Empty the Cup to Renew its Content and Friday Celebrations

Improve life quality
Improve as a thinking individual
Improve health
Improve writing skills
Improve sociability
Improve...

This is part of my list. I bet you all have lists similar to mine. One wishes to obtain something and makes his best to get it. We wish, we seek, we desire and we chase. Our main focus is in getting our goal. Few times we take time to consider whether or not we want to make space for those things "to enter" our life. I want new furniture for my home but I don't want to let go of the old one. I want health but I don't want to let go of the bad habits. I want to write a good book but I don't want to let go of the parts that don't work. I want to change the things I don't like about myself but I don't want to let go of the erroneous ideas that have been ruling myself for centuries. In the name of the Dragon Ancestors, can someone explain to me how is it possible to fill a cup that's already full?

If you pour the purest water into a cup filled with rancid coffee, it won't taste to Swiss water (and here we question the quality of the water). If you get new furniture for your house but don't take the old furniture out, you'll not get a pretty house, but a cluttered mess (and it's not the new furniture's fault.) If you write new brilliant scenes for your old manuscript but don't get rid of those that don't work, you'll get a book the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica (but no one will read it.) Most of the time we resist to get rid of things, habits or words because they are impregnated with sentimental value. Whether the sentiment is good or bad, the benefit of clinging to said thing, habit or word is still questionable.

I was raised under the premise true love doesn't exist. The premise says there is always a known or unknown interest behind what people know as "love". An expectation of retribution, like a negotiation of sorts. The premise concludes true love is not conditioned. It is given without any expectation whatsoever. Therefore, true love does not exist in this world.  Don't freak. Dragons are odd creatures. Anyway, my point is not the true nature of love but an example of how we can cling to things for the wrong reasons. I recently accepted I don't like that premise. I clang to it because I respect and look up to the dragon who taught it to me. It has hurt me for centuries and yet, I am finding difficult to let it go.

In the search for my miracle, I've changed many things because they didn't work anymore. This week, I changed my Internet service provider, my old email account, my WiP (so much I'm not sure if I changed it or just dumped it to start from scratch). Most importantly, I've changed moods, priorities and beliefs. New ideas, habits and hopes were welcomed but I failed to make room for them. I got cluttered and conflicted because my cup was still full (of shit, but full) when I chose to pour purified water in it. My inner voice is getting louder. "Empty the cup and let go..."

Please do take notice the dragon has migrated from yahoo to gmail. Now you can contact me at fatherdragon1 at gmail dot com. Hopefully gmail works better and my messages don't get lost in cyberspace again. I was starting to believe I suffered from random and inexplicable cases of ostracism... until I realized there was a pattern with that account. (Duh!)

Celebrate the small things is the brilliant idea of VikLit. Each Friday we post something we wish to celebrate achieving or doing during the week. It can be writing/reading or life related. You can find the list and join us here.

1. This week I had an appointment with one of the two specialists that treat me. Dragon is improving!!! This is a picture of what was once an impossible dream. Minutes at the left, miles at the right. My miracle is taking shape.

2. I turned my manuscript into confetti. Yes, I'm actually glad of this. I have the tickling feeling it will be reborn from its ashes into something better. Or maybe that's just Pancholin dusting the confetti off my scales. Anyway, there's a saying around here. "Renovate or die." I'm going for the first.

3. Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic shared with me the Inspirational Liebster Blog Award. Thank you for thinking on the big old dragon! (Yes Alex, I still take pride on being much older than you. ;))

 Mina didn't ask any questions (probably she knows I break the rules every time.)  Yet I'll tell you 7 things this time.

1. I'm going to turn 802 in August.
2. I've never had a big birthday party with all my friends.
3. I plan to have one big on-line birthday party with my dragon friends (who will be cloned so their absence is not noticed at their homes.)
4. Sessin and Milin are working in a cloning machine based on observations of a working one.
5. Sessin is working under the influence of Jezebel's punch "Bebida de fuego para derretir enanos." (She sent him some bottles.) One can only guess what the result will be.
6. It will be a Disco party, with a show of Disco Dwarfs, Disco Knight and Disco Ninja. (Don't ask. I can't deny or confirm any rumor. We don't want to give them chance to change their mind.)
7. I still don't like chocolate.

I nominate Cherie Reich because she plans, she writes and she delivers at an amazing speed. And she's good. To me, visiting her blog is like a nudge to get at least one of my plans done.

Have an excellent weekend.  I see you next Fri... Wednesday for the IWSG. Does anybody else feel days are passing a bit too fast?

The Big Reveal Bloghop /Enter the Dragon...Cave

Mina Lobo from Some Dark Romantic and David Macaulay are hosting the Big Reveal Bloghop. This is for bloggers who have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge and who will have a theme for their posts.

Whether you have a theme or not, if you have not signed up for the challenge yet, you have about ten days to make up your mind and join us in this promising one-month-party of the blogsphere.

My theme for the challenge is Chronicles of the Dragon Cave from A to Z. 

How does the dragon cave looks like? Who are my minions? Where is my treasure? What happens in the Cave when my crown jewel arrives? What's the story behind the Ninja Muse? Who did open the magic portal between this dimension and the dragon dimension? Who was the first knight that made deals with the first Father Dragon of my family? What's the new drill of Father Dragon's Dwarf Cheering Squad? How does Father Dragon look like from top to toe? Where does the name Al come from?

Probably you don't know we dragons believe in the power hidden in our true names. That's why it is our best kept secret. However, the name we choose for public knowledge also has a meaning and a power of its own.

These and other details will be revealed next month. However, my dwarves accepted a second minion job for Captain Ninja during April and that will leave me without staff. (Don't know why I didn't think on that.) For strategic reasons, we decided to register the life in the Cave during the preparations for Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. In any case, you'll get a whole tour around the cave and be where no other human has been before...well, probably just one. Anyway, my one hundred and fifty dwarves, my two muses and this dragon are making their best efforts for you to enjoy Chronicles of the Dragon Cave.

I give you my word of honor I'll be in my best behavior and won't roast any visitor.

So, are you ready for the challenge? Have you experienced it? Is it your first time, like us? Are you as nervous as we are? (Nervous? Who said that? Confidence is what we all breathe, eat and live here. This IS the Dragon Cave. Dwarves! what is your profession? Dra-gon! Dra-gon! Dra-gon!)

Liebster Awards

The dragon cave here at Father Dragon Writes has received the Liebster Award thanks to the nomination of J.A. Ward Writes.  In behalf of one hundred and fifty dwarves, my ninja muse, my adoring muse and Yours Truly, I say thank you to J.A for this honor.

*checks the mic and clears throat* So the rules of the Liebster Award are as follows:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you.
2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees;
3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen. (No tag backs)
4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog.

Let’s fulfill step number two. I am ready for J.A’s questions *Smoothing mane to hide nerves. The lights turn off and only one spot light remains on top of me*:

1.       Who is your favorite author and why?

 Master J.R.R Tolkien. He was my strongest influence when I started writing.

2.       If you could hang out with one character from a book or TV show for a day, who would it be?

American Dragon Jake Long, hahaha. *I shake my head and sober* Seriously, I think it would be Jethro Leroy Gibbs from NCIS. I am fan of this guy and the whole team.

3.       Edward or Jacob? Or neither? Or..both?? 

Who? *Tassin whispers nearby* Oh! The Twilight Series. Didn’t read them…watched them…er, can’t tell.

4.       What was your favorite book series you have ever read that wasn’t Harry Potter?

It was The Black Corsar by Emilio Salgari.

5.       Do you have any pets? If so, what do you have?

A Golden Retriever that believes herself a Chihuahua, a Chihuahua that believes herself a Mastiff, a mariachi wannabe Amazon Parrot, and six vultures that Mother Dragon lovingly calls her “canaries”. We are all messed up here. During the parrot's molting season I believe myself Quetzalcoatl, the "feathered snake" god.

6.       What aspect of writing do you find the hardest?

* The aspect of me wanting to write in English when my mother language is Spanish.

7.       If you could live anywhere else for a year – all expenses paid – where would you live and why?

Geez! So many places begging for a dragon visit! But I think the top of my list is…Mexico. I would travel it from coast to coast and from border to border. Mexico has all type of landscapes. There are paradise beaches, deserts, mountains, valleys, jungles, forests, magic towns, ghost towns, legends, history, folklore and one of the widest and richest varieties in food in the world.

8.      Who is your favorite band/singer?

Besides the mariachi? I don’t have a favorite. I like Pop, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Jazz, Classic, Tribal (the more drums, the better), Film Scores, everything of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Indian Bollywood, Japanese Anime, French ballad, Egyptian and Arab rhythms, Spanish Flamenco, some type of Rock.

9.       Name a celebrity crush.

It’s an harem. My heart for celebrities is like my fire; it ignites, it consumes and it extinguishes to start all over again.

10.   If you could go back and change your name from birth, would you do it? What would you change it to? 

I have two names. One I love and one I don’t. I can’t tell the name I would choose instead because I would laugh so hard I would eat the mic.

11.    Favorite vice or addiction? 

*After two hours of thinking* I am addicted to over think everything. I have caused persecutions against me with forks, torches and crossbows for that, worst than for raiding villages. I can’t help it.

Eleven random facts about me.

1. I used to sing Jesuschrist Superstar while in the shower.

2. Once upon a time, I was an hospital clown volunteer. Took a training for that. One of the signatures was "Loosing the fear to ridicule." Still applying it.

3. Once upon a time, the distance between my bed chamber and the main chamber was the biggest distance I could walk and only did it twice a day.

4. Once upon a time, I danced break dance. 

5. Once upon a time, I was in a theater group and did two opera-rock plays. I had playback but I was a hit in dramatic scenes.

6. Cats don't like me.

7. I walked in a yard full of mentally disturbed people in order to rescue a lost boy who ran away from home.

8. I dodged cars in a highway once in order to save a dog that jumped off a pickup. 

9. I stood in front of a bus, to protect a dog that had been already hit by a car.

10. Scent to chocolate makes me sick.

11. I am both claustrophobic and aracnophobic.

Questions for my nominees:

1. What genre do you write?

2. What are you working on right now?

3. Panster or plotter?

4. What do you do when you get writer's block?

5. The best lesson you learned about writing?

6. Which POV do you prefer to write?

7. How do you respond to critiques?

8. Do you argue with your characters?

9. Do you have a bad timing muse (i.e. the one who gives you the best ideas when you can't do nothing about them)?

10. The book you cherish the most?

11. Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what kind?

And this is my list of nominees. You really have to meet these people if you haven't. Good stuff there. Congratulations to all of them and thanks to all of you:

Sharon Bayliss 

Steph Sessa 

Yvonne’s Poetry Corner

Martin Willoughby - From Sand to Glass

Mike Swift from M.L. Swift, Writer

Melissa Maygrove

VikLit from Scribblings of an Aspiring Author 

Mina Lobo from Some Dark Romantic

Jeff Hargett from Strands of Pattern 

M.J. Joachim from Effectively Human 

JeffO from The Doubting Writer 

PS. For the nominations on the Premio Cutie Pie award, please click here.

Reintroduce Myself Blogfest & Lunar Lovin' Hop

This is part of the Re-Introduce Myself blogfest hosted by Stephen Tremp, Mark Koopmans, Ellise Fallson and C.M Brown.

The name is Dragon, Father Dragon. I am also known as Al Diaz. I am a red fire dragon who can shift into human when the occasion calls for it - although usually occasion gets the wrong number. I am a mythical creature who writes about humans.

I live at the Dragon Cave in Mexico City. One hundred and fifty dwarves are my loyal but not always efficient minions. 

I am the owner of the Dwarf Cheering Team formed by: Sessin, son of Tassin; Tassin, father of Sessin; Pancholin, grandson of Manolin and Milin, son of Carmelita.

Mini Me is my dragon mascot, who keeps the circus style mane to remind me of my inner clown.

In short, I am a Mexican dragon who ate a clown, thereof the funny accent. I'm delighted to make your acquaintance or as we say in my town; mucho gusto!

This is part of the Lunar Lovin' Bloghop hosted by Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic. We had to take a picture of the moon on the 27th and post it in our blog on the 28th. So I give you the sight of the full moon - la luna llena - from Mexico City.

Moon above the Dragon Cave, full of magic and legend. She's my confident, my friend, and my watcher. It's the guardian of my secrets and the source of both awaken and sleeping dreams.