Melanie Dickerson, New York Times Bestselling Romance Author

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Melanie Dickerson

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt, Stop #27

  • THE SCAVENGER HUNT HAS ENDED. But please feel free to read the post!
  • Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes! 
  • The hunt BEGINS on 3/14 at noon MST with Stop #1 at Lisa Tawn Bergren’s blog.
  • Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
  • There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/17 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
  • Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors (including me!) are offering additional prizes along the way! Keep reading to find out how to enter.

Melanie Dickerson here!

I write romantic stories that go perfectly with a hot cup of tea–or coffee if you prefer–and I hope you will look around here on my site and find your next lovely romance story. And please check out my giveaway at the bottom of this post. You can get yourself entered 5 times by signing up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page and following me on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on Amazon and BookBub. So that’s 5 chances to win one of my books.

My latest is Lady of Disguise. Here’s a little bit about it:

Lady of Disguise by Melanie DickersonOnly the hidden treasure will allow Louisa and her sister to gain their freedom.

England, 1388: All her life, Louisa has dreamed of finding the rumored “Giant’s Treasure,” a collection of ancient, lost riches said to be hidden on a mountaintop in Scotland, guarded by a fierce monster. It’s a story her father used to tell her, and when he dies and she and her younger sister have to go live with their shiftless, greedy uncle, he starts to parade Louisa’s twelve-year-old sister Margaret in front of potential husbands. Louisa realizes she has no time to waste. She disguises herself as a boy and takes off for Scotland. But the road is a harsher place than she’d imagined, and she is relieved to find a friend in the knight, Sir Charles, who goes along, pretending to believe she is a boy, in order to make sure nothing bad happens to her. As they meet new friends along the road, and as Louisa comes clean about her identity, the pair find themselves falling in love. But what will happen when they reach Scotland? Will they find their independence and the freedom to marry?

In this Jack and the Beanstalk retelling, Louisa is the “Jack” character. Which is part of . . .

The Challenge of Writing a Fairy tale Retelling

I love writing realistic romance stories, and it’s always a challenge to write a fairytale retelling and make the fairytale elements realistic.

Lady of Disguise is a Jack and the Beanstalk story, and the challenge was to include the elements of this magical tale in a realistic story set in Medieval times.

In past books, I’ve taken the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and made him a medieval lord who was disfigured in a wolf attack as a teenager. I had my Sleeping Beauty fall asleep, not from a magic spell and a finger prick on a spindle, but from a sleeping potion made from herbs. So, how would I do a realistic Jack and the Beanstalk story?

My hero, Sir Charles, who was a sibling of the other heroes and one heroine from the Dericott Tales, couldn’t be the Jack character. Jack had to be poor and desperate enough to go after a treasure. So I made my heroine Louisa the Jack character. But to do so, I had to have her disguise herself as a boy named Jack, since it would look suspicious for a young woman to travel alone, and her uncle would be looking for her.

Next, I mulled over having some kind of beanstalk to climb, but decided to go with a mountain instead. And since the only mountains are in Scotland, the treasure would be hidden at the top of a mountain close to the English/Scottish border.

I also created the treasure and the giant guarding it based on research and real people, but I don’t want to give too much away. I have gotten some really good feedback on those, with people telling me one of their favorite parts of the story was the “giant.”

I’m still writing romance, but in the future the heroines and heroes will be slightly older and more mature. I do hope you will all come with me on my next romantic adventure! Details coming soon!

If you’re interested, you can order Lady of Disguise on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com or at your local bookstore!

Here’s the Stop #27 Basics:

Clue to Write Down for Stop #27 is: better

Link to Stop #28, the Next Stop on the Loop: Nicole Miller’s site!

***
But wait! Before you go, I’m giving away three copies of Lady of Disguise and one copy of my Regency romantic suspense, A Perilous Plan. (If you’re international, I will gift you an e-book.) All you have to do is sign up to get my newsletter using the form below or note that you’re already a subscriber. Additional points for those who follow me as an author on Amazon or BookBub or Facebook or Instagram! Let me know in the comments below which ones you signed up for and a way to contact you. NOTE: THE SCAVENGER HUNT HAS ENDED AS OF MIDNIGHT ON THE 17TH. THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING.

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