Portchester author Jeni Joyce celebrates as book The Destiny of Dragons is published after 10 years

Jenny Fisher of Portchester has released The Destiny of the Dragons with Blossom Spring Publishing under the pen name Jeni Joyce, and it is aimed at eight to 10-year-olds.

After teaching for 50 years, Jenny came into retirement ready to hone her love for writing, as she joined the Lovedean writers group.

This love for writing, she says, blossomed in school when writing compositions, but then later in life became telling imaginative bedtime stories to her children at home.

Jenny remembers how they continued to tell her to write them down, and so began her newly published 'The Destiny of Dragons,' though it took many forms over the 10 years of her writing and editing it.

In those many forms of Jenny's book was a trilogy, which she couldn't pursue as it wasn't included in her offer from Blossom Springs Publishing. Her book developed and took shape with the feedback she received over the years, whether from her writing group or her daughter - as she read and drew illustrations for the book. One of these pieces of feedback being the time an agent advised her to cut out a Santa Claus character from the book as he thought it would not be viable to sell in any other part of the year except Christmas season. This, she recalls, drastically shaped her story and its plot as he was a key character.

The synopsis of the book is: ‘A tiny dragon hatches from a discarded egg in the snowy wastes of Greenland. He calls himself Flash.

‘His first quest is to find his mother. An Arctic fox offers his friendship, which at times is greatly tested. Flash is also challenged by the local Inuit gods who are after his blood to give them more power.

‘He attains the long lasting enmity of Nanuk, the Polar bear god.

‘The dragon’s next journey is to find his father, which involves a long flight with the fox, Carlo. He discovers his true destiny and that his real name is Favnir, protector of the weak. Terrifying encounters ensue with the dragon tyrants who are called ‘The cohort of dragons’.

‘The theme throughout this adventure shows the desperate need for dragons and humans to interrelate, realising how futile war and the desire for power really is.’

Linking to her degrees in botany and archaeology, Jenny's inspiration comes from the natural (as well as the man-made) world - gaining ideas when interacting with the outdoors. She says she enjoys the fantastical works of Ursula Le Guin.

She has submitted this particular piece of work and her many forms of it to be published multiple times, but none have prevailed - until she came across Bloom Springs Publishing (already being subscribed to their writing magazine), which offered her the one book publishing and the cover art.

Upon publishing, Jenny received much support from her writing group, feeling accomplished after a decade of working on this story.