[beccaprice]

So I have the wide wild woods, who (in the book I'm just finishing and is in beta: The Woods and the Wildfolk) has a Wizard for a guardian. He took over after the old guardian, a Dryad, was killed when her tree was struck by lightening.

The book I'm just starting is a prequel, with (at least at the start) the Dryad as guardian. I don't want to get into the changeover from Dryad to Wizard, because bad things happen to the forest in the interim, and that's addressed in the first story of the book I'm just finishing (W&WF). But the book I'm just starting, currently titled Dragonscape, has stories that all deal with the Dragon, and her stories overlap the reigns of the Dryad and the Wizard. And I'm really not sure how to handle that change-over, or if I should make all the Dragon's stories take place during the time of the Dryad. I really don't want to get into the bad times between the Dryad and the Wizard.

Unless I do a short prologue, how do I explain that the first book published comes after the next book published? And there's another book, as yet unwritten and only a glimmer in my imagination, that ties these books in with Fairies and Fireflies, so that there will be a series of 4 books, even though all 4 books will stand alone.

I'm confused, and I don't want my readers to be confused - but I also don't want to hold up W&WF  publication while I write and edit Dragonscape.

any advice (other than don't write stories out of order) would be greatly appreciated.

 

[smikeo]

What's the target age of your books? Anything from teens upwards should be fine with two or three sentences pegging the time period in the start of the book.
You can always do the "Tell us a story grandpa! Well... long ago, before the wizard was the guardian of the woods, there was a dryad..." shtick.

 

[dianapersaud]

Maybe "PREQUEL" in large font?

Check out the Star wars movie and see how they marketed their movies. Check their descriptions and see if it will help.

 

[Vaalingrade]

If it ever become pertenent to the timeline, can't the dragon just notice that there's a wizard guarding the forest instead, wonder what happened, but have to focus on other things instead of investigating? That gives you a hook to the other books without derailing the dragon's story.

 

[beccaprice]

target age is probably 5-7-ish.

I don't know about making the dragon female - boys would be more likely to go in for a male dragon, but the issues the Dragon is dealing with (over extending her self, finding the balance between life and helping others) are more female issues - not to mention that in the Woods and the Wildfolk, she lays special eggs for children to find.