Squire With Fire: Dragons Unite!

My family doctor inspired me while I was coping with an unusual respiratory illness. Since he was a big fan of my Squire With Fire children’s book series, he commented that I should write about a wheezing dragon that sounded like me at the time. He had seen many young children experiencing similar symptoms or have asthma. Dr. Bussey thought maybe the story  would de-stigmatize the illnesses so the children would feel they can get strong and recover. I liked the idea, but wanted it to be bigger than a character fighting an illness. I wanted the book to expand the global effects that young people can have as well as learn to inspire them to seek new adventures. www.squirewithfire.com 

Young readers will learn that events in their lives can change their surroundings, the people they meet, even the types of food and drink they may consume. I hope that I can inspire them to embrace these things as a way to discover new cultures and to enjoy the differences. In addition, the young readers may meet somebody new that will become their life-long friend, even if that somebody is on the other side of the world.

I wrote Squire With Fire – Dragons Unite! to emphasize to readers that they should take action to connect with others, even if that requires a person to better understand cultures around the world. I also wanted the readers to comprehend that though there are differences throughout the world, there are so many commonalities that bond us, beyond being human. Names are supposed to be unique, but what if one name has so many meanings which makes it unique. People are like that uniqueness. They have so many profiles with unique characteristics, yet depending upon their circumstances, and their way of thinking within their cultures, that person may mean something entirely different to another person. A simple example is a woman, who is a mom which her children view her differently than dear friends who do road trips together, or the hundreds of people she leads as a CEO of a business, or a devoted wife to her husband. One person, many meanings in life that generate multiple perspectives.

While I was pursuing my first book publication with Global Book Publishing, my book mentor, Susmita Dutta, emphasized that one must have a mindset of being an “authorpreneur.” I love that concept because after seeing what it takes to publish a book of any type, the journey is not over once the book is published. There are so many tasks that need to be completed and continue to be done on this journey of being an author. Many people that I have spoken to about book publishing think anyone can publish a book because it is easy to do. Though that is partially true that most people can write a story, but being an author requires more attributes and teamwork than just writing a good story. 

The true test is how long can one endure the business challenges of book as a passion and not as simply a creative project. The journey requires constant tenacity as well as patience to be successful, especially when you find out that over 11,000 books are published globally each day! And, the United States is the world’s largest book market, registering nearly four times as many ISBNs as second-place Japan. (An ISBN is the International Standard Book Number, a unique 13-digit number that identifies a book or book-like publication.) The competition is extremely fierce.

I have enjoyed writing children’s books, especially after receiving the wonderful accolades from the readers and award programs. They have been truly inspiring. What I would like to pursue is a more complicated genre such as a novel and/or memoir. I have several book concepts and outlines already developed. However, they all require extensive research as any book does, including children’s books. Though the content has different degrees of research requirements depending upon the type of book, an author must know the prospective audience characteristics, market segmentation, and distribution as well as pricing and attributes of the potential cover design. 

In addition to pursuing a new book genre, I hope that my wife and I can travel to the many venues such as schools, libraries, bookstores as well as book festivals to entertain and discuss the creation of the Squire With Fire book series. We bring an authentic