SOLVED. Children's book: To pass the time, boy & girl (siblings? about 10-11?) decide to write book set in an exotic castle (named something like Drachenfels?) during their (summer?) vacation. They take turns writing the chapters. Read 1979-1981. [s]

[Ky]

I don't remember much else beyond what I squeezed into the title. I searched Worldcat and Google, but nothing came up, even when I used "Drachenfels" as a search term so I may be remembering the name of the castle wrong. I don't remember any illustrations in the book and I'm pretty sure there were chapters, but the book wasn't all that long. Probably less than 200 pages.

Not sure of the book's time period but I have a feeling the children's setting was modern to that time period. The story of the castle and its inhabitant(s) was not modern though.

Edit: I remembered something else. Excerpts from what the children wrote appeared in the narrative at the beginning of a new chapter.

[Rainbowheart]

Two Are Better Than One

It's two girls, but they write a novel that takes place at a castle called Drachenfels.

THE ROMANTICAL PERILS OF LESTER AND LYNETTE

The moon was behind a thin veil of grey clouds and the sleeping earth was in deep shadow. An old castle stood on the brow of a high rocky crag overhanging the beautiful Rhine river in Germany. It was called Drachenfels.

[Minnikin]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Two Are Better Than One

It's two girls, but they write a novel that takes place at a castle called Drachenfels.

THE ROMANTICAL PERILS OF LESTER AND LYNETTE

The moon was behind a t..."

And it's a delightful book.

[Ky]

Thank you, Rainbowheart! I'll go read it on Archive.org and see if it's my book. It looks very good. Be back soonish to confirm.

Edited to add:
I haven't finished the book online but I read enough to confirm this is the book. Thank you so much, Rainbowheart. How did you find it? I swear I used "children's" "book" "drachenfels" as search terms in various permutations but never found it.

[Rainbowheart]

You're welcome!

I found it on Archive.org by searching for "Drachenfels" plus "castle."

https://archive.org/search.php?query=...

[Ky]

Cool, I'll have to start incorporating that into my search process.