Hello bookworms! As promised, I am back with my interview with Quenby Olson and for the first time ever, I am hosting Miss Percy from Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons. I reviewed the book yesterday and you can check out my review by clicking on my review graphic below.
Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons
by Quenby Olson
Historical Fantasy
Miss Mildred Percy inherits a dragon.
Ah, but we’ve already got ahead of ourselves…
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg.
The egg – as eggs are wont to do – decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.”
But England has not seen a dragon since… well, ever. And now Mildred must contend with raising a dragon (that should not exist), kindling a romance (with a humble vicar), and embarking on an adventure she never thought could be hers for the taking.
Content Notes: Very mild profanity
Let’s start off with some questions for Quenby first, as she is the creator!
Hi Quenby, thank you so much for creating the amazing world of Miss Percy’s. It is a pleasure to host you and Miss Percy in my little corner of the world. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Thanks for having me! Well, I was born and raised in a small town in central Pennsylvania, and I currently live in a different small town in central Pennsylvania. My childhood was quiet and very rural, with archery and old dirt roads, turkeys and deer and bears roaming over the fields, and also a long stint of training to become a classical ballet dancer.
I was also homeschooled, so I spent most of my time reading and probably playing more Donkey Kong Country than was healthy. Then I hit my twenties and decided I would try this writing thing (in-between working as a dance instructor), and then I hit my thirties and was married, had five kids in quick succession, and decided to throw my writing out onto the world.
Now I’m in my forties and everything hurts and I would live on rotisserie chickens, if I could.
I love that introduction, thank you Quenby!
I used to read a lot of regency romance by Georgette Heyer in my teenage days and haven’t had a chance to pick it back up again. Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons was a wonderful combination of regency romance, fantasy, adventure, family drama and so much more! What are some books that you would recommend to readers who thoroughly enjoyed all these elements in your book?
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is the first book that comes to mind. Gaskell had an amazing talent for focusing on small town life and mingling humor and great wit with the everyday ups and downs that affect us all. The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery is another one (if you want to see someone escape their dismal, dull existence for a new and better life, also accompanied by wit and charm) and I also would suggest the Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik (His Majesty’s Dragon is the first) which are a bit more Master and Commander than Jane Austen, but it’s a fantastic alternate history series focusing on the Napoleonic wars as fought with dragons. So lots of adventure with those Regency-era manners sprinkled in.
I loved the little notes at the beginning of each chapter, snippets from the pocket guide and personal journals of the characters. I loved the hint of what the next book would be about (Wales!) in one such note. Is this a common format that you use in your books or is this something special to this series? What made you adopt it?
This is definitely new for Miss Percy. I really wanted to find a way to flesh out the world she’s in and also give readers those hints of assurance that everything turns out okay, so the best way to do that seemed to be to clearly show that this is an origin story, of sorts. Also, a huge shout out to books like Good Omens and Hitchhiker’s Guide and Senlin Ascends for their excerpts and footnotes and addendums that I absolutely loved whenever they popped up.
And now questions for Miss Percy!
Welcome to Armed with A Book, Mildred! Having just finished Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons, I feel like I have known you for a long time! How does it feel to finally share your story with the world?
A bit unnerving, really. There is a part of me wondering who would want to read about all of this? But then, my story is a touch unusual, for the most part. At least once Fitz came into it!
This first book is the background story on how you encountered Fitz and the turning point he served in your life. It seems that this transpired at least some years before the pocket guide was written since it includes behaviors you have observed of more than one dragon. When do you finally get the time to write the pocket guide?
There really wasn’t any particular time set aside for writing the first guide. It was more a realization that I had acquired (through my own efforts, yes) an overwhelming amount of notes and scribbled-down thoughts that needed some manner of organization put to them. So it was more for my own benefit, than anything, that I finally cobbled everything together into one compendium. Which has now become an entire series of natterings about dragons, but… well. Here we are.
So many people long for adventure but very few are actually able to take the leap to pursue it. Your tale so far has been inspirational and it has been so much fun seeing how you got out of your shell. What advice would you give to women in your era who might feel stuck in their lives like you did until Fitz came along?
It is very easy, I think, to feel that the time given to us is frighteningly brief, the streak of a shooting star arcing across the night sky, and nothing more. But I try to remind myself that before that piece of celestial debris burnt itself out in our atmosphere, it travelled for thousands – millions, most likely – of miles before it ever made itself known to us. Our lives are not composed of a single, shining moment. There is an entire journey there, if only one takes the time to notice it.
You love spending time with Fitz. What is one of your favorite things to do in his company?
Well, he’s much larger now than he was in the volume you’ve already read. But I still enjoy sitting with a book, or a small plate of biscuits (or both, preferably) with some part of him – his head, his tail, even just his foreleg – resting across my ankles, keeping my poor, stiff joints warm. I am not certain there is a better way to spend an evening, in all honesty.
What’s a misconception about dragons that you would like to correct for the general public?
They are fiercely intelligent, fiercely loyal, and should the world ever be left to the running of dragons, I do not believe we would suffer for it.
Thank you, Quenby and Mildred, for answering my questions. Looking forward to another adventure with you in the future!
Thank you for hanging out with me, Quenby and Miss Percy today!
Be sure to check out what other readers are saying about this book. Head to Storytellers on Tour event page for links!
Many thanks to the author and Storytellers on Tour for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review and for connecting me with the author and Miss Percy.
Find this book on Amazon Kindle, Goodreads and IndieStoryGeek. My review can be found here.
Happy Reading!
Cover Photo by Mark Timberlake on Unsplash
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