Dragonkeeper Trilogy | Posted by Carole on Tuesday 2 February 2010
I recently received my author copies of the Japanese edition of Dragon Moon. The Japanese covers for the Dragonkeeper series are all lovely. You can see the Dragon Moon cover here.
There are also black and white drawings inside the books—some at the beginning, and a small drawing at the beginning of each chapter, each one different and relevant to the chapter. They are really lovely, but I don’t even know the name of the illustrator.
Here are some examples from Dragon Moon.
Dragonkeeper Trilogy, News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 20 January 2010
I just got a certificate in the post telling me that Garden of the Purple Dragon won the 2009 KROC Award for Best Fiction for Older Readers, which is terrific. (The KROCs are the Children’s Choice Awards in the Northern Territory). So thanks to all those readers who voted for the book, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help eat the crocodile ice-cream cake which must have been yummy.
I’m pleased to announce that the UK edition of Dragon Dawn will be released on 4 June. Here is the UK cover.
Pretty cool isn’t it?
Just to remind you, Dragon Dawn is a prequel to the Dragon Keeper Trilogy. It is set 100 years before Dragon Keeper when Danzi was younger and more sprightly, and Ping wasn’t even born.
UK readers will get a bonus with this book. Also included is an A-Z of Chinese Dragons. I’m looking forward to getting my copies of the book. I haven’t seen it yet.
I recently received an email from a reader in the US. She was taking issue with the Chinese language puzzles that feature in Dragon Moon. She was learning Chinese and she thought I had got something wrong. I realised that her confusion was because the illustrations of the map that Ping follows don’t appear in the US edition. I had a look through some of the other overseas editions and found that the French edition doesn’t have any maps at all. So I have asked my webmaster to put the map and puzzle images from all the Dragonkeeper books on the web pages for the individual books, eg go to the web page for Garden of the Purple Dragon, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the thumbnail of the map. That will bring up the map of Ming Yang Lodge. This one is my favourite. I drew a very rough plan of the Lodge and Julian Bruère transformed it into a work of art.
Now if you have editions that don’t have these illustrations, you can find them online. Also if anyone would like to print a map, there is a printable version as well.
It’s been such a long time since I’ve done a post, I’ve just about forgotten how to do it.
I’ve got a couple of ideas for ongoing posts but first up I wanted to show everyone the lovely cover for the Japanese edition of Garden of the Purple Dragon. It is so sweet. Look for bluish Hua. (There’s a bit more but the opened out cover wouldn’t all fit on my scanner.)
Japanese cover for Garden of the Purple Dragon
In other overseas news, there is a new UK release of the Ramose series. It is now two volumes with the first two books in one volume called Ascent to the Sun, and the second two in the other volume called Fury of the Gods. You can see the covers here.
Since Dragon Moon was published, I’ve had quite a lot of emails and blog comments asking me to write a fourth Dragonkeeper book. I always say the same thing. It’s not going to happen. I don’t want to write a fourth book. After all her adventures, I think Ping should have a nice quiet life. She deserves it.
Some people get quite cross with me. They seem to think I’m just being difficult. Or they think I’ve run out of ideas. It’s neither of those things. It’s wonderful that people liked the books so much that they want more. But if my heart isn’t in it, it wouldn’t be any good anyway.
Writing a novel takes a lot of time, about a year for one of my books. It can be stressful, getting it all to work. You have to slog away at it every day, whether you feel like it or not, whether it’s working or not. So it has to be something that I want to write. I know that sounds selfish, but for me it’s the only way to do it.
I’m not the only one that feels that way. I heard Graeme Base talking on the radio the other week and he said the same thing. “I never do market research,” he said. “I just do the stuff that I feel suddenly inspired by and that I will get joy from doing and which I honestly believe is worth two years of my time.”
You never know if a book is going to be successful. I only write the stories that I really want to write, that I have to write, that I would still think were worth all the effort, even if they didn’t do well.
So I haven’t run out of ideas. I’ve just got different ideas. What I’ve run out of is enthusiasm for continuing that story with those characters. And even if someone did write to me and give me a fabulous idea for a fourth book, I couldn’t use it, because it wouldn’t be my story. (And if it was a big hit, bigger than Harry Potter and I got a seven picture deal and became a millionaire, then the person who gave me the idea would sue me!) I have to stick with my own ideas.
The interview with Graeme Base, was on Life Matters on ABC Radio National on 5 Nov and you can listen to a podcast of the full interview.
Last week was when the announcements were made for various Australian children’s choice awards—YABBA in Victoria, KOALA in NSW, COOL in ACT and KROC in Northern Territory. I went to the YABBA award ceremony at Ashburton Primary School. Dragon Moon was shortlisted for the new category of Fiction for Years 7-9. It didn’t win the YABBA but it did win the COOL and the KROC, and it was Honour Book in the KOALA.
It was a very tough shortlist with books like Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin, Evil Genius by Catherine Jinx and Runestone by Anna Ciddor, so I am very proud to have won. Thanks to everyone who voted for me.
Check out all the YABBA, KOALA, and COOL winners (I couldn’t find a website for the KROCs). Congratulations to them all.
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With fellow writer Corinne Fenton
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Admiring a reader’s project
Thanks to Karen Tayleur for the photos.
Dragonkeeper Trilogy, News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 8 October 2008
The Dragonkeeper trilogy is being reprinted and this time they will all have new covers. This is called rejacketing in the book trade. The book is exactly the same. It is just the covers that are different.
The covers have been created by Sebastian Ciaffaglione, who did the cover for Dragon Dawn and also illustrated my picture book The Night We Made the Flag.
I think they are really lovely. It’s great to see Danzi and Kai on the covers, not to mention Hua who is featured on the Dragonkeeper cover.
Dragonkeeper Trilogy, News | Posted by Carole on Wednesday 1 October 2008
My new book Dragon Dawn will be launched here in Melbourne next week. Everyone is welcome to come along and help me celebrate. I hope to see some of you there.
6.30pm on Thursday 9 October
at Reader’s Feast Bookstore Melbourne
Midtown Plaza
cnr Bourke and Swanston Plaza
I have said many, many times that I am not going to write a fourth book in the Dragonkeeper series. And I haven’t changed my mind about that. However, I have written another Dragonkeeper book. It doesn’t continue the story after Dragon Moon though. It is a “prequel”. It is called Dragon Dawn and is set 100 years before Dragonkeeper starts and tells the story of Danzi when he was young and adventurous.
It will be out in October.
