Cheryl Rainfield on The Last Dragon

I know what it’s like to be an outsider, and to doubt myself and my talents. I also know the good feeling that can come through success, and how important it is to have a taste of that. I value compassion, tenacity, and passion. I drew on all these things to create Jacob.

I’ve always enjoyed reading about telepathy, and I love dragons (and many other mythological creatures); they’ve always held a sense of wonder for me. Of possibility. So of course I had to bring those things into Jacob’s world.

I think dreams and hope are an important part of happiness, and fantasy encourages that, allowing readers to believe that anything is possible, and that good things can happen. It was important to me to show an oppressed young man finding his strength, following his heart, and succeeding.

Visit Cheryl’s website: www.cherylrainfield.com

Debbie Ouellet on A Hero’s Worth 

I love astronomy. For the Dragon Speaker prophecy, I came up with the idea of using a returning comet. I found an article about Halley’s Comet including all the dates it appeared in the last 2,000 years. Halley’s Comet appeared on March 20, 1066 (the Spring Equinox), an important day on the calendar in the first year of the Middle Ages. It returned on April 18, 1145. The timing couldn’t have been better. The prophecy of Draco’s Fire was born!

Writing a fantasy is exciting because a writer gets to use his/her imagination a great deal. Creating the bad guy, Kain was great fun. I started with just filing down his teeth to make him look scary. Then I thought, why not go for it all? and made him obsessed with collecting teeth from his victims. I also got to imagine what it would be like for an ordinary teen to raise a dragon, to ride him for the first time, and to stand up to the evil Kain.

Though the costs Jacob must pay in A Hero’s Worth are enormous, I wanted him to continue his quest despite them. Isn’t that, after all, the sign of a true hero?

Visit Debbie’s website: www.debbieouellet.com

Erin Thomas on Draco’s Fire

Writing the last book in a trilogy is a lot of fun—I got to kill off the bad guys!—and a challenge. Since I had enjoyed reading drafts of the first two books, I wanted to make sure that the third book did credit to the characters and the plot.

As a reader (I love fantasy books), I like it when characters turn out to be different than they seem. Cheryl did a great job of setting us up with Jacob, a hero who appears to be an underdog. He has no great strength, and his magical power—talking to birds—doesn’t seem to be the sort of thing that could bring down a powerful wizard. My job was to find a way for him to grow enough to be a real threat to Lord Manning.

I like to make a detailed outline before I write. I spent most of one weekend with index cards all over my office floor, moving ideas around and discarding the ones that didn’t work. Once I had a plan, I ran it past Cheryl and Deb, to make sure we were all satisfied with the ending and with the way Jacob’s powers had grown. Then, I wrote it and the results, after many drafts and revisions, are in Draco’s Fire.

Visit Erin’s website: www.erinthomas.ca