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Tina Glasneck, USA Today Bestselling Author

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Dragons

Peppering facts into fiction

April 7, 2022 By Tina Glasneck


History is brutal, but ... 

If we don’t know history, we can’t see the patterns and ripple effects in our modern day.

But Tina, you write fantasy and romance. How does history affect your writing? I love to write all in one world, but in different time periods, as I pepper history through my stories..

But fiction is not fact; yet we can braid those things together, while entertaining  and informing.

One such topic I uncovered while writing my time travel paranormal romance is that of cruelty of Napoléon, who historians often praise. But, did you know France forced Haiti to pay reparations to France to ensure their freedom?

I don’t remember hearing anything about this while growing up. The lack of information caused me to dig deeper.

My stories are set in this timeline, mostly, and I wanted to reference something historical that still impacts today. This meant shining a light on Haiti’s history and presenting some of it as part of the background for the story.

The tale of independence for present day Haiti from French rule came with generational consequences.

As France was creating fashion trends with its 18th century, mouse hide eyebrows, Haiti, known as the French colony of Saint Domingue, which had gained independence in 1801, was once again fighting off a new potential colonial rule, this one being Napoléon. He was hell-bent on retaking the colony and threatened to reinstate French rule and chattel slavery.

The fight for independence was brutal. But it wasn’t until 1805, when Haiti became officially independent. Here’s the caveat: for France to recognize this, Haiti had to agree to pay France 150 million francs, as well as a 50% discount on exported goods to them.

This debt did not go away.

In 1838, France agreed to reduce the debt to 90 million francs. It would take Haiti 122 years to pay it off, finally settled in 1947.

The world we see today, the moving pieces and nuances, we can often discover by digging deeper. After all, nothing is how it might first be perceived.

The United States didn’t recognize Haiti until 1862. This meant that the US also didn’t trade or have commercial relationships with Haiti, although benefitting from its pressure on revolting against French rule. It is suspected that because of Haiti’s revolution, this is a partial reason of why Napoléon gave up on the “New World” and agreed to sell the Louisiana Territory, what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.

France will not give reparations or payment back to the modern day Haitians, and… just in case you think Britain was any better, well, they were paying reparations to actual slave owners descendants until 2015.

Why am I showcasing this? Because with a wealth of knowledge comes power to enact genuine progress. Yes, history is often evil… but the more we know, the more we can help to change our world for the better, and I’m hoping to do that with my stories too. There is nothing like taking the darkness of history and fighting back with the fantastical and have the good guys win.

My dragon series continues to play with history, sprinkling in historical truths, and lighting it on fire with beautiful magic.

Filed Under: Blog, Dragons, writing Tagged With: Haiti, history, writing

Cover Reveal: Four Times the Fight

December 16, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

Are you ready for the next Leslie book?

I’m happy to share teh cover and reveal the blurb for FOUR TIMES THE FIGHT!

This supernatural vampire life itches, and the dark arts are at play.

When Leslie is knocked out by a ghost and fails her test to join the Order, her future is at stake.

Until she discovers a hidden safe in her apartment that includes handwritten runic staves and an old Revolutionary War button from her dead father.

Now, she’s on a quest to find his connection to magic.And her purpose. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems.What lurks in the dark must come to light.

The search for a hidden treasure leads to Leslie coming face to face with the legendary Headless Horseman.And she’s one magical blade’s swing from joining his troop.

Ack! This vampire may have bitten off more than she can drink…

Discover what’s at stake in this new urban fantasy take on vampire lore with Four Times the Fight.

Preorder Today for the March 27, 2021 release!

https://books2read.com/FourTimesVamp

Four Times the Fight will be a great installment in this fun and humourous Urban Fantasy series (of course, with a bit of romance in there, as well). 😉

Filed Under: Blog, Dragons, vampire

Vlad the Impaler

October 26, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

In this series of vampires, why is it called the Order of the Dragon? The answer might surprise you, as it has true, historical ties to the most famous of vampires, Vlad the Impaler.

There has been much speculation about how somebody could combine dragons and vampires.

Well, what if I told you that Vlad the Impaler was born into the family of Dracul. Draco is the Latin word for Dragon. Vlad, who we later would call Dracula, followed in his father’s footsteps to enter the Order of the Dragon.

Since the Order of the Dragon is indeed older than Vlad, it made sense to keep much of that accuracy.  Vlad, the Impaler, did not create the Order but became a member of it.

The Order of the Dragon was the name of the historical Order created by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to defend Christian Europe against the rising strength of the Ottoman Empire.

In my research, knowing the connection of vampire lore and combining that with the historical accuracy of the Order of the Dragon, it was a logical leap to fuse these two worlds.

Of course, Vlad’s full story has not yet been shared, although I introduce him as a main side character in Three Little Words. I expect to see a lot more of our fantastic Vlad the Impaler and more from legend and folklore as the series continues.

Fun Fact: Vlad (Vlad III) had two brothers. For a diplomatic negotiation, he traveled with his father to learn about such. However, soon after, things soured. Taken, he and his brother, Radu, were held hostage. However, still considered princes, they were educated in science, philosophy, and even the art of war.

While away, Vlad’s father was murdered and his brother buried alive. Vlad III would rise to capture, lose, and recapture his father’s seat, using insane practices, including impaling people.

The history with Vlad is rich with insanity. I can’t wait to bring some of it out in my Order of the Dragon series.

Learn more about the Order of the Dragon series, here!

Filed Under: Blog, Dragons, vampire

The Lost Egg: A Short Story

October 2, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

What happens when Jane finds a dragon egg?

Once upon a time, there was a small, peaceful town that was rumored to be watched over by a fiery dragon, but no one has seen the dragons in centuries. People had gone in search of it or its nest but to no avail. Dragons were things of myths and legends.

Until one day, the most normal of women stepped out, away from her devices and all of the things that women do,  and out into nature, to forest bathe. The sky was always blue, whales sang their songs in the distant fjords, and the birds soared on a cool breeze.

Jane, on the most ordinary of days, felt the breeze push her toward a cave. It was dark, craggily, and filled with sharp edges. This cave was one not visited, as carved into the rocks were runes and glyphs that shouted words of warning.

But Jane did not worry. The dragons had not been heard from in centuries.

Despite the danger, the invisible hands continued to press on her back until she stood at the end of a large nest, and therein rested a large sparkly egg. The nest appeared abandoned, as hatched eggshell remains appeared hardened like the surrounding stone.

Jane’s heart pounded in her chest. Here she stood on the precipice. Would she heed the call to save the dragon egg? To walk in the fate the dragon egg brought with it, including its burden?

She released her pent up breath, snatched the egg away, accepting it as her own.

Jane hurried home, created a nest for her egg, surely, thinking that nothing would come from it. She dove into learning everything she could about dragons, from the small snippets in old books to Internet search results that yielded nuggets of truth.

With this knowledge, she adapted her home for the egg’s benefit. Fearing the egg might get too cold, she wrapped it in paper and fleece. She then created a sacred circle of crystal salts, sat with it before the fire (but at a safe distance), and read to it stories of great dragons from long ago.

Indeed there was more to be done.

After a while, she pulled out her phone and visited online posts, watched videos.

The egg did not crack the first day, nor the third.

It did not crack the fourteenth or even the twentieth.

Jane danced around the egg, loudly chanted, sliced her hand and placed droplets of blood on and around the egg,

Surely this would help?

She then placed the egg under the rays of the full moon’s light, read tarot cards, lit candles, and made altars to ancient gods desperate for the egg to crack.

The more she did, the more her self-doubt grew.

Maybe she hadn’t been called to rescue the egg.

Maybe she wasn’t qualified enough, and this was the universe telling her that dragons should remain a myth.

That night, Jane went to bed and cried herself to sleep, as the egg and worry weighed heavily on her.

On the next morning, dragging, she thought to give up. Today was the final day for her dragon gift to hatch. Many had tried to hatch dragon eggs before, maybe, and they must have given up a long time ago, too.

When she thought to give up and return the egg, Jane went to town for tea and met a friend, Old Blue, for coffee. All he needed was a staff to play Gandalf, after all.

Blue had lived in the town for decades and knew every inch it.

Jane collapsed into a chair. She explained her situation to Blue, and how her project, that of the egg, had not produced the dragon.

The wiry old man looked at her under bushy ey brows and with a knowing smile.

“You can’t make magic without a spark,” he said. “A dragon’s egg is simply an egg until it’s touched by magic.”

“And magic comes with consequences?” Jane asked. She’d read that online too.

“Aye,” he nodded. “When you spark the magic, you will place a target on your back, for then come the grumpy trolls to fight against the magic they see, they feel. But it will be up to you to determine if the magic will embrace this world or leave it forever. If having the egg, stepping into your destiny as a hero, is worth the trouble.”

“Trouble?” All Jane had wanted to do with hatch the dragon egg. She’d not considered what might happen to the dragon afterward.

“A dragon egg is found every hundred years. But only you can decide if this one shall find the magic.”

“And where can I find the magic?” Jane asked. None of her sources had provided any information as to conjuring or summoning magic. What more could she give?

Old Blue dropped a lump of sugar into his tea and stirred it with his butter knife. “Believe in yourself.”

“Believe in me,” Jane guffawed. She’s not made the trip to town for some slippery slope of hippy statements. No, she wanted a concrete recipe for how to hatch a dragon egg.

“I believe in myself.”

“No, you need to believe in yourself like you do gravity. Like you do, that fire will burn you if you get too close.”

“That is not a belief that is science.”

“The science of self-confidence remains the same. If you wish to soar, you have to jump.”

“So, you want me to go to the top of this building and jump?”

“No, what you believe is what you create. I want you to recognize that to hatch the egg, the part missing is you.” Old Blue picked up his dainty teacup and sipped from it.

Jane went back home, and in her living room, the egg still sat unchanged, just like it had on the day she’d found it.

She picked up her journal and started to write, and then picked up a book on changing her belief patterns.

The first day, nothing happened.

On the third, everything remained the same.

The seventh day, she wrote, she read, and she sang.

By the fourteenth day, she chanted, she danced and screamed. She cried. In building blocks to tear down, Jane went deeper. Still, the egg did not change.

On the twenty-seventh day, she wrote, she read, she sang. Her voice rang out, sparking the air and the dragon’s egg wobbled.

Her eyes welled at the cracking shell.

By the thirtieth day, her hands had cramps, her fingers calloused, her voice raw, her body tired, her heart strong. Again today, she wrote, she read, she loudly sang. The egg shook, it wobbled, and from Jane’s calloused hands and fingers, blue magic shot forth. It zipped and zinged around the golden egg, lifting it up, spinning it around.

A cool breeze, just like she’d experienced on that initial day, wrapped around her.

The egg suddenly crashed to her hardwood floor, but flying midair was a golden-eyed dragon that stared at her with admiration.

Jane had found her magic, birthing a dragon from its impenetrable shell.

The dragon flew to rest on her shoulder, and Jane’s skin then puckered and formed turquoise tinged scales.

“Mama,” the dragon baby said.

And Jane gasped in the realization that she’d been a dragon the entire time, and had to have help to figure out what that meant and to discover the power of her dragon heart.

Standing tall, with her dragon on her shoulder, surrounded by shards of broken shell, she planted her feet. Come what may, with the knowledge of self once again lit, she’d be ready, or she’d burn it all down to protect the dragon baby she’d now hatched.

The Lost Egg © 2020  Tina Glasneck. All Rights Reserved.

Filed Under: Dragons, fairy tale retelling, new release Tagged With: dragons, fairytale retelling, short story

#1 New Release Three Little Words!

February 1, 2020 By Tina Glasneck

It is always exciting to bring something into the world, and Three Little Words being embraced by readers has me super happy!

Today, I thought to ask a poignant question: Are Vampires the new heroes?

When you think of vampires, what comes to mind? Are you thinking the handsome men with leather coats, thinking of Spike here from Buffy, or even the dashing Eric from True Blood? Maybe you’re even thinking of the daywalker, Blade?

For me, an 80s child, vampires walk this great line of sex appeal and pure danger. After all, the vampires of my generation would be more of The Lost Boys, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, and even Vampires (starting James Woods).

These movies have walked with me, and even been a part of my life’s soundtrack.

Then the game changed with the likes of Underworld!

We had a vampire that was all of those great things and completely kick-butt! I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’d love to have the ability to leap off of skyscrapers and have black leather flutter around me.

Selene was completely lethal, but also had heart. I wanted someone who was strong, like Pam from True Blood or even Tera. There is something about when a person comes into their own.

Vampires have existed in folklore worldwide for centuries, but for most of us, vampires bring with it images of castles, bats, red satin-lined black capes, and Dracula.  (I mean, King James — yes, that one connected to having his own version of the Christian Bible, wrote a dissertation on vampirism, connecting it to demon possession in 1597; and even most recently, there are people who identify as vampires, who drink human blood and declare that their bodies need it).

The thing about vampire stories is that we often enter their world after they’ve lived a very long time, and everyone knows the myth of creation, but maybe like Sookie Stackhouse we could discover this world alongside our characters, where a mystery is afoot, the supernatural world is hidden, and bam! What do you have to give up to become a vampire? What do you gain? Is being part of this elite group all unicorns and endless possibilities?

This was the forefront of my mind when creating the Order of the Dragon series. I wanted a character that would grow, but also reveal a hidden supernatural world, where magic is real, dragon-shifters lead the Order, and a rogue group wants to topple them all.

This week marks the release of the 4th book in this dynamic, and series that continues to grow, Three Little Words, and I am overjoyed that you love this series just as much as I do.

I can’t wait to discover what magic is heading Leslie’s way next!

Filed Under: Dragons, vampire

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