The Fairest of Them All

Dude…of course I’m totally talking about me. Yeah. That goober there in the picture with the chibi eyes and the face of a Muppet. The one and only Alethea Madeleine Kontis, a.k.a Princess Alethea. Moi.

Yes, Alethea is my real, mom-and-dad given name. The Princess title was inevitable…like a freight train down the track, it was simply a long time coming. Contrary to popular belief, I never wanted to be a princess growing up. I wanted to be an actress and a writer…both of whom were free to dress like a gypsy and run around the yard speaking in a British accent.

Mostly I blame my current Princesshood on Jill Conner Browne who, during a visit to Ingram in March of 2007, bestowed upon me a Big Ass Tiara and proclaimed me Princess of Ingram. When I signed up for LJ they told me I couldn’t use my own name as someone had already syndicated it, so I had to come up with something else. BAM. At my best friend Devin’s wedding a year later, I made up nametags for Devin’s sister, my sister, and myself, declaring that we were Princess Megan, Princess Soteria, and Princess Alethea. I left it stuck on my laptop for a very long time. When I was asked to come up with a title for my review column at Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, what name could have been better than Princess Alethea’s Magical Elixir? Similarly, when the sideshow idea for Dragon*Con sprang to life like Athena from my cranium…well, you see where this insanity has led.

Type in www.princessalethea.com. Yeah, I went there. Figured if I was gonna do it, I was gonna own it.  I took physics — that freight train has a lot more inertia than I do, and it would be futile to stop it. A lot less fun, too.

Ultimately, I’ve found it’s easier for people to call me "Princess" than remember how to pronounce Uh-LEE-thee-uh, and I’m totally okay with that. If we only see each other at the odd convention, you really shouldn’t have to work that hard. We’rethere to have fun, not embarrass each other.

Now, according to my magic mirror (which I sometimes refer to as "Google Alert"), there are two other Princess Aletheas on these here intarwebs. One is a Princess in the SCA (Alethea Eastriding, Crown Princess and one-time Queen of the East), and the other is a fan fiction writer. I should not be confused with either of these women — who I’m sure are very much fabulous in their own special ways.

But let’s be clear — like it says up there at the top — all the ways about here belong to me.