They're just so...dragonish!

Today it is my pleasure to have Katie MacAlister guest blogging about her dragons. 

I know she was drowning in deadlines, yet she took time out of that busy schedule, to blog for me. Thank you so much, Katie.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint the exact moment of inspiration for writing my dragon series—I do remember that in the spring of 2003 I had just finished one of my Dark Ones novels, and itched to do something different, something that no one else was yet doing in the world of romance. I also wanted to do something that was absolutely not happening at that time in romances—a story arc with the same hero and heroine carried over several books. No happily ever after at the end of a book? What the heck?

I’m such a troublemaker.

I knew that the characters were going to have to be extremely strong and vibrant in order to pull that off, and instantly, the idea of a dragon in human form came to mind. I’ve often said that Drake Vireo leapt fully formed from my brain to the page at that moment, and that’s really the truth—he swaggered into existence complete with non-traditional, anti-hero personality, a profound love of gold, and an infuriating (to him, anyway) fascination with a mortal named Aisling Grey.

When I wrote that first dragon book, You Slay Me, I didn’t know much about my dragons. I had a vague idea of there being four dragon septs, each named for a color, and each with a symbolic element. I also know that the dragons were naturally arrogant, loved anything that even remotely smelled of treasure, and were beyond sexy into the land of steaming your toenails.

As I wrote You Slay Me, the dragon lore started to gel in my brain. I drew elements of the mythos from traditional dragon lore—they hoard treasure, can breathe and control fire, and they most certainly are not human—and included it into an exotic world that made up of the weyr, a collection of all the dragon septs. I gave each sept a wyvern as a leader, and pulled on various other elements of history and mythology to flesh out the weyr, particularly with respect to the dragons’ interaction with humans over the centuries.

I was a little nervous as to how my readers would react to something so different from what was then being published in the paranormal romance world, but was thrilled when it turned out my readers loved the arrogant, bossy dragons just as much as I did. Whew!

There are more dragon books planned for the future. I’m about to dive into the tenth dragon novel, the last in three-book story arc, after which I’ll continue on with the remaining septs. Someone asked me once if I had a finite number of books for the dragons, and I’m thankful to say that the answer is no—I love them too much to ever stop writing for them. They’re just so...dragonish!

COMING: May 3rd 

The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons

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Do you really know your neighbor?

Could your neighbor, teacher, or friend, be other than what you think they are?

Well if you listen to many of today’s authors, they very well could be.

According to Lindsey Sands, Karrelyn Sparks, Maggie Shayne and many others, your next-door neighbor just might be a vampire, even if you see them during the day. Let’s see, they portrays them as doctors, authors, even business owner. Then there is Christine Feehan who has a popular band of Carpathians. Or what about Laurell K. Hamilton who has weres teaching our children? Also Lora Adrian and her breeds.  Nalini Singh who has changelings and phy owning major businesses. And then there’s Katie MacAlister with her dragons  and demons to contend with. Oh and let’s not forget Alexis Morgan’s Paladins and Alyssa Day’s Atlanteans. And of course you have Karen Moning describing the Tuatha de Danann as soul sucking monsters and me portraying them as sensual beings that walk among us.

One could fill a page with authors and how they depict vampires, weres, fae, dragons and the rest. But where do the ideas for these creatures come from? Much of it is from folklore.  

It is said that myths are based on a portion in truth. So, is it possible we really do have vampires, were animals, dragons, fae and all the rest living next door? Is that guy next to you in the elevator or who passed you on the stairs really who you think he is? If one passed you in the street, would you know? When you hear that owl hoot or that wolf or coyote howl are they the real thing or could they be your neighbor? 

How do you feel about that?

I much prefer the way many of today’s authors depict vamps and weres. I don’t think I would mind them living next to me if they didn’t drink me dry or eat me for lunch. 

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about some of that folklore as well as trying to get some of these authors to tell us how they came up with their idea for each creature. But in the meantime how do you feel about possibly having one of these creatures living next door?