🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where sometimes the knight has to protect the prince and neither of them is happy about it. This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with author and composer Hayley Turner to discuss Light Guard, a romantic fantasy filled with sun magic, dark mages, forced proximity, forbidden romance, found family, and a gender-flipped bodyguard trope Hayley sums up perfectly: she's the guard, he's the prince, and they're both pissed about it. Corinne has spent her life training to become a Light Guard and expects her exceptional magical abilities to earn her a prestigious assignment protecting the kingdom's borders. Instead, she's ordered to become personal guard to Prince Aryel, a hedonistic royal who greets his devout new babysitter drunk, calls her “sunshine” just to annoy her, and makes scandalizing her his new favorite hobby. But with dark mages threatening Aryel's life and someone inside the castle potentially feeding information to the enemy, Corinne soon discovers that protecting the prince may force her to question everything she's been taught about duty, faith, friendship, and herself. ☀️ What happens when the kingdom's most powerful light mage gets assigned to babysit an insufferable prince? ⚔️ What if the bodyguard romance had her protecting him? 🖤 And what happens when the people you've been taught to avoid become the first ones to accept you exactly as you are? If you love lady knights, sun magic, dark magic, forced proximity, grumpy/grumpy, forbidden romance, princes who love pushing buttons, found family, castle intrigue, hidden enemies, queer-normative fantasy worlds, and bodyguard romances with the roles deliciously reversed, this episode is for you. 🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT: ✨ Hayley's lifelong love of storytelling and how The Count of Monte Cristo inspired the story that eventually became her debut novel. ✨ Writing and staging an entire original opera for her master's thesis and how seeing an audience connect with her work gave her the confidence to publish. ✨ Why Hayley describes her books as “fairy tales for adults” and the magic, darkness, comfort, and empathy she finds in fantastical stories. ✨ Light Guard and its irresistible premise: she's the guard, he's the prince, and they're both pissed about it. ✨ Corinne's sun magic, her unexpected assignment as the prince's personal guard, and their hilariously disastrous first meeting. ✨ Dark mages, assassination threats, a possible informant inside the castle, and the danger lurking beyond the kingdom's magical barrier. ✨ Flipping the traditional bodyguard romance by putting the woman in the armor and making the prince the one who needs protecting. ✨ Corinne's journey toward autonomy as she begins questioning the strict religious sect that raised her and finds unconditional friendship outside its walls. ✨ Writing meaningful OCD and queer representation into a romantasy world where characters are allowed to fully be themselves. ✨ Composing an entire original soundtrack for Light Guard, including fantasy folk songs and the piano piece Ariel performs inside the book. CONNECT WITH US 🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic 👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland 👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill 📚 Hayley Turner – @HayleyTurnerAuthor ✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.
