dragons Archives | A.S. Akkalon

Is it unoriginal to write about dragons?

Sometimes I worry it’s unoriginal to write about dragons, then I realise that’s a ridiculous concern. Here’s why.

From time to time I have the uneasy feeling that when I write about dragons I’m being unoriginal.

Fantasy books can contain any fantastical creatures I can create, so why stick to this familiar beast? Am I taking the imagination out of a genre that lives based on its imagination?

After deep contemplation, I decided no.

Here’s why.

Interview with Kim M. Watt, author of funny books with cats and dragons

Prolific author and A+ human being Kim M. Watt shares her secrets on dragons, cats, writing, tea, and magic cake.

It turns out I have friends. (Yay, me!) And sometimes I interview them. This is one of those interviews.

Kim M. Watt used to be like me, i.e. unpublished. Now she has a magnificent tower of published books and, even better, they all have cats and/or dragons in them.

I can’t describe how hard I approve.

Here’s my interview with her, including all her own unedited words, and just a few extra paragraph breaks.

Dragons from Micah with love**

Micah Chaim Thomas (Writer. Artist. Difficult to explain.) honoured me with some dragon art loosely inspired by my fantasy novel in progress.

** Yes, I added the “love” part, but giving a person a dragon is a form of love, so I don’t apologise.

The talented and enigmatic Micah Chaim Thomas (@micah_chaim on Twitter) recently deemed me worthy of receiving dragons from him. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to deserve this honour (since I don’t have a dog).

The first challenge was to explain the dragons in my book without having to share my first draft prose. (Yes, I know I’m on the tenth draft, but I rewrote so much that most of the scenes aren’t.)

Big, scaly, wings, claws. They’re not evil, but they’re not fond of humans. And they have oppressive minds. You meet a dragon and you want to worship it.

Somewhere in the middle of explaining I got an effusive “yes!”.

Not a review of Baking Bad by Kim M Watt

I read Baking Bad, the first Beaufort Scales mystery, by Kim M. Watt and laughed a lot. I’m not going to review it, but hopefully I can help you decide whether you’d enjoy it.

While I was AWOL, something wonderful happened: lots of my friends published books.

(Lots of other things happened too, some great, some not so much, but we can come to those later.)

I’m planning to read them and review them, but not on this blog.

Hey, they’re my friends. If I say negative things feelings will get hurt, and if I gush and spout unicorn sparkles about how great they are (the books, not the friends) you won’t believe me.

So I came up with a different plan. I’m going to help you decide if you want to read them. (Again the books, not the friends.)

Today’s victim, I mean, book, is Baking Bad by the lovely Kim M. Watt.

Creative resolutions to your standard love triangle

Tired of one girl being torn between two young men in your typical YA love triangle? The love triangle might not be going anywhere, but it can certainly be resolved more creatively. Here are some suggestions.

A popular YA trope that is commonly voted “trope that most needs to die” is the love triangle.

The standard love triangle involves a young woman choosing between two young men, both of whom are yummy and interested in her, and both of whom she gets warm squishies over.

Yes, the typical love triangle is all about female indecisiveness.

Continue reading “Creative resolutions to your standard love triangle”