WELCOME

TO

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF DRAGON PROTECTORS

BELOW IS SOME INFORMATION WHICH WILL

TELL YOU A LITTLE MORE ABOUT

THE SSDP AND THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES

Check out the News page for updates on other SSDP books including book 3 and book 4 and BOOK 5!

CLICK THE COVER TO READ AN EXTRACT

WHAT IS BOOK ONE ABOUT?

‘The Dragon’s Tale’

Angus Munro seems an ordinary
eleven-year-old boy with only
one passion in life;

DRAGONS!

During the summer holidays Angus finds
a library book that sparks his
imagination he discovers a secret
message within it that leaves him
excited beyond belief;

Dragons are real, they are still alive
and they are hiding amongst us!

Through the message, Angus is invited to join
The Secret Society of Dragon Protectors.

Uncovering a secret that has been
kept for over a thousand years he is
soon flying through a magical adventure
that will take him from a remote island
in the Irish Sea to the shores of Loch Ness.

Soon Angus finds himself in a race
to break the clues, uphold the oath of
The Secret Society of Dragon Protectors
and save the hidden dragons from a
sinister stranger who is also on their trail…

CLICK THE COVER TO READ AN EXTRACT

The Secret Society of Dragon Protectors 'The Dragon's Tale'
is primarily aimed at 8-12 years olds, however with positive feedback
from teenagers and adults it seems that anyone can enjoy
what has been described as an enchanting tale.
The first book is around 40,000 words so not too daunting in size
and we have been praised by parents of reluctant readers
whose children have wanted to read on.

The first book is set in the UK and focuses on Angus,
an 11 year old who discovers something in a library book
which takes him all over the British Isles in search of dragons.
Using a special mineral called Dragonore, Angus finds he can converse
with dragons and he sets off to find the dragon of his favourite childhood story.

The books become slightly longer and more exciting as the world of the SSDP opens up to reveal more powers bestowed upon the dragons from a mysterious rock.

New adventures and locations unfold as the SSDP expands to other countries and Angus finds himself travelling far and wide. The increase in awakenings brings many different dragons to the SSDP and not all are as nice as Pyrra!

HOW IT ALL STARTED

Debi and John met as adult leaders in the Scout Movement in Dubai but the inspiration for the story goes back to 1999 during a family holiday in Devon. Debi and her children saw a dragon ride outside a sweet shop in a village High Street. The dragon was rocking furiously to and fro, but there were no children anywhere in sight. Debi suggested to her children that maybe it was about to fly off on its own for an adventure and promised to write a story about it some time. At the start of 2005 Debi’s oldest son reminded her of that promise and, during a lull at a book fair, she wrote a short story based around that dragon ride. ‘The Dragon’s Tale’

She asked John if he knew anyone who could illustrate it and he bravely offered to do so. He read the story and produced the picture of the dragon ride outside the shop which perfectly encapsulated Debi’s vision and he even suggested a better ending to the short story. Debi went back to the UK in April of 2005 with the hope of gaining some interest in an illustrated short story but instead of finding the interest she was hoping for discovered something else. Her mother in law, a retired children’s book buyer for WH Smiths head office in England, thought the story might expand as there seemed to be more to tell. Sharpening her pencil Debi started to create a fuller story for older children, created the central character Angus and came up with the idea of a book within a book. Struggling to find a plot, she spoke to John again and his imagination went into overdrive. He started to fire ideas at Debi and came up with The Secret Society of Dragon Protectors giving birth to what has turned out to be a total collaboration, with both emailing ideas to each other, developing a plot and correcting each other’s prose. Between them they researched the locations in the book; the dragon names and many other things that add depth and realism to the story. An imaginative illustrator, John also created the drawings that compliment the book and keeps things in check with his IT and computer skills.

Six months later they had written the first book in the series and with John coming up with more and more story ideas it seemed that they had many further adventures to write. For a year they sent the manuscript to various agents and publishers only to be told that ‘The Dragon’s Tale’ was not what they were looking for. During this time they were not idle and whilst writing the second book in the series ‘The Cor Stan’, they tested the first book on several young readers. Undeterred by the lack of interest they had received from the publishers, but encouraged by the enthusiastic reviews from the few people that read the story, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They researched how to self publish and what was required to produce a sellable product. As neither of them knew anything about publishing or printing a great deal of research followed. Then there were ISBN numbers to be applied for, proof reading to be done and their made up Latin phrases checked. John designed and created the cover, formatted and edited the book which they then published through a printing company in Dubai.

After a year and a half, ‘The Dragon’s Tale’ came to fruition and the pair can hardly believe what they have achieved from that small observation in 1999. Co-writing turned out to be a fabulous creative experience as you can bounce ideas off each other and test out what works and what doesn’t. It’s a true test of friendship as there are ups and downs, as in any partnership. Most of their discussions are via email or text but the pair occasionally manage to meet up for a ‘Dragon Coffee’. Debi is a self confessed semi-colon addict and a rambler who would rather not end a sentence. John is far more concise with a plan always in place and therefore the collaboration is very effective. The authors will not be resting on their laurels with the completion of book one and now book two, ‘The Cor Stan’; book three 'A Shadow in Time' and book four 'The City Guardians' are finished. With several further adventures planned in what will now be the ‘Secret Society of Dragon Protectors’ series they are looking forward to hearing more from the many enthusiastic fans they now have.

CLICK THE COVER TO READ AN EXTRACT

ABOUT THE SSDP

The history of the society is not absolutely certain.
No one really knows who actually started it but one thing is clear,
the Tek family have always been the custodians of the Society’s secrets.
Dating back for many hundreds of years they have handed down the knowledge of the dragons’ whereabouts from father to son.
This custom has made sure that the SSDP has stayed unknown to the world
and allowed the dragons to sleep on in peace.

WHAT IS DRAGONORE?

For those who do not know, dragons love gems!
They use them to protect the softer scales on the underside of their body.
However one stone in particular is the most precious they have.
Dragonore is a mineral known only to dragons and members of the SSDP.
Its full history and power is yet unknown to Angus but without it he would not be a dragon protector.
This rare mineral does not allow you to see or speak with dragons, although it helps, but it does allow dragons
to recognise other dragons and protectors.
The stone has the ability to enhance dragon powers aiding them in their efforts to stay hidden from humanity.
Be warned though, if a dragon wants to be seen it will be and the mere possession of dragonore does not
mean that they will acknowledge you, such is their mistrust of humans.
You may still have to prove yourself worthy!

ABOUT OUR DRAGONS

For thousands of years dragons have been a source of myth and legend throughout the ages.
All over the world stories about humans and dragons are passed on from generation to generation.
Mostly they involve dragons portrayed as evil beasts heroically slain by some knight in shining armour.
However the dragons we know are intelligent, thoughtful, graceful and despite their obvious ability
to use their powers and strength to defend themselves, they are largely peaceful characters.
Instead they chose to hide and hibernate away from the world of humans and that is when
THE SECRET SOCIETY OF DRAGON PROTECTORS
stepped in to help them.

ABOUT THIS SITE

The SSDP web site was created by John MacPherson and apart from the material copied from the free sites mentioned

on the links page, all content is the sole property of the authors who hold all copyright.

Just a couple of things to help you get around our site.

If you see a small green dragon at the bottom of a page just as you can below, you can click her to get back to the top of that page.

If you click on any of the bottom dragon bars at the very bottom you will be sent back to the SSDP crest page.

We now have a world map that will show where the dragons are and the SSDP members!

Hope you have fun!