Black Heart of the Dragon God

It’s an awesome feeling to have a book released. Giddy, excited, a dash of proud. Black Heart of the Dragon God comes out at midnight. Oooooh! I want to hold a copy in my fingers. It has a gorgeous cover … with a dragon on it. A dear editor and friend, Brian Thomsen, told me fantasy novels do better if they have a dragon on them. Brian worked for the big New York publishers, and so I’m pretty sure he knew what he was talking about.

I’ve had dragons on many of my books through the years, predominantly my Dragonlance books when I wrote for TSR/Wizards/Hasbro. I made the USA Today Bestseller list several times with dragon books. I had dragons as villains, as heroes, and a troubled and beat-upon character turned into one. Dhamon Grimwulf. I think he was my favorite DL character.

I also had dragons in a couple of books I wrote with Andre Norton. There were dragons on the covers of those also.

Something special about dragons. And Goranth.

I really like Goranth the Mighty. Flawed and fantastic, strong but with a weakness or two.

He starts out the book hunting a dragon. But he wouldn’t have seen the light of page if Craig Martelle hadn’t emailed me. I had a short story in one of his anthologies, and he said he liked it (maddened interior-decorating robots) and wondered if I was going to write something with him.

There was this fantasy outline gathering dust in my computer. It was filled with dinosaurs, and the main character was out to catch one. Craig suggested they be dragons instead. He was right. They needed to be dragons.

There’s going to be another Goranth the Mighty book; Craig is going to tackle the outline on that one. And I’ve a nugget of an idea for a third. Sword & Sorcery can be such fun to write (and read, right?).

I’m still working on my mysteries. I’m plotting a Piper Blackwell on the side. And I’m working on a Love-Haight Case File set down by the San Francisco wharf.

But right now … right now … I’m thinking about Goranth and wondering when my box of books from Amazon will arrive. I want to put one on my shelf. I already have a Beanie Baby pug dog to sit next to it. A long time ago an author friend told me she bought a glass paperweight for each book she had published … like a trophy maybe, a reward. Another author friend goes out and buys a bottle of wine with each novel publication and keeps the empty bottles on a shelf. Me? I rarely drink alcohol. I buy dog Beanie Babies instead. I like the way they feel against my palm, they’re cute, whimsical, and they fit on my shelves in front of the books and take up no extra space in my house. I have more than forty of them … one for each book I’ve written … and I’ve put them in my will (because some of them are older and probably not easily available).

Hope you like the book. Craig and I enjoyed writing it.

And Ed Greenwood gave us a most-awesome blurb … because he enjoyed it too:

Ed Greenwood, Internationally Bestselling creator of Forgotten Realms had this to say…What if Conan wasn’t a grim loner, but a stalwart in a band who banter, bicker, and brawl their way through life? Then he’d be one of the heroes in Black Heart of the Dragon God. Real people, in the heart of adventure. This tale plunges you into their midst, to see and smell and feel what they do–as they change the world. And they’re good company; I can’t wait for sequels! Dangerous company, though. They start by hunting dragons…

The ebook is $4.99, a paper copy $9.99.