Joely Sue Burkhart

My incredible editor, Deena, remarked about how many times I described Jalan’s hair in Survive My Fire, and my reply was that perhaps I have a hair fetish.   

Speaking of hair, though, I had a vision of Zahak in my mind inspired from this picture.  Note that his hair would then be short.  Which gave me significant pause.  In a land where the length of the hair is strongly tied to honor, did Zahak really have short hair?  I tried to make his hair longer in the first and second drafts to match Jalan and even Jakon in The Horse Master, but it just didn’t feel right.  I kept seeing that picture and thinking it was closer to right than any long hair I tried to force into the story.

So then I had to ask why.  Why might a Keldari warrior have short hair?  What would that mean?  Well, it just so happens that a warrior who believes he’s been dishonored will hack off his own hair with his scimitar.  The shorter, the more dishonor implied.  How long he wears his hair short is up to him. 

Zahak has worn his hair shoulder-length short since he was a fourteen-year-old boy and saw his father transform into a dragon and kill his mother.  That significant defining moment has shaped his entire life.  He shields his younger brother like he failed to shield his mother.  He does the dirty deeds for the tribe so his brother doesn’t have to.  After all, who better to kill and punish than the dra’gwar-cursed son with the same burning dragon blood in his veins as the murderous, insane father.

Hair fetish indeed.