How the story began - The Dragons of Fyre

An autographed copy of The Dragons of Fyre will be given to the person who leaves me a way to reach them. Unfortunately last week's winner didn't leave an addy.

I have loved dragons for ages. Above my computer on a shelf sit many dragons. Every year at Christmas I receive a new one. They come in many forms and many styles from Chinese dragons to fanciful ones made from cloth. Why dragons, perhaps the mythology. Maybe stories I have read about dragons. The Pern stories of McCaffrey are among my favorites. In all the years and all stories I've written there have never been dragons. Not sure why except that my first and many stories were nurse/doctor romances and contemporary. Not the place for dragons unless they are collected by a hero or heroine. Now that's a different idea for me and someday may become a story.

When I wrote the Temple of Fyre, there were these bushes poison to people but an idea occurred. What if some part of these bushes could and must be consummed by dragons. While writing Temple, a palace stud taken by the evil priestess on her trip to find the fabled blue fyrestone suddenly became of more interest. I put the idea aside and finsihed that book. Probably went on to another and then suddenly this character wouldn't leave me rest until his story was told. But what could be the problem.

What if the dragons of Fyre were dying out or deliberately being taken into the hands of a power hungry man. I sat at my desk and looked at a piece of art my four year old grandson had made using one of those paint spinners. When he brought it home, he told me it was a dragon and the picture looked like a dragon, a yellow one. The wise dragon was born. A dragon who could talk to all dragons and who wanted to return the dragons to the mountain keep where he was born. Then what came next. The hero escaped and returned to his home. Then the adventure returned. The heroine took a bit longer to develop. At first she was going to be the evil lord's daughter but that didn't fit. One morning I realized she was a slave, one who was able to communicate with the dragons. She allows an egg to hatch. This produces another yellow dragon and the story begins as they help a female dragon bearing two eggs, a red and a blue to escape. The pieces were all in place and the story began.