Hello! My name is Bethany Murley, and I’m author of The Dauntless Princess.
Since I was a tiny girl, my world has been a whirl of the fantastical. I devoured book after fantasy book as a child, fighting beside King Arthur and earning a place in his court, taking to the skies with dragonriders, falling down a rabbit hole with Alice and ruling Narnia’s fauns and dryads. After traveling these worlds, I began writing stories to create beautiful worlds of my own. As I grew up, writing became more than an escape as I learned to see my own world as fantastic, too.
I grew up homeschooled in the wilds of Appalachian Tennessee. As a preteen, I left there and traveled to southern Africa with my family doing aid work. After attending college in north Georgia, I moved to Gainesville, Georgia and spent two years there. Then vast energy of Atlanta seducing me ever southward, I decided to make that beautiful city my home, using my new job as a property management consultant to springboard to parts of the country I’ve never seen before. What ho, adventure! This blog follows my great experiment: living on the edge with my eyes wide open, by my own choice and with no regrets.
I am a creative romantic and my imagination gets me in trouble more often than not. I see the world through rose-colored glasses, always trying to live with an eye peeled for beauty and a hope that magic can in some way become real. My soul still needs books by the truckload; when I die, my spirit will certainly haunt libraries. I’m endlessly curious, too: it’s hard to resist exploring other people’s houses, talking to interesting strangers, or taking a beetle shell apart to see exactly what’s left on the inside. And I love beauty. I believe it is essential to life. From little things like embroidered touches on clothes, dimples, curves of a rose, hot tea on a cloudy afternoon, and the way book pages whisper together… to big things like thunderous waterfalls, mile-high sunsets, elegant architecture, the power of love and sacrifice.
I have flaws. I am too materialistic and love decadent things. I can be rude and thoughtlessly honest, often goal-focused to the detriment of others. I yell at cars on the highway in a petty way. I can be awfully selfish, and have a host of other downfalls that surely will come to light for everyone journeying with me. For these things I hope you’ll forgive me as I constantly strive to be dauntless.
I hope this blog inspires its readers to live passionate lives: to see the beauty in the world and then breathe desperately needed vitality into their own stories, their own lives and surroundings. Never underestimate your impact on a world starved for beauty, however you choose to give it.
~Princess Bethany~
