Shannon Hale and Dean Hale are the New York Times bestselling wife-and-husband writing team behind The Princess in Black series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World, and the graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge. Shannon is also the author of books like The Goose Girl, Newbery Honor–winner Princess Academy, Real Friends, and Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends.1 Dean and Shannon are thrilled to be writing this book together, especially since “a clash of monsters and fairytales” is also an apt description for their marriage. They live in Utah, where they herd their four young children, write books, and perform in a punk rock band named Rat Muzzle.2
1 Also some other Ever After High books that my parents narrated: The Unfairest of Them All, A Wonderlandiful World, and Once Upon a Time. They are so good, but don’t tell my parents I said so, or they might get big-headed about it.
2 Um… I think they’re kidding about the punk rock band thing. Ooh, if I had a punk band, I’d call it Figure of Screech. Or maybe Scream of Consciousness. No lie, my dad is part of a barbershop quartet named the Narratones. What would you call your band?