SEEKING LOVERS OF FANTASY - Sometimes, you just know when you've hit on a good thing, and then there's times when others confirm it. Cairn: A Dragon Memoir has been selected as a SILVER MEDAL WINNER of the 2014 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Award.I know, so what. But this award is different. Teens in England served as the judges. Kids step up to read all the books in a given category, and there were many. Over the course of a year, they whittle the pile down to those books that linger in their hearts to generate the Finalists. Then the adults step in to help the kids declare the winners.

I knew Cairn was a good book, and here's why. Somewhere around the fifth draft (do they ever end), I begin to incorporate as many senses as possible into each scene. It's the key to pulling the reader into the story. I work hard to make the world melt away. The reader sees the story as if they were watching a movie. As a reader, I find this is missing in many novels, but that gives me the drive to work harder.

I'm busy crafting the next adventure in the Legends of the Aurora trilogy, but feel free to go ahead and get started with Blue on the Horizon. Trust me. If you appreciate lush, vivid passages where find yourself brushing the hair out of your eyes as the scent of the meadow swirls up from your clothes. In the next nest, the soft snore of the dragon calms you as the sweet juice of a stolen plum drips from her chin. Go ahead. Grab a copy. Think of it as a mini vacation.

Rebecca Ferrell Porter lives with two crazy mutts, a bemused husband, and an overactive imagination.