Dragonslayer by Heather Shahan
📚 Epic fantasy novel 📚
🐉 Book 1 in the Dragons of Cretala series 🐉
Featuring:
🐉 Emotivorous dragons
✅ An epic quest
❤️ Found family
👑 Kingdoms at war
🔑 Generational secrets
🧠 Mental health rep
🧑🤝🧑 Diverse cast
🌍 Expansive worldbuilding
📜 Folktales, myths, and legends
@emberwrites.bsky.social is publishing her first novel! If anybody likes fantasy, pre-orders really help!
www.amazon.com/dp/B0DV8TQR1H
Needless to say, there will be some minor tweaking in the final revision. 😂
6/6
Isaac: So one could have a yellow corona and the other could have a blue one.
Me, after googling some: Baby, did you know that some binary stars are different colors? Right here it give the example that one can be yellow and one can be blue!
5/6
Me: Well, It's not really like good and bad. They think it is, but it's more like Joy and Sadness from Inside Out. It's a part of my dragon metaphor. You have to have both.
Isaac: Not anger?
Me: Not really.
Isaac: Anxiety?
Me: ABSOLUTELY!
4/6
Me: They just do. I don't know how. They just do.
Isaac: You should make one have flames since its evil.
Me: Can I shift your thinking a bit?
Isaac: Sure.
3/6
Me: Well, the two suns orbit each other. They eclipse each other once every 5 days. The people in my story believe that they are twins fighting over the same solar system. They think that one, Cin, is good and the other, Olc, is bad.
Isaac: How can they tell the difference between them?
Me: 🤨
2/6
My 8 year old son had to just go and poke holes in my book.
Me: The world in my book has 2 suns.
Isaac: a BINARY system!? I wonder what that is like.
1/6
For a big planner, this kind of decision is new to me. It’s a strange feeling to have a scene growing and needing to decide where to place it.
I let it simmer. Now, 113k words into the story, I know how I want it to be. Now I need to decide who I want to be a part of the conversation and where in the story I want to place it.
I’ve had a concept that I’ve wanted to explore in Dragonkeeper since the beginning, but I didn’t know how I wanted it to be or where in the story I wanted it to be.
If there were year end recaps in Cretala, Dri would need to hear this.
She’s doing her best, y’all.
I am so glad it is the weekend! Hoping to get quite a bit of writing in today. My brain needs it.
Stage 1 of mid year testing is complete and almost all of my students grew by leaps and bounds. Super proud!
This teacher is exhausted. This writer is ready for the weekend. I need rest, and I need to write words.
Today was field trip day, and it was wonderful. However, this also means that I got no break all day and I am exhausted.
I'm going to try to make words happen now, but I don't know if it'll work.
My child dreamed last night that my book was out in the world!
97 days, kid. 97 days.
Texting with my husband last night before bed. I wasn’t quite sure how Dragonkeeper would end because shit was doing down, but I hit the point where I needed to decide. So I took my shower and talked to myself the whole time and figured it out.
AAAH! I know how the book ends, and it’s so good!
Update:
⭐ 10,170 ⭐
Now I go back to writing whenever I'm able to, inching along to the finish line. 🐢
I typed up what I handwrote while out of town, inputted the daily counts into my spreadsheet, and highlighted the cells for the days of Tgiving break to see the total.
9,968.
I'm going to pause for a bit, but then you can bet I'm going back to add at least 32 more words to make that 10k!
I’m still out of town for most of today (home tonight) so I updated my website for the cover reveal on Thursday. Did anybody see it ahead of time? 😂
One led Dri’s brother to death and another has sunk its talons into her mother. Now, she’s on a mission to discover how to finish them off once and for all. But, can one ever really slay their dragons?
In Dri’s world, dragons existed so long ago that nobody believes they were ever real, but Dri can see them. Shifted incorporeal, they coexist with the people of Cretala and feed off of their emotion, disease, and pain.
It’s Cover Reveal Day! Today marks 100 days until Dragonslayer arrives on March 11, 2025!
Dragonslayer’s cover reveal is TOMORROW! 🎉
Ahh! I’m just so excited to share my cover tomorrow. I’ve been impatiently waiting over here, and the day is almost here!
Meanwhile I’m over here evil laughing because that particular character may become pretty important to the plot (and some fun!)
Husband finally finished reading Dragonslayer. He said he loved the powerful ending, and now it’s on to Dragonkeeper.
He is NOT much of a reader, so he’s kind of daunted by the word count that he’s behind, but he’s eager to find out what happens with his favorite character.
New personal best unlocked: 3,103 words written yesterday.
My average during the school year is ~250 words per day and my average on a break is 1k. I checked and I’ve only written above 2k three times in the last year and a half and my former best was 2,500.
3,103 was not the norm.
I love my job. I love being a teacher.
But also - Today is Day 3 of being past the transition slump, and I am having so much fun getting caught up in my world again and not having to WAIT for TIME to write. I can just flow with my story.
Imagine getting to do that full time.
I just love it when I finally get to chapters that I've waited months for! Aaaah! The words are just rushing from my fingers!
Anyways, long ramble to explain how I’m feeling. Most of my posts are me cheering for myself with my small word counts throughout the year, but it’s not always easy. And this is why it works for me, but there are struggles that come with that.
10/10