Hi guys! Today I am very happy to welcome author Mell Eight to the blog. She is here to talk us about her Dragon’s Hoard series. She also has information on a giveaway on her blog to help celebrate the release of her latest book, Stealing the Dragon.  So please join me in giving Mell a big welcome!

The Dragon’s Hoard series is really an endeavor stemming from my love of all things dragon.  As a child I learned to read late, which was partly due to the fact that I struggled to find things interesting enough to make me actually want to read.  Then I discovered Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern Series.  Her writing is absolutely suburb, but it was her personification of dragons that drew me inexorably into the world of fantasy.  From the moment I was introduced to F’lar and his bronze dragon Mnementh, I knew I could never look back.

I started writing a few years later.  First in journals that I hid under my bed to keep my parents from reading them, then when the embarrassment of doing something intellectual wore off —I am now a loud and proud geek! ;p—I started posting online.  Needless to say, my earliest journals and stories have dragons soaring through them.  I consider those early stories to be the precursor to what eventually became The Dragon’s Hoard.

finding the wolfWhen I decided I wanted to look into publishing, I knew I had to write a story from my heart.  Dragons was the easy answer.  It took me weeks to figure out who, and what, Nyle (the main character from my first book, Finding the Wolf) was.  Was Nyle the dragon or the one who discovers the dragons?  Did I want my dragons to have a human form, or just human personification?  Did I want a Smaug style dragon, jealously hording every bit of shiny and gold in sight, or an intellectual dragon?  How was I going to make my dragons unique and original when dragons had been the subjects of fantasy for generations?

These weren’t light questions and for my first published original fiction book I knew I had to answer them as strongly as possible.  My dragons could hoard, but they could also be smart.  I could give them both a human and dragon form.  And Nyle could find his wolf and take him home and love him forever.  As I was writing I quickly realized that while my dragons certainly collected gemstones and jewelry, there was something even more precious that they desperately hoarded: True love.  The series title, The Dragon’s Hoard, literally means The Dragon’s True Love.

breaking the shacklesStealing the Dragon, the third book in the series, was both the easiest book to write and the hardest.  One of main characters, a dragon named Tori, bounces through the pages with an eagerness I found addicting and amusing as I was writing him, but he is so very young and naïve.  Finding True Love for Tori turned into a delicate process, partly because of his age but mostly because of his exuberance.  I fell in love with Tori, my amazing editor fell in love with Tori, but finding the perfect person for Tori’s forever hoard proved to be a major challenge.  If you want to find out if Tori finds his True Love you’ll have to read Stealing the Dragon.  It arrived in stores on February 6th.  Here’s an excerpt:

Jerney looked down at what An’tatori was holding and gasped. It was a silver necklace with a delicate blue teardrop topaz hanging suspended in an intricate silver net. The topaz itself was such a clear light blue color that Jerney could see An’tatori’s hand through the stone. It was beautiful.

“I can’t accept this,” Jerney said with a shake of his head. “It’s beautiful, but I don’t want to take a part of your hoard.”

An’tatori held up the gem near Jerney’s face. “It matches your eyes,” the dragon said softly. “I want you to have it because I want you to be my friend.”

“Your friend?” Jerney asked, incredulous. An’tatori wanted to be his friend after his spells had allowed for the hatching gem to be stolen? Jerney was a thief and a witch, which wasn’t exactly friend material for a baby dragon.

“My big brother Nyle is friends with a wolf, so why can’t I be friends with a witch?”

Jerney swallowed at the casual reminder that lovers Dragon Lord An’nanyle and Prince Leon were related to An’tatori. He thought An’tatori’s logic was a bit off, but he was insistent.

“My name is Tori and I want you to be my friend,” An’tatori said firmly, holding the necklace out again.

“My name is Jerney,” he said softly as he reached out and took the necklace from Tori, “and I would be honored to be your friend.”

“Good,” Tori said with a happy smile. “Now put the spells on that necklace so you won’t lose it!” Tori grabbed Jerney’s hands and led him over to his bed. Jerney sat down across from Tori and set the necklace onto the blanket in front of them.

Tori was watching the necklace intently, one hand still clutching the ruby gem around his neck, as Jerney studied how serious the dragon really was. There was no indication that Tori was at all upset about how the night had gone—the tear tracks had all vanished from his cheeks and his gold eyes glinted with a child-like excitement that reminded Jerney again of his siblings when they were young and had found some new and exciting toy.

Jerney reminded himself that children could be fickle. There was every possibility that in a few days Tori would be at his door asking for the necklace back. But at that moment, Tori wanted his new friend to have it, so Jerney would oblige Tori for as long as the excitement would last.

Jerney prepared the spells in his mind, envisioning clearly the potion ingredients and the steps to brew it. Once he had a picture of the bottled potion in his mind, he lifted his hand and passed it over the necklace. A glance up at the dragon showed that Tori was biting his lip and wiggling in place in excitement, so Jerney added some sparkle and a flash of light to his spell.

The dragon jumped and giggled before reaching out to touch the necklace. “No one will steal it from you now?” he asked as he pushed the necklace towards Jerney.

“No one,” Jerney affirmed. He picked the necklace up and clasped it around his neck. It settled there comfortably, with the teardrop landing just below the hollow of his throat.

“Good,” Tori said with a nod. Tori yawned and shook his head. “We’ll have to play more later,” he said as Jerney got up off his bed.

 

Do you love it so far?  Here are the links to buy Stealing the Dragon to read even more:


I am also hosting a free giveaway to celebrate the release of Stealing the Dragon.  All the information is posted on my blog. Please enter and tell me about your favorite dragon!

If you want to know more about the Dragon’s Hoard—Stealing the Dragon or the upcoming fourth book in the series, Melting the Ice Witch—or about any of my other works please check out my website/


Thank you so much to JoyfullyJay and to dragon lovers everywhere for giving me this opportunity to show you my hard work.  I hope you enjoy Stealing the Dragon and The Dragon’s Hoard!

Sincerely,

Mell Eight