Sources

My webmaster has just put the full bibliography for The Dragon Companion on the Companion page. You can find it here. I thought there might be some readers who aren’t sure what a bibliography is. It’s a list of books that an author uses for research when they are writing a book. You usually find a bibliography at the end of a non-fiction book. I have bibliographies for all my books, the fiction as well as the non-fiction, as I had to do research to learn about the historical times that my books are set in. Although there is no bibliography at the back of Dragonkeeper, there is one on the webpage for that book.

A bibliography acknowledges the help that a writer has gained from other writers, and it is also useful for readers who want to find out more about the topic of the book themselves.There are three categories in my Companion bibliography. The first is Primary Sources. These are the original sources of information. They can be books, newspaper articles, letters etc. The original words written about the subject. For Companion my primary sources were the original dragon stories found in books, medieval manuscripts, even carved in stone. I didn’t actually see the original documents (which would be very precious) but I read transcriptions and translations of them. Paintings and other works of art can also be considered to be primary sources.

Secondary sources are books, essays and articles that people have written using those primary sources. They analyse and discuss the subject. (So Dragon Companion might become a secondary source for someone else writing about dragons.)

My final category is Personal Communication. Sometimes I just couldn’t find the answers to my questions in any book or article. Then I tried to find an expert on the subject and I emailed them. When I do this I make sure that I have tried every other way I can think of to answer my question, and then I ask the question very briefly.) Most times the experts were kind enough to answer, and to share their knowledge.