Blog Tour: The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland

The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland by Joe Cosentino
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press; 1 edition (January 27, 2016)
Amazon Kindle: The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland

Blurb: Cinder, a poor and beautiful young man who designs clothing, makeup, and hair for his stepmother and stepsisters, offers his clothing and slippers to a naked stranger in the woods, who turns out to be none other than Prince Charming. Follow Cinder and Prince Charming in this twist on the classic Cinderella tale as they discover their inner strengths and find their very own happily ever after.

Enjoy The Naked Prince and three other reimagined tales from Fairyland, each with a unique spin on stories we all know and love, including The Golden Rule, where eighteen-year-old Gideon Golden, after being thrown out of his home in Fairyland by his homophobic parents, breaks into the cottage of three burly men on Bear Mountain.

In Whatever Happened To…?, friction ensues between a celebrity with a growing appendage and a reporter who has a thing for giants.

And in Ice Cold, young Gaelen must save his love, Kieran, after a handsome but evil prince freezes Kieran’s heart and bewitches him into being the prince’s slave.

( Excerpts from THE NAKED PRINCE AND OTHER TALES FROM FAIRYLAND By Joe Cosentino, published by Dreamspinner Press )

About the Author: Like so many people in our community, I’ve always loved fairytales. (No pun intended) You can’t beat a story about a girl who lives with seven dwarves, a boy who won’t grow up, a frog who is really a prince, or an emperor who is convinced his birthday suit is chic beyond belief. As a kid, my older sister read me fairytales in bed each night before sleep. Once I learned to read, I read them myself, continuing long after everyone had fallen asleep. I was entranced by the beautiful stories of peasants becoming princes and princesses and finding true love. I wanted to live in those palaces, meet the charming princes, and bring financial equality to those kingdoms. Later as an adult I wrote musical plays for professional theatre companies mostly based on fairytales like Princess and the Pea, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Aladdin, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. More recently I read them again and was saddened to see, as in the movies based on fairytales, no openly gay characters in any of them! I asked myself, ‘Why aren’t there any gay people in fairyland? Why couldn’t a peasant boy fall in love with a prince? Wouldn’t a tired, hungry, homeless blond boy seek refuge in a house with three bears? What was Pinocchio’s growing appendage trying to tell him? Did Jack enjoy his time with the Giant more than he let on? Could the Snow Queen be a handsome, frigid prince?’

Having written three successful novellas published by Dreamspinner Press, I knew it was time to write a fourth. Unlike my three contemporary romances (AN INFATUATION—Divine Magazine Readers’ Poll Award for 2nd Place Favorite MM Novel of 2015, A SHOOTING STAR, A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS), this one would be a fantasy featuring my favorite fairytales turned into rainbows. So I wrote four humorous, romantic, adventurous, touching, and magically gay tales from Fairyland. “The Naked Prince” is a different take on the Cinderella story. Cinder, a poor and beautiful young man who designs clothing, makeup, and hair for his stepmother and stepsisters, offers his clothing and slippers to a naked stranger in the woods who turns out to be none other than Prince Charming. Will Cinder and Prince Charming confront their manipulative mothers, bring equality to the kingdom, find themselves, and find one another? In “The Golden Rule,” when he is caught with nimble Jack, eighteen-year-old Gideon Golden is thrown out of his home in Fairyland by his homophobic parents. With nowhere else to go, he breaks into the home of three men living on Bear Mountain. Bo and Butch enjoy having a young roommate, but Ben isn’t convinced. Will Gideon and Ben make vinegar or honey? “Whatever Happened To … ?” takes place on Christmas Eve. A reporter living on Andersen Lane interviews a celebrity for the Queen Newspaper series, “What Ever Happened To … .” Friction ensues between the celebrity with the growing appendage who can’t tell fact from fiction, and the reporter who has a thing for giants. Eventually a romantic spark is lit between the two as Christmas Day arrives, and they realize they have more in common than living in Fairyland. Finally in “Ice Cold,” after losing their families during the great ice storm in the northernmost kingdom of Fairyland, young Gaelen and Kieran pledged their love for one another. When Isidore rides into Frost Village on his elaborate sleigh, Kieran follows the handsome prince to his castle in Arctic Kingdom, where Kieran becomes Isidore’s bewitched slave. This leads Gaelen on an amazing adventure to find his true love and melt his frozen heart.

I hope everyone reads these amazing tales. They will no doubt bring you back to the fun and fantasy of your youth!