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They say 'write about your passions.' So, it should be no shock that I write about dragons.
Like many things in life, you can blame my dad. He wasn't a sporty father. His talents lay in bedtime stories, giving each character an expressive voice. Dad was also a die-hard Tolkien fanatic.
Several weeks into The Hobbit, I meet Smaug. Dad's voice went low and gravely, smirking as the dragon tried to catch Bilbo with his magic eye and voice. I'd meet dragons before, but none this terrifying or enchanting. Smaug was evil. He had that deliberate wrongness that comes from hurting others for the fun of it. He had power and reveled in using it.
Sadly, Smaug only got two, maybe three nights of reading. The Hobbit soon became our most requested read-aloud. However, Middle-Earth wasn't the only nightly destination.
I watched in awe as poor Eustace became a dragon from sleeping on dragon gold, thinking dragon thoughts.
I giggled as the clever Farmer Giles fast talked the dragon into carrying his baggage.
I found book after book of folktales, watching heroes trick, fight, and tame forces of nature.
I decided, with all the surety of a child, the best sort of stories had dragons. Fantasy became my go-to genre.
Unfortunately for Smaug, he quickly found himself sharing the spotlight. He was still 'The Scariest Dragon' in my mind. However, I found room for more than one type of dragon.
Pete's Magic Dragon introduced me to Elliot, who because 'The Surprising Dragon.' He was shy, a bit naïve - I nearly hyperventilated laughing when he mistakenly drank liquor and belched a fireball. However, when his friend Pete is in danger, there's no doubt Elliot is a fire-breathing, building-smashing dragon.
Coming from Patrica C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Kazul quietly took her place as the 'The Best Fanged Friend.” I envied Princess Cimorene. Move-in with a dragon, study Latin, sort treasures, and tell pushy boys to shove off.
Finally, there was Draco, voiced by Sean Connery. Dragonheart was one of the first PG-13 movies I was allowed to watch. The ending broke my heart and firmly titled Draco as 'The Heroic Dragon.'
All these stories distilled into one idea - dragons can be anything. Villains, heroes, friends, pranksters. Of course, when I went to write my own stories, my overthinking took it a step farther. Dragons can be anything.
In Mundus, dragons don't have a single body type or attitude. Celebramar walks like a quaruped, and also had a massive set of wings. Mentality, he is a young adult who just moved out from his parent's nest – self-confident, branching out, enjoying life.
Madam Vircroc, on the other hand, comes off as a mature, professional business lady. She walks on her back legs like a raptor, can't fly, but has an impressive vertical jump and a venomous bite.
(Also in my notes, is an Asian “Lung” Princess, who may or may not come 'a courting' in a later story.)
All this diversity makes writing an interesting exercise in world-building. How does dragon culture work? How you make a written language when half your population lacks thumbs? What about raising a family? If the mother breathes fire and the father spits hail, what will their offspring do?
A wiser author might prune back the details (or try to stop overthinking everything). Unfortunately, imprinting on dragons means I have several of their habits. When it comes to shiny trinkets or ideas, I can't make myself let go.
In the end, I just adopted the attitude that if a bumblebee can bend aerodynamics' known laws, Mundus dragons will gleefully twist the laws of genetics into Non-Euclidean shapes.
Why do I write about dragons?
Dragons can be anything; that gives me the freedom to tell whatever kind of story I want.
