Thanks for joining me!
From the author of the Dragonlore fantasy trilogy. I have a love for dragons and a tale to tell.
Skogafoss, Iceland – the inspiration for Springall Falls (Photo: Pixabay)
The Birth of a Trilogy
Since the turn of the century, I have been hearing primary children read. Whilst in the school library one lunchtime, an idea for a children’s story was born. When I got to the end where the dragon egg hatched, I realised that this was not the end, but instead, the beginning of something far larger. A rewrite of that which was already written and four hundred pages later, it became obvious that there was too much for one book and so the follow up and conclusion will now follow.
“Ride the Wind” will continue in “Weather the Storm”, but the title for the conclusion has yet to be decided upon.
Creating my fantasy World
The first stage is easy – when I write I can see it all in my mind very clearly, so all I have to do is describe what I see, hear or would sense. However that’s where I have to stop and think. Bearing in mind the type of world I am describing, I cannot use modern words or expressions. For example, “a concrete idea” would not be appropriate and ‘a storm in a teacup’ becomes ‘a storm in a goblet.’
An online well known dictionary is my constant companion – looking for synonyms that are suitable, and if they are described as “archaic”, then that is even better. If a word does not sit comfortably then I know that it is probably wrong. If I cannot immediately find a ‘right’ word then I type the suspect word in red so that it is easy to go back to when I have found a word that I am happy with. One of my favourite words I discovered when searching for an alternative spirit drink to rum, was “rumbullion.” Immediately I read the word, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. “Hosks” was a made up name for a breed of animal – at first I was not sure whether I liked it, but as time passed I grew to like it and decided that it suited the beasts as I saw them.
Traditions usually unfold with the story, sometimes quite by accident. In Ride the Wind, the firstborn son has the same name initial as their sire – once I realised that this had occurred, I used it as a tradition of that world. It then works the other way when needing a name for a grandsire and extended to the firstborn girl name initial matching her mother’s. Right from the start I had decided to name the dragons after gemstones corresponding to their colour, but it was later that the idea of their Rider’s hair matching or echoing the colour was formed.
Distant communication could only be by birds, but what bird do you choose? Not wanting to name a specific type of bird such as owls, ravens, etc., I eventually decided upon “winged messenger” which allows each reader to see them as they will.
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically scaled or fire-spewing, and with serpentine, reptilian or avian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures around the world.
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