Why Dragons? by Deborah Cooke:

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My Dragonfire series features heroes who are also dragon shape-shifters. Their "species", if we can call it that, is an old one and a genetic trait passed through the male line. They call themselves the Pyr, from the Greek word for "fire", and get along with each other about as well as you'd expect a bunch of dragons to do. They're independent, fierce, loyal, passionate and inclined to lose their tempers. This puts the Pyr squarely in the realm of the alpha males so often found in the romance genre. Since these are romances, each book focusses on one Pyr and his romance with a human woman - the Pyr mate with normal women and the meeting of a Pyr with his destined mate is a sensation called the firestorm. The firestorm is legendary among them as each Pyr gets only one firestorm and the consummation of the firestorm always results in the conception of a son.

I've always found dragons fascinating. Not only are they powerful creatures that possess a terrifying beauty, but they have a long history in human storytelling. In fact, I think it's the stories, the volume of commentary on dragons that intrigues me.

Although it could be argued that dragons are fictional, the focus of my reading on dragons has been in the non-fiction section. I'm less interested in how other authors have played with dragon lore than in the lore itself. Playing with these stories - and twisting them around to suit my nefarious needs as a storyteller - is part of the fun of dragons. There's so much to choose from.

Dragons, not surprisingly, are associated with fire, which was why I named them the Pyr. Dragons are known for having very keen senses, so my Pyr have more sensitive perception than humans. They can hear at greater distances and for broader frequencies - the communication between each other occurs a very a low frequency that sounds like thunder to humans, for example. My Pyr have hoards, and they keep those hoards in their lairs. They breathe smoke as a territory mark, and fight fire with fire - their dragon form is a fighting pose. Dragons are also reputed to be very persuasive. I used that in the Pyr's ability to beguile humans - they essentially hypnotize a human subject by conjuring flames in their eyes. The human stares into the flames while the Pyr suggests an alternative to what the human has witnessed. This is often used to persuade humans that they haven't seen dragons. The Slayers - or bad Pyr - use the ability to beguile for much darker objectives.

But beyond these fun details, I needed a greater purpose for the Pyr. I found part of it in eastern mythology, in which dragons are associated with the guardianship of the four elements. Dragons frequently defend a treasure against all comers, so my Pyr are charged with the defense of the four elements and the planet itself. This traditional role proved divisive within their ranks when some of the Pyr continued to defend the human species as one of the treasures of the earth, while the others perceived that humans were the prime threat against the earth's survival. Those who turned against humans - and the Pyr who defend them - are known as Slayers.

My timeline for the series came from current astrology - the moon's node is called the Dragon's Head when it's ascending and the Dragon's Tail when it's descending. The Dragon's Tail is reputed to be a period of karmic adjustment and rebalance for the world. The moon's node changed to the Dragon's Tail in June 2006 and will change nodes in October 2015. What better crisis for this period of karmic adjustment than the final battle for ascendancy between the Pyr and the Slayers? Just to add to the world, I noticed that there were three total lunar eclipses at the beginning and at the end of this transit through the descending node. I decided that significant firestorms for the Pyr - because we all know that love can save the world - should be presaged by a total lunar eclipse.

In terms of the individual stories, I'm having fun playing with other facets of dragon lore. In Kiss of Fire, Quinn had to accept his inherited role as the Smith of the Pyr, the one who can heal their scales (which are armor). The Pyr lose a scale when they love someone, a physical manifestation of the vulnerability that love creates and one long associated with dragons. In Kiss of Fury, Donovan had to grow into the foretold role of the Warrior, the one who can command the elements to lead the Pyr to triumph. In Kiss of Fate (coming February 2009), Erik has to face his past to regain his gift of foresight - an ability traditionally associated with dragons and one that Erik has honed to particular effectiveness - to maintain his leadership of the Pyr. In Winter Kiss - Dragonfire #4, coming in fall 2009 - I'm playing with the association between cinnabar and immortality - promoted by Paracelsus in the Renaissance - which was colloquially known as "Dragon's Blood". There are so many interesting snippets of lore about dragons that there's no worry about finding something new to explore in each book.

Why dragons? Because they offer a cornucopia of stories and mythology, one that appears in virtually every culture and tradition. Our stories about dragons stretch back through the centuries, including our oldest recorded stories - Jason took the golden apples from a dragon; Perseus saved a princess from a dragon; the list goes on and on. Dragons appear to have been everywhere humans were, matching their steps to ours from the very beginning. Dragons are familiar, yet magical. We all know they aren't real, but maybe, just maybe, there's one out there.

Maybe he's just waiting for his firestorm...

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