First I would like to thank all the people who have been part of this book club. You have all been gracious enough to give me the best in your reviews. Thank you for taking the time to question and give your opinion. Reviews— good or bad— are in general, all good in my opinion. Your comments have broadened my views and challenged me to write better stories in the future.

I will take this opportunity to reply to some of the comments and questions raised by our distinguished panel of reviewers regarding my work, and the process by which they came about.

For starters, ReddHumann I have no formal background in writing... save perhaps the usual writing classes in English. When I first landed in Wattpad, I had no idea what tags were, nor did I realize that my tenses jumble most of the time. I joined a contest last year which gave me an opportunity to explore writing outside of my comfort zone and made me realize the vast areas of improvement in my prose.

It's probably no secret that two of my one-shots are written for a contest, which is why there are setbacks and limitations when I wrote them. Those are Dawn of the Golden Age, and Princesse Sous Les Cendres.

First off on Dawn of the Golden Age, the prompt was to: write a historical fantasy story that would contain the items: butterfly, cannons, and tiara, with a word count limit of 2,000 words. Any word beyond the word count is a point deduction so I made certain that my work was under 2,000 words. 

There are comments that the story lacked characterization or asking for more background information, and here is the answer: If it wasn't for the rules, I would have loved to write an extensive background and spend time with character and setting, but I had to make a decision as to whether I sacrifice the flow and content versus the setting, and I chose to focus on the former, rather than the latter. I thought that since my character is a famous historical figure, that it would require less for me to describe her and her motives and focus on the action itself. libranages MikeKhael90 yes, there was an epic battle with Elizabeth's navy and the Spanish armada, unfortunately the word count cannot cover it so I focused on the aftermath instead.

@all For Elizabeth's sacrifice not being heavy enough: "Your line would die, there will be no issue from your body. No spark to fuel your fire." During the ancient times, bloodlines are very important, and precisely the thing that sparked the issue of succession between Elizabeth, Mary Tudor (more popularly known as Bloody Mary), and Mary Queen of Scots (Elizabeth and Mary I's cousin). 

For Elizabeth to accept and choose the death of the Tudor line (she was the last of the Tudors), in my opinion is the greatest sacrifice a monarch could do. In my story, Elizabeth traded her magic and the ability to bear offspring (the "no spark to fuel her fire"), and despite being the most sought-after bachelorette in her time, she remained the Virgin Queen – she did not allow herself to fall in love or get married because she is well aware of what she lost in the trade-off. Elizabeth was prepared to hold back on love because she can't have children (which during those times is grounds for annulment). On most stories, monarchs always choose to save the bloodline; because they cannot bear the thought of the transfer of power, but Elizabeth in my story did the opposite. For her, England was the people and not who the figurehead is. In the end, she became the catalyst of what they called England's Golden Age. She showed the world that a woman could very well rule without a man by her side, which a patriarchal society like Spain could not imagine. She chose a life of duty and solitude over her own selfish desires—the mark of a true leader.

So what was at stake? Her Church (it was Protestant versus Catholic), her crown (the Spanish Duke would install a puppet), her head (beheadings were popular back then), her people (the classic conqueror vs conquered), her culture (Elizabeth was loved by her people and by artists in particular because she was a staunch supporter of the arts; hence the Golden Age of England), and her state (England would be annexed by the Spanish empire, any monarch they have would be a puppet and Elizabeth's supporters would be killed off or stripped of their office.) And I do apologize for summarizing all this in a single sentence: I implore you to aid me in my battle against these enemies of my God, of my kingdom and of my people. - trivia, this line is actually lifted from her speech at the Battle at Tillbury. 

yhin2x yes, I did a lot of research. It is a strict requirement in writing historical fantasy (in fact I'd say it's a requirement in whatever you write, not just this genre.) For this short story I read texts from real books and online references, watched Elizabeth: The Golden Age (movie), The Tudors and Reign (TV series). Any mistakes are solely my own.

On the use of difficult words (@yoshiro_hoshi and yhin2x): I wrote the piece following the style of the era I was supposed to be writing about. I believe that the setting— and that includes the choice of words in a story— is an overarching persona that a writer must be careful to take into consideration when writing. Basically, it needs to sound authentic. So apologies *hands you a box of tissues*

To answer your question ReddHumann , no I am not a florist by profession. I researched on the internet about the fae, and the ingredients used to call them. I do admit that I like flowers though.

I didn't realize I was writing mostly about beautiful women ReddHumann. Historical references have shown me that Elizabeth was not pretty at all. She inherited her features from the Tudor line and well... her beauty is in her strength, more than her face. For Princesse and Eternal Moon, I think it is kinda expected in that type of story (a retell) for the MC to be pleasant to look at (it was in the original story-text of Cinderella).

Secondly, for Princesse Sous Les Cendres, again I am bound by the rules of the contest. The writing prompt this time was: write a 3,000 word retell of a fairytale (they had a list of tales to choose from) in the second voice, without altering any of the original plot/storyline. You may add your own twist but it cannot change the flow of the story. 

I agree with @all that the storyline did not allow for anything new, and that my twist on her dryad ancestry is somewhat a wasted opportunity. Trivia: The original draft for this one was at 6,000 words and I had to cut half of what I actually wrote to fit the word count. It was difficult to keep to the plot and not give my own twist, but I had to. ReddHumann, no I wasn't inspired by Disney. Perrault inspired Disney and his version is older than the Grimm Brothers (who people often mistake for the original text. NOT TRUE! The Grimm Brothers collected marchen/folktales; they were not the authors of those stories. ) And though I am glad of the generally positive response of the audience to this retell, of all the stories I wrote this one is the least I am proud of. I actually wrote Eternal Moon as a response to how I felt about the wasted opportunity in Princesse... because despite its flaws, Eternal Moon gave me much more creative freedom and proved to myself that shifting character POV's, if done correctly, can work even in the second voice.

Best Commenter

My best commenter is purple_porpoise. In my opinion, she gave a good balance in her review which contained all the elements that the club is aiming for. I really love the part with all the grammar corrections as it makes for easier editing. It was also wonderfully phrased in such a way as to uplift the writer. Thank you purple_porpoise. :D

And as for the rest, thank you for pointing out all the mistakes and there were some very good observations that I could use to improve my writing. Thank you and I am honored and humbled by your responses.