The Weird Beginning of A Series

Dragon’s Fire has been available on Amazon for just over a month now, and it’s getting great reviews from readers. It means a great deal to me to be able to share these stories, and I am delighted by the number of people who have expressed that they are looking forward to more! A reader can pay me no higher a compliment.

There is lots more to come, I promise! I am working hard on polishing Book Two, and a Sneak Peek will be available here very soon. Book Three is also in need of only a bit more polishing before it will be ready to share. Books Four and Five need work, but the stories are complete. Book Six is currently under construction; I’m writing chapter four, and having SO MUCH FUN with it!

The first five books are so interconnected that I could not publish the first one until I had finished them all. A change in one book could necessitate a change in one or more of the others, but all those kinks are worked out now (I hope!), and I can add Book Six and so on without affecting those first five.

But back to editing, which is how I’m spending most of my time right now. Editing is not my favorite thing to do. I’d rather write. However, editing is critically important, and I don’t want to churn out something of inferior quality so that I can put more books on my Amazon shelf. But I can tell you a bit about Book Two without giving out spoilers.


Book Two is kind of a unique book. It is The One That Started It All: the first one that I wrote in this series. I composed it before there was a Dragon’s Fire. Before there were dragons. Before I even knew what all the wars in Caledon were about. On July 31, 2016, I started writing a story that had been buzzing in my head for several months. The heroine had been dogging my steps and haunting my dreams for a while, and I knew her well. The story was aching to come out, but I really had no idea how to begin.

Faced with a dilemma like that, a writer has two choices: she can sit and ponder and play with words and try to find some intriguing way to start her story and never actually begin, or she can just write something—anything—to start getting ideas down on paper. The latter is my preference.

So, knowing that I had no clue how to start, I started like this: Once upon a time, in a faraway land of emerald green, were two kingdoms, ruled by two kings, and they had been at war for a very long time. Such a long time in fact, that the kings themselves had forgotten what exactly they were fighting about, so that the active wars had ceased, and the two kingdoms lay alongside one another in an uneasy state of disgust. The kingdom of Langdon, much the larger kingdom, considered itself far superior in every way to the stubborn little nation of Caledon, to the west, which for years had refused to be entirely defeated militarily, but also could not manage to claim a military victory, and therefore tried to avoid the attention of Langdon altogether.

So that’s copied word-for-word from my original first draft of the story—no corrections, no editing—and my proofreading program had a fit about it tonight, but I haven’t fixed any of it. It’s a pretty lame start, but better than a blank page. Note, two kingdoms, not three, and no clue as to why they were at war. I kept working. My heroine continued to develop, and the third nation only came into being because I needed a place for a secondary character to hail from that wasn’t Langdon or Caledon.

By the time I was satisfied with the initial draft of the story, there still was no Dragon’s Fire. I started the sequel to this book (which is now Book Three), and that was where I finally figured out what had gone before, and nailed down the plot for Dragon’s Fire.

For anyone who knows me personally, you’ll know what a peculiar oddity the writing order of this series has been for my OCD personality. I’m big on plans and routines, and this series has stretched me in so many ways. A series of books should start with Book One, right? Well, sometimes. Other times, you write Book Two, then Three, then half of One, then half of Four, then finish One, finish Four, and write Five. (And Book Six is a prequel!)

When you see the sneak peek in a short while, you’ll see that the beginning of Book Two now is NOTHING like what I shared above. The story has gone through a kaleidoscope of changes, as the other four have grown around it, making it fuller and richer, and a part of a bigger story, instead of the little stand-alone romance I initially thought it would be. I didn’t even want to let my husband read it, at first. He asked me what I was doing, as the more-intense-than-usual click of the computer keys drew his attention. I believe I may have used the words, “Nothing. Stupid little story. Won’t come to anything. Just writing it out for fun.” Now he’s read it twice, and I’m about to publish it. Shows what I know.

Anyway, back to editing, so that I can share the new start of Book Two with you shortly.

If you enjoyed Dragon’s Fire, and you’re looking forward to more, tell your friends about the books, and stay tuned here. Book Two is on its way!