Writing a Dragon Fantasy pt. I

My latest novel release, Rayna the Dragon Warrior, is the sequel to my dragon fantasy adventure A Time of Dragons series Rayna the Dragonslayer. I thought it would be fun to do a deep dive into the novel series discussing how I came up with the idea, characters, and more. Here is part I:

How is this book different?

Let's face it, there's alot of books out there. Of those millions of books a sizable amount are fantasy novels. And of those fantasy novels many of them feature dragons. So, to answer the question of how my book is different, all I can tell you is that my interpretation of characters, events, and world-building were approached with great enthusiasm and a nice helping of grit.

I've already received a review stating how well the character development was done which I take great pride in. I worked hard on not only the hero but the side characters as well. It's a perpetual journey as a writer to improve your craft and this one area I've worked really hard at improving.

I love building characters, it's my favorite part of writing. Rayna has been a long time coming. I've written about strong female characters before, it's my go-to brand. And I've even done a fantasy heroine in the past as well. But Khalen from Demon Huntress was more vicious than Rayna. This time, I wanted to write a tried and true antihero. A woman with a rough past doing what she needs to survive but when faced with a test of morals she alters her path to protect the innocent. In a small way I referenced The Mandalorian. When Djin finds Baby Yoda it changes his entire path in life and thus adventure ensues.

That's how I approached Rayna's story. What would happen if a dragonslayer has a change of heart? In Rayna the Dragon Warrior we meet up with the duo of warrior and dragon again, only now they're further along in their relationship and we see a kinship and care begin to form between the two. This time, new characters come along for the journey which ups the stakes even more.

I also spent quite a bit of time developing different monsters that you don't often see in stories. The last thing I wanted was a tired version of the same old orcs or goblins. (check out my blog on monster building here). I did quite a bit of world-building as well to the point where I needed to have a map drawn up. This attention to detail is woven through my series A Time of Dragons to bring the best possible story to light.

Subscribe to the blog and come on back for part II where I go into further detail about my characters, the inspiration behind them, and who the newbies are in Rayna the Dragon Warrior.