Deby Fredericks's Blog, page 81

A Fallen Dragon

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Remains of a Blue Eyed Darner dragonfly. Photo by Deby Fredericks, June 12, 2018.

I am both happy and sad to share today’s discovery with you. What is it? The remains of a dragonfly, found in my back yard.

The reason I’m happy is that I had at least one dragonfly in my garden. I garden as close to chemical-free as possible, which means there is always the possibility of an insect attack. Finding a predator bug is always good news.

If I’m right, this was a Blue-Eyed Darner, Rhionaeschna multicolor. It’s one of the more common dragonflies in the western U. S. and usually the first species to appear in spring. From the vivid coloration, it was a male. Females have a more drab appearance.

I’m sad that it’s dead, because dragonflies are simply amazing. It saddens me to pick up the frail shell of what should be a lively, fierce flyer. We have had chilly temperatures overnight for the past few days. I suspect this is what brought him down.

Still, I’m glad to know my garden was home to a ferocious dragon — at least for a little while.

Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

 

 

 

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Dragonfang

Dragonfang is the sword of a Marvel superhero known as the Valkyrie. I first recall this character as part of supergroup called The Defenders, in comics I read during the 1980s. The spirit of a Norse valkyrie, Brunhilde — yes, from Wagner’s operas — possessed an ordinary woman, Barbara Norriss, and struggled to fit into her mundane life while also battling evil as the Valkyrie.

Dragonfang was an extraordinary weapon, forged in the same foundry as Thor’s famous hammer, Mjolnir. Dragonfang, however, was quite distinct. Among its extraordinary features: a) it could never be destroyed, b) it could absorb magical attacks, and c) it could disrupt magical barriers.

According to Asgardian lore, Dragonfang could only be held and used by one of the fabled valkyries. Occasionally, other mighty women such as the goddesses Sif have been able to wield this blade.

As with many comic book items, Dragonfang’s origins are somewhat muddled. Initially, it was stated that the Ancient One, mentor of Dr. Strange, had Dragonfang in his keeping along with many other relics. The blade had been created from an actual dragon fang by one of the Ancient One’s predecessors. When the Valkyrie had to give up her magic sword, Dr. Strange offered her Dragonfang as a replacement.

However, in the Valkyrie’s movie debut, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Thor refers to the weapon as “a dragonfang,” implying that each valkyrie had her own personal Dragonfang. Seeing the weapon, Thor knows at once that this unnamed woman must be an Asgardian in hiding.

The Valkyrie was never one of Marvel’s most successful characters, in large part because she was little more than a girl version of Thor. (This was long before anyone dreamed of actually letting a woman carry Mjolnir, as Jane Foster did in the remarkable Thor comic books between 2015 and 2018). At least she got to ride around on a winged horse rather than being dragged through the skies by her hammer!

Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Dragon’s Breath, Part 3

With a name as evocative as “Dragon’s Breath,” perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that people have applied it to a variety of products. Not only does Dragon’s Breath ammunition turn your shotgun into a flame thrower. Not only does Dragon’s Breath dessert make you breathe steam like the proverbial dragon.

You can also drink Dragon’s Breath beer. You can take a street drug called Dragon’s Breath or Devil’s Breath that allegedly makes you act like a zombie. (Why would you want to do that? Maybe it’s better not to know.)

In a more peaceful vein, you can plant Dragon’s Breath peppers. I’ll bet they’re spicy-hot! Or there’s Dragon’s Breath celosia, with a plume-like flower in shades of red, pink and orange. I wouldn’t mind that one.

Then again, there’s also a gemstone called Dragon’s breath. It’s a type of fire opal mined only in Mexico.

Yeah, sign me up for that last one!

Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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Dragon’s Breath, Part 2

Earlier this year, I posted on a specialty dessert called Dragon’s Breath. Now I find the name is shared with a type of ammunition. These are 12-gauge shotgun shells loaded with magnesium pellets rather than the standard lead or other metal. When fired, these shells cause a remarkable, though short-lived, blast of flame!

Advertisements claim that the flame is at least 100 feet/30 meters and possibly up to 3 times that length. (This is an advertisement, bear in mind, not a scientifically documented study.) They say it can substitute for a road flare or even a flame thrower (!) should you ever have need of one. Ads also suggest that Dragon’s Breath shells would be perfect for home defense. Very intimidating, you see.

Well, I’m sure it would be… However, since magnesium flame can burn at over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there would be a great risk of destroying the home you were trying to save. Not to mention the chance of gruesome injuries to anyone in the flame’s path, whether or not they were invading the home.

Am I the only one who thinks this would be insanely dangerous?

Apparently not. These shells are illegal in three U. S. states (Illinois, Florida and California) and have to be treated as a hazardous material where they are legal. There is also some debate whether these shells should be regulated under the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. My guess is that Dragon’s Breath is useful chiefly for the entertainment value of the spectacular flame.

There’s lots more dragony fun in my book, Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Look for it at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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A Knightly Teaser

Here’s another teaser from Wyrmflight, A Hoard of Dragon Lore. Because I know you’ll never get tired of them. Also because I have a cold and even reading about dragons can’t get me energized today.

The Order of the Dragon (February 9, 2017)

The Order of the Dragon was a faux-chivalric order of knighthood active in Eastern Europe during the early 1400s. I say a faux order because the Age of Chivalry was pretty well over by then. Orders of Knighthood had been most active during the Crusades (roughly 1095-1291). Founding a chivalric order in 1408 was akin to modern Americans organizing ourselves according to the legends of the Wild West.

And here I shall refrain from snarky comments about the current political affairs of the United States.

The Order of the Dragon was founded by Sigismund, King of Hungary and Croatia. Like the European political leaders during the Crusades, Sigismund was under threat by the expansion of the Ottoman Turks into Eastern Europe. His reign (1387-1437) was turbulent with both internal and external strife. The Order of the Dragon allowed him to identify a core of supporters who he could count on in his various battles.

Pretty cool, eh? Look for Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

 

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A Ghostly Teaser

Here’s another teaser from my e-book, Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore. It was especially exciting to learn that Native Hawai’ian tradition included a type of dragon called the mo’o that was connected with their ancestral dead. I hope you’ll enjoy this tidbit from 2014.

Mo’o, Hawai’i’s Ghost Dragons (December 2, 2014)

Did you know Hawai’ian mythology includes dragons? Until a few days ago, I didn’t either!

Native Hawai’ian people are part of an extended cultural family generally known as Polynesians, who explored and colonized all over the South Pacific from New Zealand to Rapa Nui (a.k.a. Easter Island) and of course to Hawai’i. It’s believed that Polynesian culture spread from somewhere in Southeast Asia, possibly around Malaysia, and so the Hawai’ian dragons share some features with other Asian dragons. Yet they also have their own unique origins.

Mo’o are great water spirits who can change form between that of a water dragon and a human woman. There are male mo’o, but the majority are female. They dwelt in pools and ponds as well as in caves. Mo’o had power over weather and dangerous waves (tsunami), and other magical powers as well. They are described as twenty to thirty feet long, jet black, and shining in the water.

Because fresh water is one of the most precious resources in the island environment, the mo’o who guarded these pools were worshiped along with the other nature deities of Hawai’ian lore. Every pond capable of providing fish had its own altar dedicated to the mo’o who defended it. Local people burned fires and made offerings of awa (a drink made from the kava plant) in the belief that a mo’o who was well cared for would provide plenty of clean water and fish to the community. Likewise a neglected mo’o could become vicious and spiteful.

Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore — $4.99 e-book or $17.99 trade paperback. Available at Amazon or Draft2Digital.

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At Last!

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I’m so excited to tell you that my latest book is out. Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore collects my favorite posts from the first six years of this very blog. It came in just over 500 pages in trade paperback — the size of a real novel!

Just like a novel, it’s packed with great stories, amazing characters, battles, drama, laughter, and many, many dragons. Unless you’ve been following me the entire time since 2012, I know you’ll find something new and surprising.

The book is available in all e-book formats for $4.99 and trade paperback for $17.99 U. S. dollars. Some formats take longer in processing than others, but by the time you read this, it should all be set up.

Please check out the book’s hub on Draft 2 Digital, where you can purchase from your favorite e-bookstore. That is, any except Amazon, which wants to be special and have its own book hub. By the time you see this post, it will all be set up.

You can also visit my author page at Draft 2 Digital. This shows all my e-books. You know, just in case you missed one. Amazon, again wanting to be special, has its own author page.

Now, my one request. Reviews are more precious than any dragon’s gold. If you buy the book and like it, please do leave a review. And tell all your friends!

Sign up for my newsletter and win a free E-book, The Weight of Their Souls. Just to go my Facebook page, AuthorDebyFredericks, and click the link on the left that says “Join my mailing list.” Easy, right?

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Coming Soon!

I’m in the final days of preparing Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore for publication. This is the frustrating part, where every T has to be crossed and every I has to be dotted. It all has to be right, so my book doesn’t look like something a lame amateur spit out.

I had hoped to be done by now. I wanted to be giving you the big, exciting announcement today. But I’m being hung up by some sort of technical bug. The software for formatting the print book keeps inserting blank pages at the end of paragraphs. I’ve corrected this three times and the blank pages reappear in the same places. I wish I could send a flight of flaming dragons!

Hmmm, maybe that wouldn’t be helpful. But if anyone knows what might be causing this, I’d love your suggestions.

Anyhow, here’s a snippet from one of my favorite posts, back in 2014 — Number Five Lucky Dragon.

 

As Hallowe’en approaches, I bring you a true horror story from the cold war. Daigo Fukuryu Maru was a humble Japanese fishing vessel that set out from Yaizu to catch tuna in January of 1954. Its name translates roughly as “Number Five Lucky Dragon,” a cruel irony in light of the ship’s fate. Daigo Fukuryu Maru ran into engine trouble almost immediately. Near Midway Island, it snagged its lines on a coral reef and lost nearly half of them. The young captain, Hisakichi Tsutsui, refused to return to port without something to show for it. He headed south, toward the Marshall Islands.

By the end of February, 1954, Daigo Fukuryu Maru was fishing near Bikini Atoll. Yes, THAT Bikini Atoll. Supplies were running low, and they planned to fish one more day before heading back to port. None of the crew had any idea that the U. S. Government had established an exclusion zone around Bikini Atoll because they were planning a Hydrogen bomb test. The hapless vessel was outside the exclusion zone, but that was little consolation after the fact.

At 6:45 a.m., a tremendous flash drew the crew up to the deck. It looked like the sun was rising in the west. “Bridge, sky and sea burst into view, painted in flaming sunset colors,” recalled crewman Matakichi Oishi. What the stunned crew witnessed was the detonation of Castle Bravo, a new type of nuclear weapon that worked a little too well. The blast had been expected to yield 6 kilotons; the actual yield was closer to 15. It was the greatest human-caused explosion to date, and the consequences were devastating.

Well, I hope this piques your interest for Wyrmflight: A Hoard of Dragon Lore! Which will be coming soon, I swear it!

Sign up for my newsletter and win a free E-book, The Weight of Their Souls. Just to go my Facebook page, AuthorDebyFredericks, and click the link on the left that says “Join my mailing list.” Easy, right?

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Poseidon

Since at least 2012, Florida residents have reported sightings of large lizards in neighborhoods that border canals and other waterways. The most persistent sightings, in late 2017, described an animal around 5 feet long (1.5 meters), drab green with white or yellow bands. It was thought to be a Water Monitor, but possibly a Nile or Savannah Monitor.

As reported in this news story, Florida wildlife officials stated that the lizard posed no risk to humans, but cats and small dogs could have been in danger if the animal got hungry. No one knew where such a creature could have come from. Perhaps it had escaped from captivity during one of the frequent hurricanes, or an irresponsible owner had released it into the wild.

The public was enlisted in an extensive effort to capture the potentially invasive reptile. People who spotted it were asked to take photos and give precise information on where and when they saw it. State wildlife officers then set traps around Key West in an effort to humanely capture the lizard. They did capture a smaller (2 ft long) Savannah Monitor, but the big guy remained at large. (Ha ha.)

Eventually the owner came forward to help with the search. Kevin Hennings explained that Poseidon, the Water Monitor, had indeed escaped his enclosure after Hurricane Irma damaged it. Once Poseidon was spotted, Hennings was able to approach and lure his pet with food. As of November 7, 2017, Poseidon had been returned home. Hennings planned to make improvements on his habitat and avoid a repeat of Poseidon’s big adventure.

Although this case ended happily, Florida is prime habitat for all sorts of tropical creatures. Wildlife officials have warned for years that other large reptiles are invading their state. Of particular concern are Boa Constrictors, which have established a permanent population and are wreaking havoc on the native wildlife. The state has  even begun having annual Boa Derbies to control the spread of these invaders.

It seems that it’s only a matter of time before they experience another dragon invasion.

Sign up for my newsletter and win a free E-book, The Weight of Their Souls. Just to go my Facebook page, AuthorDebyFredericks, and click the link on the left that says “Join my mailing list.” Easy, right?

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Amphiptere

The amphiptere (pronounced am-fit-ear) is a sub-type of the European dragon. It may also be called an amphithere or amphitere. This creature has a snakelike body with a long tail and wings, but no other limbs. Thus it is somewhat the opposite of a lindworm, which has two legs and often is shown without wings.

At times, these dragons are referred to as a hybrid of serpents with some other creature. They may be shown with bird-like, feathered wings or with bat-like, leathery ones. It may simply depend on the artist’s inspiration.

There is no mention of any breath weapon, and I haven’t found any stories that specify a legend around an amphiptere. So these dragons may be mainly based in heraldry, where dragons were fairly common. People who wanted to use a dragon in their arms had to look for variations in order to be accepted.

Sign up for my newsletter and win a free E-book, The Weight of Their Souls. Just to go my Facebook page, AuthorDebyFredericks, and click the link on the left that says “Join my mailing list.” Easy, right?

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