SpoCon Weekend

I have my programming hat on for SpoCon. See it? So I’ll be back next week. Catch you then!

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Guest Post: A Game of Books (The Tower in the Mist by Deby Fredericks)

Hello, everyone! Today I’m visiting Charles E. Yallowitz on his blog, Legends of Windemere. I’m talking about how the Tower in the Mist has its roots in a video game. I hope you’ll come by and check it out.

Legends of Windemere

The Tower in the Mist

Mages vs. Amazons vs. Giant Badger vs. Tyranny

Zathi’s job is to capture renegade mages, but Keilos isn’t like any other mage she’s dealt with. Her drive to bring him in only leads them deeper into a cursed forest. Together, warrior and mage will face deadly beasts and grapple with decisions that compromise every principle. Until they stumble upon a place of ancient, forgotten magic. Zathi must choose — allow Keilos to claim it, or kill him once and for all.

Pre-Order it on Amazon!

Charles often tells us how his Legends of Windemere series got its start as a role-playing game while he was in college. I am here to confess that I, too, wrote my book because of a game.

In my case, it was the video game Dragon Age. I have all three of the series, and I played them back-to-back-to-back-to…

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Dragons Past and Future

Dragons Just Hangin’

Guess what I got for Christmas! Actually, I got several dragons. There’s a lovely vintage print of a lady reading with her pet dragon, and a dragon wine holder, too. My friends know me well.

These dragons are my favorites, though. They are hand made from wool felt. They were most likely purchased at a local fair-trade shop, so the crafters would have created them as part of a jobs program.

Technically, they are a holiday decoration, but they’re so darned cute! I think they’ll just be hanging around my office window for the foreseeable future.

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In other news, it’s the new year and I’m re-assessing certain parts of my writing career. (Not because of any crisis — you should take stock of things from time to time.) Like many writers, I tend to focus most on my current work in progress. I don’t pay as much attention as I should to actually selling copies of my books in print.

As part of this, I’m considering how Wyrmflight supports my other goals. After all, part of the reason for blogging is to draw readers and make sales.

The other piece of this is that I may have gone as far as I can with the blog’s theme of dragons. It’s been seven years, you know? I’ve kept my topic broad to include everything from books and movies to real things that are named after dragons, but what I really love is to share folk stories from around the world. Lately those are getting harder to find.

Will I cease blogging here? I don’t know. It’s brought me many friendships and helped collect enough material for a book. (See my ad, below.) Perhaps I’ll switch to another topic, such as Witches or Fairies. Perhaps I’ll find a way to re-use older posts in a new format. (I hear Instagram is hot these days.)

So this is where I thank all of you for coming along on my Wyrmflight journey. I hope you’ll stick with me, wherever my dragons may come to roost.

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Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Appearing Near You?

I’ve been invited to speak by Idaho Writers League, a North-Idaho-based group for published and aspiring writers. My topic: “Magic in all its forms and disguises.” I’ll be speaking for perhaps 45 minutes and then taking questions and discussing with the audience.

This is on Thursday, August 16th, 6:30 pm. The location is Schmidt Hall, Lutheran Church of the Master, 4800 N. Ramsey Rd, in Coeur d’Alene, ID. I don’t think there’s a fee.

The timing is a little tight, since it comes right after SpoCon, but I plan to focus intensely and put together a really great, informative presentation on magic in fantasy. If anyone happens to be in Coeur d’Alene on Thursday, I’d love to see you there.

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Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Just For Fun 36

Here’s a very short one, before I head off to an all-day gaming event.

Q: At Dragon University, what do the students say when a lecture goes on for too long?

A: This is really draggin’ on!

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Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Dragon Encounters 17

It’s been a while since I encountered a dragon in the wild, but today I went to the garden show. There were dragons picnicking.

There were dragons flying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were dragons just hanging around.

It was a day of dragony goodness. And, I even picked up some hot peppers for the garden!

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Just a few of my books:

Aunt Ursula’s Atlas, Lucy D. Ford’s short story collection

Masters of Air & Fire, Lucy D. Ford’s middle-grade novel

The Grimhold Wolf, my Gothic werewolf fantasy, and my epic fantasy, The Seven Exalted Orders.

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A Perfect 10 with Deby Fredericks

Today I’m visiting with Don Massenzio at his awesome blog, for an author interview answering ten questions. Come on by!

Source: A Perfect 10 with Deby Fredericks

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The Order of the Dragon

A reader named Marek clued me into this topic, so thanks, Marek!

The Order of the Dragon was a faux-chivalric order of knighthood active in Eastern Europe during the early 1400s. I say a faux order because the Age of Chivalry was pretty well over by then. Orders of Knighthood had been most active during the Crusades (roughly 1095-1291). Founding a chivalric order in 1408 was akin to modern Americans organizing ourselves according to the legends of the Wild West.

And here I shall refrain from snarky comments about the current political affairs of the United States.

The Order of the Dragon was founded by Sigismund, King of Hungary and Croatia. Like the European political leaders during the Crusades, Sigismund was under threat by the expansion of the Ottoman Turks into Eastern Europe. His reign (1387-1437) was turbulent with both internal and external strife. The Order of the Dragon allowed him to identify a core of supporters who he could count on in his various battles.

Members got the status boost of being in a chivalric order. They earned the rank of baron, if they didn’t already have it. (Many were princes of smaller territories within Hungary and Croatia.) There were twenty-one initial members at its founding. More were admitted in 1418 and again in 1431.

The purpose of the Order, set forth in founding documents, was to “crush the pernicious deeds of the same perfidious Enemy, and of the followers of the ancient Dragon, and of the pagan knights, schismatics, and other nations of the Orthodox faith, and those envious of the Cross of Christ, and of our kingdoms, and of his holy and saving religion of faith…” So, basically, they were out to destroy the Turks, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and anyone else they considered a heretic.

The Order of the Dragon had two main symbols. One was an ouroboros (a dragon eating its own tail) and the other a red equal-armed cross with flames at all four ends. Not surprisingly, St. George was their patron saint. Even after Sigismund’s death, several notable families kept these symbols in their personal arms. Among these were the Dracul family of Wallachia and the Bathory family of Hungary.

It does not appear that the Order of the Dragon took part in any actual battles, either with the Turks or with purely political opponents. Simply having an order stocked with Sigismund’s supporters may have been enough to create a deterrent. However, being so strongly linked to Sigismund, the order faded away once he died. The few relics of the Order of the Dragon are preserved at the University of Budapest.

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Aunt Ursula’s Atlas, on Lisa Burton Radio

News flash! My publisher, Sky Warrior Books, has the pre-order link up on the anthology I edited. Wee Folk and Wise is a collection of fairy tales by twenty authors. I’ll be telling you more about that shortly.

But first… This week my character, Anatar, from Aunt Ursula’s Atlas, visited Entertaining Stories. Here’s her interview on Lisa Burton Radio.

Entertaining Stories

Lucky you, you’ve just landed on Lisa Burton Radio, the only show out there featuring the characters from the stories you love. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and today we have an interesting fairytale princess with us today. “Welcome to the show, Anatar.”

“Thank you, Lisa of Burton. It’s a pleasure to be here.”

“My bio says you and your sister Eletay were orphans. How does an orphan get to be a princess? Were your parents banished or something?”

“No secret heiresses here, I’m afraid. Our family lived in a small village outside Chantain. I was only seven when our parents died, and Ella was nine, so I don’t remember much about what happened. We spent several months wandering and working for food when we could find anyone kind enough to let us stay.

“If we were able to improve our lot, it was because I saw opportunities…

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Haiku 2

Dragon swooping low,

Breathing flame to melt the snow.

Frosty is dismayed.

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