Here Be Dragons and TA Chase

Hey everyone…

Good Wednesday Morning to you all and thank you to Jeanne for inviting me here to her blog.

Jeanne expressed an interest in finding out more about my dragon story, Here Be Dragons. I’ll be more than happy to talk about Kael, Hugh, Mordred and George. Oh and about how I came to write the story.

I’m not sure why I was looking up the legend of St. Patrick chasing snakes from Ireland. It might have been because I was trying to find out why there were no snakes there. Probably some weird thought got stuck in my head and I just had to find the answer to it. I doubt it was because I wanted to write a story.

As I was reading along, one of a writer’s most favorite questions in the world popped into my head, “What if…”

What if snakes started appearing in Ireland again? And what if they weren’t snakes, but dragons, returning to the world centuries after St. George killed the last one? And what if there just happened to be a herpetologist working at a lab there who could check the snakes out? What if…?

You get the picture. The story took off from that one simple question. My muse introduced me to Kael Hammerson, a geeky herpetologist running from an abusive ex-lover. He was still healing emotionally and mentally from that relationship, but he was the perfect character for the story.

Researching all kinds of different cultural myths and legends, I discovered St. George and Mordred. In my story, they are so much more than their legends made them out to be. I admit, I might have taken liberties with the myths I used, but what’s the fun of being a writer…if I can’t tweak them to fit my imagination.

I found that writing the paranormal/mythological aspects of my story were rather easy. For the most part, I could make up what I wanted. A talking cat. Mordred as an elf. George as something more than just a knight. The most difficult part for me was making the actions of an abused character (Kael) seem realistic without making him whiny or weak.

Here Be Dragons turned out more complex than I originally planned it to be. There were hidden depths to all the characters and situations that I never saw coming until after I wrote them. I enjoyed visiting their world though which is why I’m finishing up the sequel to it right now.

Dreaming of Dragons will take place six months after the dragons have appeared and focuses more on Mordred and George, but we do get glimpses of Kael and Hugh, plus all the other characters we met in Here Be Dragons.
Paranormal stories are some of my favorite stories to read, but I haven’t written many of them…which strikes me as odd suddenly…lol. I do have a short story titled “Understanding Forgiveness” in which Mason, a snow leopard shifter, is rescued by Heinrich, the son of the mad scientist who created Mason. Mason and Heinrich have to learn how to deal with each other and all the baggage they carry. It’s a short sweet story.

On my blog, I’m posting a free story called “Allergies”. Lou’s a wolf shifter who falls in love with Ray, a normal human. They’re attracted to each other, but there’s a problem. It seems Ray is allergic to Lou’s human side. It’s been a fun romp so far. Things took a little twist last week, so I’ll be interested to see where the guys are taking me.

I have ideas for a couple other paranormal stories, just haven’t gotten the time to write them. What kind of paranormals do you as readers enjoy? Are there any types that you’d love to see more of published? Demons? Ghosts? More shifters…if so, what kind?

It’s been great hanging out with you here at The Sweet Flag. Stop by my blog: No Boundaries (http:www.tachase.blogspot.com) to check out my books, my free blog story and just to see the yummy eye candy I post every day. My website is being updated at the moment, so my blog is the best spot to find me right now.

Thanks, Jeanne for having me today.