Ever wonder what it’d be like to be bonded to a dragon?

Shawnahur hadn’t even thought it was possible, but then it happened! Suddenly he’s gaining attention.

First the chief’s mage shows up declaring Shawnahur dragon king of a nonexistent kingdom. Then he receives a summons from the chief’s household to be the chief’s personal musician, which shows him a side of the warrior he’d never expected.

With the clans united against a common enemy, Shawnahur’s brothers march to war. When Shawn takes supplies to his brothers, he unwittingly walks into a battlefield, and with his dragon’s help, defeats the champion.

As Shawnahur’s successes mount, the chief’s approval turns to jealousy. Shawn soon finds himself on the wrong end of a glaive more times than he can count. Now he only longs to stay alive; pleasing his brothers and herding would be a life of ease.

If this sounds up your alley or you know someone who’d like it, please share it. The ebook is on pre-order for 99-cents this week only. Then it’ll be back up to normal price.

Dragon Egg Ornament

This one may end up as a plain dragon egg in my office, but I’m sure I’ll be making it with my almost four-year-old granddaughter. It looks easy and fun.

What you’ll need:

• string, yarn, or ribbon to make it an ornament
• foil
• air dry clay or cornstarch and white glue
• straw or other object to make indents
• paint
• glitter or gem stickers (I have both from my dragon outfit for Realm Makers this year!)

Instructions:

Make a loop with the string, yarn, or ribbon and tie it off. Then using your foil, shape an egg around the end of the string. Mold your air dry clay around the foil, make indents or designs with a straw or paperclip. Let it dry. Paint and then add your glitter or stickers.

Dragon Ornaments

This is a salt dough recipe that you use to create dragons. Unfortunately, to do so, you’ll need a template or be able to draw dragons on dough really well. However, I can link to some templates to use.

You’ll need:

• paper template
• 3 cups of flour
• 1 cup cinnamon or cocoa powder
• 1 cup salt
• 1 -1 1/2 cups hot water

Instructions:

Mix it all together and then roll it out. Some websites said to use parchment paper. I like that idea because I don’t like messes! To help with not burning make sure that it’s all one thickness. Once it’s rolled out, cut out your dragons and use a pencil or some other round object to poke a hole for the string to hang it up with. Then bake. Wait until it’s cooled and paint and string to hang up.

Baking:

There were various instructions. If you like them to puff up, then bake at 325 F for about an hour–keeping watch that it doesn’t get too dark. If you want them flat, then poke the bottom of them with a fork and bake at 250 F for about two hours. You want them hard but not burnt.

Let me know if you create something fun. I’d love to see your art.

Fun for the Family

Dragon Movies

It all started on Monday, but you can catch up by doing multiple things a day. Watch your favorite dragon movie like How to Train Your Dragon or Dragonheart. If you have older kids, you might want to watch The Hobbit. Oh, one I’ve not seen yet is the new version of Pete’s Dragon. Have fun, and then tell me what you watched.

Dragon Books

Read a book about dragons, either to your kids or for your own enjoyment. There’s the classics of The Neverending Story with Falcor the luck dragon, The Dragon Rider with Firedrake by Cornelia Funke, The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, or The Hobbit (in my opinion so much better than the movie). Another option is to go with some Indie reads.

1. Cora and the Nurse Dragon by H. L. Burke
2. Dragonfriend by Marc Secchia
3. Mercy’s Prince by Katy Huth Jones
4. Magic is to Dance by A. J. Bakke
5. Dragon Airways by Brian Rathbone
6. The Dragon Courage series by Kandi J Wyatt
7. Minstrel’s Song series by Janelle Schmidt

Dragon Hoard

Summer always was the yearly cleanout for my kids’ rooms. Why not listen to a dragon book on audio with your kids and create your own dragon hoard of everything that “must go”. Then unlike dragons, give it away!

Dragon GIFs

Spend a few moments and search #DragonWeek online. Find out what dragon gifs are floating around out there. Share them with friends and family. Spam them in messages or posts. Here are a few I like. (How could I have forgotten Pokemon in my list of dragon movies or books. My boys ate up the world of Pokemon for several years.)

via GIPHY

You can find more like these last three on Animated Images.

Dragon Friend or Foe

Hold a debate with your friends or family as to whether or not dragons are friendly or fearsome. My opinion is it depends on the dragon. Another idea is to create a list of dragons who are protagonists and those who are antagonists. Which list is longer?

Dragon job

What’s the best job for a dragon? We’ve all heard the standard capture a princess or fight a knight, but what about help a whole valley finding peace?

Dragon Pictures

Oh, yes! This is one of my favorites; I love exploring dragon art. There’s a plethora of art out there available for all to enjoy. As you share, my only request is to credit the artist. Such as these wonderful artists: Naseilen, Sandara (who’s let me use her work for a quote with Ruskya), DawnMLC, and MaRoC68.

Art work by Sandara

Some of my dragon art:

Hatchlings

Dragon Lovers

Tag all your friends who love dragons and share the love.

Dragon Giveaway

Yep, you heard right. It’s a giveaway of 13 ebooks, a dragon candle holder, and a dragon hair clip. Just click the link and it’ll take you there.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Baby Dragon Egg Giveaway

This cute dragon egg was shared by Fellowship of Fantasy. It does require signing up for her email list, but it’s a cute dragon egg.

Dragon Week Party

A Facebook party is planned for Saturday, July 29 to close out the week. You can vote for your favorite dragons as well on the party page.

Want to find out more? Visit Fellowship of Fantasy’s website or search for #DragonWeek online.

Design

The oriental dragon is seen just about anywhere one looks–from temple walls to pagoda arches, from Mulan to The Dragon Pearl, from chopsticks to china plates.

Toes

They are long, serpenty creatures with whispy whiskers and pointy toes. Before writing this post, I didn’t realize that you can tell where a dragon is from based on those toes! Most oriental dragons have either three, four, or five toes. Japanese dragons have three toes. Korean dragons have four, and Chinese dragons have five. Each of the three countries have myths about why there are different amount of toes. The Chinese believe dragons lose toes as they travel away from China; hence no dragons made it to the western hemisphere because they had no toes by the time they would have gotten there. The Japanese believe dragons gain toes as they move away from Japan. While Koreans believe dragons either gain or lose toes depending on where they go.

Males vs Females

According to blackdrago.com, you can tell a dragon’s sex by their tail. Females hold fans in their tails, while male dragons hold clubs. Different horns indicate the different sexes as well. Male horns are almost a reverse cone in that they’re thinner at the base and get thicker and stronger as they move away from the head. Females are given the rounder and fuller manes with straighter noses and smaller bodies granting them thinner scales, and yet they have fuller, thicker tails compared to males.

Wings

Most oriental dragons do not have wings and yet they can fly! How can that be? Most say it is due to their magic. Dragons after all are magical creatures.

Temperament

Dragon temperaments may vary from country to country, but overall dragons are benevolent, wise leaders. Often embodying the spirit of the elements, they are friends, like in Spirited Away. In fact, they can be seen with a pearl which is called the Pearl of Wisdom. Dragons bring good luck. Just like in Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke.

“These people believe that a dragon brings a year of good luck–good luck and rain, which is the best luck of all in these parts.” ~Zubeida in Dragon Rider

Similarities

I never realized eastern dragons had any similarities to western dragons, but I discovered they do! The life-cycle of an eastern dragon actually involves wings. When a dragon reaches his thousandth birthday, he gains wings. I imagine there aren’t a ton of art with thousand-year-old dragons, and hence, the lack of pictures of oriental dragons with wings.

Another similarity comes from Japan. As I stated earlier the average oriental dragon is seen as benevolent and wise. However, in Japan dragons were known to kill innocent people and demand young maidens for food. This is much like the European dragons.

What does all this have to do with if dragons really existed? One of the main points to know if something actually was, is to study the different myths of different cultures. When many cultures separated by long distances have similar myths, there has to be a grain of truth somewhere. So, if cultures all around the world have similar stories about dragons with similar body types and abilities, just maybe it’s possible that dragons really did exist!

Find out more at my other blog posts:

And to celebrate, I’m doing one more giveaway!

To celebrate the release of Dragon’s Heritage, I’m doing a #giveaway.

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This one is a combo pack. Dragon’s Heritage advanced ebook and Dragon’s Future audio book. The two go hand in hand. Dragon’s Heritage tells the story of Duskya and Ruskya between the prologue of Dragon’s Future and chapter one. It’s told in Duskya’s words as a youngling but seen through the eyes of her granddaughter, Mere.

The story came about due to amazon reviews and reader questions. Everyone who reads Dragon’s Future comments about the confusing dragon names and the ‘y’s in all the names. Dragon’s Heritage has the answers to why this is. Other readers have said they want more of Duskya. Dragon’s Heritage gives us more of Duskya–both as a younging and as a grandma. It also answers some questions about what happens to dragon rider children as well as Calamadyn twin descendents.

Need more incentive to enter the contest or pre-order your own copy just in case you don’t win? Here’s an excerpt.

So, what do you have to do to enter for your chance to win Dragon’s Heritage and an audio book of Dragon’s Future? With Dragon’s Heritage the Dragon Courage series comes to a close, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more stories in the world. I’m currently thinking of stories from the Carr. Since Dragon’s Heritage is a reader inspired story, tell me your ideas for stories you’d like to hear. If you haven’t read the Dragon Courage series yet, (here’s the link to a free download of Dragon’s Future), roam the rest of my blog and comment here about what kind of blog posts you’d like to read more of. For another entry, follow my blog. If you already have done that, just comment that you have.

You’ll want to follow the comments, because I’ll announce the winner on Monday morning both here and on my Facebook page. So, leave your comments below.

Irish Dragons of Fame

Since I’m of Irish heritage, I decided to take a look at dragons in the wonderful island. It’s fairly easy to find them considering their flag has a huge red dragon on it. I discovered there are two different views of dragons. There’s the original Celtic and druidic thoughts of dragons and then when Christianity came to the island the idea of dragons changed.

View of dragons before Christianity

According to draconika.com ancient Irish believed dragons came from a parallel universe. When dragons took a path that came close to our world or slept somewhere in our world, those places became more powerful. In essence, dragons brought energy and power to the land. They protected the land as well and became symbols of wisdom and strength.

However, when St. Patrick came to Ireland, he brought with him Catholocism. Druid worship and Catholocism didn’t mix well. As people converted, they brought dragons with them, but the idea of dragons changed.

View of dragons after Christianity

The legend states that St. Patrick drove out the snakes from Ireland. Another name for dragon is snake or serpent. Irish dragons are snake-like creatures some with wings and others without more like a sea serpent. What if St. Patrick drove dragons out of Ireland? An interesting idea. After Catholocism took hold in Ireland, dragons no longer held a place of honor. They became known for strife, trouble, and infertility. This view goes along with the King James translation of the Bible that calls Satan a serpent and a dragon.

Legends of Dragons in Ireland

Ireland has several legends of dragons. They seem to all explain various natural happenings. This follows along with the idea of dragons being next to gods in Irish mythology. One story tells of a sea serpent that harrassed a village by yawning bad breath over the land every morning. When the king’s men couldn’t stand against it, a small boy decided to play Pinochio and took a boat out to the dragon. When the dragon yawned, the boy sailed down into the dragon all the way to the liver, where he built a fire. While the dragon writhed and burnt, the boy escaped. After a while, the dragon slowly fell apart creating Iceland and the islands between Ireland and Iceland. Another tale explains the flooding in a valley as a dragon that a monk enchained in a lake.

German Dragons

Unlike Ireland’s early history, dragons in Germany seem to be the greedy, evil type that people try to outsmart. These stories coincide with our classical fantasy writers, Lewis and Tolkein. I know the German composer Wagner influenced both of those authors.

Puk and Black Worm

The Puk seems to be the only really benevolent dragon. It’s a small sprite style dragon that lives in homes and brings stolen goods to the head of the household. I’d love to have this dragon living in my house. I don’t really have stolen items, but things seem to disappear or get misplaced. If I had a Puk living here, he’d be able to help us find things.

I could only find one tale of the Black Worm. He loved his horde of treasure. A man tried to steal his treasure, but became greedy and called to his wife to help. His call woke the dragon. The startled man ran, dropping his loot. The dragon and the treasure sunk into the ground never to be found again.

Firedrakes

One of my favorite middle grade/young adult book is The Dragonrider by Cornelia Funke. It’s the tale of a dragon and a brownie to find a new home for the dragons. Along the way, they’re joined by a boy, a hermunculous, a professor and his daughter and wife, and a dragoncologist. The dragon’s name is Firedrake. I don’t know if Ms. Funke had this German dragon in mind or not, but I do know she’s from Germany.

Other famous firedrakes include Smaug and the dragon Beowolf defeats. Firedrakes love treasure and caves.

Lindworms

Lindworms seem to be a very vile dragon. They may or may not have wings, but they definitely have claws. They attack churches and dig up graveyards! I would not want to meet one or fight one. Ugh! No wonder these bad nasties are considered a bad omen. They are known to eat livestock, which makes sense.

Comparing the two

Ireland and Germany in the big scheme of things are not that far apart geographically, and yet, it is enough to have differences in their dragons and to make one wonder, could dragons have really existed at one point in time?

If both countries have legends of beasts that caused havoc and there are enough similarities, wouldn’t it stand to reason that these creatures are based in reality? What are these creatures? Both cultures have them as powerful creatures and both eventually have them as to feared. The two countries have dragons with and without wings, and both have serpent-style dragons.

If both countries have tales of creatures of great power and size that may or may not have wings and were serpent-like, the odds of there being actual creatures that these stories came from are quite high.

Feel free to share what you think with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

You can see the other posts with more proof that dragons existed.