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!

So, what’s all the fuss about? Book one followed Ruskya and Duskya as they fought for their dragons’ future. We met a young villager by the name of Braidyn. He heads south to Boskay and finds a home. However, he never quite feels at home. His sense of justice is great and he wields it without mercy. Two dragon eggs are stolen from his dragon colony. He recruits Ruskya and Darryl to help him find the culprit. Their journey takes them to a new land and another dragon colony with different traditions. Braidyn must learn to temper his justice or he will lose everything that is important to him.

Follow along ad see if Braidyn can find his home. Will the sandhills call to you as they do to me?

In celebration of the release, we will have a Facebook party on Saturday. We will have prizes, giveaways, books, authors, and lots of fun,and yes, dragons. One of the authors who will be present is Brian Rathbone, number one international seller of the Godsland series. Facebook parties are amazing. You can participate from the comfort of your own home. Just log in and chat. The party will be Saturday, December 12 from 3:30-7:30 Eastern. Come join us. I will be giving away a signed copy of Dragon’s Heir and mugs, magnets, and other wonderful Dragon Courage things.

I’ll leave you with this trailer of Dragon’s Heir. Enjoy. And may your dragon fly true!

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.

This arbitrary point in time may be a bit soon for some children and not soon enough for others. My seventeen year old son is non-pulsed about the whole graduating business. It’s another day in a line of days in his life. Nothing spectacular. My nineteen year old daughter was quite ready for the event to happen. I’ve known a sixteen year old who was ready and did graduate and move on to college. She became the youngest certified paramedic in the state of Oregon. Each child is different, but each needs this marker in his or her life to say, “I am an adult”.

In the Dragon Courage series, coming of age is a big theme. My riders vary in ages from 25 in Dragon’s Future to 22 in Dragon’s Heir to 18 in Dragon’s Cure. The theme holds true–each of the dragon riders need a point in time to see him- or her-self as an adult. The final book takes this theme to the extreme and Kyn creates an event to help the young riders prove themselves capable of the responsibilities and privileges of a full-fledged rider.

So, whether you’re a dragon rider or a regular human being, at some point in time you’ll need to be able to say, “I’m an adult”. Is this a graduation ceremony, a youngling challenge, or just a parent giving you a gift and saying, “You’re a man now” or “You’re a woman now”? That depends on your background. If you’re a parent, consider what you can do to verify and confirm your child’s maturity. With our now twenty-one year old, my husband gave him a gift that our son would cherish. They had a talk about the responsibilities of manhood. Later, when our son messed up, my husband was able to refer back to the gift and the implications behind it. Our son came to us and agreed his actions were not in accord with an adult.

I can’t say that it will always go easy–this parenting thing–but it will have its rewards. For those of you who are old enough to be parents, but don’t have any kids of your own or their all grown up, consider acting as a parent to some young person. Take them under your wing and be a parent to him or her. You’ll find that it is just as rewarding.

Dragon Courage art by Kandi J Wyatt