Two weeks ago, I posted this inisriation collage and asked you guys to tell me what you made of it. There were some amazing answers that won ARC’s of Here There Be Dragons for their efforts.

Although a couple answers got close, none hit the nail on the head, so I thought I’d take a moment to share with how each of these inspired elements of the new book.

1. John Singleton Copley’s 1778 painting, Watson and the Shark, commissioned by the actual survivor of this shark attack in Havana. It answered the question, “Would Regency England have known about shark attacks.” Something that was critically important for former Captain Wentworth to know.
2. The Shoe Bill stork. The inspiration for a very unusual greater cockatrix.
3. A two-headed calf found in a ‘Cabinet of Curiosity” exhibit in the local Natural History Museum. This was at least part of the answer to the question, “What might have been found on display at a traveling circus.”
4. Another gem from the local museum. Where else do you find the answer to a question like, “How big a creature can a dragon swallow?”
5. This is Montacute house, although you might recognize it from the 1995 movie version of Sense and Sensibility. This is a real property, located in a very convenient spot for a dragon estate to be. So I did the only rational thing, I added a dragon and wrote it into the book!

I have probably proved beyond a shadw of the doubt the I look at the world in very odd ways, I”m sure. What do you think? Tell me in the comments.