I’m in The Times!

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Dragon Moon is out in the UK now, coinciding nicely with Chinese New Year.

UK children’s book reviewer Amanda Craig has always been very supportive of the Dragonkeeper series and reviewed them favourably. We spoke on the phone recently and the result is an interview in The Times last Saturday (2 Feb). I’m thrilled to be interviewed in such a world-famous newspaper! You can read the article online.

There is also a list of six of my favourite dragons.

51 responses to “I’m in The Times!”

  1. Great interview Carole; let’s hope someone in the movie business takes note of the recommendation in the first paragraph!

  5. I have to say that the ending, particularly the penultimate chapter, was very tear enducing.I sat there nearly in tears and my mum asked what was wrong. I told her it was the book. Its one of two books that have made me cry and the other is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have to say though that I did like the ending, although now I think about it it kinda feels open.

    I love it Carole! I just wish that there were more Dragonkeeper books to come.

    In other news, I finished my book last night (6th Feb). I am so so so so happy. I am now trying to find a publisher but its not very easy. 🙁

    Thanks again for an amazing book Carole!

  6. I finished it aswell after a long wait for it and i can gladly say that it was worth the wait i loved the ending and it was left very open so if one day you feel like writting another dragonkeeper book (nudge nudge) you can carry on lol. But yes it was really good.

  8. Gabrielle,
    My next book will be a non-fiction book about Hatshepsut who was a female pharaoh in ancient Egypt (also sister of Ramose in my ancient Egypt novels.)

  11. I wrote the comment and Danny has copied it adding a coment in the end, sort of a reply I think.

  12. Ryan,
    I deleted Danny’s version. I still don’t understand why he did that.
    Anyway thanks to you for you comments. Glad to hear you enjoyed Dragon Moon.
    Congratulations on finishing your book, that’s a big achievement. Good luck with finding a publisher.

  13. Dear Csrole
    congratulations on the interview.
    I have a question…. my best friend likes writing her own stories where can she take this talent further? do you know a publisher she can call she is 24 years of age and currently dosent have a job. CAN YOU HELP HER CONTINUE HER CAREER

  16. Marvin,
    Yes I’m just finishing a non-fiction book about Hatshepsut who was a female Pharaoh in ancient Egypt.
    I am also researching for a teen novel I’m planning, but it’s still in the planning stages.
    There is also a picture book about Chinese dragon parades that I’m working on.

  17. Hi Carole, as a staff member in Waterstones’s book store I tend to read quite a lot of books and even though I’m 21+ I do enjoy a good kids/teen novel. After being recommended to read a Dragon Keeper novel from some regular kids who buy in the store, I decided to read Dragon Keeper Dragon Moon. I loved this book soo much. Like the comment from Ryan I too felt very moved by the last couple of chapters. It was very emotional and wonderfully written. I am hooked now as I have just started the read the first novel in this series. I will definitely recommend Dragon Moon in the store to anyone how is interested in fantasy fiction and please write another one.

  18. Steve,
    Yes I enjoy reading kids and teen books as well. I’m delighted to hear that you enjoyed reading Dragon Moon. And I appreciate you recommending it to your customers. My next novel probably won’t be fantasy, but I will definitely write more fantasy at some stage.
    PS My Ramose books set in ancient Egypt are also available in UK, but they’re not fantasy.

  19. Hi, I havn’t been on here in a while. I didn’t copy Ryans comment, I don’t know what must have happened. Anyway, I brought Dragon Moon near the start of February. It’s great so far!

  20. Danny,
    That was weird, I don’t know what happened.
    Glad to hear you are enjoying Dragon Moon. Hope you like the rest of it.

  21. Hi Carole. Ive just finished reading GARDEN OF THE PURPLE DRAGON for the millionth time. Im re-reading them but back to back. They are amazing and even though I have now read DRAGON MOON 4 times, I cannot get enough and I am shocked and moved every single time. That is the art of a true writer!!!

  25. Hi Carole,
    I’ve been so busy with everything i’m doing in high school that i don’t have time to go on your website, i’m so glad to hear that you got to be published in the times. I’m currently attending Presbyterian Ladies’ College, yep a good, but strict sort of school, anyway, good luck with writing your new book and hopefully, making a movie.
    Vivienne

  27. Hi Carole!
    I am a huge fan of your books!
    I’ve read each of the Dragon Keeper series about 5 times each!
    At the moment I am doing a school project about you where I have to create a marketing campaign for you and your books and I was wondering whether I could ask you a few questions:

    1.What wasis your favourite book you have written? Why?

    2.Who is your favourite author? Why?

    3.If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be?

    4.What do you like about the style of writing that you have written?

    5.What awards have you gotten for your books?

    Thanks

  28. Oh! it is really good to have it out at last! (P.S.: I enjoyed my Chinese New Year, hope you did =])

  32. Flynne,
    You are a keen reader! Thanks for choosing my book for your school project. Here are my answers to your questions.
    1.See FAQ at http://carolewilkinson.com.au/faqs/#faq8

    2.See FAQ at
    http://carolewilkinson.com.au/faqs/#faq9
    LotR was very inspirational for me.

    3.I’m not very good at answering these sort of questions. I never have one favorite of anything. There are lots of places I would like to go to. At the moment Britain is probably at the top of my list. I was born there, and I haven’t been back for more than 30 years. I think it’s time.

    4.Do I have a style? I can’t answer that question. The way I write is the way it comes out. I could tell you more about what I don’t like about it.

    5.If you click on the pictures of the books at the top left of this (or any page on this website), the awards for the books are listed in the righthand panel.

    Hope that helps

  33. Ryanne,
    Yes I went to see the dragon parade at Chinese New Year.
    Do you get the British edition of Dragonkeeper in Hong Kong? If so it should be there soon. Have you asked your bookseller?

  34. Hello Carol
    I am a very big fan of yours! I have read your dragon keeper series so many times! I was so happy when I finally got dragon moon from amazon (since i am at the moment living in italy) and read it in a two days. I tried not to rush it because i knew it was the last book.
    But,will you be wrighting any other books on dragons? Cause my dream is to be a writer and Daragon Keeper inspired me ethan more. (since I really like dragons.)

    thankyou, bye

  35. Hi Carole,
    sry i hadnt replied earlier, but i was at camp, and camp was sosososososo tiring, we had to do rockclimbing and rafting, i could go on forever, but i wont. Anyway – YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, ur coming to PLC, i’m really hoping to see u in May, but which classes might u be meeting because i’m in Miss O’Brien’s class (7.2) and do u know the exact date, coz then i might be able to see u at a certain time, somewhere in the school(hehe), oh almost forgot, how long r u coming for.
    From Vivienne
    P.S: I get very excited when i meet famous people.:)

  36. Jessica,
    So sorry for the slow response. I had a bit of trouble keeping track of comments while I was in China.
    Glad to hear that you are enjoying the books. And you have got a copy of Dragon Moon.
    I have already written one other dragon book. It is called Dragon Companion you can read about it here http://www.carolewilkinson.com.au/books/dragon_companion
    I’d like to write some more dragon stories, but I have some other books I’d like to write first.

  38. Wow travis asked a lot of questions. i really like Dragonkeeper its now officially my fav book. i know u probably get that a lot but i mean it. And i hav quite a few fav books to choose from,

  39. Ella,
    yes Travis is a keen commenter. I haven’t heard from him for a while. That’s great that Dragonkeeper is your favourite book. Thanks.

  40. Hi,
    We are in year 8 and are doing a research project on the geography side of Dragonkeeper. The internet and most books are hopeless and we are finding it really hard to find information. We can’t exactly ask our teacher for help because she gave us a list of topics to choose from and we decided to do something not on the list (she got very excited). We are making a 3D map of the one in the book and are writing some information about the places on the map. E.g Huangling, Chang’an, Wucheng, the Yellow River (this is our main one along with Mount Tai Shan)etc.
    Please help! We are really struggling!
    Our teacher also refuses to help because she thinks it’s cheating and says we should get it because we are in advanced english.
    How did you find information on all these places, can you tell us if they are real or not (are we loooking for something that doesn’t exist)??????
    From Immy and Julia
    P.S your books are fantastic and we enjoyed them thoroughly.

  41. Immy and Julia,
    That sounds like a great project.
    Yes some of them are made up by me ie Wucheng, Ming Yang Lodge. Huangling is a place on my map of China, but I know nothing about it, I made up what I thought it would look like.
    There is a lot of info about Tai Shan, Chang’an and the Yellow River on the internet. Those three all have good articles on Wikipedia with links to other websites.
    One of the main books I used was The Cambridge Illustrated History of China, which your local library might have.

  42. Hi Carole,
    Thank you! We are on our way with our research, thanks for helping us with our project.
    From,
    Immy and Julia

  43. hi carole!
    ive just finished reading Dragonkeeper as part of my english assessment. I think it was a fabulous book that really captured the tradition and culture of the Chinese. I would love to know what inspired you to write Dragonkeeper!

  45. Hello, I am 12 and I have read Dragonkeeper. I have to do a book review on it for school and it has to include (in 3 paragraphs) a new ending to the story. Could you help me out?

    P.S I am only doing the review on the first book.

    I am a big fan! 😀

  46. Alyse,
    I’m really pleased that you enjoyed the books, but I’m afraid I can’t help you. The whole point of you doing it is that it should be your ideas, not mine. There is no right or wrong answer. If you get stuck you could use my technique of asking a question eg what happens on Tai Shan? And then try and think of 15 different things that could happen, even if they are silly. Then pick the best one. Trust your imagination. Once again, sorry I can’t help. Best of luck.

  48. Hello,
    I am 13 and was wondering if Dragon Keeper had any relevance to Joseph Campbell and the hero archetype??
    Thanks 🙂

  49. Celine,
    Not consciously, but I guess it fits to a certain extent. There are decisions an author makes about their character, and to tell an interesting and exciting story they often make the same decisions eg. the hero has no family to support them, they have to leave what they’ve known and face the unknown, they have to face trials. These are the building blocks of a story.

  50. hi carole,
    Your’re books are the best and im just wondering if dragonkeeper is a big success already so why haven’t you made 20 million dollars already? Also if you did make dragonkeeper in to a movie would you cast your Auditions in Australia, China or America?
    thanks

  51. Joanne,
    Very few authors make that much money! Since I get about $1 per books sold, I would have to have sold 20 million copies to make that much money.
    I think Dragonkeeper is a success, it has been reprinted 9 times in Australia, it has been published in 12 countries and won 5 awards. I am thrilled with that.
    I wouldn’t have any control over auditions if a Dragonkeeper movie was made. A movie producer would buy the rights, and they would make all those decisions.

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