pensnest | The Dragon Challenge Author Reveal

D-Day (Dragons and Dwarves) Challenge author names are now up, go here to see who wrote what. Feedback links now go direct to the author in question, and I'm sure they'll be glad to hear from you. Also, Tales of Light and Darkness now has four parts, not two!

My thanks again to everyone who participated in this year's challenge - it has brought out some wonderful stories, and I'm very happy about this! Incidentally, in case I decide to do this again next year, any comments on what worked and what didn't would be very welcome. Also, if there are any formatting problems, or I've forgotten to add a link, or got your name wrong, etc, let me know, okay?

So, I wrote If you want to fly, and you'd be amazed how long it took for me to find that title, truly. I think it arrived on the day I posted the stories, and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner.

The Lance part of the story I'd had in my head for ages, and always intended to use it for my

fanfic100 'Beginnings' prompt.

The Clena part basically started with the first line and went on from there. (I sorta thought that the first line would be a dead giveaway that I was the author.) I'd had a notion about a downtrodden stable hand, in a nebulous way, until it took fire and I grew a whole new universe in which dragons are rather like racehorses or eventers, or dancers or, possibly, motorcycle display teams. And when I realised that the two stories were saying the same thing, I knew how this part had to end.

If you have feedback, do please leave a comment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Great challenge! Thanks for running it so well. And great story, one of the highlights of the challenge.

And I suck at guessing authors!

I don't know that I'd have been able to guess - except for

ninjetti75's, of course! And, thanks!

It was a great challenge, and thank you. I hope you do it again.

You already know, because I've said it in a lot of places, but I fell so in love with your story. I loved it so much that the minute I read it I had to post about it, even though that made it a little less anonymous, in that obviously I didn't write it. But no one would have guessed it was me anyway, I can't write in such a beautiful, lyrical way. That's two years this challenge has brought a story that has struck such a chord in me, last year's being Terri's Spot.

Yours is a story I'll read again and again. The first time, when I got to the end, I had to get up and walk around the room and tell the cat (I was alone) all about it.

I'm having trouble conveying just how lovely it is, but anyway, just know that I adore it.

I've been totally delighted with your comments about my story, not just because you love it (although that is of course Most Satisfactory) but also because you *get* it. *beams* I don't suppose the cat was particularly impressed, though!

And your story still makes me want to weep and flail.

Yes, I get it. That's why I got all sniffly and excited about it. I don't get how you could *not* get it, really.

And thank you. :) Poor Lance.

In case I have previously forgotten to tell you (which I'm sure I didn't, but just in case) -- Thank you so much for doing this challenge again this year. I really do hope that you decide to do it again next year.

I have to admit, I get a lot of satisfaction out of this challenge! And really, can one have too many dragon stories? I think not.

Now if we can just get someone to write stories for me on my bday that have like bats in them. ;)

That sounds like a cool idea!

Works for me. ;)

It was so much fun to do this. Thanks again for running it!

*puts aside time, finally, to read the stories!*

It is fun, isn't it - dragons, and added dwarves. Thanks for playing!

Thanks again for hosting!

It's all in my own interests, but I'm glad you could participate. :-)

Thank you for the challenge. I'm seriously having fun with it ^^

One can never have too many dragons, I feel - I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Amen to that. Still enjoying it *grin*

The title is amazing and the story rocks! I love how you've woven things together and switched seemlessly between 1st and 3rd and just. YES.

Thanks! It's funny - if I'd had another fortnight (yeah, right) it might have ended up looking quite different. I'm glad you enjoy it.

I've already told you, but it needs repeating. Your story is awesome!

Thank you so much for such an amazing challenge.

*preens* Thanks - and thank you for participating.

I would never have guessed that you wrote this story, I obviously suck at guessing writing styles! :-)

I loved the dragon part of the story so much! And I loved the ways you managed to make it so clear which dragon was which without making it feel overstated. It made me feel intelligent when I spotted the likenesses, if you understand what I mean.

I really must re-read this story because I have strong feeling that it's the kind of story that really rewards re-reading, and I think Donna's comment about the interconnectedness between the two storylines will prove a great help for me to understand that bit better.

I'm so happy you arranged this challenge this year too!! Thank you very much!

Donna was absolutely right about the Germans bit - that was just what was in my mind with Gig-Pok's list. I had all sorts of ideas very vaguely in my head about how the two stories were telling the same story, so I hope there are reflections in there.

Yep, it was a good wheeze to devise a Dragon Challenge, wasn't it! Dragons good.

What a wonderful little story! It took me a little while to figure out what real-life Lance had to do with dragons, but the tie-in was really well done. I really liked the characters and it left me wanting to know so much more about the stable, the dragons, the trainers...

Dare we hope for sequels? :)

Hi, and thanks so much for your feedback. I really liked this alternate world I'd come up with, but I don't *think* I'll be writing any more, because - at the moment, anyway - I don't have any more stories in my head that belong there.

Because

withdiamonds recced it in

crack_van I was struck with the urge to finally re-read this.

Now that I know it's you who wrote it I understand what you mean about the first sentence being a give-away, it sounds the same as the beginning of A Night At The Palace but I think because Clena is such a very different character to the Lance in that story I never twigged to the similarity at all.

This time I saw the parallells between the two story lines much clearer but I still like the dragon bits best and found myself sort-of skimming past the other parts.

If possible I love the dragons even more this time around, they're just so dragon-like while at the same time being their counterparts in Nsync, absolutely wonderful!

The ending still makes me impossibly happy, it's such a wonderful image - five jewel like dragons against a blue sky, together as they were meant to be!!

I love how the dragons worked out, too - it was one of those stories where the characters told me what they wanted, rather than me telling them.

Thanks for the extra feedback - I'm going to have to go and see what

withdiamonds said, now!

The Dragon Challenge Author Reveal

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