The Beginning
Every writer considers the weight of that first sentence. You can hook a reader with that first line, or you can lose them before the end of the first paragraph. If that’s not enough pressure, all writers at some level measure their opening sentence against great writers like Charles Dickens with his classic line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
The idea for my book began about thirty years ago. On my author page, I wrote that the idea for Warrior of the Dragon Fields literally materialized in my head as I was counseling with a teenager. As a Pastor’s wife, I was filling a hole as office secretary for the church and Christian school (Pastor’s wives do a lot of filling in). Kids from the school would often get a bathroom pass then use it to sneak into the office to chat me up. Sometimes they were escaping Algebra, and sometimes they needed to talk. I mostly listened.
I’ve listened to a lot of children over the years whose ultimate goal in life was to not be like their parent then watched many of those children become the person they didn’t want to be by making the same choices their parents made. All negative family cycles develop from the root of mankind’s sin nature. This nature of sin and its consequences are described in Deuteronomy 5:9-10. Furthermore, the Bible describes us all as having a sin nature. Acting on that nature manifests sin, sin becomes a pattern, and patterns are learned by children. As that sin pattern is learned and passed down through generations, it becomes that downward spiraling family cycle that is so hard to break. I say this with the utmost empathy, “These family cycles are very difficult to break!”
As I listened to this teen, I was evaluating the different parenting styles one finds in a Christian school. This particular teen was lacking in and wanting boundaries, and had, in fact, taken it upon themselves to enroll in the Christian school. As this teen described the choices and situations they were trying so hard to navigate, I could literally visualize them being drug off in the clutches of a dragon’s tail while the parenting adults in their life sat and did nothing but click their tongues with “such a pity” on their lips. This is where Warrior of the Dragon Fields was born.
The original idea for the book I wanted to write was from the perspective of an adult to adults. I visualized a fresh, young Warrior setting out on a journey for God the King with a head full of ideas that would tragically and fatally run into reality—repeatedly. Then, through what appears to be happened-chance, God the King puts a young person, whom I named Blossom, into his path. Blossom is lost and adrift with no skills to survive. Reluctantly, Warrior takes the child under his wing. In working with Blossom, warrior experiences and learns what it is to work with and train human nature with an ingrained resistant free will.
It’s the training of Blossom that trains Warrior. Through this experience his head full of fanciful ideas are replaced with labor, sweat, tears and repetitious training drills all on a roller coaster of gut dropping failures, and then on the up swing, a few exhilarating hard-won successes. Oh, and there’s lots of frustration. Ultimately, Blossom graduates to Warrior, and Warrior graduates to Counsellor of the Dragon Fields. Writing this, it kind of sounds like my life story.
Why didn’t I write that story? I did, three times. Well, I started to three times. I’d like to interject here that the hook for opening sentence was, “Scorching winds blow across the desert sands of a barren waste land.” (a rather poetic description of where I live). “What happened to that story?” you ask. Please, let me tell you.
My first draft was on a computer that was infiltrated with viruses that made both the computer and the story unrecoverable. I had worked on the second draft for about two years, when after a bit of a break, I went to open the document and could not find it anywhere. It was gone. My head spun around for a long time trying to figure out what happened. I don’t know. It was just gone. I don’t want to waste words on it, except to say that it brought me to my knees in tears. The third draft is scribbled on notepads in a drawer (not trusting a computer, again).
How did those scribbled notes become a children’s book? In 2019 I was the last speaker at a women’s conference. I felt an uneasiness that the spirit of the conference had some discord due to dissatisfaction. I continued to feel it all the way to the platform.
When I get up to a podium to speak, I always have a very clear idea of what I will be saying. That day I felt that the hindrance hanging in the air would be like an insulated sound board between me and the ladies. I ad-libbed. Basically, the speech was, “as much as I love Princess Spa Day, a women’s retreat was more like Princess Warrior training”. It worked. In fact, when the next year's theme was chosen, it was none other than—Warrior Princess. I was invited to speak twice at the next year’s retreat and quickly settled on the topics of “The Battle Within” and “The Battle Without”.
When speaking, just like in writing, a good opening line is needed—a hook that gets the audience engaged. Well, what would a Princess theme be without a Princess story? I looked at the third draft I was writing and thought, ‘What if I just quickly drafted that into a Prince and Princess themed story?’
The thought of writing a children’s story had occurred to me before, often. Every time, I brushed it off. I wanted a serious story. Buuuuut, for an opener for the women’s retreat, sure, I’d write a quick children’s version. Two weeks before the Women’s Retreat, the world shut down.
It is March 2020, and God has my attention as I’m sitting in the quiet of an empty house quizzically asking, “You think God really wants this to be a children’s story?” I’ve been working on the children’s book version ever since. For the last four years, I’ve been writing, rewriting, editing, formatting and learning, learning, learning! In the time I have been feverishly working on the book, God has patiently been working on me. I’m thinking, ‘I need to hurry up and write this before I grow old and my life is over.’ But God wasn’t concerned about me growing old, He was concerned with me being at the maturity level He knew I was going to need to be at. Consequently, I’ve had to go back through my own life and rebuild and relearn areas that weren’t trained in Christ. That has been hard, and could not have done it without Christ.
Just like myself and the kids and teenagers I’ve taught through the years; we all have battles to fight. The unholy prince of this world has corrupted everything God has made for good. I previously said that family cycles are very hard to break. It is, in my opinion, impossible without Christ. A family has strengths, and it has weaknesses creating a line of defense between what you protect and what you battle. A family name is a battleground where members both fight for its honor, and war against its demons. Fail to do the latter, and you will not achieve the former.
The Beginning begins where I began—a child escaping into and living in those Bible stories that were so precious to me. It has developed into a story from the viewpoint of a Counsellor of the Dragon fields who is Training children today to be God’s warriors tomorrow.
The Beginning is a simple name and not as impressive as, “Scorching winds blow across the desert sands of a barren waste land.” I’m content with that. When God decided to write a book, He started with “In the beginning…” and it has been a best seller ever since.
