Dragon Inspiration

There’s this meme running around.

I don’t know who to credit for the meme or I’d mention it, but I do appreciate the sentiment. It’s so incredibly true. There are times something will catch my attention – a crazy twisted tree or an accent or even a smell, especially when the trees are blooming – and my brain grabs hold. I’ll stew on that thing sometimes for days, building a picture or a small snippet of dialogue that fascinates me.

But here’s the weird part. That picture or snippet stays a stand alone thing until I sit down and start putting words to a story. It’s like my brain has to plant the thing before it flourishes. Due to this, more often than not, I have no idea what a story will be until I’m sitting at my computer.

Anyway, this is how it worked for Discarded Dragons. During the Christmas season several years ago my husband and I were wandering through the mall and stumbled upon a figurine store. Right near the front was an entire case of dragons. This spells danger for both of us. We love finding fun dragon figurines. As we perused through, my eye caught on a set of steampunk style statues, dragons that looked like they’d been put together with metal plates and wheels and cogs. Needless to say, we ended up with the set and my brain latched onto the idea of those small, metal dragons being great for a story.

They sat on my bookshelves for months as I ruminated over the great idea of them being in a story, and after all those months, I was no closer to having any idea what kind of world they came from or what kind of characters they’d be.

Then, one day, I decided I’d write an adventure just to get the ball rolling.

***

A workshop full of steampunk dragons opens in my mind with the smell of glue and copper and tin. The wooden floor vibrates under a man’s heavy steps as a partially made but discarded dragon watches from the discard pile that sprawls on the floor beside the workbench. In his glowing gem-heart, the dragon desires to be whole above anything else…

***

The story was planted and flourished from there, like I’d given it sunshine and water…or glue, small screws, and metal wings =) Once a story takes off like this, I’m always surprised where it goes, but I love the discovery.

So the next time you see a writer lazing about in a chair with an aromatic cup of coffee or tea, just know, she might be worlds away in a workshop trying to fit together wings and claws to finish her dragon shape.

Next week I’ll get a little techie on you and discuss some of the formatting things I learned this go around. So far every book teaches me something new and this one’s no exception.

Until then, thanks for stopping by and blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Discarded Dragons will be available September 1, 2021. Pre-orders will be open here on my website sometime in August. I’ll update you as soon as I know more.