Savannah J. Goins | YA Fantasy Author
Savannah J. Goins is the author of multiple sweet, swoony, and spice-free YA fantasy novels. While working at an exotic animal clinic, she came in contact with both tiger and dragon blood more than once. Whether she has magical abilities as a result is yet to be determined. When not writing, she hangs out with her family, draws zentangles, and helps homeless dragons find forever homes in the real world by volunteering with an exotic animal rescue.
She is the author of young adult fantasy novels Whisper of Weapons, House of Hybrids, and the upcoming Fury of Fossils. She has appeared in panels with fellow fantasy authors such as Christopher Poalini, Julie Kagawa, and Rachael Hartman.
More about me? Well, if there's an animal around, I'm probably petting it. If it's after 5:00 am, I'm up and at 'em, and if I'm sitting down, I'm probably dozing off. If there's coffee, it's in my cup, and if there's dark chocolate, I already ate it.
Writing characters different than myself and different from each other was my biggest challenge in my first series, The Odan Terridor Trilogy. That struggle and challenges in everyday life led me to study personality types and psychology.
Since then, I've been absolutely fascinated by the Enneagram, the introvert-extrovert spectrum, and neurodivergence. Two published books into my latest series, The Castors of Wrynford, I'm delighted to see so many readers loving the unique characters and complementing the multi-POV delivery.
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I'm leaning even more heavily into the Enneagram and neurodivergence with my current work-in-progress. What personality typing system should I study next? It's between the Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinder, and about a zillion others right now!
How Am I a Professional
Dragon Wrangler?
So why do I claim to be a professional dragon wrangler? Because I actually am! While I recently made a job change as a step toward writing and speaking full time, I spent three incredible years wrangling dragons and other amazing animals as a Registered Veterinary Technician at an exotic animal clinic. While working there, I cared for everything from beta fish to tigers, budgies to bald eagles, baby dragons to giant dragons, and even a few kangaroos and a coatimundi.
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I was part of the most amazing team of RVTs in existence and our job included taking histories on, feeding, watering, handling, medicating, sedating, radiographing, anesthetizing, and monitoring our exotic patients, and also teaching their owners how to give medications and take care of them in the best possible way.
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I continue to volunteer with an awesome exotic animal rescue, and in the process have fostered bearded dragons, geckos, tortoises, snakes, and even a baby alligator who'd been abandoned in an apartment in zero-degree weather and needed a temporary home until he could go to a gator rescue.
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Working at the clinic and volunteering with the rescue gave me a lot of cool opportunities, many of them involving the wrangling of various animals. I have scars from hanging over a fence holding up a potbelly pig and I have literally had a couple drops of both tiger blood and dragon blood land on my skin (which means I probably have magical powers now, so I'm just waiting for them to manifest).
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It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, but in order to prioritize my entrepreneurial and writing career goals, I left the clinic a few years ago and went on to work with animals at a university in Indianapolis with a more flexible schedule to accommodate these other pursuits.
After working there for a few years, I was finally able to transition to working full time as a writer and speaker! While I miss working with animals every day, I love writing and speaking full time, and I still have my reptiles pet and my volunteer work with the exotic animal rescue to keep my animal-loving side happy.
Fun Facts About Savannah J. Goins
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In my spare time, I help homeless dragons find forever homes by volunteering with an exotic animal rescue.
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I once had three pet rats named Kaz, Inej, and Jesper after the characters in Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows.
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I love coffee. From a plain black espresso to a java chip frappucino, I am here for it.
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I can anesthetize a bird and keep it alive through surgery.
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I listen to audiobooks about five times as often as I read regular books, and The Falling Kingdoms series is currently rivaling Eragon for my all-time favorite story.
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I didn't grow up watching anime, but my husband introduced me, and Attack on Titan is perfection (I might have a WIP with that as a comp title).
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When I need a break from writing, I enjoy drawing zentangles and occasionally trying to draw my characters. Only in black and white, though. I ruin anything with color!