Co-writing Mark of the Dragon with my dad was amazing. I love that we were able to mesh our writing voices together so well. I love our dragons and all our characters (some more than others lol). While writing, and I can't speak for Bill, but I have to listen to music. Sometimes I listen to things that wouldn't normally be on my everyday playlists, but the songs bond with the muse and create the perfect mood for each scene. I can't explain how every song I listen to is attached dramatically in some way to each scene.
Below is my personal Spotify playlist for Mark of the Dragon, along with each song and what it meant to me during the writing process...
Come Away to the Water helped me when writing the whole book. It helped set the tone during many scenes and attached itself to Andra, who is one of our main characters.
Kingdom Come I can picture the country of Santerrian. Not sure why, but it helped when Andra took her journey to the orb. I think it was on constant repeat during that part of the story lol.
Daughter's Lament was a fun song to listen to while writing the Vetaunex. Not so much a repeat song, but it helped when Liam went hunting.
Safe & Sound is just a great song. I can picture Andra and Amoreth with this song, the war between the countries made an intense journey and this song helped create some peace with the characters - as well as setting the tone in the story.
The Dragon's Breath is beautiful! No words needed. The haunting Celtic sounds soothed as well as incited many emotions. There was a scene with Sorem that if I read while listening to this song I could cry. I can picture the entire story with just this song. It is kinda like my personal theme song for it. If there were ever an official soundtrack or (dreaming here...) a movie, this song would be on my must have list.
I Hate Everything About You is not a typical song for this story I admit, but the muse loved it for certain scenes. Regina was a hard person to feel and I found that using this song as well as a couple others helped. It also helped draw out some deeper emotions that helped with fighting or anger, even sorrow.
Burn it to the Ground is a go to song for fights if you ask me. When the dragons are flying in the air and fighting, this was playing! This song pumps me and many of my muses up.
Kryptonite is a song that helped set the mood for different scenes. It helped when they Liam was traveling a lot.
Pain is another song I used with Regina. Trying to dig for a deeper emotion and trying to understand why she was so dark.
Second Chance is one of those songs that just fits. You know when you go see a movie and the last song that closes the movie and the screen fades to black? Yes, this would be it for me lol. It has nothing to do with the story, but somehow it really does fit.
My Immortal is a close song for me personally and it took a while before I could listen to it without crying, but this song helped with a lot of the story, especially in the beginning. There is a scene with Andra and Terrax that this hits for me. The traditions of dragons and their riders make this hit even harder and pull out more. It is also the perfect song to leave you all with......
In a land of warriors and dragons, everything is about to
change...
Countries are divided and war is raging, but none of that matters to Andra. She
is destined to be a dragon rider. There has never been a woman rider, but that
doesn't matter to her. After her father's death, she trains harder than any man
to be a worthy candidate. Even when the Aquastrian leader wants her dead, she
fights back. Can she over come traveling hundreds of miles on foot, surviving
hunger, bandits, assassins and wild carnivores?
Liam is just another warrior who hopes he is worthy of the Mark of the Dragon.
He must endure the long trek from Aquastra to Santerrian, avoiding all people,
especially those who may be hired to kill him. Meeting Andra along the way changes
everything. He admires her willful spirit and is inspired to do even more as a
warrior and stop the war. He fights to help her, kills to protect her, but will
it be enough to get them both to their dragons before it's too late?
You can purchase Mark of the Dragon on
Kindle or on your
Nook. You can also get Mark of the Dragon in paperback (which has some cool scrolls in the beginning) here --->
Createspace or
Barnes & Noble
The Mysts of Santerrian also has a website that you can check out tid-bits as we write the stories, read some of the book for free, and even some extras....
www.mystsofsanterrian.com
About the Authors
M.R. Polish was born in Idaho, a long, long, long, well, maybe not that long time ago.... Writing has always been there for her. Growing up, her mind was filled with stories, some she shared and others she filed away to write down later in life. It wasn't until 2011 that she decided to publish her stories for everyone to enjoy. Her first award, and when writing became more than just an idea, was in the 5th grade. She won the scary story contest for the school newspaper. It is one story she still has tucked away for memories. Her teacher told her she could be anything she wanted and that she had a talent for writing, being creative and drawing people into her stories. M.R. took that to heart and continued to write, although mostly in secret until recent years.
Now you can find her enjoying life with her family - wrangling her four kids, setting traps in the house with toys for unsuspecting victims (aka, her husband) and writing down all her crazy and fun stories.
"Life is too short to stand by and watch everyone else live your dreams. The bigger the dream, the bigger the adventure!" ~ M.R. Polish
Bill Morgan is M.R.'s dad, and if she was born that long ago, You all should shudder at how long ago he was born. He has always been creative. As an amateur artist and an avid woodworker, he always could see the hidden beauty in a blank piece of paper or a piece of wood. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard in 1986 and spent twenty years saving lives and serving his country. He always had stories running around in his head, but he never tried to put them onto paper until M.R. convinced him to do this book with her. Now he is actively writing two additional sci-fi/fantasy novels. Hopefully she hasn't created a monster. Bill's favorite thing is his family. He has a wonderful wife, two adult daughters, four sisters, and more wonderful nieces and nephews than you can believe. His last count was over one hundred and he loves them all. One of his favorite quotes comes from a movie, but it applies to writing a fictional novel as well:
"Don't know where we're going, but there's no sense in being late." ~Mathew Quigley
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