“The Clockwork Dragon” is a book about a legion of demons who inhabit a golden dragon and eagerly wait for someone to let them out. The book is written by Lynn Donovan, Pauline Creeden and Jennette Mbewe. Donovan is a student at Seward County Community College/Area Technical School. This painter and writer said she enjoys going to Seward. She started taking college courses after encouraging her sister, LeeAnn Bryan, to get out of the house and take classes. Donovan has been working on novels since the beginning of the year. So far, Donovan has written three novel length mauscripts since January. She hopes to publish them soon. That’s how Donovan got connected to the Crystie group online. That is also how she met Pauline Creeden and Jennette Mhewe. Mhewe is another author like Donovan, and Creeden is the publisher who owns the publishing company Altwit Press. Creeden put out invitations to the co-authors to write 5,000 words or less based on “The Clockwork Dragon.” The title of the book is derived from the fact that the dragon has gears like a clock, and one must turn a key to activate the mechanisms. The plot is based on the premise that once someone turns the key on the outside, the demon comes out and the person goes inside the dragon, locked inside forever. The Clockwork Dragon travels through different periods, luring people to open it. “As the third author and publisher of ‘The Clockwork Dragon,’ I see things from a little different angle. I did my best to make sure elements in the stories agree enough with each other so that they each fit the theme,” Creeden said. Donovan told Creeden she would like to submit a story and ended up submitting four. One is a collaboration between Donovan and Mhewe. “ Pauline approached us, Jennette and I, in March,” Donovan said. “We then started submitting stories to Pauline in April. They were due by the end of September.” Donovan said she started sketching out a story and then put it away because she was working and taking care of four children. “It was in January. I picked writing back up and by June I had three full length manuscripts drafted. In March and April, I had started writing short stories, because of Pauline,” Donovan said. Mbewe is the other link to help making this story. She along with Donovan, has written some books of her own. “I wrote ‘A Mermaid’s Desire’ back in July, and ‘Lost at Sea’ in October, two weeks before the release. That was unnerving,” Mbewe said. “When the publisher put out a call for submissions back in spring, I actually wasn’t going to write anything at first. But then a month or so later the idea for ‘A Mermaid’s Desire’ came to me,” Mbewe said. “I asked the publisher what they thought, and they said go for it. ‘Lost at Sea’ was the same way, except I wanted to show how the Clockwork Dragon ended up at the bottom of the sea.” Mbewe collaborated with Donovan on “Bloody Fairy.” “It really is her brain child,” Mbewe said. “It was a great experience to work together despite only doing so through emails.” Mbewe started writin seriously in 2003 and said she comitted almost every single newbie mistake there is to make. “Since then I’ve been rewriting, editing, reading books, blogs, magazines on writing and the publishing industry.” There’s a myriad of ways to getting published, but in the end, someone has to write their best, keep on improving and tell a really good story, according to Mbewe. This is more than just grammar and punctuation. It’s also learning how to handle plots and character arcs, point of views, descriptions, backstory, and themes. Then there’s the heart of it. How to turn prose, developing, and style, how to tell the story. Publishing books is not an easy task. It takes hours of editing, formatting and preparation to get each of the little details right. “I had worked with one graphic designer for the cover/front cover of the book, and a second designer for the paperback spine/back copy.” Creeden said. “In the marketing department, I had to find reviewers who would give an honest, unbiased opinion of the book and make a teaser book trailer to help publicize the project,” Creeden said. Once someone is finished writing a story, swapping critques with other writers, and polishing it up as best as they can is a good idea. Traditionally, a book author would send out queries to agents and editors to see if they would be interested in the person’s story. If they were, they’d make them an offer. However, due to the changing of the industry and the rise of electronic books, some authors are choosing to publish independently which means there are other steps writers must take to publish their books to the market, steps such as hiring a freelance editor, a cover artist, plus building a website and finding ways to reach readers with their stories. “All of it boils down to lots of research, earning the craft, the industry, and making a decision based on your goals of a writer,” Mbewe said. It’s highly recommended to read “Writing Fiction for Dummies” by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy. Another good one is “The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writig Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises” by James Scott Bell, which helps writers mentally prepare for the journey to publication. If anyone wants to purchase this book, “The Clockwork Dragon,” it is available online at Amazon.com as an ebook for 99 cents. It will be available as paperback for $6 soon.