And I want another word for "dragons" because sometimes I think if I hear that particular word again I'll scream...

So. Dragons.

Have they been done to death? Or can the fantasy book world stand yet another book about their scaly majesty?

I have a story idea. A very complex story idea. It crawls around in my head.  It makes trouble for me when I listen to certain songs, because I'm supposed to be driving, damn it.

I long to sit and write it out complete, but would it sell? It would take a long, long time to finish, can I really afford to spend time, money, and energy on it if I will only be told yet another dragon story won't sell?

Did you ever see the movie Frida? A fabulously delicious movie about an amazing, amazing woman. This connects to my opening, I promise. Frida Kahlo, surrealist Mexican artist. In the movie Frida has a long convalescence after a terrible accident and takes up painting. When she can walk again she takes one of her paintings to the famous muralist Diego Rivera and asks him if she should continue painting, does she have any talent? Can she make any money?

Diego tells her (I'm paraphrasing, I can't remember the words exactly and I can't find a clip and dear gods, WHY do I not OWN this movie?) if she's a real painter she will paint all her life because she can't not paint. She tells him she doesn't have time to screw around painting if it won't make her any money, her family needs to, like, eat and pay bills and shit. (Again, I'm paraphrasing the movie. Frida was much more eloquent in her response.)

That's how I'm feeling about my dragons. Yeah, ya'll are driving me batshit crawling around my head making stories and demanding to be written down, but you will take all my energy and if no one wants to read the story after its finished I got whole lotta nothing with which to pay bills. I want to write you down because I'm a writer but I can't afford the huge chunk of energy it will take to create your world from whole cloth if no one want to wrap themselves in it.

Now go find Frida and watch it. There's art and sex and drinking and swearing and revolutions and death. And then there's more art and sex. It's the perfect movie and it's about an actual person.

Frida Kahlo - photo by Lucienne Bloch