Chris d'Lacey's Blog, page 2

It's here

Hello dragon fans. Zookie and I are very excited about the forthcoming release of The Wearle on October 1st, just... two and a half months away! I know you've already seen the cover in the last post we put up, but there's nothing like seeing that image on an actual book.  So here it is. We love the way that the shape of the wing creates a kind of cavemouth for the titling. And the colours are just awesome, aren't they? There is a reason for all that blue.  The dragon pictured is Gabrial (the hero) and he's known as 'a blue'.  When you join the story, he's on the verge of his tenth birthday, when he's expected to get some green in his scales (though he never will - Zookie likes him blue!)  I wish I could tell you more about the story, but I have to wait for the okay from my publishers.  When that happens, we'll put the first chapter up right here.  So keep following! Zookie also wants me to tell you that there is a character list AND a glossary of terms in the book. Some of the words in the glossary will be familiar to fans of the Chronicles, but there are lots of new and interesting ones as well.  We'll try to give you an exclusive peek of that too.  Hold tight.  It's coming!  Bye for now.  Hrrr!

Exclusive: THE WEARLE cover

Okay.  For all you fans of The Last Dragon Chronicles who've waited so, so long for a new dragon book from "the author", here's something to cheer you.   This is an exclusive posting of the cover of THE WEARLE, the first book in my new ERTH DRAGONS series (that is not a mispelling of 'earth', by the way). Publication date is OCTOBER 1st in the UK. I'm not sure when it will happen in America yet, but what I can tell you is you'll hear a lot more about the book in the coming months.  So get ready.  The dragons are back - not the clay ones this time, the big boys. More soon. Happy reading.  Hrrr!

WEARLE update

Hi everyone.  I know it's an awful long time between posts these days, but thanks for staying with me.  The reason for the delays is that I've been working flat out on The UNICORNE Files for the past two years (www.theunicornefiles.wordpress.com). This series has been quite a departure for me and the books have taken a lot of effort to get right.  If you don't know what the UFiles is, take a look at the link and it will all become clear. During the periods when I've been waiting for editorial feedback on the UFiles, I've been steadily working on The Wearle, and I'm happy to say I've finished book one.  Now don't get too excited (well, okay, a little bit!) because it will be another year before it hits the shelves.  But for all of you who liked the Chronicles or like dragons in general, start chewing your lip now. Over the next few months, work will probably begin on the cover artwork.  So watch out for that popping up on Zookie's pad.  Not sure what the title of the book will be yet.  'The Wearle' was originally conceived as a series title, but I like it so much I'm going to push for it as the title of book one anyway.  I'm meeting my editor at Orchard books in September and I'll know more after that. The Wearle is different in almost every respect from TLDC.  No clay dragons, but PLENTY of big ones!  The story is told in five sections, three of them through the dragons' eyes.  The dragons are very much in command in this book; believe me, you would not want to mess with them!  There are 'human' characters too (the dragons call them the 'Hom') who weave in and out of the narrative, and there are heroes and villains on both sides.  You will meet some proper nasty dragons in this book.  Most of them are noble and good, but there are some aggressive ones too.  (I wanted to keep it 'real', if you know what I mean?) There are also a few 'nods' to TLDC.  For instance, all the dragon names begin with a 'G'.  And one of the principle female dragon characters is called Gossana - not a million miles away in tone from a certain sybil that everyone loved to hate :) Guys, I am CONVINCED you will like this book.  It's a simple story, but really neat.  It's quite short, around about 50,000 words.  Get ready to growl at me, though, because if you like it, it's going to leave you gasping for more.  Yes, you've guessed, there is a HORRIBLE cliffhanger at the end.  But I will be starting work on book two early in 2015.  So things will get resolved fairly quickly. Zookie says hrrr! by the way.  He has been really hard at work on The Wearle, and though he doesn't feature in it, he's really quite proud of it.  No movie news yet, but he's combing his top knot in hope! Happy reading.  Hrrr!

Today's word is: WEARLE

Hello world.  Or rather, hello people who follow this blog.  It's been a long time since one of us left a message on the notepad.  You'd be forgiven for thinking Gadzooks was in stasis - but he's not.  He's just been pacing and pondering and getting ready for our next big dragon project, which he's asked me to tell you something about. As always, it is a little something, because the conditions of our publishing contracts forbid us to say too much.  But we hope our followers will be pleased to know that from tomorrow, January 6th, we will be starting work on a series called THE WEARLE. Those of you familiar with the The Last Dragon Chronicles will know that a 'wearle' is the name we use for a colony of dragons.  So there's your biggest clue.  That's what the series is about, the life and adventures of a colony of dragons.  At present, there are two books scheduled, but if the series becomes even half as successful as the Chronicles I suspect there will be more.  These stories will be about 'natural' dragons.  No Pennykettle clay characters popping up here, though many of the terms will be familiar to regular readers - auma, isoscele, wearling (of course).  In The Wearle you can expect a lot more descriptions like that.  Also, no David or Lucy in these books.  There will be humanoid characters, but the main focus is definitely on the dragons themselves. When can you expect to see the first book?  Hmm.  It's going to be a while, I'm afraid.  I am not scheduled to deliver the first manuscript until the end of October 2014 and it will take at least another six months for the the book to be published.  But don't despair.  Zookie will keep updating the notepad and in the meantime you'll be able to get into another new series called THE UNICORNE FILES.  You may remember me mentioning Unicorne back in the dim and distant past.  Well, it's finally happening.  The first book, A Dark Inheritance , is complete.  It comes out in the USA as early as May and is available to preorder now at places like Barnes & Noble online, or Amazon.  It publishes in the UK in August 2014.  If you want to know more about the series, follow this link theunicornefiles which will take you to a blog dedicated to the series. Anyway, guys, it's been great talking to you again. We'll be back soon! Happy New Year and, as Zookie would always say, happy reading!  Hrrr!

Today's word is: DAMIAN

Wa-hey! If you read Wednesday's blog post 'NEXT' you'll have discovered news about my next project THE UNICORNE FILES.  As you'll see, I did it via a Q&A called THE NEXT BIG THING.  Authors who take part in this blog 'meme' are supposed to tag two others to continue the chain.  Up until yesterday, I could only find one, the2steves.  Well now I've found another! I first met Damian Harvey many years ago at a writers' conference.  Back then he was an aspiring picture book author, just dipping his toe into the publishing arena.  Now he is extremely well published as you'll see if you click on his name, which will take you to his impressive website.  He also tweets as @DamianJHarvey. Damian, like the Steves, is also a prolific visitor to schools and libraries throughout the UK.  So if you're looking for an author to come and entertain your primary school children, he's your man. Now, Zookie and I have to go and write more of THE UNICORNE FILES.  So until next time, happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: NEXT

Okay dragon fans, it’s been a long time coming, but finally I can bring you news of my next project.  And I’m going to do it in the form of the Q&A you’ll see below, which is part of a blog chain (that’s BLOG chain) called THE NEXT BIG THING.  I was invited to take part in this by the lovely Anna Wilson, who writes very funny stories about dogs, mostly.  You can see what she had to blog by clicking on her name.  I have to confess that I have never read one of Anna’s books, which is shameful when you think that her children have read mine AND she once cooked me dinner.  I think I can feel her scowling from afar. Anyway, here’s the Q&A.  There will be more info coming over the next few weeks once we’ve sorted out the fine details.  Read on. What is the title of your next book? It’s probably easier to say at this stage what the title of the series will be.  The project is called THE UNICORNE FILES, which I’m planning as a series of three books.  Each book will be a story in its own right, but the stories will be linked by a common theme.  The working title of the first book is Cellular Memories.  There are two things I can tell you right away: I didn’t misspell UNICORNE, and the books have nothing to do with, erm, unicorns.  Mmm… What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book? A boy searching for his missing father becomes involved with an organisation that investigates paranormal events.   Where did the idea for the book come from? Some years ago there was an American TV series called The X-Files, about an FBI agent called Fox Mulder who investigated strange events or phenomena.  When he was a boy, Fox believed he saw his sister abducted by aliens.  This is where his passion to uncover the truth behind supernatural mysteries began.  The Unicorne Files is an homage to that series.  It’s a kind of X-Files for kids. What genre does your book fall under? Mystery thriller. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? Well, as no one has read the books yet, the characters are unfamiliar to everyone.  So the question is slightly redundant.  But I think Michael Fassbender might be interested in running the UNICORNE organisation.  Oh, and Emily Blunt could be the French au pair… doesn't matter that she's probably too old, she’s gorgeous! Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I’ve been represented by the Johnson & Alcock literary agency for many years now. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? I’m still working on it – in fact I’ve only just started book one.  I moved house last year and that has taken up a great deal of my time.  You won't believe how many shelves a man has to put up in his lifetime.  It’s hard to believe that it was during this week last November that I finished The Fire Ascending.  Boy, I’ve missed writing.  It would normally take me about nine months to write a novel, but the Unicorne books will be shorter and punchier than the dragon books.  I would think the first one will be going through the publishing motions round about May or June next year, ready for release early in 2014. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I honestly don’t know.  I’m not saying Unicorne is so original that it’s unlike anything else, just that I’m not really up to speed with what’s going on in the children’s fiction world right now.  Who or what inspired you to write this book? I think I probably answered that under question three.  I’ve always had a passion for the strange or bizarre.  Fans who’ve read The Last Dragon Chronicleswill know that I was never afraid to venture into the unknown.  You name me another series that combines squirrels, dragons and quantum physics.  Unicorne will look at all the areas I couldn’t explore in TLDC, such as past life regression and cellular memory.  Want to know what that is?  Read the book when it happens. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Well, first and foremost, people will read it to see how it compares or differs from the Chronicles.  Let me say right now, Unicorneis not a dragon fantasy series, though there will be a few dragon teasers in there. The writing style is also very different.  It’s not as warm (or as occasionally silly), but it’s tight and gripping and I would hope that the first set piece will grab people’s attention from the start.  One thing I’m very aware of is that my fan base has grown up over the course of the Chronicles.  I regularly meet people of 17 and 18 who loved the dragon books when they were juniors.  I hope they might appreciate this change of direction.  Every writer likes to try something different.  You need to trust me, folks!  From a publishing perspective, there is a belief that dragons were last year’s thing.  I disagree.  If there’s one thing I've learned from writing the Chronicles it’s that people really love these creatures.  I fully intend to write about them again.  While I’m working on Unicorne, I will also be developing a huge synopsis for a MAJOR dragon series, one that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.  So all of you fans of David and Gadzooks, fear not.  By the time you’ve grown up and gone through college, there will be something else for you.  And believe me, it’s good.  Zookie, am I right or am I wrong?  Hrrr!  There, you got it from the dragon’s mouth.  Stay with me, dragon fans, it’s going to be an interesting couple of years. It’s now my pleasure to ‘tag’ the next writers who will continue blogging on the theme of THE NEXT BIG THING.  I was supposed to come up with two links, but most of my writing friends have either blogged their 'thing' already - or they don't have a blog!  So I've cheated a little.  I am going to tag two authors - but two who write together.  The two Steves, Barlow and Skidmore, have been my friends for many years and I am really looking forward to seeing what they have to say about their latest projects.  Click on the link to go to their brilliant website.  They are two of the funniest authors I’ve ever seen perform in front of children.  They are also great tweeters.  You can find them on Twitter @the2steves.  Until next time.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: EDINBURGH

Hello, dragon fans.  Yes, it's me, the great Gadzooks, reporting back about the author's weekend trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival.  It's been several weeks now since we had anything really interesting to say, but festivals are always great experiences, and this one in Edinburgh (capital of bonny Scotland) is just the friendliest, most well-organised and exciting one there is.

The festival organisers seem to like us attending because it hardly ever rains when we're up there.  We have a sneaky suspicion that this is one reason we get invited back year after year. Hmmm. Apparently, it chucks it down a lot in Edinburgh, but we have only experienced it once in five visits.  So the sun was properly out, as Lucy might have said, and the venue was buzzing.  The flight up was also fantastic.  I don't need an aircraft, of course, but I sit with the author to keep him company (even though he puts me under the seat at take-off).  He'd bagged a window seat, and for once we actually saw things from the air, such as the English Lake District.  Normally, it's a case of the captain saying, "And if you look out of the left side of the aircraft you'll see some, erm, clouds, and on the right side a rather beautiful patch of, erm, cloud..."  Not this time.  No clouds!  (Well, very few.)  Amazing.
We arrived the day before the event and therefore had a few hours for sight-seeing, but it was just too hot to contemplate climbing the Scott Monument as we have done in the past or visiting Edinburgh's magnificent clifftop castle.  So we had a Toblerone flavoured milkshake instead (Or one of us did.  Guess which?) and watched some of the many street entertainers that descend on the city at this time.  Sometimes we think if we could move Wayward Crescent to Scotland, we would live in Edinburgh permanently.  Awesome, awesome city.  Everyone should go there at least once in their lifetime (preferably in August).
Now, here's a mind-boggling thing.  Come the day of the author's event, just a few hours before he got up to do his stint, a speaker called DAVID RAIN was appearing, talking about a book he'd written.  Yes, really.  David Rain.  Someone pointed out on Twitter that it's not uncommon for the name of a fictional character to pop up in real life.  True.  But on the same day that we were scheduled to talk about the Chronicles, and at the same venue?  That was strange. This real life David is an Australian author who lives in London.  We went along to meet him in the signing tent, wondering if he might just turn into a polar bear!  Not surprisingly, he didn't.  But he was very charming and incredibly he knew about the Chronicles.  When the author introduced himself, Mr Rain said, "Ah, I've heard about this series from my publisher." We were very flattered.  He kindly let us take a photo for the blog.  We wish him well in his literary endeavours and hope that he sells a LOT of books.  Hrrr!
One of the truly great things about festivals is meeting your audience afterwards and signing their books.  We always like to say a huge thank you to the boys and girls who come to the events, and the mums and dads who bring them.  We couldn't let this year go by without mentioning two fans who'd travelled all the way from Yorkshire that morning to see us, and were heading back on the train the same day.  A round trip of nearly 450 miles.  Hrrr!  Here they are on the lawn in Charlotte Square, where the festival marquees are pitched.  It's very moving when fans like Esme and Katherine travel so far to see us.  The author has always loved chatting to dedicated dragon lovers, because we learn so much from them.  Talking to these girls we quickly discovered how passionate they were about the relationships in the books.  David and Zanna obviously.  But the one they really wanted more of was Lucy and Tam - because they were Lucy's age (roughly) when they found the books and have empathised with her more than anyone.  Cool.  This sort of feedback helps us to understand where we might go with characters in the future.  On that note, no one at the event asked the question we were most dreading, "What are you going to write next?"  It's taken the author a long time to shake off the attachment to the Chronicles (naturally) but he is working on THREE new projects now, not two as previously reported.  Won't be long before we can reveal something about them.  In the meantime, there are lots of wonderful books out there to get your hands on.  So happy reading.  Hrrr!
PS Massive thanks to the lovely Sarah from Orchard books, who chaperoned us during our time in the city - or was that the other way round...? :)

This week's word is: UPDATE

Hello, dragon fans.  I thought it was time I dropped you a line just to let you know we haven't forgotten you all.  I have to say you've all been very patient over the past few weeks, and no one has complained about the lack of blog posts.  To be perfectly honest, there is again very little to report.  Gadzooks is still pottering about the house, musing.  At the moment, he is sitting on Mrs Author's windowsill staring out to sea.  This is a change, of course, from him staring at the garden, which prompts me to wonder if the next outpouring from his amazing mind might be something...watery.  (Gretel has just shaken her head and gone 'fff!')
The two projects I mentioned in the previous blog post are being worked upon - in my head (and Zookie's).  I have titles for both, but I'm not allowed to reveal them yet.  In my mind, there is nothing to choose between them.  Both are good ideas.  But until I sit down and really commit myself to the keyboard, I won't know if they're going to work or not.  After the Chronicles, I was so wiped out that I needed to rest.  It feels like I haven't written anything for a YEAR, whereas in fact I was signing off the proofs for THE FIRE ASCENDING in March.  So it's not that long ago, and at least I have a proper room to work in now.  And a fancy new chair that swivels and tilts and the dragons love to play in... GRUFFEN, GET OFF!
That's better.  Right now, I'm preparing a Powerpoint for my visit to the Edinburgh Children's Book Festival in August.  Anyone who's ever seen me 'perform' will know that my talks are generally a mixture of humour and scenes from the dragon books.  With seven books in the series, I've always run out of time to talk about FIRE WORLD and TFA.  So I'm trying to put together a different set of slides that will give a potted history of everything up to Scuffenbury Hill, leaving me free to chat about the last two books.  It certainly seems appropriate to bring FW to the fore now that the scientists in Cern have apparently dicovered the 'God particle' in their Large Hadron Collider.  The dragons responded by saying that in their opinion clay was the building block of the universe, but then they would.  There were some concerns that time might stop or be disrupted if these particle experiments got out of hand.  Wouldn't it be great if the waveforms the scientists predicted looked like the Mark of Oomara.  Hmmm....
Mrs Author and myself ventured out of the Den this week to attend a talk by one of our favourite authors, the award-winning Philip Reeve.  For anyone who doesn't know, Philip is responsible for the brilliant Mortal Engines series and the associated books which accompany them (Fever Crumb, A Web of Air etc.)  One of the most interesting things to come out of his presentation was the list of books and movies that influenced him, from Tolkien to the science fiction author, Ray Bradbury, to films like Blade Runner.  All of these have featured in my past.  So it was fascinating to compare 'world building' notes, as it were.  If you like what is generally called 'steampunk' you would love Philip's books.  They are full of fantastic detail about cities built on great traction devices that rumble about the planet eating up other smaller communities.  I remember being in the offices of the UK division of Scholastic publishing when an editor told me about this.  I went, 'Whaaat?', which is everyone's initial reaction.  Cities consuming other cities?  How can that work?  Read the books.  Find out.
Time to leave you to get on with your lives again.  Thank you all the fans who've written to me about TFA.  I can tell you now that the weight of opinion is very much in favour of TFA being the best of the series.  And guess what?  99% of you like the ending!  Hopefully the next blog post won't be too long coming, and maybe by then I'll be able to give you some clues about the forthcoming projects.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: STASIS

Hello, dragon fans. You may have wondered why there was no blog post last Sunday. This is simply because since we finished the Chronicles the household has gone into a kind of stasis, not dissimilar to that which you read about in THE FIRE ETERNAL during David's disappearance. The dragons are closing down for a while, and although Gadzooks is still very active in my mind, even he is having a rest. This does not mean that the blog is coming to an end, but it too will enter semi-stasis mode while we are working on new ideas.  So don't fret if the posts aren't weekly for a while.  There will be gaps over the next four months.  Zookie has never been one of those bloggers who just wants to ramble on about nothing in particular, but if any important information comes to us, he will post it.
This is where we are at the moment with the books.  THE FIRE ASCENDING has been published in hardback in the UK for two months and the USA for one.  We've had a lot of excellent feedback on it and we welcome more.  The paperback or soft cover editions of TFA are due to be published in September (UK) and October (USA).  At the same time, in the USA, Mrs Author's companion book, RAIN AND FIRE, will make its proper debut in hardcover.  She is very excited about that.  Remember, this is a companion, a guide book to the series, not an addition.
Now, what can I tell you about the new material?  Well, this is an exciting and challenging time.  We effectively have a blank canvas to work with.  This can be a daunting proposition, of course.  And following the Chronicles is going to be no easy task.  But we do have two ideas that we're slowly beginning to explore.  We've mentioned both projects to our publishers here and in America, and ripples of excitement have come back.  The next stage will be to create a slightly more detailed outline of the projects, with some plot or theme suggestions and maybe some character info, and then we decide which one to pursue.  As usual, I can't say too much about them at this stage.  (Sorry.) Both feature dragons, one much more so than the other.  The dragon idea is high fantasy; the other is much more domestically based.  Interestingly, it's the less dragony one my editors are keenest on - at the moment.  All that may change by October.
So the next four months will be all about exploration.  But one day, in the not too distant future, a big announcement will be made about the new series, and as usual all you blog followers and Twitter peeps will be the first to know about it.  Watch this space...
Until next time.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!

This week's word is: ROOM

Hello, dragon fans. You find us this week in the midst of change. A few days ago, I observed the author standing at the door of his room, frowning.  This can be a worrying sign.  Frown lines tend to suggest he's thinking.  And that's not always good.  This time, however, he did have a legitimate excuse.  "Have you noticed," he asked, as I landed on his shoulder and used the tip of my pencil to dig out a bit of his ear wax, "that the floor of this room slopes?"  I slapped a paw across my eye ridges in despair.  "You mean, you've only just noticed?" I replied.  I leaned over and picked up a plastic golf ball he keeps in a pen tidy on his desk.  I dropped it at his feet and we watched it roll towards the far end of the room and disappear under one of his guitar stands.  "You've been typing at an angle ever since we moved in," I told him. "Ah, so that's why I keep falling off my chair!" he exclaimed with a little breath of triumph.  Honestly, dragon fans, what can you do?
Anyway, the upshot of this great discovery was that he called in Kevin, the local handyman, to level the floor.  This meant clearing the room, of course, which gave us the opportunity of measuring just how much rammel (an olde Englishe worde for junke, clutter, rubbishe) he kept in there. "Is this sock entirely necessary?" Mrs Author enquired, finding one wedged between a pile of his papers.  She pushed a finger through a hole in the toes and wiggled it.  "You can't have that. That's what I clean the screen with," he replied, as if EVERYONE in the IT arena uses a dusty old sock to, well, dust their monitor.  (I checked with Gwendolen; she just burns the dust off.)  Anyway, this led to us putting together a puzzling list of some other 'bits and bobs' a writer keeps on his desk and simply can't do without, e.g.
A paper clip that's been pulled out of shape.Use: to wiggle biscuit crumbs out from between the keys of his keyboard.  (I know, why doesn't he just turn the keyboard upside down and shake it?)
A slip of paper with some complex dates and figures on it.Use: a weekly measure of how much electricity is being used by the computer (Uh???)
A small pencil with no lead in the end.Use: to balance across the edge of the desk when bored or stuck with writer's block. The pencil is minutely pushed towards its tipping point, the idea being to guess the final position before one more push sends it over the edge.  The pencil can then be picked up and the game repeated as often as necessary or until the player's brain turns to slush or a kindly writing dragon scribbles an inspirational note on his notepad.
A flat glass paperweight.Use: surely to weigh down paper? you ask.  Wrong.  A handy object on which to dispense the tea bag he's inevitably forgotten to remove from his mug...
A box that once contained a printer cartridge.Use: a back up dumping ground for the teabag, just in case he's forgotten to take the one on the paperweight to the waste bin downstairs when he makes his next cup of tea...
An A5 sized diary.Use: has to be a diary, doesn't it?  No.  Every year, he buys one and uses only the calendar part at the front to keep track of his events.  The rest of the diary is never used - unless a fly gets in the room.  Then it becomes a handy swatting device.
A bundle of shells in a string bag.Use: no one really knows...
A felt-tipped pen with hardly any ink in it.Use: as a felt-tipped pen - with hardly any ink in it!  He won't throw it because he feels there's surely 'one more go' in it after every time he struggles to use it...
And our favourite - a letter opener in the shape of a dagger.Use: no use whatsoever as the idiot always forgets to open his fan mail with it, often ripping through the addresses that American fans write in the top left corner of their envelopes.  Still, it looks 'professional', he thinks, like he's won a prize for a crime novel!
Youthful writers of the world, now you know what you have to look forward to...  Until next time.  Happy reading.  Hrrr!