Today, I am chatting with MJ Porter about Dragonbound, the first book in the brand-new Ice & Fire series.
Although this may be a new world for readers, it is one that has been with MJ for a very long time. Inspired by Viking Age Iceland and given a fantastical twist with dragons, Dragonbound introduces Sereh and Erann, two people carrying the scars of the past as they find themselves drawn together in an increasingly dangerous world.
MJ joins me today to talk about finally bringing this long-held story to readers, creating a fantasy world rooted in history, and embarking upon a series filled with dragons, mystery, survival and slow-burn romance.
Publication Date: 23rd September 2026
In a world frozen by darkness, desire is the most dangerous thing to awaken. Step into the world of Dragonbound
The Long Night is ending. The dragon is waking.
Sereh has escaped the tyranny of the local jarl, but the frozen wilds are just as deadly as the life she left behind.
And when she and her wolf-dog, Arrow, save a mysterious stranger from the glacier, she becomes bound to a destiny she never chose.
Erann has secrets. About the cold. About the land. About why the world is changing.
As the Long Night stretches on, survival means trusting each other. But beneath the frozen earth, something ancient is awakening. And as their fragile alliance deepens into something far more dangerous, Sereh and Erann must decide whether love is worth risking a world already on the brink.
Get ready to fall in love this with this Norse-set, myth-inspired fantasy romance from bestselling author MJ Porter!
Dragonbound marks the beginning of your new Ice and Fire series, blending fantasy with the historical storytelling your readers already know and enjoy. What inspired you to explore romantasy, and how did the idea for this frozen world first take shape?
While Dragonbound is ‘new’ it is also very old. This is the series that first made me want to be a writer thirty years ago, although I didn’t really write it until eighteen years ago. The world of Ice and Fire in which Dragonbound unfolds, is inspired by my fascination with Viking Age Iceland (weirdly specific) although I’ve added dragons to it. I studied this historical period while I was a student, and at the time, I was also devouring the books of Anne McCaffrey, Katharine Kerr, Patricia Keneally Morrison and Melanie Rawn. For some reason, this all sparked the idea, although it took many, many years for the story to be written.
Sereh begins the story having finally gained her freedom, only to discover that the world beyond offers dangers of its own. What interested you most about making freedom the beginning of her journey rather than the end?
Sereh is the character that came to me first when I was writing this series. To begin with, she was called Serez, but I dropped the Z because it was too annoying to find on the keyboard. I’ve not truly considered why her freedom came first and not at the end in that way. What was important to the story is that she had a shared experience with Erann. Both of them need to win free from events which seem to have held them immobile for some years. There needed to be a spark, and for Sereh, it was gaining her freedom in a very perilous way.
Erann is a man burdened by secrets, and his knowledge of the changing world shapes much of the story. Without revealing too much, how did you go about creating such an enigmatic character?
Erann doesn’t know that he knows certain things, or even that he perhaps has knowledge others don’t. Both characters, Erann and Sereh, have been badly treated by recent events. I think for both of them, it’s made them wary of trusting people other than themselves. And much only slowly becomes relevant. Erann’s reticent comes from that. And perhaps, from personal experience as well.
The Long Night and the awakening of something ancient create an atmosphere of uncertainty from the very first page. How important was the setting itself in establishing the mood of the novel?
The setting (an alternative Iceland) came to me before anything else for this story. It was inspired by the less-dancy music of Faithless, by early morning sunrises and evening sunsets, and by the mystery and mystique of such a long ago time period. I often consider the setting as an extra character to ensure I include. It’s very important to the story, adding layers of peril to the lives my characters lead.
Your historical fiction is renowned for its authenticity and meticulous research. Did writing fantasy allow you greater creative freedom, or did you find yourself applying the same disciplined approach to building this fictional world?
As mentioned, this series came to me first, before my historical fiction. It is therefore a different experience for readers, while still being grounded in my interpretation of the time period. I think it was more freeing to write fantasy, but also, far scarier. With historical fiction there is a framework to move characters within and often, an author knows the ending. Fantasy takes away that surety, and indeed, looking back at how I wrote the stories, I realise I wrote the beginning and the ending, and then worked on the body of the text. Still, even now, I am astonished by the audacity of what was my first story. I’m not surprised it took me three years to write the earlier draft.
At its heart, Dragonbound explores trust between two people who have every reason to remain wary of one another. Why was this theme so important to the story you wanted to tell?
Dragonbound begins a series where there is going to be a great deal of change for my characters. They’ve already been through so much, and I suspect, the only way to endure is to trust the people closest to you, but that trust must be earned, and there are a great many events that make it difficult for the two characters to allow that trust to build, even if, they want to trust one another.
The novel balances survival, mystery, adventure, and romance. How do you decide when to let each of those elements take centre stage without overshadowing the others?
I can’t say these are conscious decisions. I have also been a pantser, and I often ‘feel’ the beats of my stories. That said, this is not an action and adventure type novel. It purposefully builds the story slowly – the structure of Dragonbound means readers encounter Sereh first, and only then Erann. This allowed me to build the mystery – readers get their answers but perhaps not how they anticipate them.
Although Dragonbound introduces readers to a completely new world, it still carries echoes of myth and legend. Were there any historical or folkloric influences that helped shape the world of the Ice and Fire series?
Oh yes, it is based on Viking Age Iceland. And this isn’t perhaps what people expect. I am astonished by the bravery of those people who abandoned all they knew to set up a new colony on Iceland in the ninth century. I’m also fascinated by how they resolved to govern themselves, and their decision there would be no king, and that violence was to be abhorred. I also love the idea of the long-running feuds that developed between different families. Equally, I am curious as to how they survived. How did they ensure there was enough fuel and food to survive each winter, especially when the landscape was so sparse, without trees, and therefore, wood? I also tried to give a nod to the sagas, written in the thirteenth century, which did detail a great deal of rather tedious information, and can feel quite ‘dry’ but offer an idea of what the inhabitants of Iceland thought about their own past.
As the first book in a series, you have the challenge of introducing readers to an unfamiliar world while leaving plenty of room for the story to grow. What was the biggest challenge in laying those foundations?
With hindsight, I realise I perhaps wanted to accomplish too much with this first story. Too many people. Too many events. Too many flashbacks With the careful help of my romantasy editor, we’ve been able to make the story flow in a more concise way – and so, I have to say, this was most definitely the biggest challenge – ensuring everything flowed in a natural way. Questions are asked by my characters, and it was up to me to answer some of them, but not quite all of them.
For readers picking up Dragonbound as their first experience of your writing, what do you hope they discover in this new series, and what can they look forward to as the story unfolds?
Dragonbound is a true slow-build story. I hope readers will discover the beautiful world, the engaging characters, and be as ‘sucked into’ it as I often am when I’m working on edits. It is a world I wanted to create and worked very hard to create. It is a story of survival in a world where survival is perilous, and where you just don’t know as readers from where the next revelation is going to appear. The series will build on the foundations of Dragonbound and Stormlost and readers will meet many new characters, while at its heart, the series will remain a personal story of just what a person will endure for the one they love.
A huge thank you to MJ Porter for joining me today and taking us behind the scenes of Dragonbound.
There is something rather special about discovering that a brand-new series actually has its roots in the story that first made an author want to write thirty years ago. Now, after years of historical fiction, MJ is finally inviting readers into the world that started it all.
With its Viking Age Iceland influences, formidable landscape, ancient mysteries, dragons and a relationship in which trust must be earned, Dragonbound lays the foundations for what promises to be an expansive Ice & Fire series while keeping Sereh and Erann firmly at its heart.
If you enjoy immersive romantasy, slow-burn relationships, historical influences and characters fighting to survive in a dangerous world, then Dragonbound is certainly one to add to your reading list.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx