Chris d'Lacey's Blog

It was 20 years ago today…

According to Amazon UK, on the 27th September 2021, ‘The Fire Within’ was 20 years old.  For those of you who don’t know the book, ‘The Fire Within’ is the first in my children’s series ‘The Last Dragon Chronicles’.  It is, without doubt, my best-loved book and the one I’ll always be remembered for.  In literary terms it’s not the best story I’ve written, but it’s probably the most inspirational.  And because of that it’s done rather well for itself.  I was once told that if a children’s boo...

Free Stories

Dear readers,

This is a desperate time for library users and people who love books. So I wanted to do what I do best, which is to entertain children with my love of writing.

Below you’ll find links to a couple of my unpublished stories. They are absolutely free to download/save and read, though I would, of course, ask you not to reproduce them in print or on other websites. The stories can be read by anyone, but they are primarily aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 11. I do hope you can...

On the road again

For a couple of years now I haven’t really been doing school visits, just the odd one here and there. Without going into too much detail, I’ve been helping my wife, Jay, through a series of complex foot operations, which has required me to be at home a lot. To compound matters, Jay’s elderly mum has not been well. So with Jay out of action, I’ve effectively been caring for the pair of them. That situation has now resolved itself, and I’m ready to do some events again.

I’ve visited hundreds of sc...

World Book Day

Anyone reading this will surely know that the week just gone was centred around World Book Day, last Thursday. I am firmly of the belief that every children’s author should be in a school somewhere on WBD. And yet I was at home, clearing out my under stairs cupboards, ready to have a smart meter fitted to my fuel supply. How did this strange situation come about?

Well, because of the popularity of my dragon books, I am often contacted way in advance for any given WBD. And that was the case this ...

New words, new beginnings

I have to say it’s been a long time coming (nothing moves fast in d’Lacey world), but I’ve finally had the chance to set up this blog, which I hope any fans or followers of mine will come to enjoy.  It still needs a lot of prettying around the edges, but at least we’re up and running.

For some while now, I’ve wanted to have a more … holistic blog.  One that covers all my creative interests, rather than just my books.  Don’t get me wrong, the books are still likely to take centre stage.  After al...

The final hrrr!

Hello dragon fans,

It is with great regret that the time has come for Zookie to close his Notepad for good. As anyone reading this will know, The Last Dragon Chronicles ended back in 2011, though people still write to me about the series to this day.  The books have brought immense pleasure to so many people and hopefully will continue to do so for many years yet.  Jay (my wife and co-creator of the series) and I would like to thank all of you for your heartfelt love and support. If you want to ask me questions about the series, the best way is to drop me a line via the contact email address on my Icefire website.  Or you can follow me on Twitter (@chrisdlacey) and I will reply to any queries there. Just to finally answer a few common queries about the books.  There is still no likelihood of a film(s) being made.  We have had interest over the years, but nothing solid enough to get excited about. I was inspired to write the series after buying a clay dragon at a craft fair.  For a while, you used to be able to buy the dragons from the lady who made the one I bought, but she retired some years ago.  So it's not possible to get the dragons anymore. The Chronicles and the small spin-off series called The Dragons of Wayward Crescent are still commercially available from good book shops and online stockists.  And you can also buy my latest Erth Dragons series, of course.  All three books are available in the UK.  Book 3, The New Age, comes out in North America in January 2019. And finally, the twenty year anniversary of The Fire Within comes up in 2021.  I am very keen to celebrate that in some way. I did ask my publisher if they might consider publishing a prequel to TFW.  Sadly, they said no.  But I may yet look at the possibility of self-publishing something, though I would have to have the approval of my publisher for it and that might halt the project before it even gets off the ground.  So no promises - but I will look into it. Once again, thank you so much for your love and support.  The blog will officially close on May 24th.  Until then, happy reading.  HRRR!

A New Age of dragons

Hello everyone,

If you've been following this blog and wondering why there have been no posts for a couple of years, it's because The Last Dragon Chronicles, of which Gadzooks the writing dragon was a major part, ended nearly six years ago. And yet, to this day, people still write to me about the Chronicles, much more than they do about my Erth Dragons series. This will probably be my last post on Zookie's pad, because like TLDC the Erth Dragons are also coming to an end. In April 2018, my final dragon novel, THE NEW AGE, will hit the UK book stores (a bit later in the year for the USA). It's a good book, I think, and there are several nods to the Chronicles in it. Indeed, if you go to my Erth Dragons blog at www.erthdragons.wordpress.com in approximately one week's time, you'll be able to read the prologue from The New Age, which features some of my favourite characters - the firebirds. And without giving too much away, there will be a guest appearance by a very popular Pennykettle dragon right at the end of The New Age. So there's something to look forward to, I hope. Have a great Christmas everyone. Happy reading. Hrrr! 

Home: A Recap

Earlier this week, Michael Bierut, Sonia Williams, and I spent an hour on the phone together. Michael is an influential graphic designer based in New York, Sonia is a high school student in Paintsville, Kentucky, and I’m a designer at Automattic, living outside of Boston.

Sonia came prepared with a great set of questions. She prompted Michael to tell us about his career, and to take us through some of his favorite projects. We talked about designing this website. Michael described how he came to...

Happy hrrry Christmas

Hello everyone.  It's that time of year when Gadzooks likes to break into a mince pie and watch a few Pixar animations on TV!  While he's doing that, I thought I'd put up a quick post to thank those of you who continue to show your love and support for The Last Dragon Chronicles.  It's amazing to think that The Fire Within is now FIFTEEN years old, yet we're still receiving fan mail about the series, from new and old readers alike. In fact, in the last few weeks one very nice man has been posting lovely reviews of The Dragons of Wayward Crescent, and also one of The Fire Within.  It's been fantastic to see them.  Children are still studying the books for school projects.  And every month someone writes and begs me to do another book for the series, despite the fact it ended three years ago!  I know that everyone who reads this misses the Pennykettle dragons.  I do too.  But we have to move on in life, and anyway 2016 could be a BIG year for dragons.  If you've been reading previous posts you'll know that I have not one, but TWO new series out, and both are heavily connected with dragons.  The most obvious series is the ERTH DRAGONS.  The first book, The Wearle, came out in hardback in the UK this October (2015).  It was fairly quiet release and not many people are aware of the book's existence yet.  But that will change in April 2016 when the paperback comes out in the UK.  And later that year, you should see the book in America as well.  That will happy a lot of people (including me!)  Also, don't dismiss the third book of my UNICORNE FILES series, which comes out in May/June in both countries (and Australia).  It's called A Crown of Dragons.  It's not specifically about dragons in the same way that The Wearle is, but it looks at the very interesting idea of what influences dragons might have had on humans.  I recommend it - well, fair enough, I would!  But seriously, if you like dragons, give the UFiles a read.  I've included links to both series in the titles above. Have a really lovely Christmas everyone.  Do keep writing to me about the Chronicles if you wish.  I will answer your messages, though it sometimes takes a while.  Happy reading.  Gadzooks says hrrr!

A link to The Erth Dragons

Hi guys,

I promised a little while back that we would put up a link to the blog I was writing specifically for the new ERTH DRAGONS series.  If you click on the highlighted link it should take you straight there.  You can read the prologue of the book and also see the glossary and character lists, which are quite entertaining in themselves.  There'll be more as we get to publication date on October 1st. In the meantime, here's an exclusive for followers of Zookie's Notepad.  The second Erth Dragons book will be called THE DARK WYNG.  Hrrr!