New formatting. New Cover August 2013.An orphaned unicorn. The pig-keeper’s son, reckoned as witless as he is speechless, but far more than he seems. The runaway heiress who knows nothing of the world but what the minstrels have sung of on endless winter nights. A proud Duke and a blue-eyed dog. In 1991, my novella “Thistledown” appeared as part of Once Upon A Time, Lester Del Rey and Rissa Kessler’s splendidly illustrated anthology of “modern” fairy tales. The reviewer for Locus called it “one of the best unicorn stories since The Last Unicorn.” I was suitably flattered, since Peter Beagle’s novel was a great influence on me as I began to write fantasy. And I considered that my story, which was structured like a mini novel, would bear expansion to novel length.