Our “dragony” Christmas is on its way, and to celebrate, we are spreading our dragons all over the place. Throughout the holiday season, our books, including our news Sneaky Dragon, can be found at these great spots around Richmond:
Art Works in Old Manchester
Alchemist at Stony Point Fashion Park
Chop Suey Books in Carytown
All three books in our dragon series can also now be purchased at Amazon as well.
Happy Holidays!
Janie and Glenda
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So last week you got to read Glenda’s flamy, scorchish DRAGON story. Now here’s Janie’s riff on the same theme. Are you a dragon? We think we might be…at least sometimes.
Are We Really Just Dragons?
There are days
When my teeth feel HUGE
And pointy
And my tongue feels like
It wants to throw flames
Hither and thither
At anyone and
Every one
I behold
It happened today
I was thinking really mean things
About everyone in my path
And I began to consider
How fun it actually might be
To be
A DRAGON
Then I thought,
“You know,
Maybe we actually all are dragons.”
We are essentially just
Barely tamed wild animals
After all
Running around doing mean things
To one another and
Making up excuses for
Why it’s OK
To do them
In the first place
Things like:
“She pushed me first,” and
“It was my turn,” and such
And then there’s all the
Yucky stuff we keep
Doing to the planet!!!
That’s a lot like flame throwing you know
Have you noticed, the forests are on fire a lot lately
Aren’t they???!!!!
Well I could go on
And on
Down this ugly road don’t you know?
So there you go.
That’s my argument
Do I win the debate?
Are we? Or are we not?
Dragons, barely disguised as humans
And running around reeking havoc?
Trying as hard as we can
To devour one another
Before we ourselves get eaten?
© Janie Wilson
10/23/19
The other day we were both feeling a bit scorchish, and we began to imagine that all of us are really dragons parading around as people. So we decided to write about our flamy imaginings. Here’s Glenda’s take.
Watch It!
It was a good thing it rained yesterday–yesterday, when I was out walking in my “neighborhood” over by the construction site. A new building is going up and everything is a big, muddy mountain of dirt. The workers throw the trash from their lunches onto the sidewalk and the street. Bottles, chip bags, Styrofoam containers, plastic bags are everywhere. And I was out and about, traipsing over this collection of artifacts. I was steamed but I ignored it.
But then, I tripped on the bag of concrete and the detour sign, left on the sidewalk–blocking my way. So I let loose. I couldn’t stop myself. My nose grew hot, my jaw opened. I threw a flame that melted their misplaced sign–melted it into a puddle of plastic–orange and black. Gone. Humph! “That feels better,” I thought.
It’s a good thing that rain cloud burst and put out the fire on the fence. The chain-link fence was about to melt away, too, which would have made the police cruiser passing by, stop and nail me for larceny. As it turned out, the officer didn’t see a thing–not my dragon self, anyway. He saw only the little old lady making her way down the sidewalk, gray hair–smoking a little.
My advice to you is: Watch it. Don’t cross me. I’m a dragon after all, and I’m feeling testy these days.
© Glenda Kotchish
October 23, 2019
Stay tuned for Janie’s next week.
Second Edition of The Christmas Dragon is on the shelves!
One Christmas a dragon showed up to help with the preparations. Things got a little out of hand. Even the cat was worried. In the end the Christmas Dragon’s special gift brought a new perspective to the holiday hustle and bustle.
By Janie Holliday Wilson
Illustrated by Glenda Kotchish
Click here to order on Amazon.
We’ve been inspired by autumn here in Richmond. There’s been late- in-the-season hurricanes and even tornadoes…scary stuff. And Halloween is approaching, the really scary stuff!
Here’s a story by Janie Wilson, The Hallow Cane.
Enjoy.
We are working on a new dragon storybook. It’ll be here in time for Christmas…our Christmas Dragon. You’ll need it for sure because Christmas is only 129 days away!
You’ve been there. Raising the shades in the morning, getting ready to leave for work and you glance down into the street. Just what do you see?
In Make No Assumptions, we each have a story about such an experience.
Available on Amazon: click here
In the vein of Ernest Hemingway where less is more, we are exploring six word stories. It’s a fun exercise that helps one ferret out the essence of the story’s intention.
Here’s Janie’s progression from 9 to 8 and to 6 words
Here’s two by Glenda:
Umbrellas everywhere, black, black and white striped, yellow, red–moving down the passage ways, walkways, arms holding them high in the air. The ground is saturated, the smell of wet grass heavy in the air. From the VMFA cafe, we see all this as we meet to write about white foxes and camouflage.
Take a peak at today’s stories.
The Advantages of Camouflage by Janie Wilson
The Old Fox by Glenda Kotchish
Janie and I are back at the VMFA for our weekly meetings, to write. Last year we switched to a fun cafe/grocery store in Carytown just to mix it up. There was a lot of energy at our new location–Ellwood Thompson–to be precise. We ordered coffee or tea as the mood suited us and sometimes a snack–very organic, very healthy. The energy was good but distracting, so we’re back at the museum.
At the museum, there’s Cloe, the amazing sculpture that we never tire of looking at through the windows of the Best Cafe. And if we fancy a glass of wine, well we can have one. (Not to be misleading, Ellwood Thompson has a wine bar, too).
We’ve talking about putting some of the starts of the stories that we write on this blog and ask you to finish them. Often what we write is just a beginning of something.
This past Wednesday was Independence Day, so we didn’t meet. And I was too busy cooking on the grill and watching fireworks to jot a single sentence.
Happy summer!
Glenda
P.S. We have a new dragon story…a sneaky dragon, no less.
Room for Writing Press 