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NAOMI STONE: Tales of True Love's Enchantments
Granted Wishes
Tales from the Files of the Fairy Godmothers' Union
Granted Wishes - a collection of eight modern fairy tale romance stories, including the three tales from Three Wishes
Sometimes True Love needs a little help. That's where the Fairy Godmothers' Union, True Love Local steps in. 'Three Wishes' tells three loosely related stories in which the fairy godmothers help unite three couples to fulfill their destinies together.
In Every Day an Hour is the story of Jordan and Renata, who were divided by misunderstanding before they ever had the chance to get started together. It takes a dose of magic to dispel the misunderstandings and give love its chance.
In Happy to be Stuck With You it takes a fairy godmother's interference to get practical security-expert Craig and New Age mystic Amy together in one place long enough to see past their differences.
In Your Dreams' calls on the fairy godmothers to free Linda from the enchantment that has kept her from being her true self and letting Tony, the man she secretly loves, see the true beauty within her.
Plus: All four stories from More Wishes and
Faire Play, Originally published as part of the Anthology 'Festivals of Love' by the Midwest Fiction Writers Chapter of Romance Writers of America. In her Renaissance Festival role as Lady Marlinda, Marly meets the roguish Laszlo, 'a troubadour of ill-repute,' and wonders how much of his flirtatious role is true to Miklos, the man behind it. Hiring a pair of faire urchins to pretend to be his nieces - just to impress Marly that he's in truth a family man - does not really help Mikos' cause, but Marlinda's fairy godmother gave her a magic ring and it too has a part to play.
Reviewers on Amazon say:
'A lovely collection of very real-emotion romance stories with a light touch of whimsical magic'
'Perfect when you need to renew your faith that someone is looking out for your love life. More, please?
' If you loved fairy tales as a child and , like me, always wanted a fairy godmother, you must read this collection. Three Wishes was just a delight!'
' The tales in "Three Wishes" are gentle, fun, and happily-ever-after all the way.'
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READ AN EXCERPT:
In Every Day an Hour
from the files of the Fairy Godmothers’ Union, True Love Local
Six year-old Renata Spalding didn’t realize that this would be the last time she saw her fairy godmother. The meadow simmered with the songs of crickets and stirred with the bobbing dance of daisies and sunlit grasses in the green-scented breeze. The high whine of a cicada sounded from the windbreak standing in the way of any view of the lake. Renata lounged in the meadow grass as easily as if it were the living room rug at home –never minding what her mother might say about grass stains and wood ticks. The meadow seemed like a larger, wilder kind of room in a larger, wilder home than her own whenever she was with her godmother.
“What is it, Gomamma?” she asked the white haired woman who sat, more properly, above her on a stump near the overarching maple at the edge of the meadow.
“I think you’re old enough to say,‘Godmother’ now, Rennie. Or even, ‘Arabella,’ which is my name, you know.” Her tone might have seemed stern if not for its warmth.
“But you’ve always been‘Gomamma.’ It would be like talking to someone else if I called you different.” Pleased with her logic, Renata smiled up, basking in her godmother’s warmth.
Arabella laughed. “Well, I probably won’t be seeing you again,
so there’s no point in changing it now.”
“Why won’t I see you again?” A cloud crossed the
summer warmth in which Renata had felt so at ease.
“Oh, my dear child. People are always leaving this world – everyone does it one day or another, and I must be going sometime soon.”
“But I don’t want you to go!” The cloud grew darker. Her small hands gripped a withered one that felt as sturdy as anytree root and surely would not easily let go of the world?
“Don’t fret. There, there, now.” Her godmother patted the child’s hands. “I have a goodbye present for you – weren’t you just asking what it was?”Arabella’s tone was as warm as ever, reassuring in its calm strength.
“I didn’t know it meant goodbye. I don’t need one. You
should stay.” Renata still clung to her godmother’s hand.
“Oh, but this is a magic present, and you haven’t seen
it yet.” Arabella’s eyes twinkled.
Renata paused at that. “Like the magic tadpole you showed me, that turned into a frog? Or the caterpillar that turned into a Monarch butterfly? I saw those on TV, too. It doesn’t seem like real magic if it’s on TV.”
“I think you’ll like this magic better. It will give you a wish.”
Renata straightened at that, releasing Arabella’s hand at last. “A wish?”
“Just one, and the timing must be right. It must come straight from your heart.” Arabella pulled something shiny from a pocket in the long, many-pocketed, flowered vest she wore over a short-sleeved shirt and sturdy beige trousers. She let it slip between her fingers, revealing a shiny blue stone hanging from a shimmering golden chain.
“Ooo.” Renata reached out to touch the stone,so like a chunk of the sky, ringed in its golden setting. “Only one wish?”
“Yes, greedy thing.” Her godmother laughed at her again. “One wish in every day – but there’s only one hour in the day when it will work, and you never know which hour it will be.It’s not always the same hour, so don’t think you can figure it out – and, as I said, the wish must come from your heart.”
“Why is magic always so tricky?”
“It’s only tricky when you look at it from the outside – just as trying to describe how your feet work is harder than simply walking from here to there.”
“Hmm.” Renata held out her hand, accepting the stone as it
dropped from her godmother’s fingers. “Thank you.” Renata
looked up again, studying Gomamma’s lined face, her heart filled with a
mix of wonder, gladness and regret.
“Am I forgiven, then, for going away?” Arabella rose to her
feet in stages, at first bent, with hands on knees, then straightening slowly,
with a sigh.
“Yes. But I’m still sad.”
“So am I,” Arabella confessed, “but that’s part of the magic.”
When Renata returned to the rental cabin where the family summered, her mother asked where she’d been so long. “I was starting to worry.”
“Just out on the meadow.” Renata drooped where she stood. “My fairy godmother is going away. I won’t see her anymore.”
“I’m sorry, honey,” her mother said aloud. Under her breath she muttered, ‘about time.’ “Jennifer and George are down by the beach. Why don’t you go play with them?”
* * * * *
Twenty three years later...
Jordan Colfax took his place at the conference room table on the twenty-first floor and Renata Spalding kept her eyes deliberately elsewhere. She studied the scrawled notes on the legal pad before her, then let her gaze wander to the view beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking downtown Minneapolis and a lovely skyscape of strato-cumulous clouds in the crisp blue of the December sky.
Better to look anywhere else than to catch the scornful glint in Jordan – Mister Colfax’s – eyes when he happened to glance her way. Better to avoid looking anywhere in his general direction – despite the intrinsic pleasure of seeing him. His strong features aligned around knowing eyes beneath the stern dark brows and thick head of dark hair as he bent over a sheaf of notes. It spoke well of his tailor that those broad shoulders fit so neatly beneath his suit jacket as he took his usual casual pose, top shirt button open, paisley silk tie loosened, as at ease in his high-backed leather swivel chair as a lion surveying its pride. He’d be perfect, if only he weren’t such a huge jerk.
~*~
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