Erin Halbmaier

Hi, my name is Erin, and I like happy endings.

Chorus: Hi, Erin

The story can be amazing, with relatable characters and a gripping plot, but if it has a sad ending, the whole thing is ruined. Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop? I would have been okay if he just arrived in time, even if nothing else changed. Final book of The Hunger Games trilogy? Don’t even get me started!

And that’s not the worst of it. I want them happy, but I don’t want it to be easy. I want action, but not guts. Swoon, but no spice. I’ve never read a book or watched a movie and thought, “That would have been better if they’d add more/some spice.”

I know, I know! I should–

Wait, what? This isn’t Bookish Anonymous? It’s Brittany’s event for Fairytale Day??

Oh, good. Because I don’t want to change my reading habits, and I’m perfectly happy with the books I write, thank you very much! And since you’re here, you must share my love for clean, no-spice fairytale retellings with a guaranteed HEA. Welcome to the party! I hope you like:

Clean, no-spice swoony romance

Action/adventure

Quirky side characters & subtle humor

No traditional swears/cursing

Realistic relationships

Because that’s what you’ll find on this page!

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Find the Fairytale/tropes 

I probably have too many words…but who doesn’t love a good word search? Although I wish I could put it up with the code I made for work so you could highlight the words as you find them – it’s a much easier way to do a word search on a screen!

How many fairytales/tropes can you find? Words may be across, down, diagonal, or backward. And they’re all things you may find in my books (now or in the future)!

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Meet My Books

I have five books out so far, but the sixth releases in TWO DAYS! I’m super excited about it – it’s a retelling of Robin Hood and Snow White and Rose Red, and redeeming Helena was awesome. She’s not the most likable character at the start (she might play a villain in an earlier book…😮), but her growth is beautiful. You can pre-order (or borrow in two days!!) on Amazon if you want to read about her and her honorable outlaw!

If I chat about each book, though, we’ll be here all day. 😂 So here’s a quick overview of what you can expect in each one:

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Songs and Spun Gold – 99 cents!

One of the fun things about being a planster is writing your first book as a standalone…and then deciding to make it a series. Including the story of an already-married couple in the first book. If you want chronological order, go to the list that we just passed, start in the upper left and go down, then jump to the top on the right. The two books at the top are a duology, so I haven’t re-numbered them yet.

Since it comes first chronologically (and is more representative of most of my books), I recommend starting with Songs and Spun Gold. It’s a gender-swapped Phantom of the Opera crossed with Rumpelstiltskin, and Katy and Axel are SO swoony! 

We first meet Axel and Katy in my debut (Slippers and Thorns). Originally, I planned to continue straight from the end of that one into the problems an old bargain of Katy’s cause them. But as I thought about the characters and decided to use Phantom as the second tale for their story, I realized that I wanted to tell the story of how they met. And then that it would be better as two separate books, instead of a single book that started before Slippers and Thorns and ended after.

Whoops.

But it had to be done. And you’ll understand why when you meet this gem of a prince who loves singing more than his crown. And the best part? It’s on sale for 99 cents through March 2!

𝗔 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗔 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁.

Can Katy put the good of the kingdom above her family? Or will she let her heart lead…and hope for a miracle?

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Would you rather…

Time for our second game! We just heard a little about Katy and Axel, but what if you were in Katy’s shoes? Tell me in the comments what choice you would make!

I would probably choose B. I’m pretty low-risk! 🤣

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Night of Dance

Next up on deals: Night of Dance is my “prequel novella,” haha. It’s a prequel to Slippers and Thorns, but it comes after Songs and Spun Gold. Yep, someday I should really re-number them. As soon as I convince myself to break up the duology. 🤪

Night of Dance is a retelling of Cinderella. It’s the story of how Ella winds up at the ball, not looking for a prince but for someone who will rescue her from her stepmother’s home. Someone who will show her the love she’s been missing since her father died.

Short and sweet, this one is only about 30k words. It’s a love-at-first-sight tale, and it sets up the characters for “the rest of the story” in the next book.

You can download Night of Dance for FREE via BookFunnel through March 2!

𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱.

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Who’s your favorite book boyfriend?

We all have our types, don’t we? The stoic bodyguard, the grumpy cinnamon roll, the golden retriever. Maybe the guy who doesn’t always get things right but tries really hard, or the one who is so devoted to his duty he can’t see what’s right in front of him. 

Here are a few I’ve written. Let me know in the comments which one is your favorite!

C was a lot of fun to write, but D may be my current favorite. Maybe. I really like B, too, and I’ll always have a soft spot for A! 

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Slippers and Thorns

About two years ago, I saw a post in a fairytale Facebook group. Someone had taken screenshots of a very brief little tale of Cinderella a couple years after the wedding in which the prince had lost interest in her, so she ran away with Sleeping Beauty. The poster said “I want to see a movie of this!”

I read it and was…disappointed…with the way it ended. Sure, they had problems. But that didn’t mean giving up was the answer.

So I set out to write a short story with the same basic premise – that Cinderella and her prince had fallen out of love – but that dragged the couple through a bunch of close-to-real-life misunderstandings, stressed the importance of choice over feelings, and brought them through to a stronger relationship. 

Ninety thousand words later…😂

Slippers and Thorns isn’t a typical romance, because the couple is already married and they bobble back and forth between sort-of-making-progress and running into another misunderstanding. Yep, they should just talk to each other. But how many people in real life DON’T?

This is that book that some people hate and some people love. Michael, the MMC, makes some really (I mean REALLY) poor choices because he’s hurt and angry. If it’s not for you, I understand. It’s not quite in line with the rest of my books, but it needed to be written.

If you want to give it a try, it is on sale at Amazon for 99 cents through March 2!

𝗔 𝗱𝘂𝘁𝘆-𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗔 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗔 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲…𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁?

When happily ever after isn’t a fairytale, is it worth fighting for?

*This story contains a struggling marriage and redemption from emotional cheating arc

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Thanks so much for hanging out with me today! If you want bonus content and the latest news on my books (regardless of the social media gremlins’ decisions), you can sign up for my newsletter. Or:

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