Wisdom's Kiss (86 page)

Of all her odious sentiments, I most love her description of how she used to command her husband to dominate her as a real man should. Say what? I also adore her affront at being perceived an incompetent
murderess
: is it the label of murderer or of incompetent that insults her? If I were feeling generous, I'd argue that Wilhelmina is a victim of her culture's horrible sexism. She's clearly smart, hard working, and highly motivated, yet she's been taught that only men can be these things. So she has to find men to carry out her ambitions, and she ends up destroying them and then hating them for their weakness.
>
Small wonder she loves that dog: it's the only male in her life who stands up to her.
>

Speaking of which, readers familiar with my fairy tale
Princess Ben
may have noted the passing reference to Wilhelmina's father,
Edwig
; he was also the blockhead responsible for
renaming Phraugheloch
. Edwig, Baron of Farina, has a slightly larger but far more memorable role in
Princess Ben
as one of Ben's early and more ham-fisted suitors. What Wilhelmina thought of such a man I can't imagine, but he couldn't possibly have helped her moral or emotional development.
>

My reference to "
the willies
," by the way, was complete serendipity. I'd established her name long before and was simply pondering how to illustrate her horrible legacy. This is a rare modern word to make it into
Wisdom's Kiss,
a bit of American slang first recorded in the 1890s, and of of unknown origin. It bears no relation to evil fictitious
dowagers
.
>

More Commentary on Characters
>

Author's commentary on Benevolence, Queen Mother of Montagne, and Florian, her consort
>

Ben shouldn't require much commentary seeing as she already has her own whole
book
. As I was writing
Princess Ben
—the narrator being Ben as an old woman reflecting on her life—I kept wondering what this elderly queen was like and thinking how much fun it would be to meet her. At the same time, I wanted to write a teen love triangle told from three points of view. The three POV, however, would leave huge gaps in my narrative—the
Tips-is-amazing problem
, for example. I already had in mind a scene involving food poisoning, but who should tell it? Certainly not the princess—not accurately, anyway. Trudy was the most reliable narrator of the three, but she couldn't describe scenes for which she was not present, such as Dizzy's first encounter with the acrobat or Dizzy's magic or Dizzy's wedding. A play (actually a
screenplay
; that's a different story) would solve some of this, and an encyclopedia could provide a wealth of important detail, but I needed another set of eyes—someone as reliable as Trudy to provide a blow-by-blow description...
I needed Ben
.

I'd always liked the idea of Ben as a grandmother, and I'd often wondered whether her magic passed down to her offspring.
>
I even had a whole family tree worked out. And what of the world beyond the borders of Montagne? How fascinating it would be if Ben, now
queen mother
, left her kingdom—left it to escort her granddaughter to her wedding.

Plus—and this is the extraspecial bonus—I could keep Ben a surprise. This is why I'm so emphatic that
Wisdom's Kiss
is not a sequel to
Princess Ben:
labelling it so immediately raises the issue that one of the narrators is Ben. And that, people, would completely ruin the delicious revelation that comes, thirty pages into the book, when you realize that this ancient, quirky grandmother is none other than our princess all grown up.

Well, okay; it will only be a surprise if you've read
Princess Ben.
A surprising number of people have, however. Maybe this scheme won't work, but if I can give just one reader that thrill ... O joy. O blessed joy.

"A consequence of
Princess Ben'
>
The
virtue
of Benevolence

A note on Florian:

Readers of
Princess Ben
may also catch a passing reference to Ben's late husband Florian. While she speaks of him lovingly within the pages of
Wisdom's Kiss,
she spent most of the earlier book hating his guts. This isn't to say that the guys you hate today you'll marry tomorrow—not a good dating strategy, that one—but it did give me a chuckle, as I wrote her doting reminiscences, to recall some of her original feelings about the man.

More Commentary on Characters
>

Author's commentary on Lady Modesty and Lady Patience, also known as Mrs. Sprat and Jack Sprat
>