The Making of Dragonbound Part 2

Maybe I should have made this the first part, because now I’m going to talk about where the idea for Dragonbound came from. Fans of the Dragon Codex series have probably already heard this story from me, but for everyone else, here it goes.

The original Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were published in the 1980s. Since then countless books have been published set in the Dragonlance world including the YA series Dragonlance: The New Adventures. After The New Adventures wrapped up, I was invited along with several other authors to submit a proposal for a book in the new Dragonlance middle-grade series. I was to choose a side character from the New Adventures to have an adventure with a dragon. How cool is that? It’s not often one gets to write in a series they grew up loving. The new series was scheduled to  have 10 books, one for each of the types of dragons in the Dragonlance world. Five metallic (good dragons) and five chromatic (evil dragons). I ended up writing Red Dragon Codex and Brass Dragon Codex, with other super-talented writers writing five more of the books. Then the Great Recession hit and the company that holds the Dragonlance copyright made some changes including axing the last three books of the Dragon Codex series, thus Blue Dragon Codex, Copper Dragon Codex, and White Dragon Codex were never published much to the sorrow, and for some outrage, of the Dragon Codex fans. I spent several years responding to inquiries from frustrated fans, feeling powerless to do anything even though I had outlines for those books. I certainly don’t own the copyright for Dragonlance.

Then a revolution happened in the publishing industry brought on by print on demand and ebook technology. Suddenly around 2010/2011 a publishing company could be formed and books produced for a modest capital outlay instead of the investment of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus Wonder Realms Books was born. The first series it published was the Smartboys Club series, the first book of which hit #2 on the B&N children’s ebook list and stayed there for quite some time just below Alice in Wonderland. Money from the success of the Smartboys Club series made it possible for Wonder Realms Books to look around for another series. I realized even though I couldn’t complete the Codex series, the outlines for the last three books could be changed (drastically) to fit a different/new dragon fantasy world.

Coming Next: Creating a New World.