by E. G. Foley
“To Jake,” Celestus mumbled, his mind churning.
Then they drank.
The End
Dear Reader,
Whew! That was close. If you made it to the end of this book without getting eaten by the dragon, we congratulate you. Hope you enjoyed the story. For many of you, you thought this was going to be the last installment of The Gryphon Chronicles—and we did too! But that rascal, Jake, had different plans for us, his humble authors. Read on to find out how this BIG NEWS all unfolded…
We’re Adding More Books to the Series!
From Eric: As many of you know, Book 7, The Dragon Lord, was originally going to be the end of The Gryphon Chronicles. But a funny thing happened on the way through the first draft…
You may have heard us share about our working method as a writing duo—how we plan and outline our stories together on big ol’ white boards, then Gael writes the first draft and hands off each new chapter to me, then I go through it and find ways to make it even better. Sometimes I rewrite it, sometimes Gael rewrites it, and sometimes we both rewrite it many, many times (like Chapter 35, Tazaroc, which we must have passed back and forth 8 times, lol, until we LOVED it).
Now, even though Gael usually writes the scenes in linear order as they unfold, sometimes she gets inspired to jump ahead and work on one out of order. Being the right-brained type, she just flows with it.
Well, one day, the end of the book called to her—the actual final scene of the whole shebang. So, she started jotting down the dialogue between the two characters having a heart-tugging conversation, as often happens at the end of a book. (She cried, by the way. She does that sometimes when she’s writing, lol. Or I’ll hear mischievous giggling coming from her office at the funny parts.)
Anyway, she quickly drafted all the way to the end of this poignant little conversation—supposedly the final scene in the final Gryphon Chronicles book—when, suddenly, a strange thing happened…
Gaeley-girl, take it from here…
The True Story of How Jake Chewed Me Out
From Gael: First of all, I’m not crazy, lol. Okay, maybe a little. All writers are, they say, but I’m perfectly harmless, I assure you.
So I’m sitting there at my desk crying like a sap over this scene, and wondering how The Gryphon Chronicles could possibly be over. (These guys have been with us since 2010 when we first started brainstorming the series!)
But then something happened which has NEVER happened to me before in my twenty-plus years as a full-time author. They say some characters really come alive, and let me tell you, apparently, that’s true, because…Jake burst into my office, banging the door open with his telekinesis, marched right over and planted his hands on the other edge of my desk, then glared at me over my computer.
“Lady!” he said angrily. “If you think I’m leaving any time soon, you’re barmy. I’m not going anywhere!”
Me: looking around. What is happening?
Suddenly, a vivid image filled my mind of exactly what could happen NEXT in the series. Answer: a whole bunch of stuff. Important stuff!
And a huge smile broke across my face.
Jake sort of harrumphed, then faded back into Gryphon-world, satisfied he’d made his point, and I immediately shot up out of my chair and raced out of my office, yelling, “Honey, honey, you’ll never believe this! The Gryphon Chronicles isn’t over!”
And that, my friends, is the true story of how Jake got his way. (Heck, I wasn’t about to mess with a doubler. Did you see what he did to those rock golems in Secrets of the Deep?)
So, hooray! We’ve got more fun to look forward to with our Gryphon friends. Several additional books beyond The Dragon Lord await and we are so excited to write them.
The adventure continues…
From Jake: “Ha.”
And to you, dear reader, thank you for reading our books! We so appreciate you!
The easiest way to be notified when these upcoming novels are released is to sign up for our Mailing List. (As a thank-you for subscribing, you’ll receive a prequel short story entitled, When Dani Met Jake. Find out what happened in pre-magic days when these two rookery ragamuffins—and Teddy!—first crossed paths.)
Another bit of business that you may not know about and find useful, especially you parents and grands previewing books for the kids in your lives: Did you know we have our own little Online Store on our website, where you can order autographed paperbacks of our books (personalized either to you or your special someone if it’s a gift)? We are also able to give our readers big discounts on the non-autographed paperbacks and hardcovers (audiobooks soon, too!) because we have the books shipped directly to you from the printer, so there’s no middleman. You can really save some money, and who doesn’t like that. Just a friendly FYI.
Final bit of business! If you love, love, love middle grade/younger YA fantasy books and would like to join a fun, friendly group of readers who share your interests, come join E.G. Foley’s Magical Adventure Bookclub on Facebook!
It’s a laidback meeting place for everyone who loves All-Ages Fantasy Novels. If you loved Harry Potter, devoured the Fablehaven series, whipped through all of Rick Riordan’s fantastic Heroes of Olympus books, and so many other great fantasy series with wholesome content, this is the Facebook Group for you! All ages welcome.
If you’re too cool for Facebook, lol, we can understand that, so we’re also on Instagram. Hope to see you on either one.
Thanks again for reading our books. It’s such a privilege to entertain you. And on that note, we had better get back to writing! The Devil’s Lair waits (mua-ha-ha)…
Until then, much love!
Eric & Gael of
E.G. Foley
egfoley.com
facebook.com/egfoleyauthor
Don’t miss Jake’s next exciting adventure…
Coming Soon
The Gryphon Chronicles: Book Eight
THE DEVIL’S LAIR
The Gryphon Chronicles
Book 1 – THE LOST HEIR
Book 2 – JAKE & THE GIANT
Book 3 – THE DARK PORTAL
Book 3.5 – THE GINGERBREAD WARS
Book 4 – RISE OF ALLIES
Book 5 – SECRETS OF THE DEEP
Book 6 – THE BLACK FORTRESS
Book 7 – THE DRAGON LORD
And don’t miss out on the holiday fun…
It’s Jake’s first Christmas with a family, but nothing’s ever quite what you’d expect. Celebrate a Victorian Christmas with a Gryphon Chronicles holiday novella.
JAKE & THE GINGERBREAD WARS
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men…And Gingerbread Men?!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
E.G. FOLEY is the pen name for a husband-and-wife writing team who live in Pennsylvania. They’ve been finishing each other’s sentences since they were teens, so it was only a matter of time till they were writing together, too.
Like his kid readers, “E” (Eric) can’t sit still for too long! A bit of a renaissance man, he’s picked up hobbies from kenpo to carpentry to classical guitar over the years, and holds multiple degrees in math, science, and education. He treated patients as a chiropractor for nearly a decade, then switched careers to venture into the wild-and-woolly world of teaching middle school, where he was often voted favorite teacher. His students helped inspire him to start dreaming up great stories for kids, until he recently switched gears again and left teaching to become a full-time writer and author entrepreneur.
By contrast, “G” (Gael, aka Gaelen Foley) has had one dream all her life and has pursued it with maniacal intensity since the age of seventeen: writing fiction! After earning her Lit degree at SUNY Fredonia, she waited tables at night for nearly six years as a “starving artist” to keep her days free for honing her craft, until she finally got The Call in 1997. Today, with millions of her twenty-plus romances from Ballantine and HarperCollins sold in many languages worldwide, she’s been hitting bestseller lists regularly since 2001. Although she lov
es all her readers, young and old, she admits there’s just something magical about writing for children.
You can find the Foleys on Facebook/EGFoleyAuthor or visit their website at www.EGFoley.com. They are hard at work on their next book.
Thanks for Reading!
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As a Thank You for signing up, you’ll receive an exclusive Gryphon Chronicles short story entitled, When Dani Met Jake. Find out how it all happened on that momentous day when “the carrot-head” (and Teddy!) encountered the wild & wondrous world of Jake “Reed” for the first time.
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The Dragon Lord (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 7)
Copyright © 2020 by E.G. Foley.
All Rights Reserved.
Cover Illustration by Josh D. Addessi.
Cover Design by Kim Killion.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, recorded, or stored in any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations for review purposes.