I love dragons. Always have, always will.
The dragons I met in Fairy Tales, the dragons in myths, the wondrous one-toothed Ollie from “Kukla Fran and Ollie,” a TV show when I was very young. And Anne McCaffery’s Pern world of dragons, Terry Pratchett’s dragons, and Oscar Wildes’, and on and on. In truth, I was never that crazy about Saint George. And who says dragons only ate virgins? A vile calumny. Seems to me that they’d eat anybody. Show me a dragon and I’m yours. Hoorah for the new anthology about them!
But then, I must tell you that I love almost all mythical creatures. I amend that. Who is to say that they’re mythical?
I’ve seen fossils of giant swimming, walking and flying reptiles from prehistory. Now just imagine: if one or two survived in some lost, dark place, into the time of mankind, they’d have been seen, and wondered at, wouldn’t they have been? And so was born legend? Possible. And so are all the others, or so I think.
Just think of all the other wondrous creatures we were told about since childhood: Giants and mermaids and trolls, oh my! Elves, fairies, gnomes, changelings and satyrs, unicorns and centaurs, selkies and vampires and zombies, ghosts and banshees, and the big dark thing that hunkers down until midnight that lives in all imaginative children’s closets.
In fact - she hinted not too subtly - my next book, coming in September, has a certain para-super-natural element. Super indeed. Say no more! At least, I won’t, not just yet.
So my question this week is simple.
If you could meet up with just one of these creatures or another such that you’ve heard about: which one would you like it to be? And why?