at alliepleiter.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

If you pick it up, come back and tell me what you thought. And if you've already read Book 1, I'd love to hear how you think the series is shaping up.

Have you read anything by Allie Pleiter before? Are you a fan of cozy mysteries set in small towns with a little heart woven in? Tell me your favorites in the comments. I'm always looking for the next great read.