Even Peacocks Have Their Uses

Megan Derr is a LGBTQ writer of the whimsical variety. Most of her older works are short stories with fairytale themes. From there she expanded into novel and novellas of a similar motif. Her most recent works have moderns settings but still retain her love for happily ever afters.The High King’s Golden Tongue is a rewrite of an earlier short story with the same name. The plot does not change between the first version and the second but the added bits provide background and make it easier to understand each characters actions and motivation.

In The High King’s Golden Tongue author Megan Derr creates a world of kings, queens, and High Kings (there is one king to rule them all). The story is set in the Harken Empire. Each of the ten kingdoms that make up the Harken empire are run by a hereditary monarchy with their own laws, traditions, and language making it all the more difficult for High King Sarrica to keep them all playing nicely. It doesn’t help that Sarrica has no patience for court mechanizations and none of the finesse to do it properly. Enter Prince Allen, youngest son of one of the Harken Empire’s richest kingdom. Trained since he was young in all the languages of the empire, and a few more for variety, Prince Allen has had diplomacy beaten into him. Too bad Sarrica doesn’t see the benefit of marrying a peacock when his kingdom is on the verge of war.

Megan Derr is the kind of author I love to read, the kind that writes multifaceted characters. Even peacocks can have steel backbones and pretty feathers can hide scars. High Kings can be hardened soldiers ruled by sentiment.