Have Dragon Will Travel

Genevieve Cogman's marvelous series The Invisible Library is a natural for crossovers. The Librarian heroine Irene Winters and her shapeshifting dragon assistant Kai are constantly on the prowl for rare books that could destabilize worlds. Their assignments stretch across a universe of alternate worlds. Speaking from personal experience, stopovers in a favorite fandom are often too tempting to resist.

Straddling Two Worlds: The Woman in Violet

Two of my series—Arkham Files and Tales from the Library—feature librarians and portals to other worlds. So you probably aren't surprised to hear that I've often daydreamed about the characters having joint adventures. I'd already tested the waters by having the Arkham Files crew visit their counterparts in Caffrey Conversation. There they learned about the dangers of crossworld contamination. The resulting chaos that can ensue is a concept that Irene is very familiar with. The possibilities for collaboration finally became so enticing that I couldn't resist giving it a whirl.

The Iron Brotherhood

The Iron Brotherhood marks my return to Tales from the Library, a series based on The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. The first six stories featured the mysterious Count Lecerf. The Fae had somehow managed to create magical illustrations in novels that acted as portals to other worlds. The sixth story, Merlin's Cave brought the collection to a resting spot. At that point, I took a break from writing the tales. But recently, Irene and Kai visited my writing cave, insisting that the adventures were just getting started. How could I ignore those enticing dangling threads in Merlin's Cave?

On the Outside

I was delighted to receive a request for a story in The Invisible Library fandom for the recent Yuletide gift exchange. The requestor asked for a story featuring Lord Silver. In the world of The Invisible Library, Lord Silver is a Fae. He appears human but isn't and has supernatural abilities such as the power to charm others and to travel between worlds.

Comfort Stories for Stressful Times

Today I posted the first chapter of Merlin's Cave, a new installment in Tales from the Library (The Invisible Library fandom). The story seems very appropriate in this writing year of the dragon. One of the main characters is a dragon, and much of the plot is centered around his backstory. Kai is able to appear human and thus most people are unaware of his true nature. In the world he currently resides in, dragons are ferocious legendary creatures. The literature is filled with tales of knights riding off to slay dragons. This is not a welcoming society for Kai so he hides beneath his human exterior, in a sense placing his dragon nature in quarantine.

Love Is in the Air

Valentine's Day is nearly here. What better time to pause and celebrate the importance of love in our stories! Thanks to the extended timelines in our series, we're able to create slow-burn relationships where love in many different guises can be explored. Cupid's arrow has not always been directed toward couples desiring sexual love. Love that is familial or platonic in nature is just as important as romantic love.

Library Acquisition: Rue Saint-Martin

Rue Saint-Martin is the fifth story in Tales from the Library, a series based on The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. Much of the action takes place in a previously unvisited alternate world—Paris in the year 1793. In our world, the Reign of Terror had Paris by the throat in 1793, but that's not necessarily the case in other realities.

Library Acquisition: Olmstead Manor

Olmstead Manor is the fourth story in Tales from the Library, a series based on The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. As Irene and Kai continue their hunt for Count Lecerf, a rogue Fae, Kai is forced to disclose an incident from his past which could impact his and Irene's relationship.

Library Acquisition: Thrushfield Hall

Thrushfield Hall is the third story in Tales from the Library, a series based on The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. In the previous story, The Red Chamber, Irene and Kai had their first face-to-face encounter with Count Lecerf, a Fae who appears to have claimed the alternate world where Irene is Librarian-in-Residence as his private playground. This doesn't sit well with Lord Silver, who likes to think he is the leader of the London Fae population. Silver has been known to pass Irene an occasional nugget of useful information when it suits his self-interest.

Shedding Skins

This week I started writing a new story for my series Tales from the Library (The Invisible Library fandom). One of the main characters is a shapeshifter. Kai appears human, but he's a dragon—complete with scales, horns, tail, and wings. He can shed his human appearance at will, and is even able to sustain a transitional stage where his eyes turn red and his skin develops a fern-like pattern hinting of scales. Sometimes the transformation occurs involuntarily. For instance, given sufficient provocation, he can become so angry his dragon characteristics involuntarily rise to the surface. Thinking about Kai's nature, I was reminded of Neal, Peter, and Henry's situation in The Musicians. They're also shedding their skins, but for them, the transformation is a mental one.

Library Acquisition: The Red Chamber

The Red Chamber is the second story in Tales from the Library, a series based on The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. In the previous story, A Scandal in Montmartre, a routine mission to collect a rare copy of Candide by Voltaire for the Library turned deadly when scorpions attacked Kai in the Paris apartment of Count Lecerf. Irene and Kai suspect the count is Fae, but they have no proof. Particularly troubling was that the scorpions focused their attack exclusively on Kai.