The Dragon In My Backyard

 

The Dragon in My Backyard was, in truth, an experiment.  I wanted to find something that my older son, Ethan, who was 10 at the time, and I could do together as a sort of bonding exercise.  He had just started getting really into drawing, and as a matter of fact, (no bias here at all), he's pretty good.  So the idea came to me that he and I could write a book together which he would illustrate as well as come up with story ideas.  He was so excited about it, but he quickly learned just how much work was involved in all this fun!  It took us about five months to complete the project from start to finish, but I think we both enjoyed it and came up with a great story. 

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The novelty of a 10-year-old author drew in a lot of attention at our first book-selling event.  I set up a sign on our table, and as people would walk by, they would do a double take, and almost always come back just to see if it was true.  And it was.  Ethan sold out of books that weekend between that show and a book signing at a local bookstore.  He's got a nice little savings of money because of it too.

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The Characters:

Stan: Stan is 100% based on Ethan.  He looks and acts just like him all the way down to the Q-tip hair!