by Diane Stanley

HarperCollins Publishers

Unwanted at home, Molly goes to work for the king of Westria as a humble scullery maid. She arrives at the castle with no education, no manners, and a very disturbing secret: she sees visions, and those visions always come true. One day, while she’s working in the king’s great hall, young Prince Alaric passes by. Molly finds him unbearably handsome—but also unbearably rude. But what does it really matter? She’ll probably never see him again.

In time Molly is promoted to polishing silver and is given a priceless royal treasure to work on: the king’s great ceremonial hand basin. But there’s something odd about it. The silver warms to her touch, a voice commands her to watch and listen, and then the visions appear. They tell the story of a dreaded curse that has stalked the royal family for years. There have already been deaths; soon there will be more.

As tragedy after tragedy strikes the royal family, Molly can’t help but wonder: will the beautiful Alaric be next? Together with her friends Tobias and Winifred, Molly must protect the prince and destroy the curse. Could a less likely champion be found to save the kingdom of Westria?

More about The Silver Bowl…

About six years ago I traveled to China and Japan to speak at international schools. While in Tokyo, I was taken to a shrine sale—sort of like a church bazaar—where all sorts of antiques were to be found, everything from fine old kimonos to cracked pots. I noticed a beautiful bowl, the kind with decorations done in blue. Being ever on the lookout for story ideas, it popped into my head that those scenes that were painted on it—villages, mountains, clouds, rivers, bridges, little people walking and fishing and driving wagons—might come alive in some way. I decided there would be a boy who received such a bowl as a gift, a gesture of thanks for some kindness he had done a famous master potter. The boy would be one of the figures in the bowl. As the days passed, the family would notice that the boy’s figure changed—it was moving through a map of his life. At some point, the boy’s older brother would become jealous of all the attention he was getting and would destroy the bowl. The boy would be trapped in time, never growing older. It offered so many possibilities.

I intended to set the book in China in the 1200′s, but after buying stacks of books, and spending months reading them , I realized that I could never learn enough to do this book properly. I needed to take my magical bowl someplace else, someplace I knew much better.Since I’d previously researched and written five biographies of figures who lived in the late Middle Ages/Renaissance in Europe (BARD OF AVON, GOOD QUEEN BESS, JOAN OF ARC, LEAONARDO DA VINCI, and MICHELANGELO), then followed them with a medieval novel (BELLA AT MIDNIGHT), I knew the period well. So the magical porcelain bowl became a silver one, the central character became a girl, and the nature of the magic changed entirely. I was off and running.

I had loved writing BELLA; ideas flowed effortlessly out of my head in a happy and wonderful way. With THE SILVER BOWL, I hoped to recapture that writing experience, and I did. It was almost too easy to write. When that happens, of course, it means a lot more work lies ahead, because what I’d written was basically an outline. Now came the multiple rewrites, whipping the story into shape, deepening the characters, tying up the many random story threads that my subconscious had thrown out—and coming to really understand the story. That part was fun, too.

In the end, I became so fond of my characters, and there was so much yet to learn about their pasts and their futures, I didn’t want to let them go. So I discussed it with my editor and we agreed that THE SILVER BOWL should be book one of a trilogy.

I have recently finished book two, THE CUP AND THE CROWN (this is apparently the final and official title), in which Molly explores the source and nature of her ever-changing magical gift. Sent by king Alaric on a crucial mission, Molly is drawn to Harrowsgode, the mysterious walled city where her grandfather was born, and from which he later escaped. What she discovers there will alter the direction of her life and challenge her considerable ingenuity and courage. With the help of Tobias, a rat-catcher named Richard, and a clever and devoted raven, Molly gains her own freedom in a most unexpected way, and changes the city of Harrowsgode forever.

The final book in the series will be THE PRINCESS OF CORTOVA.