The Prince Charming Hoax by Shelley Lieber
I can’t remember when books were not part of my life. It probably began with the children’s stories my mother read to me. One glorious day, my father brought home a book for me to read by myself. It was a first-grade reading primer and I can’t imagine where he got it, but I still have the well-worn hardcover on my bookshelf! From that day on I was addicted to reading, and I have no intention of trying to break the habit. Since graduating from college, my career has been rooted in some area related to books and communication: I’ve held positions in book publishing, magazine publishing, marketing and public relations as an editor, writer, author, publisher, marketing director, publicity agent, consultant and author advocate. You may know me as Shelley Lieber, The Wordy Woman, author and publishing consultant. In that persona I wrote 4Ps to Publishing Success and Publishing Made Easy & Profitable; created the VIP Authors writers community; and founded Visual Impressions Publishing, a publishing vehicle for independent authors. But there’s another protagonist in this story. About ten years ago I was transitioning from life as a wife, writer and mother to single, writing mother, headed toward being an empty nester in a second marriage and new career. A few years later, I was writing Sex in the Suburbs, a nonfiction book about my midlife experiences re-entering the dating world when the story abruptly morphed into fiction. You’ve probably heard authors talk about characters having lives and minds of their own. That’s exactly what happened to me. I had interviewed dozens of women for dating and relationship stories to use in Sex in the Suburbs. One day as I struggled with the structure and organization of the book, the interviews suddenly merged into the life stories of two characters, Leah Gold and Roxanne Stein: two friends with contrasting personalities and a shared propensity for choosing Mr. Wrong. Their story became The Prince Charming Hoax, my debut novel. I use my pen name, Elyse Grant, for fiction because truly the inspiration for storytelling comes from a source inside myself that is not a person I’ve yet shown the world. The Prince Charming Hoax, a sizzling hot story of self-growth and empowerment, was almost seven years in the making. While in the final editing stage and preparing for the release of the ebook, it