Deborah Cooke is here today as part of The {Teen} Book Scene tour for Flying Blind. Please join me in welcoming Deborah here today to Dark Faerie Tales. The first book in her debut YA The Dragon Diaries series, Flying Blind, was released on June 7, 2011. You can read an excerpt here.
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of Flying Blind. Details are listed at the end of the post.
Author Bio:
Deborah Cooke has always been fascinated with dragons, although she has never understood why they have to be the bad guys. She has an honours degree in history, with a focus on medieval studies. She is an avid reader of medieval vernacular literature, fairy tales and fantasy novels, and has written over forty romance novels and novellas.
She has also been published under the names Claire Cross and Claire Delacroix.
Deborah makes her home in Canada with her husband. When she isn’t writing, she can be found knitting, sewing or hunting for vintage patterns.
You can visit Deborah around the web here: Website | Blog | Facebook
Welcome Deborah!
Using Mythology in Fiction
by Deborah Cooke
I like to include mythology in all of my stories. I think that using real human stories makes my fictional world more grounded and more compelling for readers. It adds another dimension to the worldbuilding, making the fictional world more rich. So, every time that I start a book or a series, my first taskis to dig through my extensive collection of mythology books. I can get lost in there for days, and it’s just wonderful.
One of the great things about writing about dragons is that there are so many stories about dragons in human culture. Virtually every society has told stories about some creature which is like a dragon. Although the western ones tend to be destructive, the eastern dragons are associated with weather, like making rain. So, for Dragonfire, I read a lot about dragons before deciding what my dragon shifters would be able to do. They shift shape to dragon form, they breathe fire, and they fight. They hoard treasure, and have “hoards” in their “lairs”. They breathe dragonsmoke as a perimeter and boundary mark to defend what is their own. They are passionate and hot-tempered, loyal and clever. They live a very long time and age quite slowly, although they are not immortal. They can slow their body rhythm in sleep, like hibernation, if they so choose. They have scales and when they lose one involuntarily, it’s a sign that they love someone – love makes them vulnerable, not just emotionally but physically. Finally, like most shapeshifters in mythology, my dragon shifters need to hide their clothes from prying eyes when they shift to their dragon form, in order to ensure that they will be able to shift back to human form.
My dragon shifters also have affinities to the elements, which links to that Asian story about dragons. Niall can whistle up a wind or summon a storm because of his affinity to air. Rafferty, with his affinity to earth, can both cause earthquakes and stop them. The Slayer Chen can summon a heavy rain when it suits him.
Next step is to make links between the fictional worldbuilding and the world we know. My idea about dragons in Dragonfire is that these dragon shifters have always existed. They used to live openly amongst humans, which is why so many human societies have stories about dragons – they’re real and we knew it. The Middle Ages was a big era of dragon hunters, according to our stories, so I used that in Dragonfire as well. Because humans nearly hunted the dragon shifters to extinction, they went into hiding – and because of the actions of humans, some dragons decided that humans weren’t a treasure of the earth worth defending. Those dragon hunts created a schism in the world of my dragons between Pyr (good dragons) and Slayers (bad dragons.)
Next, I’ve used specific stories from mythology in individual books. The dragon story from Greek myth of the founding of Thebes is behind the story of the Dragon’s Tooth Warriors, who were introduced in KISS OF FURY, and multiplied in KISS OF FATE. The linked story of Cadmus is told from those warrior’s point of view in my short digital story “Harmonia’s Kiss”.
Finally, I like to develop specific traits of my dragons as a story focus in individual books. Dragons are supposed to be able to charm humans, and this manifests in my worldbuilding as “beguiling”. The dragon shifter can summon flames in his eyes. The human stares at the flames, intrigued by them, and the dragon then hypnotizes the human. This talent, its power and limitations, plays a big role in FLASHFIRE, coming next January.
I also like the persistent idea in our stories of dragons loving riddles. I made riddles an interest of Zoë in The Dragon Diaries paranormal YA series – little does she realize that her fascination is a reflection of her dragon nature. There is a lot more mythology about dragons in Zoë’s books, because she is the Wyvern and the Wyvern traditionally has access to an alternate realm of dreams and visions. In this place, Zoë is instructed and helped by Norse mythical characters, and talks to the dead, although she originally thinks she’s just dreaming.
About the Book:
The next generation of shape-shifting dragons from the popular author of the Dragonfire novels.
Zoë Sorensson is perfectly normal, except she’s been told she’s destined for great things. Zoë’s the one female dragon shapeshifter of her kind. But Zoë is at the bottom of the class when it comes to being Pyr and her powers are AWOL, so she’s sent to a Pyr boot camp.
Zoë quickly realizes that she has to master her powers yesterday, because the Pyr are in danger and boot camp is a trap. The Mages want to eliminate all shifters and the Pyr are next in line-unless Zoë and her friends can work together and save their own kind.
GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:
One lucky commenter will have a chance to win a copy of Flying Blind.
To enter, leave a comment below answering the following question:
Do you like to have mythology blended into the books that you read? If so, why? If not, why not?
1. +1 entry for answering the question (required).
2. +3 entries for becoming a follower of this blog and Dark Faerie Tales on Twitter and Facebook.
3. +3 entries for tweeting about this contest, blogging about it, linking via your sidebar etc…(please tell me where!).
4. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
5. Please include your email address in your comment.
6. Giveaway ends Monday, July 11th at 11:59 PM EST.
7. The winner will be picked with the help of Random.org.
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