First off, I hope you all have been enjoying COPPER'S CHOICE. The feedback I've gotten on the story has been very positive. Please if you've read it, A FAMILIAR NAME, or FINDING WAXY, take a moment and tell us what you think. We have room for comments here on the blog, and all three authors (Your's Truly Nancy Hansen, Roger Stegman, and Lee Houston Jr.) have FACEBOOK pages. Or you can always give a short review via the booksellers (like Amazon) or maybe on a reader's site like GOODREADS. Not only does that tell us what you liked and didn't like about the series, but it at least lets us know we're being read. Down here at the author level we don't get a lot of feedback that doesn't come directly from the readers. A few words is all it takes. The more you tell us, the more we know what you like and dislike and the easier other folks will be able to find our books. You are our readers, you're the reason we do what we do. Thank you for buying our books, but please, make your voices heard so that our publishers also know they've invested wisely in choosing our work for their catalog.
Now as far as what comes next...
I'm hoping to see LAZLO AT HOME, an anthology of Lazlo Dragon stories, come out some point this year. I haven't recently spoken with the publisher but that is what is next in the CDT queue. That little blue dragon with the big heart sure can get himself into some interesting situations! The manuscript and all other pertinent information that goes along with this one was turned over to Pro Se a year ago in early January, but I have yet to see a galley draft so I have no idea when it will be out. Trust me, I'll post as soon as I know something.
I've been talking lately with CDT series coauthor Lee Houston Jr. about where he is in the KIRI DRAGON origination tale. Lee's a bit swamped with other deadline projects right now, so Kiri had to take a bit of a back seat. It likely won't get finished let alone edited and turned into Pro Se this year, which it would have to be for a potential 2018 publishing slot. Don't worry, we will get Kiri into the series as soon as can be managed. In the meantime, we have plenty of other material to work with, so I told Lee to go ahead and do what he has to do to clear his writing calendar. We'll find an interesting substitute that will fill his slot. What I've seen of his story for Kiri looks amazing though, so I know that when the time comes, we're going to have something you'll all enjoy.
So I've been thinking about how best to fill that open slot, and since I already have a Lazlo Anthology in the wings, (Yeah that was a pretty good pun!) Waxy is due for one next. Fortunately there is a ton of written material to work with, since Waxy was the first of the Companion Dragons and her creator Roger Stegman wrote a whole bunch of story ideas involving her adventures. Pro Se headman Tommy Hancock has been hinting around for a while that he really wants to see one called 'WAXY AND THE BAD COOKIES' and so that will definitely become a central part of the anthology. I'm going to select a few more stories from Roger's stock of them and we'll work together getting them updated and ready for print. Waxy is such a fun character in that she has that universal sassy little girl attitude, but she really only sees herself as being misunderstood. She has adventures that most of us only dream about. I'm sure we'll come up with a stellar collection.
I hope that you'll all be patient with us here at CDT Headquarters while we keep doing what we love most—creating comical yet thoughtful action/adventure tales for kids of all ages. The best part of these stories is that they can be safely handed around the family. You're never too old for a daring enterprise in some strange location, amazing feats of magic, some goofiness, a little really scary stuff, and all the bad puns you can shake a stick at. Hang in there folks, there's more of that on the way!
