Princess Di'D

It is tricky to set a publishing date for a book. You want to be able to use a hook for publicity and the date would have some significance to that hook. I chose early August for the release of the latest in my “Dark Side of the Bright Lights” series: HEIR LINE FRACTURE. Why? Because, it was just before the anniversary of the tragic death of Princess Diana. Now that is some hook…tying my book to a horrific death. Well, there is a reason. In the book, there is a rogue titled and entitled Duke who has something dirty little secrets to reveal about the Royal family. And to stop him, the powers that be may just do a “Diana” on him. A WHAT??? The late Princess died in a car crash. Surely I am not suggesting she was killed! Or am I! It is all revealed in HEIR LINE FRACTURE.

But as the anniversary came and went, the 18th anniversary in fact, it saddened me on several levels. Eighteen years is a long time, a generation in fact—a generation of people who will never know of the spectacle and spectacular Diana years. You have to be almost thirty years old to put the People’s Princess into perspective. And, in fact, eighteen years was longer than she was even a Princess. (She married Charles at twenty years old and died at thirty six years old.)

So why do we still care? At what would have been her fiftieth birthday, I produced a special program for REELZ taking a look at her life and legacy. It was intriguing to see how people’s perspective stayed the same—that she was fundamentally unready and too young for the job ahead but captivated hearts the world over and still had valuable work to be done. And we continue to care because she personifies the modern day fairy tale. She was a young girl born to marry a prince. Theirs was outwardly a whirlwind Cinderella story, she being swept up but the most eligible bachelor in the world. She quickly provided an heir and a spare and life should have been perfect. But infidelity and abuse and lack of compassion or help took its toll. The marriage ended almost as spectacularly as it began with the Queen announcing that even she was having an “annus horribilis”. Then she was dead. And all of that happened within the span of one generation. It is rare that a fairy tale can be tracked that completely in a story arc that spanned just one generation. (Let’s face it the queen is now the longest running Monarch in British history, out pacing Queen Victoria in an over six decade reign.)

We care because we as Americans are brought up with a Horatio Alger understanding that anything is possible. You can come from nothing and achieve anything. That is why we have Hollywood Royalty and industrial Barons. But what we don’t have is hereditary peerage. We can call ourselves Royal but we will never be. To be born of nobility rather than have it earned is a fairy tale that eludes us and yet captivates us. But be careful what you wish for. For fairy tales can come true and they can be tragic. Princess Diana was just that: a fairy tale turned tragic. But could it ever happen again? Read HEIR LINE FRACTURE and decide for yourself.