Why Dragons: On the Importance of Dragons as a Plot Device, a guest post by Svetlana Chmakova

“Why dragons?”

I laughed at first, when I heard the question; I was very amused by anyone wondering why I would put dragons in my books—I mean, pfft, why NOT dragons, am I right or am I RiGhT? I immediately and gleefully launched into a rant about how dragons are amazing, making my captive audience behold the hefty stack of dragon art and story books I’d collected over the years (this was on a video call from my home studio so the stack was hefty indeed), doing my dogged best to illustrate what a misguided utterance it was to even ask “why dragons.”

After running out of hot air and rant energy, and answering the question several more times in varying environments and varying ways (which required reaching deeper into my own personal history with the whole concept) I suddenly found myself in the dark echoing halls of my early teenage memories, the cold and cobweb-y unswept parts of them, places where lights haven’t been turned on in decades because I just don’t visit there often. Memories of cold winter nights spent drawing my first sequential art attempts on a messy study desk while listening to sci-fi radio dramas about alien planets with stranded travellers trying to survive in a hostile environment. Memories of going to the bigger library in the neighboring town, of discovering the fantasy genre for the first time. Discovering Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern.

Why dragons? A legitimate question, actually, in the context of my own work—having already written the four-volume original series “Nightschool” over a decade ago, and now being one volume into the new middle-grade spin-off before finishing this new volume, “The Ghost and The Stolen Dragon,” I never explicitly established dragons being part of the Night Realm mythology of The Weirn Books world. The earlier books were all about weirns, hunters, shapeshifters and the many variations of regular Night Realm folk just trying to get a muffin and a coffee on their way to the night shift, with only a hint at the bigger, more powerful forces and beings shaping their world. In my head, I’ve always known that dragons were part of Night Realm’s power hierarchy, and part of the everynight (the same applying to every other mythological creature that ever existed in human folklore). But the fact remains, the first mention of dragons as a Thing That Exists was after four whole books, by The Weirn Books’ new character, Na’ya, who is obsessed with them. 

“What’s your obsession with dragons, anyway?” Na’ya gets asked, as well, by a fellow bad-luck adventurer, while they are all in the thick of trying to rescue themselves from an evil scientist’s lair, in the first volume. “They’re AWESOME, okay?!” Na’ya yells back in frustration and shoots right back with: “What’s YOUR obsession with looking like some dumb magazine cover??” (A fair question to retort with, as everyone’s got something that squats heavily in the back of their mind and refuses to move out or pay rent, so point THAT stuff out at your own risk.) 

Na’ya’s answer is the expression of an unexamined longing for something that she doesn’t yet clearly understand, but will solidify more for herself in the second book—her deep want to gain control over her life experiences, get the respect and the power to protect her family, her community. 

It’s easier for me to answer “why dragons,” because I have done the examining, and I think I understand the exact genesis and purpose of The Dragons as they currently present themselves in my work. The dragons are there because a) it’s my work and I’ll do what I want to, and b) I read Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series at juuuuust the right time, and was the perfect audience for it. I was 13-14, either bullied or left out of my social group and left alone to cope with not being accepted by my peers in school. I was a timid bookworm, a socially awkward skin-and-bones early teen with negative social pecking order status and glasses with large thick lenses, who had to weather all the derisive peer attention those attributes produced in school. The library was a safe place where none of those things mattered, where my developing mind took refuge and library books were where I escaped. You can only imagine how ready I was to begin reading a series about characters whose best friend for life was an entire dragon, an incredible and powerful creature who loved them unconditionally, could carry them anywhere and any time, giving them safety and freedom and power to Affect Change And Control Their Life.

Power fantasies and escapism fiction often get a dismissively bad rap, in my experience, and not enough credit for the hearts and souls they cushion and protect from being crushed by the weight of reality. The stories where characters struggled realistically/relateably and things turned out well in the end—those especially were a uniquely satisfying escape for me and so many others, a true rest from existing in a world surrounded by uncertainty and unfairness and hostility and scarcity. The underdog getting to shine, the outcast being embraced and finding a place of acceptance, heroes triumphing over overwhelming odds—it simply felt Really Good to see that. I remember trying to read realistic stories around that age, and getting nothing from them aside from heartbreak and resentment—if I wanted to witness human evil and messy problems with no solutions, all I had to do was look out into the world. The relentless unfairness of the state of humanity around the globe, the horrors of endless wars, poverty, hunger, the knee-jerk hate where there should be love, the stifling control where there should be freedom, the standby casual cruelty where there should be standby casual kindness and acceptance. Important things to be aware of and learn about and try to change, of course, but without the respite of escapism fiction, there was only so much of it my little heart could take in without breaking. It did me no good to bring that into my rest-and-recharge space, I was haunted enough by it already.

I joke that I write my books for myself, that awkward, confused ugly duckling teen trying to figure out a world that to this day doesn’t make much sense; who needed escapist power fantasies to feel at least some borrowed sense of peace, fairness, and acceptance. I’m only half-joking, because I know for a fact there are many kids out there that are like me. Some of those kids are now grown-ups, who continue looking for a place where their mind can take shelter from the chaos of reality, if just for a little bit. Most of us found out the hard way that rest and recharge is necessary and not optional, that you cannot pour from an empty cup, and that it is extra difficult to fix things with a broken soul.

So, then, in broader strokes—is that why dragons? And not just any dragons, but my own personal brew, the Nash’Darah dragons, the kind and powerful guardians of the Night Realm? 

In a nutshell, yes. (Also because it’s my work and I can, therefore I shall, who’s going to stop me, etc.) 

I read everything, now—realistic fiction, non-fiction, biographies, mystery, horror, history, the back label of the washing detergent bottle and studies of the social impact of women’s clothing having adequate pockets, the list goes on. But my place of rest continues to be where it was back then, the kind of books that carried me in their protective wings of fancy through the rougher weather in my life and didn’t try to break my already reality-cracked heart. 

So, that’s what I often write myself now, as well, and why. I am essentially making comfy nests where other tired hearts can rest, books with arguably naive but stubborn resilience against tough odds, and books with kind power in them. 

Books with, sometimes, dragons.

Meet the author

Svetlana Chmakova was born and raised in Russia until the age of 16, when her family emigrated to Canada. She is an internationally published, award-winning author and illustrator, with more than 10 published books and her work translated into over 13 languages. Svetlana has drawn and written for animation, how-to-draw books, toy designs, and most of all, comics and manga. Her full-length manga/comics series include the fan-favorite romantic comedy Dramacon, the award-winning urban fantasy Nightschool: The Weirn Books, and the hit Berrybrook Middle School series, as well as the manga adaptation of the New York Times bestselling Witch & Wizard by James Patterson. She graduated from Sheridan College with a three-year Classical Animation Diploma, and was a Master Comics Artist-in-Residence at Atlantic Center for The Arts.

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About The Weirn Books, Vol. 2: The Ghost and the Stolen Dragon

After her terrible adventures in the Silent Woods, Na’ya’s world seems to have returned to normal…that is, except for the nightmares that keep haunting her. What she needs is the power to protect everyone in case the evil scientist returns, and she has the perfect solution—she’ll turn into a dragon, once and for all! With help from Ailis and Jasper, everything seems to be going according to plan. But what’s that dark shadow slithering around the spell-casting range…?

ISBN-13: 9781975311261
Publisher: Yen Press
Publication date: 10/15/2024
Series: Weirn Books Series #2
Ages 8-12

Filed under: Guest Post