Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 243: Volume 2: Author’s Notes

Congratulations, my dear readers - you made it! You have finished reading Volume 1 of Earning The Love of a Princess.

Thank you for the great support throughout the 200+ Chapters. I have appreciated every like, every comment, emoji, golden ticket and power stone received. This is the first story I’ve ever written and it has been a labour of love (and a very steep learning curve). I look back at the first Chapters I wrote with a fair amount of cringe.

I’d like to think my writing ability has improved as the story has evolved. Even if only a few people read my book, I’m proud of myself for having committed to writing it. Some Chapters were so easy, others were nothing but labour and I agonised over them. Let me tell you, it’s a hard thing writing when you don’t know what direction your plot will take.

So thank you, again for your support and kindness. It has motivated me throughout these last 6 months, when I felt like throwing in the towel so often. When I’d see stories that were really badly translated (or just boring) getting showered with views and I was getting no traction. I’m still proud of my efforts.

I hope you enjoyed Camilla’s story arc as she strove to find home and happiness. I tried to make her a realistic heroine - a good person, but terribly naive and ignorant. I didn’t see the point in writing about a girl who already had all the answers and knew everything.

It wasn’t her fault she was so blind sometimes. Medieval times didn’t exactly encourage great learning for women. Even for those who were allowed to become relatively educated (at least Camilla wasn’t left illiterate), she would’ve still led a closeted and sheltered life, especially as a princess. She was never prepared for life without the protection of a strong man because women weren’t allowed to live that way. Women were kept ignorant and dependent for a reason.

I also tried to make her evolving relationship with William realistic - slow and awkward and with some dark humour thrown in. No matter their royal ranks, these were two teenagers trying to find love, yet not knowing how to go about it at all.

Plus let’s be honest, William was a bit of a useless, arrogant dooshbag at the beginning. Again, he was constrained by the beliefs and expectations of his time, as well as his family life. He also had some less than desirable role models around him.

William had to redeem himself and stop being so self centred. I did try to make him funny in his attempts to better himself though.

The guy tried, at least. He tried and failed a lot, said a lot of stupid stuff. But he got there in the end and learned to think about others beside himself.

Love stories are a bit goofy sometimes and sometimes that’s ok. No one can nail romance perfectly.

- - -

Volume 2 is the story of another female in the Kingdom of Islia - Princess Violet, wife of King Edward Devon’s eldest son Leo.

Violet has been mentioned a few times before in passing during Volume 1, but all you know at this point is that she’s a snobby, sharp tempered peacock who doesn’t like Camilla very much and who will one day be Queen of Islia. Not much depth there, right?

As you dive into her story however, you’ll learn about the events that shaped her to become who she is. You may not agree with her actions or her reasons. You may not even like her.

I didn’t write Violet to be a very likeable person. It was actually good fun writing her story because it forced me to think in a very different way and have her doing things I’d never be reckless or ruthless enough to do.

In the end, not everyone can be a hero or a heroine. Not everyone can have a happy ending to their story. Some characters are going to be messy and complicated, some won’t redeem themselves. Some people just aren’t likeable and don’t even care that they’re not likeable. That’s life sometimes.

Having written about Camilla, I wanted Violet’s tale to focus on a completely different type of woman, more of an anti heroine. But there are parallels in the two stories.

Violet was also once a young girl, as powerless and confused as Camilla was. Both girls’ lives were dominated by the men around them, both had their own fears and insecurities.

Both girls tried to fight back and find happiness on their own terms, yet ended up married into the same family and with very different end results.

Their definitions of happiness were also quite different. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Then again, I hope you’ll find that Violet isn’t a terrible person through and through either. Human beings are very rarely pure black or white in terms of their actions. We all tend to sit within various shades of grey. Good people do awful things all the time. People we might consider ’bad’ have a vulnerable side and can be capable of kindness.

We all do things in the spur of the moment that make us want to kick ourselves afterwards. And we all have to live the consequences of our actions, sometimes they’re lifelong consequences.

So I hope you enjoy Volume 2 for completely different reasons to Volume 1. I hope this side story also makes you question a few of the supporting characters as you get to know them a little more. Again, you may not like them but I hope you’ll find their journeys interesting.

Please keep sending me your comments and feedback. If a character does something you hate or didn’t expect, tell me! If you like a plot twist (or think it was too obvious), again I want to know. Your opinions are what make me a better writer.

So Chapter 1 of Violet’s story is waiting for you now - jump right in.

xx

Gabby