The Adventurous Author | Finish Book, Writing Discipline, Creative Writing, Character Development, Christian Podcast

Welcome to Day 13 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter ten entitled Torix. And here’s your Insider Tip of the Day: Zandador used to be a bright and vibrant land.  Then Omri came to power.  Over the course of his centuries-long reign, he has zapped the life and passion from the people,...

Welcome to Day 12 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of The Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter nine entitled Stalking the Stalker.  Today you get to meet a Dawn Stalker!  Only this dragon isn't the friendly sort that are back on Earth with Kenton. Opny is 814 years old and lives free in Dawn Stalker territory in Southwest Za...

Welcome to Day 11 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter eight entitled A Second First Impression. At the end of chapter 7, Javan was blasted with some sort of weapon that you’ll learn about here in chapter 8. What you don’t learn in this chapter is that the weapon is powered by Midnight...

Welcome to Day 10 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter seven entitled Ravier and Red Rain. In today’s Insider Tip, Author DK Drake shares how she came up with the idea for red rain that Javan encounters into today’s story snippet. Enjoy!   Get Your Free DK Drake Starter Library that in...

Welcome to Day 9 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter six entitled Through the Portal. In today’s Insider Tip, Author DK Drake shares why the people in the Land of Zandador have such long lifespans. Enjoy!   Get your free DK Drake Starter Library that includes a digital manuscript of T...

Welcome to Day 8 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter five entitled Through the Portal. In today’s Insider Tip, Author DK Drake shares the origin of the Dragon Dimension, and in the chapter from the story, you’ll hear how people on earth can access the Dragon Dimension, also known as t...

It’s day 7 of the 21 Days of Storytelling! Before I wrote my short story Cops, Robbers…and Dragons? that I share in episode two, I started an Internet research binge on dragons.  I wanted to find out how other authors described their dragons so I could make my dragons cool and believable. I didn’t get too far into my binge, though.  I stopped myself when I had this crazy realization: I was writing...

What if you came face to face with a dragon? Here on Day 6 of the 21 Days of Storytelling, Javan from The Dragon Collector experiences that very scenario. The story snippet of the day is chapter three entitled Lightning and Smoke and shows what happens when an ordinary teenager comes face to face with dragons that are visiting Earth from a different dimension. As the Insider Tip of the Day, author...

Welcome to Day 5 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter two entitled The Unexpected Guests. Today’s episode also includes two bonus scenes you can’t read in the book. So listen in to find out what happens when an orphan meets the mother whom he thought abandoned him at birth.   Get Your...

We’re back with Day 4 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is chapter one, which takes place six weeks after the end of last part of the prologue.   The Insider Tip of the Day explains why author DK Drake introduced the main character with this football scene rather than a more action-packed, gra...

The storytelling blitz continues with Day 3 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is part III of the Prologue.  Part III takes place fifteen years after Part I and eight years after Part II.  It’s also told from the perspective of the hero Javan’s mother rather than Javan himself. The Insider Tip...

And we’re back for Day 2 of the 21 Days of Storytelling featuring The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. The story snippet of the day is part II of the Prologue, and this scene takes place seven years after part I. Why is the prologue divided into parts?  Author DK Drake answers that very question as the Insider Tip of the Day. Tune in now to gain that behind the sce...

Ah!  It’s here!  The 21 Days of Storytelling! This is day one, and today you’ll get to hear Author DK Drake read part I of the prologue of The Dragon Collector, book one of the Dragon Stalker Bloodlines Saga. In The Dragon Collector, fifteen-year-old Javan believes he is simply an ordinary orphan abandoned by his mother at birth--until he is whisked away to another dimension and his destiny as the...

What does it take to be a great storyteller?   A stunning grasp of the English language?   An understanding of story structure and plot pacing? A wild imagination?   Yes.  Yes.  And yes.   All of those are helpful and important, but we won’t be talking about any of those things today. What we will discuss are three mission critical things you need to know on your quest to become an author of capti...

Straddle the line.  Middle of the road.  One foot in and one foot out.  Maybe.  Uncertain.  Wobbly.  Wishy washy. Do any of these words fill you with confidence?  Do any of them describe the people you most admire, respect and follow?  Probably not.  More than likely you describe your heroes with words like bold.  Decisive.  Determined. Committed.  All in.  Wholehearted.  Passionate. We don’t foll...

Regardless of your story's genre, format or length, every story has the same basic structure.  So before you write a word, create a character, consider your setting, or outline your plot, you must under the structure. I didn't understand it when I wrote my first novel right out of college, and that first draft was a disaster.  The second and third drafts were pretty bad as well, and the fourth dra...

Once upon a time, I never bothered with creative writing prompts.  I didn’t see the point.  Why use someone else’s story idea to prompt my own writing when I have plenty story ideas of my own? Then one friend relentlessly prompted me to write a story about dragons.  Another countered his attacks by prompting me to write a story about cops.   In an effort to get them to leave me alone and let me ch...

Greetings, my fiction-loving friend!  Welcome to the wonderful world of novel-writing.  I’m so pumped that you are joining me for this journey, and I can’t wait to get to know you and your characters and your stories. You’re probably wondering who I am, so let me introduce myself by saying that I, author DK Drake, do not exist. You read that right.  DK Drake doesn’t exist.  I made her up, just lik...

The Rescue Mission For Christian Writers Who Are Ready to Finish There’s a book inside you. A message that won’t leave you alone. But between fear, responsibility, doubt, and distraction, you keep starting… and stopping. The Adventurous Author Podcast exists to change that. Hosted by Bonnie Jean Schaefer (fantasy author D.K. Drake), this show helps Christian writers anchor their identity in Christ...