Princess Claudia and her Suitors

About the Book

Princess Claudia has reached the age when she must begin seeing suitors. But why? She already has an enviable life. So lovely that her father, the king, insists that she wear a veil, she has a young guard to protect her, a tree house to live in, a moat to swim in—warmed by the breath of a sea serpent, and her work as a talented weaver of tapestries based on history and mythology. Her first suitor is a knight in shining armor who rescues a damsel in distress but fails spectacularly to perform the assigned task: to bring Claudia a veil that doesn’t flap over her face when she swims. The second suitor, learned and pompous, plans to perform surgery that will give her gills. Both of these men vanish when they swim too close to the sea serpent that lives outside the moat. The third suitor, Otto, is a wealthy swan that the king plays golf with. Finding Otto repulsive, Claudia at last succeeds in making her own choices and finding her own path.

Sixteen footnotes, most of them funny, explain the historical and literary allusions that figure in Claudia’s tapestry bikinis.

Although Princess Claudia claims to be a “cautionary tale for young women in love”, it is intended to delight readers of both sexes and all ages. The tales of Sir Percival and the Holy Grail, Cupid and Psyche, and Persephone and Hades, retold with humor in three appendices, will appeal to those who enjoy mythology.

About the Author

Marcia Lewton is the author of a novel, Hello Gorgeous!, and a collection of short stories, The Real World and The Other Real World, both published by Trafford Press, as well as an instructional memoir, Central Ink ‰*Ò A Soul's Quest through Dream Work and Art, which includes stories, poems, and pictures related to the dream work she did when recovering from a series of traumatic events. Central Ink is a Trafford Press book as well. Writing as Marcia Blumenthal, she has published stories and poems in many literary magazines and collections and is the author of a poetry chapbook, In the Heart of Town, Still Digging, published by Barnwood Press. Marcia Lewton lives in Port Townsend, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, where she is working on another novel.