The Story Behind Lila: The Sign of the Elven Queen by Mark J. Grant

http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2013/08/20/virtual-book-tour-pump-up-your-book-presents-lila-the-sign-of-the-elven-queen-virtual-book-publicity-tour/

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, and this post, free of charge, from tje author, via Pump Up Your Book, for review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.

I'll be reviewing Lila later today, but first we have a guest post from Mark!

The book (Lilaa: The Sign of the Elven Queen) was inspired by a dinner party at my house. I had some friends over and they were complaining that there were no nice books, no fairy tales, no Alice in Wonderland’s available in the world any longer. They said every book had he who could not be named or giant spiders, or monsters, or vampires, or skulls, and crossbones. There was nothing out there to read their kids or have their older children read.

This was quite a topic of conversation. I said that they had to be kidding but if that was the case then I would write such a book. It would be a lovely fantasy that would not scare any child. They all looked at me with some disbelief but I did exactly what I promised.Lila—the sign of the Elven Queen is my answer to their unhappiness.

The world is seen through the eyes of a six year old girl. She not only struggles with each new twist of life that is tossed in her way but mama also teaches her not just to grow up but to become a young lady.

The building that in which she lives in New York City does not allow dogs so she talks her parents into allowing her to have an invisible dog. On a cold and snowy Saturday papa takes her to the pet store to get the invisible supplies for her invisible dogs. Fluff, an invisible Aussie rescue dog comes around the corner and introduces himself to Lila just as Lila and papa are about to enter the store.

There are then magical adventures at school and meeting the invisible people from Iceland of whom some have migrated to New York. They live in the cornerstones of downtown buildings there or in the boulders of Central Park and a number of interactions take place. It is also discovered that Lila has a birthmark, The Sign of the Elven Queen, which allows for a lunch with the Queen and Princess of the invisible people that takes place in “Boulder I, Parliament House.”

Towards the end of the book Fluffy is revealed to be much more than he seems, Lila gets to become a princess and all of this just as she turns seven.

Lila is a modern day fairy tale and my gift to the world.

About Mark:

Mark J. Grant, a graduate of Occidental College, has been on Wall Street for thirty-seven years in various senior management positions. He has run capital markets for four investment banks and been on the boards of directors of four investment banks. Grant also writes “Out of the Box,” a commentary on the financial markets that is distributed daily to approximately 5,000 large money management institutions in forty-eight countries. This is his third book. Visit his website at www.princesslila.com.