Word for Word: Except

I’m in a writers’ group that meets on Zoom, though before the pandemic we met in person. Every week, we do a writing prompt: someone gives a page number, and our organizer picks a word from a huge dictionary. We write for five minutes. In this example, the word is: except.

A dragon flies above Rowanwick House, which is featured in my series Rowanwick Witches.

All the dragons in the valley were content with staying home, not taking adventures out into the world. That is… all the dragons were content except Daisy, who periodically went for a fly across the Queendom of Matreolea.

The swamp in the far northwest reaches of Matreolea especially fascinated Daisy since this region was drastically different from the high desert where Daisy lived. The swamp was humid but with mild temperatures. Willows with dangling vines drooped over water.

The first time Daisy flew to this region, she aimed to land on what she interpreted as the edge of the swamp… but the plant life hid two feet of water, so she landed with a great splashing and spluttering. Numerous startled water birds flew away. Daisy the dragon dragged herself out of the swamp.

Spells and Enchantments is the first volume in my middle grade fantasy series Rowanwick Witches, which includes a dragon named Brimstone and is available here:

Rowanwick Witches, Lesson 1: Spells and Enchantments