Writing The Tsar's Dragon

We original sent Gardener and Jack a much shorter story, almost a short short, called "Mesopotamian Dragon," which they accepted, all the while bemoaning that we hadn't sent them a really bigger and munchier piece.

I wrote back that we could never make their deadline with a longer story. Gardner said he'd hold the book open for us. And that's when the first line of the 'Tsar's Dragons' popped into my head. I scrambled to get it down, and the entire section just fell out right after. I sent that off to Adam and said, "Want to play?" And rather soon - maybe a day or two - he sent back the first of the Jewish sections.

We both rewrote one another's stuff, talked on the phone (me in Western Massachusetts, he in Minneapolis), and came upon the climactic parts in a car driving back from a conference where we'd both been speaking. As it came together, I remember bouncing up and down in the passenger seat squeeing. The final bit, the death scene of Rasputin, comes pretty directly from actual accounts, though we think we made up the dragon!

We sent it to Gardner who sent a return email almost immediately accepting it. And sending us back the smaller story, which we turned around and sold elsewhere. Everybody wins! We have re ad parts of the story at Minicon and Boskone together. Adam has read it at other cons. People seem to really like it. Either that, or they are being really nice to us. Together he and I have written a half dozen stories, 12 music books, and 3 children's novels. He is now my web master and does my book trailers. A real family business.

Jane