Z is for Zen World

The Paisley series is something I am very passionate about and it many times is my little Zen World. There is nothing better in this world than escaping to some place where everything is calm, good and right, The Eternals is that place for me.

I started thinking her life back in 2009 after I wrote that first short story about her purple flames. Somewhere along the way, I was sidetracked. I had to back pedal awhile until I got back on solid footing. Well, hopefully I am on solid footing these days with her, but only time will tell.

To me, my Paisley series represents many things, but above all, it represents the love of family and close friends. Many family members and close friends are mentioned with Paisley’s World, they bring me comfort in this world and my fantasy world.  

I do share some of my Paisley short stories with my oldest grand daughter who is almost nine. I plan to write each of the Paisley novels so people of all ages can read them and enjoy them as well. 

Y is for Yearning

The yearning for the man in the mirror is something that Paisley cannot deny. Sure, it might take her awhile to admit it to herself, but it is unmistakable.  To her Joe, the man in the mirror represents much more than a casual observer might see. He represents freedom in many forms; they are things that Paisley wishes for herself.

The crush that began with the boy in the mirror quickly goes full blown once she meets the mortal boy. The yearning for him goes unquenched for decades in the mortal world until she realizes that fate is ready to deliver a fatal blow. What she years for the most does take place, they share a night of unbridled passion that goes beyond her wildest dreams.

X is for Xenophobia

While Paisley does not have true Xenophobia, she does dislike the ogres, and other troublemakers who choose to live in the forbidden woods. She knows if she stays out of the forbidden woods she has less of a chance at dealing with them but sometimes temptation gets the best of her.

She also does not like the peasants who live outside the castle walls who do nothing all day but sit and drink the mead. Paisley would rather see all the peasants working together for the greater good. She does reward the peasants who follow her creed in hopes that the lazy ones will seek her good favor. 

W is for Wise

Until she has had enough of Milano’s crap and her fury is unleashed, she is docile about life.

Directly after her birth, our little princess is meek and when she falls gently into Milano’s arms, she accepts this new woman, even though she smells different from the others. Even when a new woman holds her close to the breast for nourishment, Paisley accepts it, even though the first woman’s milk is sweeter.

Within those first years, she learns not to be so submissive and she becomes wise beyond her years. Her anger is not only directed at Milano, who is her aunt, it is unleashed to all who do wrong. 

V is for Victory

Victory is hard-earned prize no matter the realm in which the battle is fought. Though the battles of Paisley are fought hard on either side of the portal, each teaches her lessons she will never forget. These are lessons everyone can learn from, no matter if they are immortal or mortal.

Victory is the success of any battle that one undertakes. One of the biggest battles she undertakes is her freedom from the Eternals. While she understands her father’s rules and tries to be the good princess, she silently plots  to win his approval for her portal jumps. When she finally succeeds, she remains solid and true to her heritage even though for the most part it is the hardest thing she will ever have to do. 

U is for Understanding

While Paisley may be a princess, she can still be brave, strong and quite calculating when it is called for. That is because she is understanding of her world. She understands that magic is not to be used lightly against others as it can have bad effects. Even in the Eternals Karma is a bus that plows one over.

Willard and Queen Milano both use magic against her often but she withholds the use of her brand of magic until it become necessary. When she does unleash her magic on the both of them, their lives are forever changed and their skills become obsolete. Once they both are harmless to her, she shows them off as prized possessions. 

T is for Trickster

In the mortal world, she does a little faux magic because the magic of the Eternals does not transfer to the mortal world. She loves the attention magic gets her in many situations. For instance in the Mortal world when she does her tarot card readings she tosses little duct tape packages into the fireplace to create purple flames.

As a child when Willard pushed her to far she made him levitate skyward to the tanglewood trees that grabbed him and held him prisoner. He deserved getting tangles up, you see he the prank he pulled on her shortly before she levitated him was simply the last straw for her. 

S is for Stubborn

Paisley is the youngest of seven kids, and everyone knows how the babies in the families are spoiled rotten. It is her way or the highway when she is a young child, and she pitches a royal fit when things do not go her way. Princess Paisley is stubborn to a fault and flat out refuses to wear anything but purple dresses as a child.

She will defend all that is right in her world, and uses magic to make things go the way she thinks they should go. She always has the greater good in mind when she uses her magic as a child.  

R is for being Royal and Rude People

Being a princess sometimes, bites as Paisley would tell you. All the fancy dresses she must wear to the endless royal balls in the realm leave her feeling as if she is always on display. She hates the pomp and circumstance that comes with them. She has been known to sneak away to visit with the servants in the kitchen during the fancy balls.

She cannot stand rude people such as the evil future king of Chrystal Cavern. He is the one she is to marry on the eve of her sixteenth year. When his family comes to visit her family at the castle keep, he plays evil tricks on her. Paisley loathes the boy and wishes gargoyles would carry him away to places unknown. Somehow or other, she will get out of that one come hell or high water. 

Q is for Quests

Princess Paisley loves to go on quests. Sometimes these quests have a purpose and sometimes they are simply aimless wanderings. When she is too young to go outside by herself or she is grounded to the castle she will explore it from top to bottom.

Most often, she tricks Cadence into joining her but occasionally Paisley explores by herself. It is on those solo jaunts that more often than not the princess needs to be rescued from danger. One time she tried to sneak up to see what evil Queen Milano was up too. She almost got eaten by the creatures that surround the evil queen’s castle. 

P is for Paisley’s Portal

Paisley discovers the portal to the mortal world when she is quite young. At first, it frightens the young princess, but when she catches her grandma coming for a visit she is eager to go on a visit herself. The men that guard the portal in the great room will not let her pass. No matter how much she tries to bribe them. As a teenager, she passes though the portal with permission.

Somewhere in her fifteenth year of life, she discovers yet another talent she was born with. She can make a portal in the royal garden simply by saying the magic words. Hot Dang now she is a portal jumping princess who can cross at will. 

O is for Obsessions

As the author of this Paisley series, I guess you could say her one huge obsession is her desire to get to the mortal world. I can see why she wants to get there, but that is because I wrote it. I will share with you why she wishes to get there.

You see dear readers; Grandma Ruth is in the mortal world. Paisley’s father King Timmons banished grandma to the mortal world years ago. Ruth can visit the Eternals but she cannot ‘live’ there. Paisley got very attached to her grandma in the few precious years before the banishment occurred. Also in the mortal world is that man in the mirror. 

N is for Naughty Princess

Paisley can be very naughty at times. One of her favorite things to do is to fly around the castle late at night while everyone is sleeping. Sometimes she stays in the castle but mostly she is outside floating in the courtyard. It was during one of those nightly flying sessions that she had her first sip of the royal mead.

There is nothing wrong with sipping mead when one is an adult but her first sip happened when she was just thirteen. Thirteen in the Eternals is much different from thirteen in the mortal world. In the Eternals, time moves so much slower. Besides that, one fateful night taught her lessons she will never forget.

M is for Momma, Marriage, and Mirror

Paisley loves her mother and father with a passion that cannot be denied. She does not always follow their rules or advice as she should but that is what a child does. 

She really dislikes the prearranged marriage and she slowly falls in love with the boy in the mirror. The other side of the mirror is in the mortal world, somewhere she is forbidden to go. As usual, she finds a way to side step her father’s wishes without breaking the rules.

When she meets the boy in the mirror, her fate is sealed. Her soul feels as if it belongs with Joe but with him being a mortal man, it is forbidden. She feels as if he is mister right, and decides to let life go on as it has forever. 

L for Longings

Paisley has longings like the rest of us. You would think as royalty she has the perfect life but that is far from the truth. Sometime shortly after her birth her father the king decided whom she should marry. Paisley hates her father’s choice but hates Willard even more. Willard pranks her every chance he gets.

When Paisley’s grandma is banished to the mortal world, Paisley is heartbroken. She wants nothing more than to go live with her grandma. When her grandma tells about the new world, when she visits it makes Paisley happy. The images Paisley sees in the magic mirror when she talks with her grandma makes her long for a visit. The mortal world has temptations that are simply too great for the young girl to dismiss. 

K is for Kia

Kia is Paisley’s very good friend. Kia is a purple dragon who lives with Max and Tucker in a cave under the big mountain. With the nose of a mortal bloodhound, Kia is able to follow the scent of residents of the Eternals who come among the missing. Along with her sniffing skills, she can use the powers of her mind to find out things that no one else knows.

When Paisley was kidnapped as a newborn, Kia followed her trail through the air. Then Kia used her mental skills to locate the princess in the evil queen Milano’s castle. The rescue began the lifelong friendship between the dragon and the princess. 

J is for Joyful

When things are going her way Paisley is joyful. When bad things suddenly turn around and begin to look positive she is filled with joy. Even she is much too young for words her joy is clear by the smile on her face.

You might figure out that she is not too much different from mortal girls in many ways. At times she dislikes being with her family, she dislikes being told what to do, and she hates it when mean little boys play pranks on her. Paisley willingly participates in family events when the mood strikes her. When she finds her joy, she is happy as a clam.

I is for Intelligence

Sure, my little princess gets in trouble and does things that may seem stupid to some, but she has the intelligence to get out of most situations without getting hurt. That is more than we can say of some people in the mortal realm.

When she has a dream about someone being trapped in a wall, she goes to the castle in her dreams. That has not to smart by any means. Some might even say it was an illegal entering or trespassing, but she was only five and did not know the laws of mortal man. She was intelligent enough to take someone with her and call for help when it was clearly needed.

 Drinking the mead when she was thirteen clearly was not a smart thing to do but saving the lives of the guards was the intelligent thing to do. Quick thinking got them saved, and fancy footwork will get her into the mortal realm. 

H is for Hostages

Queen Milano is an evil queen. One of her favorite thing is to take hostages for various reasons.

Poor Uncle Richard has been locked inside a wall for years. He could not have dug himself out or even crawled off if he had thought of a way. His ‘darling’ wife had made sure his head departed his body. She even swung the sword that did the deed, and laid the bricks that held his head hostage.

She even held her newborn niece as a hostage, simply because she could. As we found out a few posts ago, Kia, Max, and Tucker rescued Paisley. Paisley in turn rescued her uncle Richard with the help of Cadence, Kia, Tucker, and Ma. 

G is for Goblins

Goblins live in a distant part of Paisley’s kingdom but they venture into the small peasant towns surrounding the castles. They scare people and pillage whatever they wish, whenever they want. They are as thick as thieves are and better avoided if possible. Sometimes you cannot avoid them, as some of these goblins are shape shifters so they can become anything they wish.

Goblins and the Ogres both do their share of shape shifting and it never turns out good. Over the years as they have ‘mingled’ with humans, dragons, mice and every other creature in the realm, strange new breeds have been born. Some of these new types of creatures have the looks of one species but the personality of the other.

Max who is a friend of Paisley and Kia is one of these new types of creatures. His heritage includes an ogre and a mouse. He gets his looks from the mouse heritage but his temper, when it is out of control is very much the temper of an Ogre. 

F is for Friends and Family

Paisley has many friends with the kingdom, and that is because she is a good person. We have already talked about her sister Cadence and best friend Carissa but Paisley has other friends who make an appearance in this series. Joe who becomes a love interest in the mortal world is a special type of friend, a soul mate if you will. 

Paul and Snyder, two royal guards are based on friends of the author—Carissa is based on the same person Snyder is. Grandma Ruth from the Eternals and Jonas (from the mortal world) are based on the maternal grandparents of the author. There are many more characters based on online friends!

Paisley has a huge family. Her parents are Irena and Timmons, and they are loosely based on the author’s parents. The royal siblings include Tavon, Sage, Darcia, Laurel, Cadence, and Kayla who are based on Trace, Scott, Diana, Lori, Carmon, and Kim siblings of the author. 

E is for Eternals

The Eternals is a kingdom where peace reigns most of the time, but chaos happens once in a blue moon. The moon is blue in color except for the time when it gets that purplish hue. The fields are full of flowers of every type and color and fruit grows plentiful on the trees. The air is always clear, as are the lakes that dot the land.

Magic is the normal way of life for some in the Eternals, but there are plenty of people with no magic. There are no food shortages, and Queen Milano and her henchmen perpetuate the only crime that happens within the realm. 

D is for Dragons

The realm of the Eternals is full of dragons, but there is no finer dragon than Kia. Kia is a purple dragon who is kind to those people she likes. She is also the seventh born of Magna who is the seventh born. 

Paisley and Kia strike up a friendship early in Paisley’s life, when the mighty dragon rescues the newborn princess. Kia also helps to keep the goblins, ogres and other ‘bad creatures’, in line. Kia is the champion of good things and stomps evil beneath her giant foot.

The skies on the realm are full of dragons that soar among the puffy white clouds. Sometimes the dragons are so plentiful they block out the two suns. 

C is for Cadence and Carissa

Cadence is one of Paisley’s older sisters. Being that Cadence is just three years older, the two grow up together. The girls share many talents, such as being able to turn themselves invisible, flight clairvoyance and a few more they will discover as they grow.

Paisley finds the trouble and talks Cadence into going with her. More often than not, the girls find more trouble than they bargain for.

Carissa is a princess from the neighboring Red Cat kingdom. She is the same age as Paisley and the two princesses’ strike up a friendship during the royal gatherings. Paisley enjoys going to Carissa’s kingdom to gaze upon the felines, cows, and other animals that are reddish in nature. 

B is for Brightness

When Paisley was born, she brought the light to her kingdom. That which was once dark and filled with gloom slowly grew lighter.

Those who did evil magic or sacrificed the innocent were rendered incapable of such things. Except for Paisley’s aunt Milano who was one of the most evil queens, the land had ever now. Milano wanted Paisley’s magic from the very start by kidnapping the princess and hiding her away in the gloomy castle. The dynamite trio of Kia, Max, and Tucker saved the day.

She is the chosen one, the one the Elders had talked about for generations. She is also the seventh born of the seventh born which adds even more magic to the mix. In other words, she is not your typical princess. 

A is for Assembling of Paisley Short Stories

I have created a series of short stories about Paisley from the Eternals who is happy go lucky princess. She is the seventh born of the seventh born which brings many things according to the legend.

When she is born life changes within the realm she is born, as well as the world where the humans live. Chaos ensues for some but for others their lives in the realm settles down finally.

Some inhabitants of the realm get magic skills that change the realm in unexpected ways. When those inhabitants of Paisley’s realm cross through the newly opened portals into the human worlds everything changes for everyone.

The first Paisley story I wrote was for a contest in a writer’s group I belonged to back in 2009. It was titled ‘Paisley’s Purple Flames’, and was about an old white witch who made a bit of magic in the human world. Little did I know when I began that short story that it would spur a whole bunch of short stories that I consider glimpses into her life.

When I began writing with the Circle 8 Writer’s group, my Paisley Stories became a staple with the third book published in December 2010. Paisley finally seen the light of day and she began amassing fans and she continues to gather fans with each passing story.  

Promoting to Friends on Facebook

If you are friends with me on Facebook you might notice that I do not promote my books on my personal page except in very rare cases. I promote them more often on my author page but still not as much as some think I should. The reason I do not promote my books more on any page on Facebook is that it is somewhat pointless. You see all my friends know I write the Paisley series. If they are interested in a story, they will go purchase it or ask me about it. 

Paisley's Purple Flames became The Sacrifice

The first Paisley Story I wrote was “Paisley’s Purple Flames’. It was written back in the summer of 2009 as a contest entry. It told the story of an old white witch and the mortal man she loved. It was my first attempt at a contest and I was crushed when it did not even place. It was the grammar and other technical issues rather not the plot that pushed my story into the void.

It was changed and edited before it was accepted as a short story in the “Roses and Thorns’ short story anthology for the Circle 8 writers Group. It was actually the second short story of the Paisley series to be published.

In 2012 I self published it as the middle part of a 3-story series about Paisley over on Smashwords. All three of these are setting in a period when she is elderly. 

They are among my favorite parts of the series as they show the real Princess Paisley of the Eternals. The love between her and the mortal man is clearly visible, yet she knows it is taboo to act upon that love. Such as dilemma for sure, it is like having a piece of a rich chocolate cake in front of you and not being able to touch it. 

The Paisley Short Story Series

I published a series of Paisley of the Eternals short stories through the Circle 8 Writers group with hopes of assembling them into a novel. However, I am struggling to piece together so many different stories into some form of novel type book.

The short stories cover different periods of her life starting with her birth, childhood, teen years, and elderly years in the mortal realm. The only thing they have in common is they are about a sometimes confused but good hearted Princess. These shorts are action packed glimpses into her life as she seen it then.

To expand each short story into a novella would require lots of re-writing and this is something I do not wish to do, as the short stories are priceless. A novel moves as a much slower pace than a typical short story that tells the action within a short span of time.

Therefore, here is what I have decided. I am going to leave the short stories intact and matter of fact they are published already. All these short stories will help to build up the anticipation for the novels when they do in fact come out. The novels will go into detail about different events that make our favorite Princess who she is. 

Paisley's Birth | Paisley and the head of Prince Richard| The Curse of Queen Milano | Paisley's Choice | The Gift | The Sacrifice | A Paisley Christmas 

Princess Paisley Blog Welcome to All

Welcome to the Princess Paisley blog. I am the author of The Paisley of the Eternals series of short stories. This is a fantasy series with some supernatural elements tossed in. Most of the stories are pg-13 with the exception of one story, but I will discuss that later.

Folks who have grown to love the series can find information about when the series will be updated and learn about new characters as they emerge. The published short stories that show glimpses into her life are being assembled and her series started.

I am also gearing up for the A to Z challenge April 1, 2013. I plan a whole month of updates covering all sorts of things related to Princess Paisley. It should be a lot of fun for everyone.