Happy Lunar New Year

If you know me at all, you know I’m pretty rubbish at remembering holidays in general. If it’s not New Year’s, Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, I’m probably pretty apt to not even know it is a holiday. I blame this in part on the fact that I do remember like everyone I’ve ever known’s birthdays… and that takes up the entire “date remembering drawer” in my head.

However, Rachel Ann Michael Harris kindly brought to my attention that today is not only the start of the Lunar New Year in China, but it’s also their Year of the Dragon, which might not actually have anything to do with the fantasy fiction genre, but does sound super fantasy-y, and happens to go along well with February is Fantasy Month here at Safe Return Doubtful.

I’m nothing if not cultured.

Ahem. (I am laughing at myself here, guys, it’s ok to laugh at me)

Anyway, today I am excited to share with you a truly beautiful short story that Rachel is kindly letting me publish here on the blog and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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Good morning out there, fantasy fans!

I’m so excited about today’s guest post, as it is about an author I had never heard of, but after reading this post I went to see if our library system had any of her books and they did so it’s currently in-transit to my library where I should be able to pick up the whole trilogy in a day or two. (our interlibrary loan system here in WI is seriously the best)

Anyway, I won’t take up your time, let me hand the mic over to my guest!

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And the winner of the random giveaway drawing for the first week of February is Fantasy month is……

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I was so blessed to have parents who read to me.

My parents were so instrumental in encouraging my love of reading. The main way they did this was by reading out loud to me. It was through these read-alouds that I first fell in love with books. It was through these sweet times of being read to that I fell in love with fantasy and adventure and heroes and noble themes of honor and loyalty and standing up for what is right and good.

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What is it about dragons?

Something about dragons just grips the imagination. They call to us.

Evil dragons lurk in caverns and darkened skies, a foe to fight, a villain to defeat, an evil to overcome.

Good dragons hide in plain sight, thrill our sense of possibilities, dare us to tame them, to befriend them, to ride them.

Fantasy and Dragons just go hand in hand. And while not all fantasy has to have dragons… we’re never bothered when they do show up. Of all the fantasy creatures out there to choose from, dragons show up the most often, and it’s no wonder. They inspire us to courage.

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I hope you’re all enjoying February is Fantasy Month so far!

I know I am!

Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite authors. I’m so excited to have her here today to talk about a really fun sub-genre of fantasy and why she loves it. So I’ll step back behind the curtain here and just hand the mic over to H.L. Burke, author of…. well… a LOT of books.

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