WHY I WROTE THIS NOVEL THE WAY I DID...

The idea came to me while looking at photos of World War I soldiers who had been injured in mustard gas attacks. Their skin was peeling and their eyes were swollen. There was something frog-like about their appearances. Then I read about the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium where the plains became so rain-soaked that tanks sank in the mud. Who better to survive this ordeal than a hero from Louisiana at home in the water and mud--a frog prince!
Picture


Here's another of the second generation of covers for the Once Upon a Time series. The story begins when Emma tosses a golden locket containing the picture of a disloyal love into a well and finds a soldier hiding inside it. He's been wounded in a gas attack and seeks the soothing water to ease his burns. I was trying to make a parallel to the scene in the fairytale where the frog retrieves the golden ball for the princess. 
Publisher: 
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781416940135
Ages 12 and up
Series: Once Upon a Time Series
EXCERPT:

His eyes were so swollen, could only view the room around him as though seeing through a chink in the wall. Then he remembered the beautiful young woman who had saved him from the well and brought him in here.

Where was she?

Turning his head, he saw her standing by the window, gazing out. He had never seen so exquisite a young woman. And when she'd spoken to him in the well her voice was like honey or velvet or a warm Louisiana sunset.

Would a creature so elegant ever look fondly on him? Was it too impossible to consider? Back home the girls had liked him but they were not like this, so fine and lovely. As he lay there gazing at her with half-closed eyes, he knew he wanted her love more than he'd desired anything in his life.