Welcome to Takeover Tuesday!
You can enter to win a print copy of Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis, courtesy of the publisher. (US ONLY) You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of this post. (Contest ends December 14, 2021.) Share on X If you’re the chosen winner, I’ll contact you for your information to pass along.
About the book…
A boy with fiery breath . . . a girl with dragon wings . . .
Outcasts Billy and Bonnie must come together to preserve a secret legacy more than a millennium in the making. They find their lives turned upside down when they are thrust into a war against evil, a war they didn’t even know was being waged. Their newly formed friendship is tested and shaped as they are forced to fight a malevolent slayer who wields a powerful, medieval weapon and is intent on exterminating their dragon heritage forever. Raising Dragons is a hair-raising, modern-day Arthurian adventure and a glimpse into another world filled with knights, dragons, and fair maidens fighting to destroy evil.
Chapter One Excerpt…
“Halt, foul dragon!”
Billy stared at the tall stranger, a ghostly figure draped in dark chain mail. He appeared to be a knight of some kind, like a toy box action figure come to life. But what was he so mad about? Why was he yelling?
The knight swung a sword. Its brilliant blade flashed in the sun, and his armor jingled across his body, echoing his swift, skillful moves. With a wave of his shield he barked a challenge. “I fear you not, fiend, nor your hellish fire. Come to battle, and we shall see whom the Creator will protect.”
Billy opened his mouth to answer, but his throat burned, raw and sizzling, and acid bubbled up from his boiling stomach. With a convulsive shudder, he belched a plume of hot, steamy gases, blistering his tongue and scorching his lips. A second later, a raging river of fire blasted through his gaping mouth and hurtled toward the knight.
He jerked his shield up and tucked his body behind its protective armor. The flaming torrent splashed around the shield’s edges, tearing the sword from his hand and enveloping his sleeve. He flapped his blazing arm. “Cursed lizard!”
Billy clamped a hand over his mouth and sucked cool air between his fingers to soothe his swollen tongue. Where did that fire come from? And does that knight think I’m the dragon?
Billy looked at his hands. They were normal, no scales or claws.
But something was different. A ring glittered on his right index finger. Somehow it looked familiar.
In the ring’s center, a dark red stone stared at him like a bloody luminescent eye, the prophetic eye of a mysterious old man peering at him from a deep cauldron of swirling scarlet. The cyclonic vision drew Billy closer and closer, and his mind swam in the dizzying whirlpool. The stone reflected everything, even his worried face.
As the eye’s red glow deepened, Billy’s features morphed. His ears grew long and pointed, and his mouth stretched out wide and toothy.
Within seconds the transformation was complete. “I am a dragon!”
The knight appeared again from behind the shield, holding his bare arm away from his body. His sleeve had been scorched to ashes.
An angry, reddish brown welt on his forearm oozed curling strings of smoke.
Fantasy and the Heart of a Child
Bryan Davis
“Daddy, can I have a sword for my birthday?”
Many parents have heard such a request from little boys who feel a protective calling. It starts early, because it is inherent in their makeup. Boys and girls alike possess a God-given drive to do great things, and a wise parent can feed this internal hunger by providing wholesome stories of the fantastic, tales of heroes and heroines that promote godly development of a child’s budding dreams.
The proof of an inherent drive is easy to see. Watch children play. Their imaginative games send boys tromping from yard to yard, jumping hedges to attack the enemy, and sending Orcs to their doom as the brave little heroes wield their gleaming weapons. Girls become princesses or sword maidens, seeking to use their gifts to make the world a better place to live, whether at home in a palace or in a foreign land as an emissary or even as an intimidating warrior.
Why does the world of fantasy mesmerize our youth? How do fantastical stories capture their imaginations? Is it simply the fun and frivolity of escapism? Or does the answer lie deep in their longing hearts?
They have within them a craving, a deep desire to commune with a power greater than themselves, yet the world they live in provides only faint glimpses of the heroes they long to be. There has to be a reason for living. Fantasy opens their eyes to a better place, a shining city they have not yet known. And the stories provide a mental bridge as they pursue horizons they could never distinguish with their physical eyes.
Children, still unjaded and brimming with ideals, feel their God-given programming more acutely than do adults. From my experience as a father of seven and as an author who receives emails from young people all over the world, boys and girls manifest two distinct kinds of programming. Boys seem to be wired as protectors, heroes if need be. Girls often gravitate toward being wise counselors and strategists, skilled in everything that is less brutish, while willing to be cunning warriors if their male counterparts fall.
When a young man watches a wide screen and sees a hero draw steel from scabbard, displaying a bright, sharp sword as his biceps bulge, the boy feels valor, the bravery of a knight. He becomes a champion, copying the role model he may have never witnessed in real life. When the hero mounts his steed and charges bravely into conflict, a boy feels his heart race, his blood pumping hot. He rides the horse, too, not knowing why his spirit has attached to that rugged man on the screen, why his mind has pulled him into the saddle. Does the child know that he, too, was built to charge the battlements, to defend the weak, to conquer evil?
When a young lady sees a heroine work behind the scenes to prepare reinforcements, persuade the powers that be to send troops, or kindle the fire in quavering hearts, she feels her inner calling. When the heroine crashes a jar over the villain’s head to save her fallen hero, a girl’s heart leaps. The courageous young lady has used whatever strength she had, at risk of her own life, to prevent disaster. Without her, all would have been lost.
Our children are seeking something worthwhile, an eternal calling to be heroes. Christian worldview fantasy stories provide larger-than-life portrayals of heroes who display the same virtues children will mimic to become heroes in their own worlds.
Unfortunately, many fantasy stories on the market today tend to be dark and without hope, and concerned parents might avoid the genre completely in order to withdraw their children from those depressing, violent tales. In doing so, they would miss another side of fantasy, the side that promotes light instead of darkness.
Christian worldview fantasy stories, such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia, are filled with light and hope. They are visions of reality, the mind’s dramatic sketch of what we were meant to be. Such fantasy is a blend of survival and worship. It demonstrates faith, hope, and love wielded in integrity and nobility and illustrated in ways that readers will never forget.
By following the examples of great storytelling teachers of the past, parents have an opportunity to add a great tool to their teaching arsenal, fantasy stories that create lasting images to which children can relate. A boy can see himself drawing a sword, gazing at his fingers wrapped around a battle-worn hilt and following shimmering steel upward to the razor-sharp point. His eyes go from earth to heaven, first meditating on his limited strength, then raising his thoughts to the skies and considering the God who fashioned every muscle he is about to use before he charges to carry out His will.
Many a girl realizes early in her life that she is the earthly reason for a man’s charge into danger. Without her, a man’s resolve wilts, his heart quakes, his sword fails. She is his support, reminding him of the goal, building up his courage, even rallying to his aid should he be dashed to the ground by his enemies.
We have an opportunity to create strong soldiers by using the power of story, even through the pages of the impossible. If parents will give uplifting fantasy its proper place, as an inspiration toward heroism, allowing powerful images to create positive models in children’s minds, they will create homegrown heroes who will build and display integrity and virtue in the real world.
Working together, we can use this genre to capture young hearts and minds by immersing them in tales of champions of virtue, by giving them images of valor that will reach in and spark the growth of the heroes or heroines that God has implanted in the hearts of children. That’s why I have chosen to allow my children to embrace the images that fantasy creates. I want to grow heroes.
About Bryan…
Bryan Davis is the author of several fantasy/science-fiction novels for youth and adults, including the bestselling series Dragons in Our Midst. He and his wife, Susie, have seven adult children, and they work together as an author/editor team.
Rules for giveaway can be found here.
The world-building is my favorite part of fantasy novels.
I agree, Danielle! Such creativity! Good luck.
I like the characters
I agree, James!