Authors Electric

My March offering is a return to the fantasy genre of my youth, in that it's huge (650+ pages) and has 'Dragon' in the title. I picked it up in a local charity shop as part of a five books for £1 bundle, so although I've not come across this author before it was worth the risk. The Dragon Republic Dragons are beloved of fantasy fiction, whether telepathic and beautiful like those of Anne McCaffrey's  Pern  books, or fearsome and monstrous like those of George RR Martin's  Game of Thrones.  Often they have dragon riders, who are vulnerable in that they form fierce bonds with their mounts and feel pain when those dragons are injured or die. However, the dragons of  The Dragon Republic turn out to be warlords rather than actual flying reptiles, and as a dragon fan I was slightly disappointed to find that none of these warlords ride any kind of fantasy creature. In fact, although there are a few references to wings, I am still not quite sure if any of the ...

I've just been re-reading Linda Newbery's post on editors and editing, and I think that, on the whole, I've been very lucky. For my earlier books with Walker, I worked with Wendy Boase, Anne Carter and later, Mara Bergman, and in nearly every case, the process of editing brought added richness to the stories. A really good editor is like a midwife (sorry, guys, but even you can be pregnant with a good story which might have to be eased into the world in the most appropriate way). For one YA book, THE GAME, the introduction of a new character was suggested. I kicked, screamed and objected, finally capitulated, experimented - et voila! Something  amazing happened (thank you, Anne). The next of my out of print YA Walker books to become available as an ebook  will be WOLFSONG. It's set in a big, ancient house in Brittany, a real house which played an important part in my own life - its name, 'Chanteloup', translating satisfyingly into WOLFSONG - the song of th...