Tell us your favorite fantasy book and WIN AN ARC of The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True!

Like so many of us, Heloise the Bard was conceived in the backseat of a car.

Not in the usual way, perhaps. I mean, nothing conjugal occurred, except possibly betwixt a few axons and dendrites obscenely cavorting about in my gray matter, the naughty little minxes. But, the idea for Heloise really did begin in the backseat of a car—a stranger's car, no less—during my commute several years ago, when I decided to see if I could make use of those short minutes of blessed quiet time to try to fit some writing into my otherwise insane life.

That ultimately begat the serial adventure The Chronicle of Heloise & Grimple, published on my Goodreads blog (dip your toes in it here). It was a tale directly shaped and influenced by the choices of fellow Goodreaders, which made it even more ridiculous than it already was. It was fun. A lark. I ultimately published it as a collected work, but it doesn’t have a lot of narrative cohesion (though, to be fair, neither does its author).

Still, Heloise stuck with me, and I eventually decided that she needed a proper story, one planned from start to finish, in which she could shine even brighter and, perhaps, burnish the legends of some other adventurers who really needed the help.

And thus was born The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True.

The good folks at Parliament House Press have made the questionable choice to publish it coming up on December 15. It’s available for preorder in paperback and preorder on Kindle, and will be available in other formats (including audiobook) as we get closer to release date.

It’s both a love letter to and a deconstruction of the many fantasy stories I’ve consumed in my life, and if you have ever enjoyed Terry Pratchett (his work, I mean, you perverts), cracked a joke while playing D&D, done your own MST3K-style commentary over Lord of the Rings, or dig bad puns and grammar jokes, well, you might not hate it. It comes highly recommended to me by myself, but I don’t trust that asshole much, so take that with a grain of salt.

Given how incredibly important Goodreads was to launching Heloise, and to celebrate Fantasy and Sci-Fi week, I want to share a few digital ARCs of the book with you all. To be eligible to win one, just do the following: name your favorite fantasy book in a comment below this blog post by Sunday, July 19. I’ll pick 5 winners and contact them on Monday, and they’ll soon find themselves rolling their eyes and cursing my (not that) good name because they made such a terrible choice.

The world is an awful and scary place sometimes. Especially right now. It feels good to escape into a fantasy world every once in a while, and especially to laugh. I hope Heloise can help you do that, and maybe realize that light and hope still exist and that we’ll find our way back to them.

There are innumerable amazing people in this world and so many wonderful things. All of you, and your love for and amplification of the power of story, make my life infinitely better.

Thank you, and keep reading, my friends.