General 
15 Comments Book III Updates!
Feb. 23rd, 2012 – Chapter 4 is done, I’m already off on chap 5! Time for a dragon battle!!!
Jan. 31st, 2012 – Finally got off my butt and finished the chapter. Chap #4 progressing nicely!
Oct. 18th, 2011 – Finished Chapter 2!! The storyline is progressing nicely! I’ve started work on chapter 3! Time to return to Lentari!
Sept. 25th, 2011 – Chapter 1 is done and I already have a good chunk of chapter 2 written. In this chapter, we’re introduced to Sarah’s good friend, Lia. This new character is based on a real life friend of mine, one who I told her she’d wind up in a book. 🙂
Sept. 10th, 2011 – I confided in my wife what was going to take place with the third book, which plot lines I’m going to include, and asked her to help me come up with a title for the final installment of the series.
Bakkian Chronicles, Book III – Amulet of Aria
That is awesome, even thier ages are the same and whats funny is these kids sound just like my grandkids..lol. If they had a chance to get a real dragon scale they would, Luke more than Madi, but if her brother got one…she would have to have one as well..lol. Thank you once again for this gift to them 🙂
Hi Vickie!
I’m glad your grandkids are happy. I had fun writing the part where they are mentioned.
Let’s see if I can find a little blurb…
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Taken from Chapter 5 – The Jig is Up!
…Pryllan had started to raise her head back up when she noticed the third dwarf staring at her with rapt fascination. She paused while she studied the dwarf wearing the dark red armor.
Breslin turned to Venk and nudged his shoulder.
“What are ye doing? Why are ye staring?”
Venk mumbled something before he dropped his eyes to the ground.
Athus approached and smacked his brother on the back of his head. “Eh? No mumbling. Speak up.”
Venk sighed and looked back up at the dragon. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“What about yer offspring?” Pryllan asked, still picking up the dwarf’s thoughts.
Curiosity piqued, Athus turned back to his brother after craning his head up at the towering dragon. Why would she mention his niece and nephew? “What about Lukas and Madisonia?”
“Ask and be done with it,” the dragon demanded.
“I, er, promised my children that if I ever encountered a dragon that I would try and procure a dragon scale for each of them.”
Athus sighed in exasperation. “Are they still going on about that?”
Venk nodded. “Lukas got the idea from one of his friends and now will not let it go. Naturally Madisonia wants whatever her brother wants.”
Pryllan’s head instantly dropped to ground-level and met the dwarf’s eyes. “Ye promised to acquire dragon scales? Exactly how did ye plan on fulfilling that particular promise?”
“I do not know,” Venk admitted. “I had assumed my only chance would be to steal a scale off the carcass of a dead dragon. If I ever found one, that is.”
“Impossible. Our dead are burned.”
There was a pregnant pause as dragon and dwarf stared at one another.
Pryllan’s expression was unreadable. “Ye appear to have a dilemma, son of earth.”
“I am Venk, son of Tobin.”
“Very well, Venk, son of Tobin. We have been acquainted.”
The dwarf bowed in response.
“How old are your kids?” Steve suddenly asked.
“Lukas is nine and Madisonia is seven.”
“And they want a dragon scale? Why?”
“They each want a dragon scale. Why, I cannot fathom.”
“Did you know there’d be a dragon with us today?” Sarah asked.
“I did not. When I heard Breslin and Athus talk about the possibility of battling dragons, I knew I had to try. For their sake.”
Pryllan eyed the nervous dwarf a few moments more before she whipped her tail around and caught the tip in her mouth just before it would have knocked the dwarf flat. Spitting her tail out on the ground at the feet of the three dwarves, Pryllan straightened and stayed stock still, pointedly looking off in another direction.
THE SCALES ON MY TAIL SLOUGHED OFF SEVERAL WEEKS AGO. PERHAPS THERE MIGHT BE ONE OR TWO LEFT.
Steve grinned. I get it. You want him to steal some scales from you?
ALL THE BETTER TO IMPRESS HIS OFFSPRING. STOLEN FROM A LIVE DRAGON SOUNDS BETTER THAN STOLEN FROM THE BURNT CARCASS OF A DEAD ONE.
Steve sidled up close to Venk. He knelt down and motioned the dwarf over.
“Now’s your chance, man. She’s looking the other way. Check her tail. You might find a few scales.”
“But she’s awake! How could I possibly –”
“She’s giving you the opportunity to impress your kids. You’d better hurry before she changes her mind.”
Pryllan rolled her closed reptilian eyes as she watched (through her shared visual abilities with Steve) the uncharacteristically timid dwarf inspect the tip of her tale and gently remove two scales that were ready to fall off of their own. Even though they were some of the tiniest scales on her body, the two scales Venk selected were each the size of a frisbee. Typically she didn’t care what happened to any of the scales that sloughed off, so if a dwarf wanted a few so that he might shine that much brighter in the eyes of his offspring, so be it. She inspected her tail to see how many had yet to fall off. Only a few remained. That was good. Pryllan noticed Steve had surreptitiously leaned around his mate and was inspecting her tail as well.
Sarah smacked her husband on his arm. “Don’t even think about it.”
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Just remember, since the book hasn’t been edited yet that it is subject to change!
J.
Oh my goodness I have two of the happiest gkids in the world. Thank you so much. It doesnt matter they are not major characters, They are thrilled that they are named in a book. They said when they read the book they will picture Lukas and Madisonia as they look.
I will hold off on buying the books just yet. Thanks for the heads up. We can’t wait for the third book. Glad to see your coming along nicely on it. My Husband has not read your first two books yet. He is waiting for the third to be published, then he will read them. he is a bit anxious for the third to get out because I keep telling him how good the other two were..now “he” is getting ansy waiting hahaha. Have a great day 🙂
Hello Vickie –
It’s my pleasure to grant your grandkids citizenship into Lentari! You can let them know that dwarf warrior Venk, son of Tobin, now has two children: son Lukas and daughter Madisonia.
Please bear in mind that they aren’t major characters, but they are now mentioned!
Oh, one other thing I should mention. First, I really do appreciate your willingness to buy the print editions of the books. I’m honored you’d include my books in your personal library. However, hold off for a bit on the first one. I’m resubmitting the cover and I’m not sure how long that will take. Maybe a couple of months. If you were to look at the cover of the first book, you’ll see that ugly gray cover. I had the artist which drew the cover for the 2nd book do the first. So the picture of the open doorway with the forest path visible is the new one. The ebooks already have the right cover. Soon the paperback edition will, too!
Have a great weekend!
J.
Lucas and Madison. Im so excited..that is the nicest thing EVER. They will be so thrilled. I can’t thank you enough. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I cant wait to tell them and then show them in the third book. I will buy three books so they each can have one and I can have one. The first two books I got on my Kindle, but I will have to have real books so we can have hard copies. I like my Kindle but it can’t take the place of holding a real book, so I still buy books as well as downloading some to the Kindle. Once again THANK YOU SO MUCH 🙂 If you ever do any book signings in Missouri (we live in Mtn View in the Ozarks) I hope we are able to get to it so we can meet you and have our copies signed.
Have a wonderful day
Vickie 🙂
Hello there!
It was so very nice to hear from you again! Once more, you made my day by leaving the wonderful comment here!
I am very honored that you’re recommending my books to your family, and I’m so very glad you’re instilling in your grandkids a love of reading. I truly think it was because my mother read to me when I was little that I absolutely love to read.
Okay, listen, I have a suggestion for your grandkids. I’ve hit a part of the next chapter where I’m having a couple of dwarves talk about their families. I was going to mention that one of them has several children, and I hadn’t quite gotten around to naming them yet, so if you give me the names of your two grand kids, I’ll add them into the book. 🙂
Have a great weekend!
J.
Hello again, I am honored you answered me back on here. I just looked tonight and saw you had replied to my note.( I was checking to see how close the third book was getting to being ready) This makes three times I have had an author write back, the first being Alan Dean Foster and the second Kate Forsyth and now you. Let everyone else get excited over movie stars..I get excited about authors..lol. I write short stories(fantasy sci-fi of course) for my grandkids and they think I’m quite good(I think its only because Im their favorite G’ma and I add each of them as my hero/heroine haha) But anyway, what I try to instill in them is books can take you anywhere you want to go and you get to go along and have adventures with the characters in the stories. Theres nothing like getting caught up in a book and feeling the emotions of the characters and when you are done with the series you feel like the main characters are your best friends and you miss them when the series is finished. My grandson who is 9 has discovered the joy or reading and my grand daughter 7 is just begininng and it is so exciting to see they have the love of books like I taught thier mother to have. Okay to why I am writing all this. It’s to thank you for being a part of bringing the joy of reading to our family. Im so happy there will be other books based in Lentari, even if its different timelines. My daughter is dying to read the books. I havent let her read the first two because she is like me, she wants them all available before she starts because it is so hard waiting on one to be finished..lol. I have told her once you get started reading them you will stay up late reading because you can’t put it down. So she is stoked and ready to get started on them. I’m glad to see you are coming along on book three. Thank you once again for your talent and sharing it with the world 🙂
Hi Heather!
Love your username! My wife & I are huge Disney fans!!
Thanks for looking me up! I had originally thought about putting some sort of note at the back of the first book but it had already been sent to the publisher, so that was out. When I released the 2nd, I decided I wanted more creative control over it, so I self-published with Amazon. Then I picked up a few paperbacks I had recently read and noticed the “Author’s Note” at the end and decided to do the same. It was a nifty way to thank the reader, invite them to follow progress on the next book, and even encourage them to just say hello if you see me online. But releasing a book all on your own? It was a learning experience. Copyright page, Table of Contents, dedication… There’s more to do when releasing a book, that’s for sure!
I had originally planned on doing just a trilogy and then that’d be it for Lentari, but the feedback I’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive, with fans encouraging me to consider adding more stories. So I thought about it, and believe it or not, several storylines instantly came to mind. The more I thought about it the more excited I got. Then the emails started, asking when the next will be released. It’s an awesome feeling to be told out of the blue that someone I don’t know truly enjoyed a story I came up with. So thank you very much for the compliment!
If there’s anything you’d like to know about the stories feel free to ask! Thanks again for the comment, Heather!
J.
Hi! I finished book II about 2 weeks ago, and I have often wondered whether there would be a third. I finally sat down tonight to see what I could find out. I’m so excited to find out that there will be another, and potentially more! I was one that found boook I randomly on amazon’s kindle list, and I was quickly hooked! I love reading, but I do tend to have high expectations. I was thrilled by your story, and I loved the husband/wife dynamic to the story. I look forward to reading much more from you!
~Heather
Hi there!
I’m so very glad you enjoyed the books. To answer a couple of your questions, yes, I’m planning on making this a trilogy, with the book I’m working on right now to be the final installment of the Bakkian Chronicles.
That was the plan, anyway. 🙂 I’m getting some really great feedback asking if I was planning anything else for Lentari. At the time, I hadn’t thought about it, but now that I’ve given it some thought, maybe the Lentarian adventures can continue on with the focus on other characters. Believe it or now, I already have a couple of storylines in the works, and one sounds really intriguing, so I think I just might have to develop that into a full-fledged story!
To give you a little insight into Steve and Sarah, Steve is essentially me. All my manerisms, quirks, habits, etc., I wrote into the character. Freaked my mom out. She read the story and said she can easily picture me in the role. Well, I hope so. 🙂 Then with Sarah, she’s my wife. Or, as she has said to me, my interpretations of my wife. Apparently I thought I knew her, how she’d react, and so forth. She was my first Beta Reader, and has offered numerous suggestions for dialogue, story incontinuity problems, and so forth. I can’t tell you how many times she’d tell me that she wouldn’t say that, but this instead.
Annie is my actual sis-in-law, with Tristan being my sis-in-law’s husband. I hadn’t originally made Tristan to resemble anyone, but after she had met her current husband, and I saw how happy they were together, I adapted Tristan to him (I was working on book II at the time). Then I went back to book I and made a few re-writes. 🙂
My plan is to have book III, which I have entitled “Bakkian Chronicles, Book III – The Amulet of Aria” released this year. Hopefully around the summer. I never would have imagined how much goes into releasing a book. Artist for the cover, editorial services to correct grammar, suggest changes, getting feedback from Beta Readers… It’s an ordeal, but a fun one.
Thanks again for the wonderful compliment! You totally made my day!
J.
I have to say these two books so far are AWESOME. I’ve went to work tired several times because I stayed up reading till 2 am because I had to just read one more chapter..well just one more..I will turn the light out after one more..okay..just one more and I will go to sleep…lol. I can not wait for book three. How many books in this series are you going to write? I personally like trilogies of three books because I hate waiting years to finish a story. The past few years I have been trying to wait to buy a series till I write the author and make sure they are finished writing the series and there is no more books to come. Then I buy the complete series. I would have done this with your series but I could have swore it said there were just two books and now Im dying cause theres more and I CANT WAIT..lol. So no pressure, but WRITE WRITE WRITE LOL. I love the characters Sarah and Steve because they get to go and do things every sci-fi reader would love to be able to do. I would trade places with them in a heart beat..lol. And you made them real people you can relate to. Like I said AWESOME books. Thanks 🙂
Tim –
Email sent!
Hi, Jeff. That would be great 🙂
Hi Tim!
You need me to send you an e-mail to that e-mail addy?
Great site, Jeff. It would be great if you could email me at tim at greateastdevelopment dot net