Enchanting Visits to Unique Worlds

Finding wonderful new authors has been high on my list of priorities since I was in third grade in grammar school. I was a product of many city libraries and later many bookstores. I still love to look for authors I can return to time and again. Every time I open one of their books I feel like it's a fun visit with an old friend. They can take me to other worlds, both real and fantasy. What could be better than visiting a world of dragons and heroic heroes and feisty heroines all wrapped up with great romance

Today's guest in My Writing Corner is author, Darcy Carson and when I checked out her bio, it sounded familiar to me. According to her biography, she grew up with a love of libraries also and now she write she writes romance. I knew I wanted to know more!

 Welcome, Darcy! Please tell us about your road to publication.

Ha, ha! I published my first book over twenty years ago, then nothing. I kept writing, but submitting wasn’t something I wanted to do until a friend convinced to do so. I sent He Walks In Dreams to Wild Rose Press, and they accepted it. So far they’ve accepted the first three books in the Dragons Return Series, plus an Irish Historical Romance. 

What do you find are some of the challenges of being a writer?

Challenges are probably different for every writer. A long time, for me, was taking writing seriously. I didn’t look at it as a career. If you want to publish you have to sit down every day and write. As far as I’m concerned word count isn’t important. Just write every day. Eventually, word count will increase.

 How do you come up with your characters?

That’s easy. My brain is never off, plus in a series characters are always walking across the pages. In my second book, the main protagonists found a cache of forty-two dragon eggs that will hatch at different times. Dragons are featured in every book. Each character in a book has a story to tell. In mine, minor characters eventually become a main character.

 How do you come up with your plots?

I usually start with a dragon. They’re very arrogant, opinionated, and just plain stubborn. They’re dragon, after all. But they have to work with their human friends to overcome a hurdle or two. It just sort of unfolds.

 Tell us about your latest book. What made you write it?

Ahhh, one of my favorites—She Wakes The Night. My heroine, Trell, was a tree for a thousand years in the second book. She was trapped in a spell and when she was set free she itched to see the world. She finished her schooling in the art of healing and now she’s going off with her dragon friend, Torkel, who is looking for a lair for himself. They meet an Untouchable, a person with a terrible, disfiguring disease and calls no place home. The only possession he owns is a flute and his music enthralls the dragon.

 What do you like best about your main characters?

Trell is an innocent. She doesn’t know how to mistrust. The Untouchable Gren is really a prince in disguise and hates that he must deceive her. Torkel is a young dragon, full of confidence and willing to turn any human into dragon food. All three have lessons to learn. She Wakes The Night has a theme about the unfairness of discrimination. I never knew I wrote in themes, but someone once pointed that out to me.

 Do you have any advice for beginning writers?

Be persistent is the best advice for beginning writers. If you love writing, creating stories and characters, never give up.

 What are you working on now or what is your next project?

I'm laughing hard at that question. I usually am working on several projects at once. And yes, sometimes I mix up names on the pages. I am already about twenty-five percent done with the fourth dragon book—Dragon of the Desert. Kizzire is a golden female dragon who wants only to be human. I’ve been working with two other writers doing anthologies set in contemporary times. We have two out—Beach Reads and Christmas Reads. I’m already working on Spring Reads. Plus, I’m key-stroking in an old Regency that needs lots of help. I know, this makes me crazy, but I stay happy.