25 Fun Facts about Flight
of the Dragon Queen
1. This story came about because I wanted to write about a
woman who could turn into a dragon. Then I had to work backwards to figure out
the rest of the plot!
2. My favorite woman-who-can-turn-into-a-dragon is Flemeth
from the Dragon Age video game
series. Aside from being awesome (and the whole dragon thing), there aren’t a
ton of similarities between Flemeth and Alizeira, the heroine of FotDQ.
3. Because I love Flemeth’s dragon shapeshifting skills so
much, I actually crocheted a reversible doll. You can see the video (which was
featured on the Bioware/Dragon Age fan blog!) here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5kdIG22lPI
. Maybe next I’ll have to crochet a reversible Alizeira!
4. It wasn’t until I was about halfway through writing the
book that I realized Alizeira bears a striking resemblance to Cassima from Kings Quest VI, both in appearance and
situation. KQVI was one of THE games of my formative years, though, so it must
have been rooted pretty deep in my subconscious.
5. When writing the character of Mirtran, I sort of had
Latrine from Robin Hood: Men in Tights in
mind. (Cue: “It used to be Shithouse!”)
6. And when writing Spectre, I definitely was thinking about
Maximus from Tangled.
7. Originally Captain Sampson was unnamed, but when he
played a larger role than initially planned, I had to name him. I’d just
finished playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, where Samson from DA2 can show up, so
I, ahem, *borrowed* the name and gave it a little tweak.
8. Right after submitting this manuscript to my publisher, I
found out via Facebook that a friend of mine from high school had a baby and
named him Sampson. Oooooops.
9. I’ve never worked in a corporate environment and the
scenes that take place in Caleb’s office are based on nothing but what I’ve
gleaned from things like The Office
and Office Space. If forced to
establish what he actually does for a living…yeah, I have no idea. I’d probably
have to ask my brother-in-law to come up with something for me.
10. I intentionally never gave Caleb a physical description
because of all the video games where you can design your own player character.
11. A lot of games where you can design your own character
give you a bit of wiggle room. While writing Caleb, I was reminded of some YouTube
videos I’ve seen where Mass Effect
players tried to make the ugliest Shepards they could. So I suppose it’s
completely within the realm of possibility that Caleb is rather
unfortunate-looking. (But true love doesn’t care!)
12. I took a long break in the middle of writing this book
because 1) DA: Inquisition came out, and we’re not going to talk about how many
hours I clocked with just my first playthrough, and 2) not long after starting,
I learned I was pregnant and spent a lot of free time researching EVERYTHING.
Then I found out I was pregnant with twins, and that meant researching
EVERYTHING X2.
13. I pushed to get this manuscript ready to submit to my
publisher before giving birth. The babies came early, so I only made it by
about three weeks!
14. I like both fantasy and sci-fi, but given the choice of
where I’d want to unexpectedly find myself, I’d pick a sci-fi setting. I like
showering regularly, thank you very much. (Though to be fair, the food usually
sounds pretty good in medieval fantasy.)
15. My fantastic editor pushed for more descriptions of the
manor where much of the action takes place. I went with “thatched-roof
cottages” at one point because of Trogdor the Burninator (another one of my
favorite dragons).
16. Because of the aforementioned Trogdor, when discussing
the writing of this book with my friends, we sometimes simply referred to it as
“DAGRON”.
17. My previous book in the 1Night Stand series, Elysium, also dealt with virtual
reality. I like to think Drew, the male lead from that book, somehow had a hand
in helping program Caleb’s virtual date.
18. This is my third contribution to 1Night Stand, and so
far, all of my stories in the series have had some sort of twist to make the
required matchmaking plot not so straightforward. When compiling this list, I
almost slipped and gave away the twist in FotDQ, but I caught myself in time!
19. Until doing research for this book, I didn’t realize how
dangerous feeding pigs can be. Eeek.
20. Though I had a general idea, I had to research the
equipment necessary for riding a horse. When Caleb says he has no experience
with horseback riding besides maybe being led around on some ponies as a child,
that’s pretty much my own experience shining through.
21. My favorite color is green. Obviously the titular dragon
was going to be green.
22. I hate naming fictional locations. This time, I just
didn’t. No regrets.
23. I shuffled around the letters in Alizeira’s name at
least three times before making the final decision. I think it was the
placement of the E that was giving me trouble.
24. There are some similarities between this book and
another book of mine from a couple years ago, The Edge of the Sphere. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was
deliberate; I just happen to like writing strong women who, if put in the
“damsel in distress” role, play a role in helping rescue themselves.
25. The title for this book was inspired by the wind band
piece
Flight of the Griffin, by Brian
Balmages. It’s a pretty cool piece of music, and I’d sometimes listen to it
when I needed to get in the mood for writing. Listen to it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP0J6MNq4Us
.
