But… there are options:

Start with Book 1, The Dragon Question, and read to the last current book. (series order)
Follow The Dragon Question story: Book 1 then Book 5.
Follow Rasmuth’s story: Book 1 then 3 then 5 then 8, followed by 10.
Follow Codger’s story: Book 1 then 5 then 9.
Follow Brundar’s story: Prequel (The Don’t Eat Humans Clause) then Book 3.

What not to do if you prefer to avoid spoilers:
Best not read Book 5 before reading Book 1.
Best not read Book 8 before reading Book 5.

NOTE: Reading Book 2, Dragon Bone Ridge, first creates no problems at all.

The post With Eight Books & Growing,… first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Rasmuth’s Night Before Christmas

A Solstice Dragon World version

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the land

Not a creature was stirring, and not one demand;

The rucksacks were hung by the cavern with flare,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The fledglings were nestled all snug in their caves;

While visions of deer and elk danced in their brains;

And Kasska in her warm niche, and I nestled in sand,

Had just settled our minds for a winter snowland,

When out on the cliff there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my ledge to see what was the matter.

Away to the entrance I flew like a flash,

Tore out through the opening and into the pass.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,

Gave a luster of midday to boulders below,

When what to my wondering eyes did appear,

But a gargantuan sleigh and eight dragon rein-deer,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:

“Now, Mogan! now, Varvi! now Kimble and Shazure!

On, Karlyle! on, Clave! on, Shrhak and Brundar!

To the top of the cliff! to the top of the peak!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away, streak!”

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the butte top the coursers they flew

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—

And then, in a twinkling, I heard overhead

The prancing and pawing of each giant tread.

As I drew in my snout, and was turning around,

Down the crevasse St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with brambles and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly

That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the rucksacks; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the crevasse he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

The post Rasmuth’s Night Before Christmas first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

So, I thought I would give a little breakdown of each series and what draw each has.

I’ll start with my first fantasy series: Standing Stone. This is a coming of age, heroic journey, and fantasy adventure series. Each book links to the next, though a couple years’ time passes for some, while others pick up a day after the previous book.

Another point is that the lead character is male. However, there are two secondary leads: unrelated siblings (read the book if you want that explained ). Why is this important? All my books contain strong female protagonists, and this is the only series where the lead is male. If you don’t like independent, intelligent females, you found the wrong author. And they come in multiples as there is never just one smart woman in the room.

If you’ve read the Standing Stone series, you might wonder which of my other series would be the best fit. Back to the labels: coming of age, heroic journey, fantasy adventure—the most likely candidate is my new series Annals of the Dragon Dreamer. Why? Well, it fits all three labels, and there is a strong male lead, though he is not the main character. He plays an important role throughout the series.

However, it falls under other labels. It has a slow burn romance. Also, unlike Standing Stone, it has dragons, conscious forests, and magically influenced animals: horses and wolves. So both high fantasy and epic fantasy. Dragons are prominent in this series.

Annals of the Dragon Dreams should lead you to my Solstice Dragon World novels because there are dragons. Independent, intelligent female protagonists, dragons who follow the demands of the “Don’t Eat Humans” clause, and world and personal crises that require they work together. But there is a difference that it is important to note. While both Annals of the Dragon Dreamers and Standing Stone are series which follow a long story arc, each of the Solstice Dragon novels are stand-alone novels. You don’t have to read book one to enjoy book two.

There’s always an exception. Book five is best read after book one. Why? Well, they share characters and the difficulties in book one lead directly to the problems that hamper the characters of book five. Yes, you can leap over books two, three and four, and go straight to five. Save the others until later. Or read them in this order: 2, 3, 4, 1, 5. However, books one and five are not dependent upon each other and don’t have to be read next to each other or even in order, though you’ll miss some of the best surprises of book one if you read it after book five.

Now if you like Solstice Dragon World novels, but don’t have to have dragons present, there’s the trilogy Kavin Cut Chronicles: a hidden kingdom novel. Like all my books, it is a clean romance, has an independent protagonist (in this case, she doesn’t start out that way but grows into the role—so one might say it is a new adult coming of age series). Kavin Cut Chronicles is a nice lead to Standing Stone.

Not surprised. If you like my style of writing, any of my series could be just right for you, but below is a list of labels matched to the series it applies to.

Independent, intelligent female protagonists: all my series

Clean romance: all my series (Standing Stone is super light on the romance)

Dragons and mythical creatures: Solstice Dragon World, Annals of the Dragon Dreamer

Adventure fantasy: all my series

Epic fantasy: Standing Stone, Annals of the Dragon Dreamer. I suppose Kavin Cut Chronicles fits here, too.

Slow burn romance: Solstice Dragon World, Kavin Cut Chronicles, Annals of the Dragon Dreamer

Coming of Age: Standing Stone, Kavin Cut Chronicles, Dira’s Dragon (Solstice Dragon World)

Sword and Sorcery: all my series

If I’ve overlooked an important category or link between series, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the post.

The post If You Like This Series, Then This… first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

I’m not sure, but I always know it when I see the new era glistening up ahead.

We have been water skiing since 1983. I’m talking slalom, not wake boarding.

My husband competed in slalom with speeds up to 34 and stretching out with only one hand on the rope handle as he cut through the water around the balls set at a specific distance in a lane with gates at either end. Each pass, they would shorten the rope or raise the speed.

If you’re not familiar with competition slalom skiing, that’s the best description I can give.

I skied too, but I don’t need to give you any dramatic description. I can use one word. Cadillac. I crossed the wake, I cut the water, and I rode my Cadillac ski smoothly, but without flash. My husband does flash.

We sold our ski boat recently. Having not taken it out in more than two years, we accepted that we were done with skiing. We’ve moved on to sailing. An entirely different water sport.

An entirely different era in our lives. It glistens on the wind pushed waves, far different from when it would glisten on glass-like water at dawn.

We’ve had a few of these eras:

• moving from the west to the northwest
• moving from the northwest to the south
• having a baby
• our daughter graduating high school and leaving for college
• the death of one of our Labradors after thirteen years of selfless devotion
• the closing of a furniture story after fifteen years of purchasing just the right piece
• our daughter graduating college (just this week)

Eras leave us behind and kick us forward into the next.

My writing is full of eras, too.

One of my series was an era. I started out writing time travel novels. I loved reading them for many years. Writing them was just as delightful. I wrote five of them and then I wrote one fantasy novel and….

End of an era.

The world shifted on its axis and a whole new view hung before me. I wrote three books in that series and started another series, also fantasy. I couldn’t go back, even though I had two more books planned for that time travel series.

I pulled my first series out of publication. It had been my “kindergarten” entrance into writing. I learned a lot from it, but I didn’t want it out there representing me. Not with two fantasy series growing every three to four months.

I have another era hanging out ahead of me. Not far away, (light at end of tunnel metaphor could go here) there is change coming. I still have time, but I see it coming. I think we always see them coming. Sometimes we close our eyes to them.

But I’m prepared for this one. I’ll be looking into revamping that time travel series. Not this year, may be the next. It’s not that I think I can go back. You can never go back. But sometimes you can revamp.

I returned to college after earning an associates degree and working for a few years. I earned my bachelors. Then went after my masters. I love going to college. So much to learn. I didn’t go back to the same experience.

I went forward with what experience I had gained and acquired more. I’ll do that with my time travel series.

My daughter’s doing that as she leaves her era of college. I’m not sure what era lies before her, golden and glistening, but one does. She’ll know it when she watches it drop behind her, the next shiny era rising ahead.

One day, time travel will slide back in, but fantasy, dragons and magic still glisten ahead of me along with that new era just ahead. I’ll keep writing. I’ll keep learning. I’ll miss my daughter being part of our sense of home while she starts her new era.

Somewhere up ahead, I know she’s part of another era I get to take part in. For now, I’ll work with this one and anticipate the next one.

The post What marks the beginning of a new era? first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

Actually, there isn’t anything strange about weather. We can have rain, snow, clouds, sunny skies, cold and warmth with the option to combine as nature and climate see best.

But we look at weather like it is something strange.

Wow, look at those clouds coming in? Hey, I think it’s raining! Did you see how sunny it is?

Some people turn to weather when they can’t think of anything to say. It is my mother-in-laws go to topic.

When am I interested in weather? When it determines if my husband and I are heading out for a tandem ride or how we think it will affect sailing. We used to discuss it like life depended on it when we were water skiers, but we sold our ski boat a few weeks back. Glassy water is no longer an issue. It’s now about how much wind can we expect in the sails?

It’s relative, right?

Who is effected, to what effect and how long will that effect last?

So I have you thinking about weather. And you’re probably at the “so what” stage.

Weather used to make me feel guilty. How can you sit in the house when it’s so nice outside?

Well, I like to read and weather doesn’t effect how well I can do that, especially if I’m reading on a reader.

I like to write and weather is inside my head (the story, that is) so what’s outside is again not an issue. However, I do a lot of “so what’s it feel like, look like? How does it effect a person’s personality? So it is important that I know weather, not in a shallow sort of way, but deeply, personally.

When I went to Sweden to visit cousins, the first thing I noticed was they were very much concerned about weather and seasons.

My cousin’s windowsills had flower pots, usually with flowering plants, red blooms the most popular, and along side the flower pots were little lamps.

In winter, she said, they lit the lamps so it felt sunny outside even when it wasn’t. And the plants bring nature inside the house even when the ground is knee deep in snow.

So maybe the strangeness of weather and our attention to it even when it seems like it has little to do with or a lot to do with our activities is more about how we feel than what we do with it.

Right now, it is hot and muggy outside and nobody is asking why I’m at my desk on my computer and not outside. When I look out the window, the trees burgeoning with dark green leaves and weaving in and out of my view along with the vibrancy of my neighbor’s red roof above their white house makes me happy. I feel good.

The sound of wet pavement shushing when cars drive over it always makes me think of winter slush which strangely makes me feel good. I can recall stepping into slush with my rubber boots when I was a kid. The soft give of it under my weight combined with a warm coat, cozy mittens and the giggles of my friends gets tugged in with that wet payment sound.

So it isn’t weather that is grabbing our interest. I think it’s how it makes us feel. We connect with others when we talk about weather, a shared touch point attached to memory and contentment (or memory and sadness, what have you).

People remember the weather on important days.

We buried my father-in-law in late December. It was sunny but the wind was biting cold. He was a sunny man and losing him froze us. The weather fit. We’d hung a chime right above his grave, and that cold wind kept it softly ringing in deep tones.

It would be strange if we didn’t remember, comment and argue about weather.

#weather

The post What’s Strange about Weather? first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

It’s a simple plan.

• Revise some books.
• Approve a final edit (or two)
• Write another Solstice Dragon World novel.
• Work with my cover artist for the new fantasy series in the works
• Update a few files
• Paperback the Standing Stone series (at least two of them. The rest I’ll shoehorn in as the year progresses.)
• Hardback the Solstice Dragon World novels
• Sail a lake or two
• Ride the tandem bike a few hundred miles
• Beta read (provide feedback) a novel for a fellow writer
• Write three blog posts
• Write three newsletters (which you can join by clicking the Sign Up! tab at the top)

Today was Day One. This is how I did.

1. Two thousands words written on the final chapter of The Wielder’s Grimoire, book 5 of Standing Stone.
2. Six chapters revised.
3. This is post number one. I’ll give myself half a credit at this point.
4. I did exercise, just not on the tandem bicycle or the sailboat (treadmill today)
5. Finalized the paperback version of The Sharded Boy (won’t publish it until I have The Shifter Shard ready to go as well)

Not bad for Day One.

Tomorrow will be more productive.

• Another two thousands words (or more. I won’t argue against more.)
• Two more chapters revised
• Probably another treadmill day or yoga. I’ll know when I wake up which is the best option. Probably treadmill as it tends to warm me up for writing
• Complete the preparations on The Dragon Question‘s file for hardback version.
• Start the prep on the hardcover image
• Start the June newsletter

I know this is not the most exciting post I’ve made, but I’m in the mood for organizing. It’s sort of like the nesting activities of a pregnant women close to term. I need to get things situated, their order of importance figured out and anything that only takes a day or two out of the way to make room for the big stuff on the horizon.

Ironically, I don’t write from an outline. My books tend to flow like a river from the headwaters on a mountain. Words trickle in and gather into sentence rivulets. The rivulets join and make a stream. More streams rush on and form a narrow river that then cuts high banks to its final destination. Novel.

The post What Makes Ten Weeks Feel Like Just Enough? first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

I am about to embark on writing the fifth book of the Standing Stones series. My daughter reminds me regularly this is the series that writes itself. It is an apt reminder.

It started with a friend wanting me to write a guest post for her blog. She gave me a set of possible topics, one of which was fantasy. I hadn’t written a fantasy before, but I’ve read thousands.

It was the only topic I thought I could write fairly well on. I had an idea, nothing particularly new, but I hadn’t seen it written about in the manner I was thinking, so why not?

My brainstorm idea: the rules that govern the world of a story create pathways that as the story proceeds limit the choices available to both the writer and the character. Those limited choices funnel the writer and the character to its ultimate conclusion. Nothing new, right.

But I’m a teacher, and examples are paramount in putting across expectations. So I immediately began thinking about a set of rules for a fantasy world: wielders of magic must carry with them a heavy flat stone which they must stand on in order to wield the essence that is the base of their magic and is embedded in the stone. What if there was a wielder that couldn’t carry his stone or found it extremely difficult? How would that act as a governor of his experience.

From there, I considered a series of questions.

• Why can’t he carry it?
• Are there alternatives?
• What caused this situation?
• What can he or she do about this if anything?
• What other rules apply?
• and the list goes on…

I got to the bottom of the parameters of this fantasy world and how it would guide the story and was so invested, I could not send her the post. I set it aside while I finished up a book I was writing.

I thought I might write a short story with this created character: Jahl Pratter and his struggle with fitting into the demands of being a wielder.

I began writing another book in my then current series and continued to let Jahl wait for when I had time to write that short story.

I got stuck, not just stuck: I lost faith in the book I was writing. I had to step away.

I started another book that had been running around in my head. Over the course of a couple of months, the conflicts of this new book became all to real to me, and I could not face it. Both my father-in-law and my mother were showing serious signs of dementia, a key component of that novel.

Both have since passed away, and 20k of words are waiting for me to come back. I can’t just yet.

I returned to the previous series’ book and struggled along before again setting it aside. Jahl beckoned.

I thought writing a short story might lubricate the wheels. And it was all laid out in my head. It wouldn’t take much time to write it.

At about 20K of words and no where near the middle, never mind the end, I realized I was writing a book, and it just kept writing itself. I was along for the ride.

Book 2 grabbed hold, and I said, “Okay, let’s roll.”

Before I had time to take a breath, Book 3 was in the works.

I stepped back to the fifth book in that earlier series I kept setting aside and finished it, quite satisfied with the result. I had hated it the majority of the time I spent writing it. It just never felt good enough. By the time I finished it, I quite liked it. One unpublished blog post produced four books.

I started a new fantasy series of standalone novels, Solstice Dragon World. After writing three of them, I returned to the Standing Stone series and wrote its fourth book as easily as I had written the first three. I love that series and have been thrilled to learn from my readers that I am not alone.

Standing Stone Book 5 is next on my agenda. I’ve been holding it off while I have finished my current series: Kavin Cut Chronicles, just weeks away from publishing the third in the trilogy.

I suspect Standing Stone’s Book 5 will be the end of the series. Of course, given its beginnings, I can’t be certain.

If you would like to check out any of my fantasy series, click the tab at the top of the web page labeled All Books. You’ll find links to all the main retailers where they are sold. Just click on the series title of each and work your way through the books.

The post Where an idea begins ~ mine took me here first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.

I was busy writing Book 3 of the Kavin Cut Chronicles, and these two characters joined the cast. They were so intriguing.

One had been a minor character, a brief walk-on, but he left such a strong impression, I wondered if he would be back.

Lord Laurents was a charming, elderly fellow with a perpetual smile on his face, impossible not to like. Kambry certainly appreciated his quick grin and teasing words.

But when his wife, the stiff-lipped Lady Laurents showed up and other characters started to talk about her, I was sold on the idea that these two were not going to melt into the woodwork as easily in the third book as they had in book 1 and 2.

Chapter one of Book 3 had the Lady Laurents front and center. I was even more curious about how sweet Lord Laurents ended up with such a sour-puss for a wife.

They needed a short story focused on the two of them.

I stopped everything and spent a Saturday finding out what drew charming, sweet-natured Laurents to this “caustic” woman.

“A Sultry Buzz” was the result. I made it available to my newsletter subscribers, giggling the whole time.

Now that I know the Laurents’ secret, I grin every time I think about those two.

Here’s the first paragraphs:

Standing at the entrance of the room, Bernum Laurents folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes. “I’ve been staying close to home, avoiding trouble and sitting in on the council meetings, and now you say I need to settle down?” He pressed the back of his head to the floral-papered wall and exhaled noisily.

Mother slid her embroidery needle neatly though the pale, stretched linen. She sat with her back straight though the chair back was canted, a floral blanket covering her lap down to what he knew were thin, weak ankles. Her legs seemed to strain against the straps that crossed over them and held them in place. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re ready now,” she said, not looking up as she tugged the needle, one thumbnail holding the twist of thread in place for the rosette.

“I wouldn’t say I’m ready at all for marriage,” he said. He trod across the drawing room until he was only a few feet from his mother. A low hassock was the nearest seat to her, and he folded his lean frame up like a trestle table after giving the squat seat a glare. Why with all the chairs in the room had she chosen this one to keep close? He gazed at her strapped-in legs and instantly grew contrite. He’d loved to sit near her when he was a boy and had routinely chosen the lowest seats so she could feel tall once and awhile. She probably kept the hassock here just for him.

“You’re twenty-seven years old. It’s time you chose a life partner.”

“Okay, let’s follow that argument. ‘Time I chose.’ So why have you invited the caustic Joulette Dwantry to dinner? Why did you insist I attend? And why when I asked if you knew Miss Dwantry did you say it didn’t matter if you knew her, only that I got to know her?”

“I’m not allowed to make suggestions, Bernum?”

“Then the demand that I appear promptly at six in court clothes for a family dinner was a suggestion?”  

“Of course, not. I want you to impress the girl.” She tugged the thread through again.

And the rest is their story. If you’re interested in reading more about these two, you have a few choices. You can join my monthly newsletter.

• Click the tab titled Sign Up at the top of my webpage and signup for my newsletter. The short story links are always in the newsletter about mid-way down.
• You can read Book 1 in the Kavin Cut Chronicles trilogy and click the newsletter link at the end of the book. And you’ll find the short story links about mid-way down the newsletter.
• You can read both books in the series and at the end of Book 2 click the link to sign up and get the short story in a few clicks and not have to wait for the newsletter to come out that month, as signing up from Book 2 includes an offer to receive “A Sultry Buzz.”

Writing this short story was such fun that I’m hoping to write one each month. October just started, so I’ll be waiting for that itching short-story-writing sensation.

I can’t make promises that there will be more, the situation with teaching and writing is not conducive to adding to my load, but I squeezed this one it. How hard can it be?

Don’t answer that. Let’s keep up the charade that I can eek out the time if I try really hard. And I’m going to try really hard. There’s a map I thinking about making, too. But we’ll see how that goes. That requires more time to eek out.

The post Have I got a story for you? first appeared on L. Darby Gibbs ~ Author.