Caprice was born in San Diego, California. She attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She currently lives in Southern California, sharing a mobile home with her husband, three children, a tankful of guppies, a cat, and a dog. Caprice has two grandchildren, writes SeaQuest fanfiction and sews bridal and Renaissance costumes in her spare time.
Caprice talks about her writing:
As a child, I enjoyed fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. When I started reading for myself, I loved classics like the Chronicles of Narnia. But when I grew up, the fantasy I found it wasn’t anything like the kind of fantasy I loved. While Middle Earth was fascinating, I was more interested in people than battles, languages, and surroundings. Modern fantasy was too often of the “sword and sorcery” type, or it contained far too much gratuitous sex and foul language for my taste. And the women protagonists were usually warriors. Why must a woman wield a sword to be worthy of interest?
When I couldn’t find the kind of story I wanted to read, I wrote my own: The Duke’s Handmaid. Yes, there’s a whole new world to explore: Byntar has twin suns and twin moons and two sentient races. But the world is just background to the story, which is really about the characters. The heroine is a peasant girl who never touches a weapon, yet saves the life of the king, queen, and duke through her bravery. There’s also a hero, but my “Prince Charming” married the wicked stepmother before he ever met his “Cinderella”.
Since there’s slavery and a race issue in my book, people have often assumed it’s a commentary or parallel of American history. It’s not. Both my races can be free and both can be enslaved. Most of my characters assume one race is superior, but it’s more akin to Vulcans vs. Humans than African vs. Caucasian. Unlike Roddenberry, I let my physically weaker and mentally slower species have the longer lifespan. The ambitious movers and shakers burn themselves out and die faster!
Another thing people often ask is whether my book is suitable for youth. My answer is: it’s PG. I don’t mean it’s like a movie that’s rated PG, I mean a parent should decide whether the material is suitable for their youth to read. There’s absolutely nothing in my book that can’t be found in the Old Testament, and I believe I have handled the touchy subjects with great sensitivity. I don’t describe rapes and murders, but you will get a brief glimpse of the aftermath. The criminals do pay for their crimes, and it’s not sugared over when they do. 95% of the violence is in chapters 1 and 2, which is part of the free excerpt anyone can read on my website. If you can get through that, you've seen the worst of the violence.
The only other issue is some under-age seduction which the villain conducts. The only thing I “show” is flirting, then finding the girl in his bed the next morning, then the girl learning she is pregnant. If your youth doesn’t know that these awful things happen in the real world, then please don’t let my fiction be the introduction. I don’t allow characters to get away with misconduct like this. There are grave consequences and seeing the bad guys reap their just rewards is usually the impetus for the violence I show.
