Temple Cloud

Autumn is drawing on, with wild stormy weather, and Kurmo Silfur is growing up.   Even if he isn’t yet ready to cope with being on his own for more than a couple of hours, he is mature enough to want to go out and have adventures – and not yet mature enough to listen to reason.   In effect, he is an adolescent in a toddler’s body, with the (semi-conscious) memories of an adult who has lived countless lives before.   So Johann, as an actual adolescent, has to try to be the responsible, parental figure: Kurmo: Want to go out. Johann: Yeah, looks cool.   But we can’t go out there.   I can hardly wander round the streets with a dragon! Kurmo: Not wander.   Want to fly. And, if all else fails – Kurmo knows that no human can withstand sad puppy-dragon eyes welling with tears.   Johann gives in, and agrees to smuggle Kurmo out in the ersatz Pink Prince for an evening trip to the park.   Which is awkward enough in itself – for a start, he needs...

 

The cover image I have just posted is nothing to do with a book I am reading.  Rather, it is the front cover that PDB11 very kindly designed for a book that I have written.  This began several in 2018 when I tried writing a story gently making fun of fanfiction tropes (particularly in fics where Severus Snape or Darth Vader survives).  In my original story, Gardas in Fenland , a character from an (imaginary) fantasy series dies, only to discover that fans are determined to resurrect him, and are all choosing different futures for him, and he has to decide which fanfic he wants to live in. It was meant to be a one-off.  But having created Gardas, I found that he wouldn't let go of my imagination, and that I actually needed to write novels about him.  I reworked much of the plot and setting, so please don't assume that anything that is true of the Gardas of 'Gardas in Fenland', and of the world-building in that version, is true of the characters and setting of How...

 

Frau Tossilo still can’t quite bring herself to believe in dragons, even when she’s cuddling one while he sleeps: Tossilo: ‘What are you staring at?’ Janka: ‘You – you’ve got a – dragon? ’ ‘Why should it be a dragon?’ ‘Uh – because it looks like one?’ ‘And how would you know what a dragon looks like?   Have you ever seen one?’ It’s hard to argue with that, really.   Or at least, it isn’t a good idea to argue, because, when Frau Tossilo loses patience and yells at the children to clear off and leave her in peace, the baby – creature – inevitably wakes up and starts to cry and wriggle – not to mention snapping and displaying razor-sharp teeth, and trying to bite his way through a can of deodorant. Johann points out logically that the creature is probably hungry, and Frau Tossilo retorts that if Johann thinks that, he can be the one to go and fetch it some chicken.   The creature points out that he only eats ‘burtl’ or, failing that, nettles, or greens generall...

So, we finally meet a dragon!   But not before we have encountered Frau Tossilo at work, where, in contrast to her irritability with her young neighbours and her flustered response to unexpected callers, she is ‘friendliness personified’ and five times winner of the Salesperson of the Year award. Considering her obsession with shopping and consumerism, it isn’t surprising to discover that Frau Tossilo works in retail.   Every item of clothing or furniture in her flat is described in terms of colour and materials, in contrast to the only information about Johann and Janka’s fashion preferences coming in a few lines of banter in the opening chapter, to introduce the characters: ‘But the suitcase is pretty, isn’t it?   I’d love to have one like that.’ ‘Honestly, Janka, are you eleven or five?   You’re through with that colour by the time you’re past first grade.’ ‘Well, I’m not.   And at least it is a colour, not like your boring black jeans and even more ...

  Warning – this post contains spoilers!   Not very many, as it only covers the first few chapters, and you can probably guess where the story is going, but I thought I should warn you. So we come to the first book on my reading list.   To start off with, we have a glittery picture of a lovable-looking dragon’s face, in front of blue mountains which look nothing like the urban setting of – at least – the first half of the book.   And the title is – well, as printed on the front cover, it looks like two words, which I initially assumed meant something like ‘Dragons Awaken,’ or, to make the rhyme slightly better, ‘Drakes Awake’.   But a glance at the spine confirms that this is one word which had to be broken up for convenience, and means ‘Dragon-Awakening’. This is a book which PDB11 and I brought home from a holiday in Germany a few years ago.   This seems appropriate, given that the book opens with a character coming from her holidays.   She is ‘...