As a child, my parents encouraged a strong imagination. I suppose most parents do. ‘Make Believe” becomes a major part of a child’s day. From Tea Parties, to laser sword fights to building forts in snow banks or sandcastles on the beach or in the local sand lot. Vivid play-acting enriches the lives of children across the world. A sword can be the high-tech toy purchase from the local department store, or a branch shorn of leaves. It only takes the imagination of the child to propel them into a fantasy world where all things are possible.
Of course, we cannot forget Halloween, where legions of children don costumes and parade through neighborhoods throughout the United States. My favorite blocks were the ones that some of the houses set up something to scare the kids, a bubbling cauldron, a bowl filled with eyeballs floating in some unsightly goo or even the occasional mini-haunted house. We all knew it was Make Believe, but we immersed ourselves in the moment and screamed in fear or gasped with revulsion.
We loose all this, as we become adults. Oh, sure, on occasion we can play pirate with our kids or the kids next door, if you’re not a parent yet... Nevertheless, as we grasp the role of a grown-up, we discard the daily simulation of living in a dream world.
Except . . . In novels. The pages of a book become our portal to different worlds, different lives, new people and situations. I confess, I am a Sci-Fi and Fantasy junky. I cannot go long without my fix. Any day I have not had the opportunity to delve between the pages of a good Fantasy or Sci-fi novel leaves me with a gentle itch that something is missing. Should circumstances warrant I have to go several days, well, I am downright twitchy. I want a deep, immersing tale with multi-layered characters in a world that only exists in the author’s and my imagination.
Fantasy novels are my favorites, they plunge me into Make Believe every time I open the book. Halloween can be a daily event. I get to dress up in my imagination and play a role, and if the writing is good then it is a treat.
When I set out to write my book Dragon Soul I wanted to take the reader on the same type of journey that I crave. There used to be a commercial, about bath oil beads, it said “Calgon, take me away”. That is what I wrote Dragon Soul to do: to take the reader away to a different world where they’re anxious when characters are afraid, and laugh aloud at some of their antics. Isn’t that the point?
Dragon Soul http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EIBEIU is a 130,000 word fantasy novel, the first in the series Dragons in the Mist. The second book will be out by Jan 2012.
Thol, a goat herder at Vedicville, never imagined he would start his day as a human and end up as a dragon. Who would? Granted, he lived in a village of the Palmir People that mentored Dragon Hosts, but there are usually indications that a person is Host to a Dragon Soul. The first indication for Thol, was when his hands began to elongate and turn into talons.
At Thol's Scholla they taught that Dragon Souls are intelligent and giving. Not so, with his Dragon Soul--Rasdor--he is almost simple in his thoughts. Food, play and sleep are all that cross his mind, avaricious to please only himself... Unless he is dwelling on his wrath at his perceived ill treatment when he first Transformed, then he is full of a destructive rage verging on madness.
Rasdor is prone to what Thol's dama called a temper tantrum. However, the temper tantrum thrown by a child is laughable in comparison to those thrown by a dragon. Thol finds Rasdor completely unpredictable. He can see Rasdor's access to skills of his kind coming forth much faster than his maturity level. Soon an all-powerful dragon would be loose on the countryside with the behavior of a spoiled child...
Vedicville serves as a place to mentor Dragon Souls and Hosts, humans who transform into dragons. When Rasdor emerges unexpectedly and fly's off in a panic, the villagers commence a journey to find him.
The search uncovers more than the lost dragon, the key to saving their entire civilization. If they realize it in time.
I invite you to delve into my world with me, hopefully you, too, will have a Take me away moment!
B.J. Whittington
http://bjwhittington.com/
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