Birthdays of a Princess
by Helga Zeiner
on Tour June 1st - July 31st 2013
Book Details:
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Published by: POW WOW Books
Publication Date: May/June 2013
Number of Pages: 290
ISBN: 978-0-9868798-7-6
Purchase Links: Coming Soon
Synopsis:
To be famous and be admired by total strangers can be very dangerous.
Her
little girl has always been her princess. In fact, she was so lovely,
Melissa entered her toddler into child beauty pageants, making her a
star from an early age. But her dreams and hopes are shattered one
October morning, when Melissa watches a breaking news story on
television. A young girl has been filmed by bystanders, committing a
brutal assault in broad daylight in a downtown Vancouver Starbucks…and
it looks like the girl is her daughter.
From
this moment on, a story unfolds, so shocking, that it will hold you
captive and you will find yourself reading faster and faster into the
night.
An Excerpt:
Prologue
She wakes up earlier than usual. It’s not even eight yet. The
apartment feels empty, but that doesn’t surprise her, because it is
empty most mornings. To make sure, she gets out of bed, opens the
curtains, waddles down the narrow hallway, stops at the second bedroom
and listens briefly. Not a sound. Of course not. She would have heard
the flat door open, no matter how late. She is a light sleeper.
The kitchen greets her with familiar comfort. Welcome, my lonely
friend. Make yourself a cup of tea. Sit down by the window. Look out,
check the weather, think about what to wear for work. Stop listening.
Nobody is home but you.
Just another day in the big city.
Vancouver is still sleepy. Yawning and slowly stretching like a lazy
lion, rubbing its exhausted eyes, waiting for the helpers to brush the
filthy remains of last night’s excitement from the concrete floor of its
den.
The water kettle switches itself off and she pours the boiling water
over the tea bag and waits one minute, standing in front of the kitchen
counter. It has to be exactly one minute, no point in doing anything
else but stare at the twirling surface inside her cup. Sixty seconds
later–the second dial on her kitchen clock is within her periphery—she
discards the bag, heaps three generous spoonfuls of sugar into the cup,
followed by so much cream that the tea instantly cools to drinking
temperature, and sits down at the kitchen table.
Still thinking it’s just another day.
A gentle traffic hum outside, no sound inside her kitchen. Correction:
no sound inside her flat, this two bedroom, one bathroom borderline
apartment. Borderline because its location touches a good neighborhood
and the Eastside. The street she lives on stops the filthy guts of
downtown spilling over into suburbia. Her kitchen window points toward
the high-rise monuments of downtown Vancouver. Very pretty at night, not
so attractive at daytime when the not-so-high and not-so-modern
buildings that envelope the skyscrapers become visible. She doesn’t want
to look at the decaying grey buildings any longer that provide a battle
ground between city planners who want to sell it to developers and
Eastsiders who have occupied them.
Just another day. And it is so quiet.
Melissa turns on the TV, not realizing that it is exactly eight
o’clock now. The channel is set on CTV and there is a ‘Breaking News’
banner flashing in bright orange below the female morning anchor. She
increases the volume. The excited voice of the lady anchor fills her
kitchen. She takes a sip of her sweet, sweet tea and leans back a
little.
“We have a developing story of a brutal attack on a customer at
Starbucks coffee shop on Robson Street. Apparently a young woman has
stabbed another woman inside Starbucks. Our reporter Emily Jackson is on
location. Emily, what can you tell us…?”
The upper body of a reporter, holding a microphone in one hand and
fighting her wind-swept hair with the other, comes into the picture.
Melissa hadn’t noticed that it is quite windy outside. Well, it’s
October, at least it’s not raining. Behind the reporter a yellow band is
restricting access to the crime scene. She sounds overly excited. “From
what we have learned, a young woman has suddenly attacked a woman
inside the coffee shop you see right behind me. We don’t know yet if the
customer was already seated or still standing in line to place her
order. We also don’t know the identity of the attacker or of the victim
yet or have any information about the motive. Apparently the attacker
suddenly produced a knife and threw herself at the woman, yelling
obscenities on top of her voice. As you can see behind me, police have
cordoned off the area and are processing the scene.”
The anchor interrupts her. “Do we have any information about the condition of the victim? Is she badly hurt? Or…”
An autumn gust blows hair over the reporter’s face. She nearly loses
her microphone, trying to control the strands with both hands, but
fumbles it back into position when she realizes that the camera is
focused on her again. One side of her pretty face is completely covered
with hair. It looks ridiculous and Melissa catches herself thinking the
reporter would look a lot prettier if she had a different hairstyle.
“The ambulance has transported the victim to the emergency ward of St Paul’s…”
The reporter’s voice travels along Melissa’s attention span and loses
its grip. Background noise quality. She likes that. And God, her tea is
good.
Another developing story news-flash banner demands her attention
again. The anchor sounds triumphant: “We have just received a video-clip
from one of our viewers. We would like to warn you that some viewers
may find the content of this video-clip offensive in nature…”
The clip starts. The picture is shaky, the filmmaker hassling for a
good position between other coffee-shop customers who have jumped up to
look what is going on in the middle of the room. The back of shoulders
and heads pop in and out, screams of horror and confusion can be heard.
Their unedited sound quality provides an unnerving authenticity to the
unfolding drama.
An arm rises up in the air and down again, in kind of a wood chopping
motion. Up and down, in one swift move, no hesitation whatsoever. In
fact, the chopping goes on. Up and down, up and down—accompanied by ‘Oh
my God’s’ and ‘Oh no, oh no’s’. The filmmaker edges closer, seems to get
up on a chair, because he is above the scene now, holding his iPhone or
whatever device he’s got, high above the center of the customer-circle
that inched away from the dangerous situation. The victim of the attack
is on the floor now, mercifully blurred by the rapid movements of the
inexperienced cameraman, or maybe by CTV’s editing. The attacker, the
young woman, wearing a black hoodie, is over her and chops into her with
such vengeance that Melissa can feel the force of her hatred, furious
and powerful. The victim is trying to protect her face and chest with
crossed hands. The mad attacker continues to stab her wherever she
can—face, arms, torso, it is impossible to make out exactly in the shaky
clip where her knife slices into.
Bodies pop in and out of the picture and mercifully block most of what
is going on. Several of them finally muster enough courage to
intervene. The picture goes even more shaky and blurry. Then the anchor
speaks again.
“We have word from the police that the victim you have just seen being
attacked inside Starbucks on Robson about an hour ago is in critical
condition. The young woman has been overpowered by three heroic young
men…”
and now it happens, it’s not ‘just another day’ any longer
“they were performing a citizen’s arrest and held her captive until the police arrived…”
the anchor’s voice fades, just like the reporter’s before, because all
of Melissa’s focus concentrates on what she sees on the screen.
Meanwhile the filmmaker has managed to muscle himself closer to the
group of guys who have pulled the young women off her victim and have
now pinned her to the ground. Her face appears. The filmmaker zooms in.
She smiles victoriously straight into his camera, as if she has achieved
a very special feat.
Melissa is standing now, holding on to her cup of tea, frowning with
the exhausting task of connecting what she sees on the screen with the
reality of her life. It can not be. It can not be. But it is.
The tea cup slips from her weak hands, falls to the floor, spills its
content on the cheap vinyl kitchen floor before rolling under the table.
It is.
It is. It is…her daughter.
My Thoughts:
Birthdays of a Princess is a heart wrenching
and frighteningly realistic look at what can happen when the evils of
child exploitation and parental neglect are allowed to go unchecked.
Though
it is quite clear that young Tia is the villain in the opening pages of
this saga; it is not until much later that readers learn the true
extent of her victimization.
If not for the great care taken by the author in slowly and methodically taking readers into the heart of the dysfunction which in essence serves to create Tia; it would be very easy to close one's mind to her plight, write her off, and close this book.
Because readers take the journey of discovery with her however, we are allowed the peeks behind the closed doors, under the beds, and in the closets.
We can see the monsters of abuse and manipulation and hear her unanswered cries for help.
This is a very difficult story to read, but very much worth the time.
At it's heart, this is a cautionary tale. A warning for adults and society as a whole that childhood is precious. A time to be safeguarded by adults and enjoyed by children. If this doesn't happen, society as a whole pays a grave and exorbitant price.
Author Bio:
Born and educated in Germany,
Helga left her home country when she was 18 to travel the world and
experience the magic of life she was passionately reading about.
She spent the next 15 years in exotic places like India, Thailand,
Australia and Hong Kong, where she worked her way up into excellent
managerial positions in large international companies. To achieve this
she had to further her education and enrolled at night classes at the
'Chinese University of Hong Kong' for her Diploma in Management Studies.
Love eluded her for many years. She was nearly 40 when she finally met
her dream man and settled in Canada, where she now lives, neatly tucked
away in the wilderness. She has previously written several suspense
novels which have been published in Germany.
Her first novel written and published in English is called. ‘Section
132”. A thrilling fact-based page-turner about a young girl forced into a
polygamous marriage that has received countless 5-star reviews.
Birthdays of a Princess’ is her second novel and will be published in
June 2013.
Catch Up With Ms. Zeiner:
Title: Eat Brains Love
For the most part, Cass seems a fish out of water. She is the child in a room full of adults, and for the most part just wants to go home.
