Unraveling Myths
Whenever I read the blurb for The Blackwick Series, I imagine readers must wonder how dragons fit into a book about traveling through classic literature. What kind of mythology combines dragons, werewolves, and vampires with characters like Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan, and The Count of Monte Cristo?
A Dracula Retelling
Forever Is Eternity began as a retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It fascinated me how Stoker initially set up the story to focus on male protagonist John Harker’s dealings with Dracula, only to shift the spotlight to Meena. She uses letters, journals, and newspaper articles to thwart the vampire. Meena wields a typewriter with more power than Van Helsing wields his stake. In fact, the earliest versions of Forever Is Eternity started as a series of letters, with Betty writing to her friend about her trials with wealthy relatives and her worry for Edmond on his trip to the Carpathian Mountains.
Reading as a Superpower
Since Meena and her typewriter emerged as the hero of Dracula, Betty with her books became the protagonist of The Blackwick Series. How else can you travel from 1930s England to rescue your cousin from Castle Dracula unless you use a book to get there? Betty needed guidance on book travel, so the author enters the story in the form of Frieda Fernsby. Like Meena outsmarting the vampire by compiling narratives from different victims, Betty thwarts evil because she has already read the book and knows what happens. Essentially, reading is Betty’s superpower.
Dragons in Wonderland
How is this travel into books possible? Books are worlds within worlds, and Betty herself is a character in a book. By finding books within other books, she can portal about. But who is the prime mover in this situation? Who came before the author? Knowing that the word “Dracula” refers to The Order of the Dragon, I realized my answer lay in dragons. If an evil Dragon Lord controls the vampires, there must be a greater good—the Golden Dragon Vorever. Vorever, the eternal dragon, inhabits all space because he is the original storyteller. All book worlds exist within the first story he ever dreamed.
Betty as The Chosen One
The moment Betty finally meets Vorever is a powerful climactic convergence in Forever Is Eternity. Her strong connection with Vorever and the purpose of her being the chosen one are plot lines that unravel throughout the five upcoming books in the series.
Books and Dragons
Just as books are stories within stories, dragons are offshoots of other dragons. Vorever is the universal dragon. As he weaves musings into complex stories, other celestial dragons come to be. The scales of a celestial dragon, once removed from their source, can evolve into dragon titans like Ordog or Death-Guardian. The scales of these dragon titans, if provided with enough sustenance, can evolve into subdragons—shape-shifters who sometimes look human, straddling the realms of humanity and monstrosity.
Other celestial dragons exist in this world, influencing authors and their stories. What happens if a celestial dragon is evil? Instead of inspiration, this dragon would breathe corruption, leaving destruction in its wake.
And that’s where Book 2 of the series takes us—into a world plagued by this type of corruption and further explores Betty’s connection to Vorever. Will that connection be strong enough to thwart the malevolence and preserve the story worlds as they interweave with Betty’s own world?
Now, let’s turn the spotlight on you. How deep is your connection to the world of books? Can it draw you into the pages, transforming you into the hero of your favorite stories? Are you an Inter-Story Intercessor, bridging gaps between fictional universes? Are you a special friend of Vorever?
For answers and adventures, delve into The Blackwick Series by Kathleen R. Cuyler. Uncover secrets, unravel mysteries, and embrace the magic that lies within the pages. Happy reading!
