003//Escape Break with Author D.K. Drake: Listen to the Short Story that Launched Both a Pen Name and a YA Fantasy Series

Rise from Stuck Warrior,

I’ve got author DK Drake here with me today. It’s really easy to have her on the show because, well, she is me. D.K. Drake is my pen name, and the short story I’m about to share is the origin of that pen name.

Why do I use a pen name? Several reasons. One, to humble my pride. I don’t want to be obsessed with seeing my name on the cover of a book. And two, DK Drake is a lot easier to say and spell than Bonnie Jean Schaefer, plus it sounds more like a fantasy author than my given name.

So what does DK stand for? Darcy Kimberly.

So why Darcy Kimberly? Well, I needed to come up with the name of the main character for the story I’m sharing today. My older, bolder sister’s name is Marcy, and I wanted my character to be bold like my sister, so I replaced the M with the D and named her Darcy.

As for the K, my boss at the time was also a graphic designer, and she designed the first cover of the first fantasy novel I wrote. Her name is Kimberly, and I threw the K in there to honor her part in the genesis of my fantasy writing career. Then I threw Drake in the mix to bring out the alliteration of the D and the K.

And at the time I wrote the story, I had only published one novel that was a complete flop. I thus wanted to get into the head of a successful novelist, so I made the main character a bestselling author in search of an idea for her next book.

Notice in the story that she doesn’t have a last name. All I knew at the time was that her name was Darcy. After readers enjoyed the story, I decided to write a fantasy series based on the dragon stalker concept I created for the story, and that’s when I added the K and Drake. I wanted to let her be the author of the series.

Now I wrote the story at the prompting of friends who kept harassing me to write a story about cops and a story about dragons. To make both of those friends happy, I wrote Cops, Robbers…and Dragons? If you want to read along as I read, you can snag a copy as part of the DK Drake starter library at AuthorDKDrake.com.

Get your free Rise from Stuck Starter Kit here: https://bonniejeanschaefer.com

Engage with me here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/risewithbonniejean

Snag your free D.K. Drake Starter Library here: https://authordkdrake.com