After Happily Ever After - The 'Real' Truth about Sleeping Beauty Read online



  After Happily Ever After

  The ‘Real’ Truth about Sleeping Beauty

  By Ken Conway

  Published By Ken Conway Publishing

  © 2014, Ken Conway Publishing

  Table of Contents

  Meet the Author: Ken Conway

  Dedication

  After Happily Ever After

  The ‘Real’ Truth about Sleeping Beauty

  After Happily Ever After – Series Overview

  (Free View – or almost free)

  (Collection 1)

  (Collection 2)

  Meet the Author: Ken Conway

  Story time at the Conway house has always been an adventure. For years, when my girls were young, they would ask for a story from Dad. I was always excited for this special time with the girls, partially because I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen in the story! This is puzzling, I know, because how could I be excited to hear the adventures from a story if I was the one making up the story? Didn’t I already know what the story would be about? No!

  When you use your imagination, magic can happen in a story! As my daughters would be wide-eyed with anticipation, listening to the beginning of a story, something would happen roughly three minutes into the story. That’s when Dad, the storyteller, would start laughing. That’s when I figured out where this story was about to go! And the adventure would begin.

  There are plenty of regular Conway story characters that haven’t made this series, but my daughters remember their favorites. They have learned about the Easter bunny’s mischievous daughter and about the leprechaun who lives in the invisible room on the third floor of the local 2-story elementary school. They know the truth about the Statue of Liberty. Two times a day, when no adults are looking, Lady Liberty briefly lets go of her torch to reach down and grab some M&M’s from her secret pouch.

  Some of these stories would be about a princess or storybook character that lived happily ever after, but not in the traditional way the kids have learned from other stories or movies! Instead, we might find out how Cinderella met Rumpelstiltskin. Suddenly, an entirely new story was born. This is the theme that inspired the collection of stories titled, “After Happily Ever After.”

  Telling stories is equally enjoyable! Some of these stories have been shared with the kids at the local elementary school. When you have a room of kids laughing, it makes you laugh! It’s also funny seeing moms in the back of a room laughing as well! When you have random kids come up to you in the hallway and tell you that they’ve seen the leprechaun sneaking around eating candy from kids’ lunch boxes, you know you have impacted a young mind! Laughter is good medicine!

  Dedication

  I would like to dedicate this book series to my unbelievable wife, Lisa, and incredible daughters, Marissa and Megan. Imagine the challenge and patience a wife would face on a daily basis living with a husband whose mind operates like a kid so often! Lisa has been amazingly supportive and inspirational to me. Marissa and Megan both have wild imaginations and have contributed with nuances to our characters and stories!

  After Happily Ever After

  The ‘Real’ Truth about Sleeping Beauty

  The story has long since been told about Sleeping Beauty. It’s the story where the prince saw the beautiful princess sleeping and offered her true love’s kiss. Sleeping Beauty was beautiful indeed. But she and the prince never got married to live happily ever after as has been reported.

  Here’s the deal. A prince lived in a nearby kingdom. Every day, a new animal would come to him and tell him that no one can sleep in the forest. One day a bearkat came to the prince with a similar story.

  The bearkat said to the prince, “Hello mega-awesome Prince.”

  “Yeh, I’m pretty awesome… I mean, wait, I mean, Thank you for the kind words,” replied the prince.

  “We’ve got a prob,” shared the bearkat.

  Concerned, the prince inquired, “What is a prob? I don’t know what ‘prob’ means. Is it an evil witch? Is it a new type of fungus growing in the forest? Is it killing the trees?”

  “Slow down, my Prince,” the bearkat replied. “We have a pro-blem… p-r-o-b-l-e-m. That’s what ‘prob’ means. There is a sleeping princess in the nearby kingdom…”

  Immediately, the prince interrupted. “I know, I know. I hear the same story every day from all the other animals in the forest. The princess is beautiful. The princess is this. The princess is that. Bla Bla Bla. The princess is sleeping and cannot wake up. Her snoring is WAY TOO LOUD. I know. You are probably like the rest of the animals. You can’t get any sleep because she makes so much noise when she snores.”

  The prince continued, “Next, you’re going to tell me that she needs true love’s kiss to break the spell so she can wake up. Sorry, not gonna happen from me. Besides, I’m already in love… with my gumball machine. Here, look, I’ve got all the colors in my gumball machine. My favorite is red. Yummm, delicious. Try the blue one.”

  The bearkat was irritated. Irritated means he was a little bit frustrated. He couldn’t get in a word because the prince kept talking and talking and talking. He didn’t even stop talking to take a breath.

  But then it happened. The prince put one too many gumballs in his mouth, and he started coughing. He wasn’t choking or anything. He was just coughing.

  So, the bearkat shared his plan, “Mr. Prince. Super Prince. I know you are the most clever prince of all. I have a plan. I have a way for you to solve all our problems. We want to sleep. You want the animals to quit bugging you about the princess’ snoring. Plus, the princess deserves to have that sleeping spell broken anyway.”

  “But I already told you. I’m not falling in love. I’m in love with gum balls. I’m in love with jelly beans also. Do you like the big jelly beans? Or the small ones, you know, the jelly bird eggs? I can stuff 48 jelly bird eggs in my mouth…”

  “Stop!!!” said the bearkat. “Listen!” The prince started coughing again because he put too many jelly beans in his mouth.

  The bearkat shared his plan with the prince… every detail… “But don’t tell anyone about the plan. It’s a secret! We don’t want the secret to get out or the spell might not be broken.”

  So the next day, the prince journeyed to the nearby kingdom. As he neared the sleeping princess, he could hear why the animals complained. “Man, she snores loudly,” exclaimed the prince. So, he put ear-plugs in his ears.

  The prince approached the beautiful princess, smiled, and leaned down with true love’s kiss. But it wasn’t really true love’s kiss. You see, the bearkat told the prince that if he crossed his fingers behind his back when he kissed her, it meant the prince wasn’t really in love. But no one else in the kingdom would see his fingers crossed, so the spell would be broken.

  And that is exactly what happened. Sleeping Beauty woke up! The rest of the kingdom cheered. The evil spell had been broken. The animals were able to sleep from that day forward. And no, the princess and prince did not get married and live happily, ever after.

  Oh, they lived happily after, but it was just differently than you’ve heard. The prince went back to his love of gumballs. And the princess was free to pursue her career as a dentist. She knew it was a great career because she saw how rotted the prince’s teeth were from eating too much candy.

  And now you know the rest of the story. And they lived happily, ever after!

  After Happily Ever After – Series Overview

  Do you want to enjoy more stori
es from this series After Happily Ever After? Good news! Below are the initial collections of stories from the series After Happily Ever After. Look for even more collections in the future.

  (Free View – or almost free)

  The ‘Real’ Truth about Sleeping Beauty

  (Collection 1)

  Little Mermaid on American Idol

  Rapunzel’s Son Goes to Camp

  6 Dwarfs and Pocahontas Kickball Adventure

  (Collection 2)

  Jack and Jill and Bo Peep’s Sheep

  Beauty and Cinderella Have Moved On

  Burger King and Dairy Queen

  Many stories we’ve read through the years have had a happy ending. It’s always wonderful when we learn our main characters lived happily ever after! The problem is you have learned the wrong ending to these stories for years. This series of stories will enlighten you to rest of the story. Learn new events and new excitement our favorite characters encountered after they lived happily ever after. Oh, they (mostly) lived happily ever after. It’s just different from what you realized.

  Have you ever wondered what happened when Cinderella went to the castle to live happily ever after? Well, she’s not in the castle anymore! Did you know Beauty (from Beauty and the Beast) has a close friendship with six of the seven dwarfs? No, you didn’t, and that’s my point. In fact, where is the Beast today? You need to learn the rest of the story.

  It’s time to correct some of the myths about Sleeping Beauty. Did you know she had a snoring problem that disturbed the animals in the forest every night? It has bothered me that so many people do not realize Rumpelstiltskin is actually a good guy. He changed his ways and deserves a second chance. What about Rapunzel? She always dreamed about having a daughter with long, beautiful hair. Sorry, that might work in the movies, but that’s not what happened. Learn about problems Rapunzel’s son had when he went to summer camp.

  But there is much, much more! Jack (from the Beanstalk) makes a few appearances. Everybody knows Jack. Where is that mean giant? What happened when the Little Mermaid gained feet and went to live on dry land? You probably didn’t realize where her adventures led including a memorable appearance on American Idol. I’ll tell you all about it.

  Many other characters want you to know the truth about their stories. Some villains remain villains, but others get a bad rap. I’ll tell you who has changed for the better! And one last thing: Just because a guy gets the title of prince doesn’t mean he’s the guy you princesses want to connect with to live happily ever after. I think you’ll understand why after you read After Happily Ever After.