THE DRAGON'S RING

Welcome to my website and my first blog!

I’m excited to announce the release date for my Upper MG/YA novel, THE DRAGON’S RING, is August 28, 2016. This romantic Fairytale is about a knight’s love for a Princess.

Sir James Trueblood and Princess Isadora are in love, but under most circumstances the King would never permit them to wed. When the King’s desire for a unicorn causes him to say he would give anything to own one, Sir James asks for the Princess’s hand in marriage. The King agrees, and Sir James’ quest begins.On his journey he encounters a witch and a dragon, and learns that he can only capture a unicorn with the dragon’s ring.

That’s all I’m going to tell as I don’t want to spoil the story. I will say this story has all the elements of a classic fairytale. There’s a king, knight, princess, witch, dragon, wizard, unicorn and fairy. There’s danger and peril, and life and death situations. And there’s love.

The beginning of this story goes back 20 years. In 1996 I wrote the first draft in three days, only to lose it on my computer. From memory I rewrote the story, this time saving it along the way so as not to lose it again. I titled it THE PRINCESS, THE UNICORN AND THE GOLDEN RING. My nieces and nephews heard the story, and I did send it off to a couple of publishers After a few rejections, I gave up and tucked the my manuscript away in a drawer.

In April, 2012 I traveled to the UK. A member in my tour group was a writer/illustrator, Ilana Ostrar, from Chicago. I’m from Central Illinois, so we became acquainted and shared our story ideas while having tea at a cafe in Grassmere near Dove Cottage, the home of the poet William Wordsworth. It was there she and her friend, Sarah Schoon, encouraged me to join SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

I joined SCBWI in May, 2012, attended my first conference, Words in the Woods, in Springfield, IL in June, and have been writing and submitting ever since. I took another look at the unicorn story I wrote 20 years earlier, changed many names and elements, and this time gave the princess a more active role. Ilana critiqued my story, and it was she who suggested shortening the title. Using her edits and suggestions, I polished my work, changed the title to THE DRAGON’S RING, and actively sought a publisher.

From a twitter pitch on #Pit2Pub in February, 2016, my story found a home with Clean Reads Publishing. Stephanie Taylor and her wonderful staff worked with me through the editing process, found an amazing illustrator, Amanda L. Matthews, to do the cover art, and now my novel is ready to be released.

Please visit http://www.CleanReads.com on August 28th for a preview of my book. Hopefully, you’ll decide to purchase and read it. And may all your dreams come true.