Dragons in time

19,096 words

So, the new dragon book. What's it about? Well, I'm not giving too much away yet, but I will tell you it's definitely an extension of the mythology I established in Dragoncharm and its sequels. I have three books outlined: Book One - The Spiral Skull - is set before the events of Dragoncharm. Books Two and Three (tentatively titled Troll War and The Collector of Worlds respectively) explore the timeline in way that's a little more ... extreme. You see, I've stumbled over a form of charm that permits time travel.

In fact, it was the time travel idea that kicked this new project off. After I finished Dragonflame, the third book of the original series, I thought the story was done. I'd told the tale I wanted to tell and, in doing so, embedded my dragon characters firmly into the prehistory of our world. In short, I'd answered the question: "Why did dragons and magic die out?"

But still something bothered me: "What happened to the last dragons, and what sort of lives did they lead? After all their heroics, did they just fade away?" Later, this concern became a concrete question: "Who was the last dragon of all?"

That's the question I've set out to answer. It's why I've called the new series The Last Dragon Cycle. To tell the story of the last dragon, I've had to delve way back into the early history of the dragon world. And into the far future of ours. If that sounds unnecessarily complicated, don't blame me. Blame a dragon savant called Tonomy. He's the dragon who started messing around with time in the first place.

The great thing about time travel is it lets me work on a much bigger canvas than before. I can really explore the history of the dragon world, both past and future, while keeping close to my main characters. On the subject of which, some of you may be wondering if any of the characters from Dragoncharm will make it into the new novels. While in many ways this is a fresh start, with an entirely new cast of dragon characters facing a whole new set of challenges, I can promise you the return of a few familiar faces. At the moment I'm saving them up for Book Three but, hey, anything can happen. As to who they are ... you'll just have to wait and see!