A Dragon in the Backyard…

My first novel, A Place With Dragons, opened with an acknowledgement “To You the Reader,” suggesting that each of us “keep a wary eye on life’s quiet shadows” because we’re apt to “find dragons in the most unexpected places.” Yesterday, I found one…

While putting part of a new fence in place, I spotted a lattice of sparkling of purple on something buried in the mud where I was working. It didn’t look like a rock, and it had the peculiar look of miniature scales. “Ridiculous!” I thought. But, since my daughter is a budding geologist, I guessed it might be fun for me to dig it out and let her determine what it was. I plopped the strange lump of sticky, clay mud inside an old coffee can for her to clean up; a little while later, after applying several baths of water and some scrubbing from an old toothbrush to remove the casket of mud surrounding it, she showed me what it was…a dragon head.

For those of us who might sometimes begin to think the magical reality of other-worldly adventure feels too far away, take heed!… Perhaps we do live in a place with dragons…

#fantasy #fantasybook #highfantasy #dragon #acitywithsevengates #aplacewithdragons #telluricgrand #stevenlovett #crow #wisp #warcrows #cityofrelic #dmp #dragonmoonpress

A Chapter’s Name

As a lifelong reader, I have loved it when an author has decided to give each chapter in a book its own title. Over time, I’ve come to see chapter titles almost as names. They can characterize the tone of a chapter. They can create expectations (which feel wonderful if met). They can, almost like a poetic line, convey a perspective or an emotion the author wants a reader to have. They’re the “children” who populate the “family” of a book. Maybe all of that’s placing too much significance on chapter titles (and sometimes they have little more significance than providing the next numeric designation), but when a chapter title is thoughtful, purposeful, and well-written, it adds another facet to the story. The names of chapters–once a book is put down for a long time before it is read again–have struck me as being like the names of old friends. In a few words, or in one word, they carry fond memories of time once-spent, and a journey once-taken, in another place and sometimes in another world. I hope all of my chapter “names” will eventually do that, too.

Here’s the name of Chapter 8 in A Murder of Crows…