Another Fantasy?

We turned The Dragon Princess into our e-publisher and we are pretty excited about the imminent release of our third novel. It’s hard to explain the kind of satisfaction you have when you are finally through with all the writing and editing. What started out as an idea almost four years ago is now finally a finished story.

Practically the last thing that happens before we submit the manuscript is that Lynn reads the whole thing out loud while Evans follows along on the computer. Even though we each read and edit the book three or four times separately, it is amazing what we still catch when the words are spoken aloud. The “final read” is probably the most enjoyable time for the whole novel collaboration. This time was particularly memorable because many of the characters’ first names and some of their personalities were “borrowed” from friends and family. It was amusing to listen to the fantasy adventure and imagine the people we know doing the wild things described in the book. It made us a little sad when the final chapter was finished. We wanted to know what happens next to the characters who seemed particularly real this time.

We are so interested in fact, that we are thinking about changing our minds and writing a sequel. We had always planned on the Bobbie Titan books being a series and knew that there wouldn’t be any follow up to The Valentine’s Game. We thought the same thing for The Dragon Princess, but now, we’re not so sure. We started this fantasy novel when our first grandson, Ethan, was a baby and now he’s about to start kindergarten. His brother Aaron is just a final footnote in this book. We are strongly considering writing a second fantasy where the character Aaron is the same age the character Ethan is in this story (fourteen). We think there is something fun we could say about growing up in the shadows of one of the heroes of The Dragon Princess. Maybe it’s because we’re both the second kids while growing up.

We know we mentioned something about working on a “sassy mystery” next but now we’re not sure. Even though Evans has a mystery story outlined, the idea of going back to our fantasy world, Elan, has been tugging hard at us this week. Maybe the desire will lessen when The Dragon Princess is finally out and all of you start reading it. If not, however, don’t be surprised if the book after our second Bobbie Titan novel features a character named Aaron who is perhaps a little too stubborn for his own good.