Book One
Summary:
Do you have the heart of a Dragon?
Sixteen year old Josephine Drageon has always yearned for adventure. She grew up reading epic tales of the Dragon Knights, commonly known as the Dragon Hearts, humans with the souls and magical abilities of Dragons; each controlled one of the elements and had a Dragon partner. They fought to protect the world against Shadow Magic.
The Dragon Heart Alliance was disbanded due to the betrayal of one of their own, and since then wars have dragged on. On the fringes, the traitor Cetus Cyprus plots to conquer all.
Josephine is a Dragon Heart of Ice and is pulled into the quest she’s dreamed about with five other Dragon Hearts. This new generation must work to reunite the alliance and master their powers before Cetus destroys Anglii.
Are they up to the challenge?
Fans of Harry Potter and Eragon will love this YA series full of adventure, a touch of romance, and one smart mouthed Sprite.
Facts about Book One:
It begun when I was sixteen…
Before I started writing DHC, I was just a young teen who liked to write once in a while. I never finished most of what I started. (Somewhere in the attic I think there is a completed story about a chicken and his friends but I have no idea where my mom put it…). Anyway, I wrote mostly mysteries (influenced by a certain famous pair of twins that I was a fan of at the time) but I always got bored and stopped. It wasn’t until 8th grade, when I had fateful encounters with two very famous book series that I turned to reading Fantasy, which lead me to the moment when I wrote the first few words of Destiny’s call to arms. The 1st book of that series was impactful for it lead to me to my best friend and many fun times. Of course it was the one about a certain boy wizard. It was not long before 9/11, I remember that much, and the little voice in my ear saying “why not read it?” Since then, Harry Potter became a big part of who I am as a writer. The other was an assignment from a 8th grade teacher who was…she was tough. I did not finish the book for whatever reason but that summer I did finish it. And from there my love of Hobbits was born. Ironic too, for that was the year when the 1st movie came out, but it wasn’t until later I fell completely in love with Lord of the Rings.
First Draft
Oh, that first draft. I started writing after I learned I was born in the year of the dragon in 10th grade. It was such a random thing too…my Biology teacher had just hung the calendar on the wall. I had been hoping to be year of the Tiger (school mascot plus, cat person), but it was not.
It was the year of the dragon.
I had been reading tons of Fantasy books: Narnia, Harry Potter, Unicorn Chronicles, etc. But for whatever reason at that moment, everything came full circle. It had been a while since I’d tried to write anything. So I took a cute pink marble notebook and began to write. “My name is Fairy Lady” is how the story 1st started out, and in the end it stayed. I wrote a few drafts without that opening, due to a friend saying that’s not how you start a story. But then one day I realized, “Call me Ishmael”. It fit, always had. It sounded right, so I went back. The 1st title was long, stupidly so, involving the Dragon star and other odd things. I fixed it all though as I went along to the other drafts.
Map of Anglii
The cities have not changed. I went along one day and traced edges from an atlas. The map has evolved into something so amazing thanks to my friends Sarah and Erik. Anglii itself stems from an ancient name of Great Britain. I liked the looks of it, so I went with it. Also easy to spell. Some of the names of places are based on real things, others are just me making things up.
Characters! So many of them!
I love writing characters best. I have so many, and I blame many a TV show for influences. Sailor Moon I blame for the large amount of girls in the main cast. I never really thought out now many of what, it just was whatever I wrote down. Which is were real magic is born from. Gazelda, Josephine, Eve, Marie, Wave, Jonathan…all were there from the beginning. Jun was one inspired for a want of a younger character. I felt I needed to fill a hole, and my best friend Tim gave me an idea of a thief. Jun ended up being different from Tim’s prompt idea, but still. The Dragon Partners, however I did not add until I realized I needed more dragons (ironic, and this was thanks to another certain dragon series….). I added them as I started writing Mango’s Desert. Seemed appropriate. As for Spuck…he was not added until my senior year, the year I was in theater and we did A Midsummer’s Night Dream. You can guess the rest. He was still a natural character to me. He added a much needed comic relief that the others did not have. Good jokes yes, but not like what Spuck could do.
Some where influenced by real life people. Ticka, was not originally, but a college friend of mine helped me so much I dedicated Ticka to her. Good thing too, she was too much like a certain Elf from another Dragon series….
Josephine was not. Well, consciously. She was just a character who wished for more, like her author. I realized though years later, that her looks probably where influenced by a certain beloved child superhero who is tall, a warrior, and is Greek. But that is about it. Jonathan is just what I like in the looks of guy to be honest!
Wave and Marie both were influenced by close childhood friends. But Marie, sadly, her influence was not a real friend in the end, so I changed her in some ways. But she was always from the Islands.
Eve is me. Not much more to say save she is better at using swords. That’s it.
Indiana Phoenix. Now him! Hahaha! My love for two movie stars I grew up on: Harrison Ford and John Wayne. The character’s personalities, that was what influenced him. Though honestly I did not realize it until I glanced at his first name and I was like “Okay…yeah, duh.” But Indie is own guy, just influenced by hours of re-watching the Indiana Jones movies. I make allusions in book one to his origin, did you see them? There are three.
2014: A dream come true
In 2014, I had saved and had 5 people look over my story. So on July 5th, I published my book. Sadly, I missed a great amount of errors and now I have to fix them and do a 2nd edition. Sad but I’ve learned more since then, so that’s life.
Fun fact: Day I launched Destiny, was when the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime premiered. Talk about full circle for a childhood dream.
2nd Edition coming soon
It’s a struggle. I’m limited in my resources to fix and publish. I’m working on it as I can, cleaning up awkward dialog, grammar errors, and so forth. It won’t be too much of a difference from the first edition, though there will be some added scenes and some things have been shifted/removed but only a small amount. I only ask for patience and prayers as I work towards this goal of fixing one as well as finish and publish book two. A free preview for Chapter 1 is available below.
Book Two: Quest for the Magic
It is coming. But when, I sadly can’t say until I can get 2nd edition Destiny published.
It used to be MUCH longer…
DHC was originally was going to be a trilogy . But I got too many good ideas and plots, it become too long. I plotted it all out to four. Then I came up with a fabulous plot twist, and it became five.
It was good for some reasons but one thing that annoyed me was that I had to delay the premiere of one character. I had randomly developed “him”. A good thing I did five books or I wouldn’t get to write too much about that character! But alas, he has to wait for book 3. But it’s okay, my stubbornness/love for him, I put him in the 1st chapter of Book 3, so he’s in the preview in the back of Book 2. So I sort of get him in there. *wink*
Franica: Unicorns and Faeries
Will not only see the land of Francia and it’s royalty, but also the Unicorns and the Faeries. We will met the mothers of two supporting characters, and see the love (or lack of) from them to the beloved characters. Franica is fraught with danger for the Dragon Hearts, including a darkness that should not be awakened from it’s slumber.
The sixth royal dragon
Toby and his dragon, Dante, the royal dragons of Earth, will be premiering in Book two.
Character deaths and premieres
A few deaths will happen (I know I am going to get lots of flack for the 2nd death, I can already hear it.) A few surprises will appear as well as a character that will become center stage a little bit. I am excited for that character for I find him a joy to write, even though I’ve kind given him a hard life (as such as a writer does).
Kathleen L Shay 