The Math Teacher Who Wrote a Dragon World

I have been a linear, logical thinker for most of my life.

Single-subject math teacher. Mathematical patterns. Structured thinking. For years and years and years, that was who I was — and honestly, that was who everyone around me thought I was too. Nobody thought I had a creativity side. I'm not entirely sure I thought so either.

And then I wrote a book.

And then I had to publish it.

The first time I hit that button, AI wasn't around to help. There was no Della Street in my computer. There was just me, a manuscript, and a publishing world that had a lot of opinions about what I should be doing differently. Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? The anxiety, the judgment, the noise — it was a lot. It's still a lot, if I'm being honest.

Because here's the thing nobody tells you about publishing: it's not the writing that's scary. The writing is the part where you're in control. Publishing is where you take everything you made in private and hand it to a world that didn't ask for it and might not want it — and you do it anyway.

For a math teacher, that's a problem with no guaranteed answer. And I don't love problems with no guaranteed answer.

But I did it. And then I did it again. And somewhere between the first terrifying submission and where I am now, something shifted. I can see my universe clearly. I can see the threads connecting the Norse world to the dragon world, the prophecy I planted before I knew what it meant, the characters who showed up and refused to leave. I've come so much further than I had any reason to expect when I started.

I should mention: I published my first book while I was still teaching. The younger teachers — and by younger I mean 35 to 45 — were stunned that I would write about sex. Absolutely stunned. Straight-laced math teacher, apparently the last person they expected.

I've been married for over 40 years. What exactly did they think we were doing?

The publishing world and the marketing world are still very different things, and I won't pretend I've figured either of them out completely. There are still blog posts from the early days I need to go back and fix — the ones that sound like someone else wrote them, because in a way, someone else did. An earlier version of me who wasn't sure yet what she was doing.

I'm a little more sure now.

It turns out mathematical patterns and fantasy universes have more in common than you'd think. You plant something early, you follow the logic, and eventually — if you did it right — everything connects.

The dragon world makes sense. The math checks out.