Zap Dragon Update #1

Every time I produce an adventure, it seems I try to shorten the time frame from writing to publication. This hasn’t been intentional but this year’s no different. You see, I made it into GalaxyCon in Raleigh, NC at the end of July. This has been my best convention to date and so I’m hoping to have Zap Dragon in hand by then. Eeek! No pressure.

Thankfully, Zap Dragon has come together very nicely up to this point. (Hopefully, it continues that way! 🙂)

My wonderful beta readers returned their feedback this week. Some even got me feedback early, so the beta edit started earlier than planned. When does that ever happen!? It’s awesome. Anyway, as always, it’s a little nerve-wracking to get the feedback but I trust these people and every single one of them brings me helpful, honest critiques. The general excitement from them over the story has been very encouraging.

While the beta readers were doing their thing, the illustrator started working on the illustrations. She’s got about 10 of them done with 16 more to go and I’m super excited to share some of them soon because they’re turning out fantastically! If you’re familiar with the artwork in Discarded Dragons, then you’ve seen Esther’s work. She has such an artist’s eye and I love it. Plus, Zap Dragon is a spinoff from one of the endings in Discarded Dragons, so the artwork will help tie the two books together nicely. (I’m not sure I’ve mentioned that before, that Zap is a continuation from Discarded. I’ve received a lot of feedback asking for more in the Discarded world, so here it is…I’m even tentatively stewing on the idea of a third adventure in the same world in the future.)

Anyway, in an effort to make the July deadline, I also contacted Justin to start on the cover early. I’ve never done this before because editing often changes the page count, which changes the spine width and the cover dimensions. Always before I’ve tried to have these details figured out by the time we start on the cover but Justin assured me he can adjust as needed, so we’ve started. And as always, I’m impressed with what Justin comes up with from my oft-vague ideas. He’s sent me some preliminary sketches so far and I’m a-little-girl-in-a-candy-shop excited!

So if all the details align as hoped, Zap Dragon will be published on July 25th this year. Fingers, paws, or claws crossed, we’ll see how it goes. =)

Blessings,

Jennifer