This post is dedicated to dragons. No, I’m not going to tell you about dragons. You already know.
I love this quote from G. K. Chesterton:
Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.
Except for one thing: Why do you want to kill the dragons?
Most of my stories seems to have dragons in them, for some reason.
BLOOD WILL TELL/BLOOD IS THICKER/(and eventually BLOOD STAINS) have dragons as major characters or even the main character. These dragons can take human form and have some interesting difficulties as well as advantages in dealing with our world. The family is into banking, since guarding treasure comes naturally to them.
MAGE STORM has three different kinds of dragons. Mountain dragons are merely incidental (although one would become much more important in the next two books, WILD MAGE and DRAGON MAGE, if they ever get written. That most likely depends on whether any agent and editor ever like MAGE STORM enough.) Water dragons are a little more important to the story. And then there are the Keepers, tiny dragons who maintain the magical library. I have to admit, I love the Keepers. These are all neutral or actually helpful creatures.
SEVEN STARS may be the only novel I’ve written that makes no reference to dragons at all. Hmm.
MAGIC’S FOOL does not have a live dragon in it, but it does have a story about a dragon and a group of suggestively placed sea rocks called the Dragon Bone Chain. The importance of the largest, Dragon Skull Islet, will only be revealed in later books.
Even one of my trunk novels, DREAMER’S ROSE, had a dragon in it. The dragon wasn’t important to the story, but it was there. Someday, I may figure out what I need to change in that story and rewrite it.
And at least one of my planned novels, THE BARD’S GIFT, will have dragons in it. Yes, it’s alternate history. I’m altering history to include dragons, as well as in other ways.
So, what is this thing I have about putting dragons in my stories.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 
I think every story should have, and probably does have, dragons, albeit by different names.
Smaug
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Possibly. But these are out in the open, scales showing, dragons–at least part of the time.
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I think it’s nice when an author has somekind of trademark, especially when it appears in different shapes. I tend to have a cat in most of my stories, sometimes just as a passing note, sometimes with some real purpose. Dragons are way cooler 😉
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Hmm. Well, if dragons are to be my trademark, I’d better figure out how to slip one into SEVEN STARS, hadn’t I?
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I always figured I’d have a lot more dragons in my stories than I do. I think perhaps this is because my respect for what dragons represent, what they mean, leads me to feel they aren’t an element you can just drop into a story, they must have a purpose. Typically quite a large one. They definitely exist in The Universe of the Nine Roads and there will be at least one in “The Dawn Prism.”
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Yes, dragons are special. And most of mine are also among the good guys.
I love my little Keepers that guard the books of magic and hiss like teakettles when they talk. 🙂
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