Here, There Be Dragons - a note from the author

On May 29, I wrote a post about forthcoming dragon books seen at Book Expo America. One of those books was Here, There Be Dragons, and I wrote this about it: “In spite of the title and picture of a dragon on the cover, I’m not sure if there are actually any dragons in the book.”

I received the following reply from author James A. Owen:

There are indeed dragons within the book.The title comes from the old mariners’ map warning; but the dragons part refers to the seven Dragonships, each named for a color of the rainbow, and each with a dragon of some kind affixed to the prow. Or growing out of it. I forget which.

The primary dragonship of the story is the Indigo Dragon, which is a patchwork version of a sixteenth-century Spanish Galleon. And despite the bluish hues of the cover, the dragonship depicted on the book is the Green Dragon, and is mostly wood and organic materials.

And there are other dragons as well, less benign than the ships…

More is on the website here: www.heretherebedragons.net, including art from the book, and the unadorned version of the cover.

So there you have it, straight from the horse’s – er, dragon’s? – mouth. I haven’t read the book yet, but my son David did, and he enjoyed it. He kept reading me passages out of it, until I had to say, “Enough! I want to read it myself!”

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