Why I wrote DF

WARNING: SPOILERS for “Dragons to Loose” are contained herein, but there are no spoilers for "Dragonic Freedom" here.

Morrigan made me.

By the time I was three-quarters of the way through DL—or maybe even before that—by the time I knew how DL would end, I knew there had to be a sequel. At the time, I contemplated a trilogy, but didn’t want to think too deeply about it. Instead, I focused on preparing for the second book and what it would be about. I knew it would be radically different than DL, largely because I could now do away with most of the sweet and sappy romance stuff; though not entirely, I see nothing wrong with a little romance.

I knew I wanted to write a radically different book with a completely different story from DL. Without giving away too much, the setting is totally different and the timeline vastly different. Plus, I chose to switch from a single POV, Morrigan’s, to three POVs (but if I give away the characters’ names it’ll be a spoiler).

It was a harder book to write because of some of those reasons, but mainly because I had to coordinate three storylines (from the three POVs) and get them all to tie up at the end, as they had to do. And, the different timeline was challenging, I had a great number more characters to orchestrate, and a number of different subplots to handle. I also used some flashbacks and a little jumping around in time, which had to be managed carefully.

Despite all that, I came out with a book I really like. In particular, I got to do something I really wanted to do, which was to write a suspense story and hopefully scare my readers. I’ve read “scary” stories that were not at all scary to me and seen “scary” movies that were just lame, but I’ve also read some scary stories that truly did terrify me. I wanted to write a story about what scares me the most and try to come up with ways to scare my readers (but in a kind and gentle fashion, of course). Handily, I was able to pull some scenarios from nightmares I’ve had, and other moments in life where I’ve felt really scared, so I hope I’ve written some stuff that folks will need to leave all the lights on to read.

I also took the opportunity to deepen the world, mythology, cultures, and the history behind the dragons—all of which I am continuing to do into book three. DL ended with a number of unanswered questions, which will progressively be addressed.

Who is Ahebban really, and why was he so upset? Who made the Dragon Chamber, and how, when? Are Morrigan and Kyan the only dragons in the world? Do dragons only come from the Dragon Ceremony? Can such dragons be considered a natural species? How does a person’s Sensitivity really work? What will be found in Wost?

And there may be some other questions my readers have—or should have—that will be addressed, too, but I’ll not mention them in case folks haven’t thought of them.

So I have all those reasons, but the biggest is that Morrigan made me write it. She told me she wanted to go to Wost, and that her story wasn’t finished yet, so we’ve gone off on another adventure together, and it looks like it’s going to be an interesting ride. If you’d like to come along, we’d be glad to have you.