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I am so pleased to have Laurie Lucking joining us today, her A Noble Purpose has just been released today and is a #1 release on Amazon!
About Laurie | Laurie Lucking has always loved diving into imaginary worlds through books, but didn’t start writing her own stories until she left her career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom. After growing up in Wisconsin, she hopped the border into Minnesota to attend St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota Law School, and she continues to make Minnesota her home with her husband and two young sons. When she gets a break from playing super heroes and driving wind-up cars, Laurie enjoys reading, singing, connecting with other moms, and writing young adult fantasy, always with a central love story to satisfy her inner romantic.
Visit www.laurielucking.com to find out more.
Making the Princess Laugh in A Noble Purpose
Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh is a Norwegian fairy tale by Peter Christen Abjornsen. In this quirky little tale, the king declares that any man who can make his unsmiling daughter laugh will get to marry her and inherit half the kingdom. A set of three brothers take on the king’s challenge, but the two older brothers’ more conventional methods of attempting to make the princess laugh fail.
The heart and humor in Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh comes from the unique strategy of the youngest brother, Hans. After finding a large fish, Hans trades it with an old woman for a fine goose. The woman tells him anything that touches the goose will stick if he says the words, “If you’ll come along, then hang on.” Using this magical phrase, Hans first gets an old woman stuck to the goose when she pets it. Then a man who tries to kick the old woman gets stuck, followed by a smith carrying a large tongs and a cook with a ladle. When this odd procession, pursued by a barking dog, passes by the princess, she bursts out laughing and ends up married to Hans.
When writing A Noble Purpose, my Christian fantasy retelling of Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh, one of my biggest challenges was how my Hans character (named Sir Jonas) could make the princess laugh in a way that did justice to the original tale while fitting within my non-magical storyworld. I won’t share about it in detail to avoid spoilers, but here are some connections to the original fairy tale to look for when you get to the scene in A Noble Purpose where Sir Jonas attempts to make the princess laugh:
A goose people want to pet
A fish in a bucket
A barking dog
An oversized tongs
A cook
An increasingly silly accumulation of items / animals / events
Based on the feedback of early readers, I’m thrilled to say that my approach seemed to work! This scene has been listed as a favorite more often than any other, and the character of Hans / Sir Jonas earned a place in many reviewers’ hearts. I can’t wait to put a smile on more readers’ faces as A Noble Purpose launches a fresh new contest to make a princess laugh!
About A Noble Purpose | To help her miserable sister, Princess Liesel must survive the elements, danger…and her grumpy guard.
Princess Liesel’s older sister, Verena, hasn’t smiled in years. Desperate to improve her low spirits, the king declares that the man who can make Verena laugh will earn her hand in marriage.
But his plan seems doomed to failure from the start. Each unsuccessful attempt only makes Verena more despondent, and a set of mysterious masked suitors raises suspicions about a plot by an enemy prince. When Liesel discovers her sister still harbors feelings for a guard who was sent away years before, she embarks on a desperate quest to find him, both for the sake of Verena’s future happiness and their kingdom’s safety.
As increasingly dangerous challenges hinder Liesel’s journey, she begins to wonder if they’re more than coincidence. Will she and her travel companions even make it to Verena’s former guard, let alone convince him to return with them?
With each impediment drawing her closer to her own surly knight, more than just her sister’s happily-ever-after may be hanging in the balance.
A Noble Purpose is a New Adult Christian fantasy Hans, Who Made the Princess Laugh retelling and is Book #1 in the Cornerstone Series. Each book can be read as a standalone.
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