I recently received a tweet from some students who queried my claim that I was a dragonologist. So I’ve decided to write occasional dragon blogs, to prove my credentials. This is the first one on Japanese dragons which didn’t make it into by dragon encyclopedia Dragon Companion. Different At first glance, Japanese dragons look very … Continued
Readers are often inspired to make drawings inspired by the books they read, but recently I got an email from a reader in New Zealand who has been inspired by Dragonkeeper to make a dragon garden in his backyard. And he sent me some photos. It looks lovely. Theo has a great collection of dragons. … Continued
There’s a new dragon in Melbourne! And it’s a gorgeous 15-metre long, translucent water dragon, made entirely out of recycled plastic bottles. It is an art installation outside the Chinese Museum in Cohen Place. The artist is Claire Tracey and she designed the dragon in collaboration with school students. … Continued
I will be conducting a Dragon Walk in Melbourne on 20th Nov at 2pm, meeting at the State Library of Victoria. This is a Centre for Youth Literature event. There are still a few places left. You must book through the Centre for Youth Literature. We’ll start in the forecourt of the State Library of … Continued
If there’s one thing I love it’s a pop-up dragon book. I have a small collection of about four of them. My daughter Lili just bought me another one for my birthday. It’s called Dragons and Monsters and it definitely contains the best pop-up dragons I’ve ever seen. The paper engineering is done by Robert … Continued
About 25 years ago, when we were renovating our house, my husband John carved a dragon to put on the roof. This was a long time before I even started thinking about writing about dragons. The dragon has watched over us ever since. John is painting the outside of the house at the moment and … Continued
The Melbourne Writers Festival is over and I really enjoyed my sessions. The audiences were big and attentive which is great. And I got to chat to some of my readers afterwards at signings. I also sat in on some interesting sessions by other authors. I particularly enjoyed my panels with other authors. It’s always … Continued
Yesterday I went to the reopening of Melbourne’s Chinese Museum, which has been closed for refurbishment for some while. I am always happy to visit the processional dragons that live in the Museum, and now they are all housed together in the new Dragon Gallery. It was also a great opportunity to see the Millennium … Continued
Sugar Sugar isn’t the only book I have written that is out this month. Also just published is the paperback edition of The Dragon Companion which is an A-Z encyclopedia of dragons with lots of information about dragons and stories as well. Check out the great microsite on the black dog books website which shows … Continued
For those of you who live in Sydney, or might be visiting in the near future, I recommend a visit to the Mythic Creatures Exhibition at the Australian Maritime Museum. I can recommend it because I saw the exhibition when it was in New York. It has displays about dragons, unicorns, mermaids and other mythic … Continued