The Origins of The Benevolent Dragon Bookshop

Benevolent Dragon was born from a commitment to community and supporting others. The name began as the name of my company I write under and it stemmed from my desire to advocate and protect. After nearly a decade working in child advocacy, community mental health, and child welfare, it was important to me that I continued to support others, even as I changed my career. I brainstormed ideas with one of our previous bonus kids, and Benevolent Dragon just kind of fell into place.

This became relevant to the bookstore when Tia came to me, talking about how fun it would be to make a mobile bookstore. We both have busy lives, so that seemed like a big task. BUT, the idea of slowly building an inventory and starting small scale was completely doable.

Both of us love people (not like people people, but like humanity?) so it was no surprise that we immediately began wanting to make sure we have an inclusive inventory that features LGBTQ romance, diverse characters, and diverse authors. We want what we do to matter, so it seemed appropriate to adopt the name.

In addition to providing more visibility to the lesser-seen stories, we wanted to be part of instilling a sense of community. When you go into the community and see Benevolent Dragon around, we want you to talk to us, and the other people around. The world can be a hard, lonely place, reading helps, but finding your village helps too.