Guess what finally showed up? The preorder SWAG for Ruby Dragon Kingdom I ordered months ago. Hurray!
This book releases November 16, 2020, just in time to order for Christmas!
Kirk DouPonce of DogEared Design designed the cover, Rebecca P. Minor drew the dragon illustration inside the book (and other mythical creatures that will show up in the next books), and Alena Van Arendonk did a special socially distant photo shoot so my kids could be on the cover. I am so thankful for each one of these amazing artists!
Now, a little about the book, then I’ll tell you how to get your preorder goodies.
One of my favorite parts of the day is reading to my kids before bed or, even better, making up a story for them (which they love to add to, of course).
Tales of the Cousin Kingdoms were made-up stories starring—you guessed it, my kids and their cousins—and my husband and I have been telling it to them for years.
Well, my husband and I mixed their names around (Mlaze, Baverick, and Vwenigere), which sounds cool when you’re just making things up, but when you’re reading it, those names are practically unreadable.
(Or so my beta readers told me, and although it was hard to hear at first—we authors get attached to the strangest things sometimes—when I stepped back and looked at it objectively, I had to agree.)
And although the kids were bummed at first, once paperback copies arrived, they were so thrilled, they didn’t even mind I’d changed the names. Whew!
Also, random fact, I wrote this entire book in nine days.
I mean, what?
Last year for NaNo, my goal was to write three books, Quell the Nightingale, Vampire Feud, and Queen of the Moon, or 150,000 words.
Well, I succeeded, except right in the middle, I had a keynote speech that completely drained me. (Speaking or spotlight-type things do that to me.)
My kids wanted a story, all I wanted to do was sleep, and I stumbled into their room, tucked them in, and asked where we were in the story.
One of my kids said, “Mom, if you’re writing a book right now, why don’t you write this story down?”
I kind of laughed and told the briefest story ever, but as soon as I finished, I couldn’t get away from the idea.
Instead of going to bed, I wrote the first few chapters, and in nine days, I had a complete book.
And the day after that, I had a complete, five-book outline.
(And then I finished Ghostly Vendetta before going back to the three NaNo projects I’d claimed. LOL!)
The next book in this series, Diamond Unicorn Kingdom, has been mostly told and partially drafted. Who knows? Maybe I’ll finish it this NaNo too!
So there is the story behind this book, and if you’d like to order it to read to your kids, to give it to them to read, or even to read it yourself, all the buy links and preorder SWAG links are below.
Thank you so much for joining me today!
In Him,
Michele
Ruby Dragon Kingdom
Ruby Dragon Kingdom is now available!
Finalist in the 2021 Realm Awards from Realm Makers, Fantasy Category
Finalist in the 2021 Realm Awards from Realm Makers, Middle Grade Category
