The Fairy Godmother's Apprentice

Greetings faithful followers! I am Tahlia, the new keeper of The Blog *bows*.

Fairy Godmother Kate has handed me the keys to this beautiful kingdom and given me the illustrious task of feeding the royal toads and keeping all the diamonds polished. Since I'm just a humble apprentice, chances are pretty good that you've never heard of me before, so here's a bit of my history:

I was born and raised in upstate New York, homeschooled until 6th grade, and then put in a private school through graduation. I then went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. My first encounter with Diamonds and Toads came the summer after my sophomore year.

Although I'd been writing since I was fourteen, it wasn't until that summer (2009) I decided to see if I could actually publish any of my stories...although saying "stories" might have been a stretch since I only had one I felt was any good. It was a lengthy short story/Sleeping Beauty retelling I'd written in high school. There must have been magical fairy dust in the air because I got incredibly lucky and found a Sleeping Beauty rewrite contest on Diamonds and Toads. To enter, I had to cut my 7000 word story down to 1000, which basically involved cutting out everything except the final two scenes. I had serious doubts if the story was any good this way, but to my amazement, I won! And a friendship between me and Kate via email began!

You see, about a month after I won the contest, Kate emailed me about this webzine she was about to start. You may have heard of it *points up to the EC header*. I offered to write a book review article for each issue, but soon I began submitting stories for the magazine. My stories weren't always accepted, but I still loved the reinvention process.

I graduated this May and when Kate asked for a social media intern, I eagerly answered the call. You might know me a little bit if you're a fan of Enchanted Conversation on Facebook, because I'm in charge of the daily updates. I've done an assortment of behind-the-scenes work, but now I've been given this chance to come from behind the curtain and onto the stage.

So let me just extend a big "Hello!" to everyone reading this! I'm really looking forward to meeting each of you and would LOVE it if you'd leave a little comment below introducing yourself.

I'll be posting again soon with a short blurb about which fairy tales are my favorites, but until then, if you want to learn more about me, you can visit my personal blog: www.MissMystra.wordpress.com.