I know it has been a long time since I updated this blog. Sadly, that's because I haven't had much to tell you. The writing goes on, but we of the CDT team haven't had much to share.
COPPER'S CHOICE was not released last year as I had hoped, but that is part of the vagaries of small publishing. I have recently seen a sketch of the cover art for it, so I know it is heading for the launch pad at some point in 2016. I'll let you know as soon as I have something more definitive to say about that.
Lee Houston Jr., who is one of my cowriters on the series, had turned in an idea for a Kiri dragon tale that would introduce her to the audience. I really like what he came up with, and gave him the go-ahead, but unfortunately life had other plans. He's been a very busy writer lately. Between trying to get one novel finished and another underway, he's been offered several writing and editing stints on anthologies. Not one to stand in the way of anyone's career, I decided to shift gears and make something else besides Kiri the next CDT release after Copper's Choice.
Co-writer Roger Stegman has also been swamped with his day job and family responsibilities. So the ball is in my court, which means I've got to put together something fast to secure a possible 2017 publication slot. To me, that means Lazlo Dragon, because I have several short stories of his written that only need a quick going over and they'd be fine. The bigger issue is story length and timeline vs space in the book.
And that's where this gets interesting...
The book size has to be at least 30,000 words and not much over that. I had two short pieces well under 10,000 words and one that was over 23,000. I thought at first I could match up one of the shorter ones with the longer tale, and I'd be done. Ah... no, that would be too easy. The longer story takes place last of all the short pieces I had available. I can't make it work without some serious rewriting somewhere, and of course, the submission time clock is ticking. Stall too long trying to redo something and I'll likely miss my shot at a 2017 release. Don't want to do that!
I deliberated on this for a day or so, and then decided I had to use the two consecutive short pieces and then come up with a third story that would fit. I need something roughly 11,500 words long. I spent a frustrated afternoon trying to figure out what exactly to write, and then going through files looking for Lazlo story starts to jump off on. I finally decided to take a nap, and as I was drifting off, the answer came to me in one of those forehead slapping moments.
A year or two back I had been asked to write a script for Lazlo to appear in his own cartoon. I'd never done that before, but I did some quick studying and got the gist of what cartoon scripts look like. I was very excited about the project and came up with a brand new storyline that could fit into his early tales just about anywhere. Unfortunately the project didn't pan out, and so it got shelved. But I still have that script!
Long story short, I pulled it out of mothballs and got to work putting it in prose. Scripts have lots of descriptions and directions that you don't see in a story. Unfortunately it's rather short, and so while I am rewriting it, I'm also adding on. Still, I am somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 done, and it hasn't hit 4,000 words yet. I need over 11,000. So I'm not sure what's going to happen here. Either I make this story large enough that it will finish the Lazlo Dragon anthology, or I'll have to write yet another short piece. Which all takes time.
And it's not like I don't have other deadlines outside of CDT to meet. I do, and I have been working on some stuff for them already. It's just that I have a strong commitment to this series, as it's something that is accessible to all ages, and a lot of fun to write as well. I have to admit to busting out laughing several times while rereading those older tales. Each one has sort of a message to it for the younger readers and those who love them. Yet they're given gently, so that kids learn something positive while Lazlo bumbles his way through one situation after another. We have readers of all ages for the CDTs and I don't want to let them down.
So that's what's going on right now, as far as Companion Dragons Tales are concerned. I hope most of the loyal fans of the series are still with us, and will stay that way. One way or another, we will get these books out, though it is frustrating at times to only have a single release per year at best, when we have so many stories to share. In spite of that, the work goes on behind the scenes, and you will be hearing from Lazlo, Waxy, Copper, Kiri, and all their little friends again.
They're dragons after all. They wouldn't have it any other way.
~Nancy
COPPER'S CHOICE was not released last year as I had hoped, but that is part of the vagaries of small publishing. I have recently seen a sketch of the cover art for it, so I know it is heading for the launch pad at some point in 2016. I'll let you know as soon as I have something more definitive to say about that.
Lee Houston Jr., who is one of my cowriters on the series, had turned in an idea for a Kiri dragon tale that would introduce her to the audience. I really like what he came up with, and gave him the go-ahead, but unfortunately life had other plans. He's been a very busy writer lately. Between trying to get one novel finished and another underway, he's been offered several writing and editing stints on anthologies. Not one to stand in the way of anyone's career, I decided to shift gears and make something else besides Kiri the next CDT release after Copper's Choice.
Co-writer Roger Stegman has also been swamped with his day job and family responsibilities. So the ball is in my court, which means I've got to put together something fast to secure a possible 2017 publication slot. To me, that means Lazlo Dragon, because I have several short stories of his written that only need a quick going over and they'd be fine. The bigger issue is story length and timeline vs space in the book.
And that's where this gets interesting...
The book size has to be at least 30,000 words and not much over that. I had two short pieces well under 10,000 words and one that was over 23,000. I thought at first I could match up one of the shorter ones with the longer tale, and I'd be done. Ah... no, that would be too easy. The longer story takes place last of all the short pieces I had available. I can't make it work without some serious rewriting somewhere, and of course, the submission time clock is ticking. Stall too long trying to redo something and I'll likely miss my shot at a 2017 release. Don't want to do that!
I deliberated on this for a day or so, and then decided I had to use the two consecutive short pieces and then come up with a third story that would fit. I need something roughly 11,500 words long. I spent a frustrated afternoon trying to figure out what exactly to write, and then going through files looking for Lazlo story starts to jump off on. I finally decided to take a nap, and as I was drifting off, the answer came to me in one of those forehead slapping moments.
A year or two back I had been asked to write a script for Lazlo to appear in his own cartoon. I'd never done that before, but I did some quick studying and got the gist of what cartoon scripts look like. I was very excited about the project and came up with a brand new storyline that could fit into his early tales just about anywhere. Unfortunately the project didn't pan out, and so it got shelved. But I still have that script!
Long story short, I pulled it out of mothballs and got to work putting it in prose. Scripts have lots of descriptions and directions that you don't see in a story. Unfortunately it's rather short, and so while I am rewriting it, I'm also adding on. Still, I am somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 done, and it hasn't hit 4,000 words yet. I need over 11,000. So I'm not sure what's going to happen here. Either I make this story large enough that it will finish the Lazlo Dragon anthology, or I'll have to write yet another short piece. Which all takes time.
And it's not like I don't have other deadlines outside of CDT to meet. I do, and I have been working on some stuff for them already. It's just that I have a strong commitment to this series, as it's something that is accessible to all ages, and a lot of fun to write as well. I have to admit to busting out laughing several times while rereading those older tales. Each one has sort of a message to it for the younger readers and those who love them. Yet they're given gently, so that kids learn something positive while Lazlo bumbles his way through one situation after another. We have readers of all ages for the CDTs and I don't want to let them down.
So that's what's going on right now, as far as Companion Dragons Tales are concerned. I hope most of the loyal fans of the series are still with us, and will stay that way. One way or another, we will get these books out, though it is frustrating at times to only have a single release per year at best, when we have so many stories to share. In spite of that, the work goes on behind the scenes, and you will be hearing from Lazlo, Waxy, Copper, Kiri, and all their little friends again.
They're dragons after all. They wouldn't have it any other way.
~Nancy
