So, here’s an excerpt from the early section of the book.

A frosty morning

When Ruskya and Kyn exited the abode the next morning, a heavy fog hung in the air so that the top of the canyon could not be seen. A thick layer of frost crunched under their feet. Each blade of grass seemed to be enlarged three times or more with tiny hairlike particles; it was as if each flake of ice built on the next to create miniature castles.

The riders went about their normal morning chores and training, but over it all hung an air of anticipation for the time when Ruskya would go to Caravan Canyon to meet with Kyle and the woman who wanted to be a dragon rider. Duskya had a bad feeling about the whole thing and tried to talk her brother out of going, but Ruskya was adamant. She opted to follow him with their mental link. Glendyn had decided that he and Kyn would wait at Meredyth’s abode. Her place was the closest to Caravan Canyon they could get without freezing or drawing unnecessary attention. They arrived just before the midday meal.

Meredyth greeted them with hugs. When she heard that Ruskya couldn’t stay but needed to go to Caravan Canyon to meet up with Kyle, she quickly set about making a snack and fixing tea that she poured into a container wrapped with skins to keep it warm. Ruskya thanked her and headed back out into the cold.

The fog had lifted, but still hung from the sky as low clouds. The frost clung to the sagebrush and grass, but the slightest wind would create a small blizzard. The cold sucked the breath away from the young rider, and he drew his furs tighter. He was glad his ma had fixed him some of her tea. He had tucked it and the snack she had given him away under his cloak where they would stay out of the cold.

Ruskya made it to Caravan Canyon in good time. He looked around for the others, but didn’t see them. He wasn’t sure if he was early or not. He waited a few minutes and then heard some voices coming up the canyon toward him. He walked toward them and found Kyle and the woman just arriving from Woolpren.

“You made it here. Good,” Kyle remarked. “I wasn’t sure if you would when I didn’t see you in Woolpren.”

“You said to meet here at the canyon,” Ruskya replied, “so that is what I did. I haven’t been here long.”

“So, where is this dragon rider of yours?” the woman inquired.

“I don’t know,” Kyle said, pulling the hood of his cloak closer around his face, while looking around as if the rider would materialize out of thin air. “He said to be here. He should be here.”

A Dragon Rider Appears

Ruskya decided to watch his companions for signs of anything amiss. Neither of them seemed to have picked up on the presence further out of the canyon. He figured that if he watched Carryl and took his cues from her, he would appear normal. A few minutes later, he noticed a sparkling frost fall upon the edge of the canyon behind them. Ruskya repositioned himself so that he could watch that side of the canyon without appearing to do so. Carryl noticed the shift and looked around. Her sharp eyes picked out the frost shift, also.

“Is someone coming?” she asked.

“Where?” Kyle asked, looking back the way he had come into the canyon.

“I don’t know,” Ruskya answered truthfully. He didn’t know if there was someone with the dragon.

An uneasy silence hung over the group as they watched around the canyon. Ruskya’s dragon senses saw the person first and flared away immediately; this was someone who would recognize dragon senses being used on him. Ruskya knew it was a man and that he was strong. He seemed different from Glendyn or any other rider Ruskya had met or felt. He immediately moved to guard his thoughts and his dragon senses.

“What was that?” Glendyn asked.

“It’s the rider,” Ruskya carefully called. “Do you think he can hear this?”

“No, Ruskya,” Wyeth answered. “No matter how strong, another rider cannot hear a dragon’s communications with his rider. Talk only to me. Glendyn can still watch through your thoughts.”

“Okay,” Ruskya answered shakily.

“Courage, young one,” Wyeth called. With his dragon’s words, Ruskya felt strength return to him as if he had just received dragon courage breathed on him.

“There,” Carryl whispered, “there’s a person coming down the ridge.”

“Where?” Kyle demanded, sounding loud compared to Carryl’s whisper.

Ruskya noticed the look of offense that Carryl sent toward the other man. She almost held him in contempt.

Before she could say anything, Ruskya replied, “She’s right. He blends in with his brown and white outfit, but there is a man coming down.”

The look Carryl sent Ruskya was the exact opposite of what she had thought of Kyle, her green eyes searched him, looking for what he was made of.

“How can you tell it is a male?” she questioned.

Ruskya thought quickly; he had known it from the first contact he had. “I thought I saw his figure as he came around that small bend,” he said truthfully. The glimpse had been enough to confirm what he had known all along. Carryl nodded, satisfied, her hair bouncing like little springs.

They waited in anticipation for the next couple of minutes as the rider made his way down the canyon wall toward them. When he arrived, the rider paused before greeting his perspective riders. Even Kyle had the presence of mind to wait until he was addressed before talking.

Summary

The rider tests them and then when the sun’s all but set they await his decision.

Shocking Ending

The rider waited again. This time no one moved. The fog seemed to creep into their bones. Ruskya felt the touch on his mind again. His mind felt unclean after the rider moved on to the others. He wondered what the rider was searching for.

“I admit, there is only one more test,” the rider said, as the sound of large wings beat in the air.

“You did bring dragons with you,” Carryl said with awe in her voice. No sooner were the words out of her mouth, then an enormous turquoise dragon landed at the rider’s right side.

The dragon’s wings were larger than any Ruskya had ever seen, and the light of the torch made them glow in their iridescence. The dragon folded his wings, and Ruskya noticed the dark veins of blue streaking through the dragon. It reminded him of a large turquoise gemstone set into a cloak clasp or on a belt hook. There was something unnerving about this dragon. The dragon landed and Ruskya had barely taken in all of him, when Ruskya felt Wyeth’s scream of agony.

“Wyeth, are you okay?” he called urgently.

Before Wyeth could respond, Duskya called to him, “Ruskya, is everything okay?”

Ruskya had no time to reply to his twin, for the rider had stepped up to Kyle and with a roar, brought his hand back and slapped Kyle across the face.

“What were you thinking, you imbecile?”

Kyle went down onto his knees at the force and unexpectedness of it.

The rider drew back his hand and smote again. “How dare you bring a rider here!”

Get Dragon’s Future for free

Did you like what you read? You can download your own copy for free or purchase the paperback for a gift for someone who loves dragon books.

After all the excitement of opening Dragon’s Future, the other books have received varying degrees of welcome. On Friday, I opened my fifth book from Createspace. Dragon’s Cure joined the Dragon Courage series. This reception was slightly different. First off, it was only one book. It was my proof book to okay publishing it on Amazon. Secondly, it came in the mail and my husband picked it up. All the others have gone to our mailing address and I’ve either opened them at my parents’ home or gathered them together and brought them home for opening with the video camera rolling. My husband crept up the stairs and showed me a box. “Is this what I think it is?” he asked as he snuck back downstairs. I bolted from chair and ran to get it. He proceeded to play keep-away from me with the boys! Once I finally was handed the box, I eagerly ripped it open. I examined the spine first. At a casual glance, I thought I was going to have to redo it. Then I realized it was just the shadow of the box. Next, I read through the back cover. Finally, I turned it over to the front. After admiring the cover, I opened it to make sure the table of contents matched and the page numbers were all there. Once satisfied it looked right, I handed it to my husband to review. With his vote of approval, I hit submit to amazon. The official release date is Tuesday, August 23. That’s when you’ll see more information about Dragon’s Cure and its party.

In the meantime, as a celebration, we’re having a sale all week long. Yes, you heard correctly. All the Dragon Courage books are on sale. Books 1-3 are available on Kindle for only 99 cents. That means you could pick them up, if you haven’t yet, and read them before purchasing Dragon’s Cure on Tuesday. Need to know more about them? Here you go:

Dragon’s Future, Book 1:

Find Dragon’s Future on Sale now.

Dragon’s Heir, Book 2:

You can find Dragon’s Heir on Sale all week.

Dragon’s Revenge, Book 3:

Dragon’s Revenge is on Sale now.

The One Who Sees Me:

I’m also teaming up with thirteen other Christian Fiction authors to offer you a wonderful sale. All of us will have our ebooks on sale for 99 cents this week only. So, check out the sale page here on my website and look into the wonderful books. They’re all great clean reads and will keep you coming back for more.

The One Who Sees Me is on sale this week.

I’m also excited to announce a contest from now until January 4.  I will be giving away five Ty Beanie Babies. As I hear feedback on Dragon’s Future, I hear that it is hard to keep the dragons separate. How is Wyn different than Wryn? What about Wylen and Wyden? So, here’s your chance to win a Ty Beanie Baby named Scorch. He’s a discontinued baby with tag still attached. He has been slightly loved and is still in good condition. I have five to give away–one for each dragon in Dragon’s Future. How do you get him? You draw a dragon, submit it to me via email kandijowyatt at gmail dot com, and then get your friends to vote on my Facebook page for your dragon. It’s really that simple. Don’t know what the dragons look like? Grab a Kindle version for $2.99 or check out my dragons page for the descriptions. Either works. May your dragon fly true!

As I’ve grown, family and friends have stayed the mainstay for the holidays. Last year, I wanted to have a relaxing Thanksgiving. So I talked with each of my kids as to what made Thanksgiving for them. We came up with a list of foods and I fixed them. When we went to sit down, the boys were upset. I tried to figure out the frustration and found that it wasn’t food that made the holiday but people coming over. Fortunately for us, my parents and our oldest son and his girlfriend showed up early for dessert and were there while we had our meal.

The first of the series will be on sale Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

It was this strong basis of family and friends that I drew from when I wrote the Dragon Courage series. I wanted to give my kids a taste of normalcy and put it in a different place. The interactions of the characters throughout the series come from interactions I’ve had with my own kids and my own family. The scenes around the dinner table are straight from my own dinner table. The toddler complaining while mom fixes a meal is exactly what happened with my young ones. Only at meal time did they need mom. They were fine until I walked into the kitchen. Then they were clinging to my legs. It’s rather difficult to fix a meal with a two and a three year old attached to either leg.

So, as you go about your holiday season this year. Remember your family and friends. Spend time with them. Make memories that will last. Play a game together, read them a book, watch a fun movie together. Whatever you do, enjoy them. If you were like me growing up and your family is miles away, find friends or others who need family and be their family. There is always someone who needs some family.

The reception of the book in the blogging world and online blew me away. In the first week of release, it ranked in the top 100 on Amazon. I was excited and thrilled to say the least. It has continued to pop up in the top 100 in Kindle books for children’s dragon stories two more times. Today being the most recent of those events. Not only was it in the top 100, it was two places above LRW Lee’s second Andy Smithson book! I have found Ms. Lee to be a wonderful woman who has encouraged me in my path as an author. She was the first to congratulate me on the official release of Dragon’s Future. So, to be ranked alongside her work was flabbergasting. To have Dragon’s Future nominated and accepted into the Cybils awards was even more mind-boggling.

Dragon’s Future not only was warmly welcomed out in the world, but it has been greeted with excitement in my local community. My local library had me do a book reading and signing. Both the market and library has my books for sale. The elementary school contacted me to purchase books for the school library. Parents have greeted me and chatted about the book. The amount of people who have purchased Dragon’s Future just because it is my book amazes me.

If all of this wasn’t enough, today Dragon’s Heir book two of the Dragon Courage series is available for pre-order. What path will Dragon’s Heir take? Will the message of the need to temper justice with mercy be greeted with as much acclaim as Dragon’s Future? Only time will tell.

However, I can’t stop being mom. Seven o’clock each morning, I have left and gone south past the high school to drop my eighteen-year-old off at work in a field where he is changing irrigation pipe. My thirteen-year-old earned a part in the local adult theater group’s Christmas play which means extra trips north throughout the week.

I have been so busy with school and family that several book events have fell to the side. Wednesday while at school, I had a moment to check email and saw a Twitter notice of a blog post. It was my post on Vox Dei’s webpage! I had forgotten it was to air that day. As my eighteen-year-old says, “Face palm!” The next day, I had another similar experience. I checked email just before lunch during my prep period and found a Twitter announcement of my cover reveal for The One Who Sees Me. How could I have forgotten that! I knew I needed to get a better grip on my calendar.

Saturday loomed big in my vision. I had to be ready for the book signing and release party of Dragon’s Future. My husband and eighteen-year-old would be off at a men’s retreat which left my nineteen-year-old and thirteen-year-old at home.

Grandprize packet of swag and a signed book went to a high school senior.

My thirteen-year-old and I enjoyed the Cranberry Parade at the local festival, and then we headed to the art gallery and used book store which was hosting the signing. After frantically trying to find parking, I was able to elicit help from some friends to carry books and supplies to the gallery. My three hours were fun and profitable. Many came through to purchase books, and I even met a journalist for the local paper who wants to do an author interview. We’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, I am ready for another week of school. I will try my hardest to be better at budgeting my time between family, school, and author work. It is a challenge this year, but it can be done.

Dragon’s Future released sixteen days ago. It doesn’t seem possible that it was that long ago. On Saturday, I had the privilege to hold my first book in my hand. The place in life for Dragon’s Future is the first born. He will have four siblings and their story will intertwine–same author and back story, same editor, cover artist and proofreader. So, sit back and watch the cycle of Dragon’s Future.

Just before I was able to hold Dragon’s Future in my hands, I took another step in the publishing world–I hit submit to layout of another book. This book has its own story, a different section of the publishing company, and in essence is the child or even grandchild of Dragon’s Future. This new book will be published under Booktrope’s Vox Dei imprint. Say hello to The One Who Sees Me.

My fascination with the story of The One Who Sees Me goes back to 1998 when I was struggling with a shadowed memory of abuse when I was a child. I was trying to heal from the shock of realizing I had hidden all those memories. I reached out to a friend, who suggested I read Kay Arthur’s Lord, Heal My Hurts. Kay loves to look into the names of God. She shared the name The One Who Sees Me. God reveals this name for Himself when a young servant girl finds herself in a very unenviable position. She runs away and meets The One Who Sees Me. She realizes that God sees everything! This was such a comfort at that time in my life. It helped me realize that although God didn’t plan the abuse, He had a plan for it to be turned into good if I would let Him.

Fast forward to 2007. I had finished writing what would become The Dragon Courage series and was dabbling in drawing. I had joined the artists’ social media site DeviantArt and made some virtual friends. One of whom was a missionary and pastor’s kid based in Asia. She created a challenge. She wanted to see how many of the women of the Bible she could write poetry about. She challenged other artists to apply their talents to do the same. I submitted my Christmas play from the point of view of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the foot of the cross looking back on his life, and a monologue by Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus. I wanted to add The One Who Sees Me as a drawing of an eye with a silhouette of a pregnant woman. I never got around to drawing it. However, in November of 2014 I wrote the story. It will be available for purchase on October 3, 2015, less than a year from its writing.

Hence, the circle of life has been closed. I know that many more books may yet grace my family, but the firstborns will be the ones that will be held in awe and wonder. The story teller will say, “Gather round as I tell you the tale of a book.”

I will also give away a large swag (that’s book related merchandise) package:

Besides all of this, I get to keep up with Facebook congratulations, Twitter tweets, and other miscellaneous social media contacts of well wishes and trying to get the word out to the world that Dragon’s Future is a real book!

The problem is that besides being an author I am a wife, mom of five (three of whom are still at home), and a teacher. That means that I also have housework that needs to be done, organizing kids so they don’t run a muck, and picking up a van from the school for a leadership conference that starts tomorrow. I think I have my work cut out for me and I had better go make breakfast, wake up the kids, and get started! Thanks everyone for the support you’ve shown me so far and “may your dragon fly true!”

Crackling, sparkling, safe and secure
A comfort in the night
A welcome warmth after a winter excursion
A place to dry off after the rain
Warms frozen hands
Where you cuddle up to read your favorite book on an autumn evening
Perfect backdrop for telling stories
Contemplation is encouraged by staring at the sparks drifting upward
Roasts marshmallows to perfection–either golden brown or crispy black
Heats food and water for tea, coffee, or hot cocoa
Provides entertainment when expertly handled on the end of a staff, poi, or torch
Smell of its smoke brings back childhood memories of camping seasons gone by

Raging, burning, destroying
Licks up wood, grass, and home indiscriminately
Races faster than the eye can see
Creates tornadoes of flame that leap into the air
Leaps roads
Leaps burn lines
Dry tinder and rainless days are its friend
Sends fear into the hearts of firefighter families
Turns the sun a strange burnt umber
Started by just a small spark
Its smoke stings the eyes, burns the lungs, and causes death

Fire

If this one thing can have such drastic sides to it, why shouldn’t the noble creatures who wield its power not have both sides to them. If fire can help, why can’t dragons provide comfort, healing, and heat as well? If fire destroys, why can’t dragons also have a fierce side that destroys, rages, and creates havoc? Enter the world of the Dragon Courage series, where dragons provide courage, friendship, and comfort or on the other hand destroy, kill, and cast judgment. Fire can be both good and bad; therefore, dragons can be both benevolent and malevolent. They are the creatures who co-inhabit the world of humans.