Release day for The Dragon Has Some Complaints!

The Dragon Has Some Complaints is finally out! It feels like ages since I first picked up a pen and jotted down ideas for Garrodigh. His three heads sprang into being almost immediately, in this funny stew of personalities that couldn’t stop fighting each other, but also needed each other. Even at my sickest in the last year, writing him was a joy. And now, I get to share him with you.

What is this book about? Well!

Garrodigh was once a four-headed dragon, among the most powerful in Kardoša. After an unfortunate incident, he now has three heads, one stump, and a daily whirlwind of internal bickering. Centerhead wants to rain death upon all humanity, Bottomhead is like a feral cat, and Upperhead is under the delicate delusion that he is, in fact, human.

When a nearby battle goes awry, Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy, pretending to be tame to get free food and a warm bed. Lucky for him, rider Rania Albright is desperate enough for a dragon of her own that she overlooks his eccentricities.

As Garrodigh recovers under Rania’s care, all three heads start to turn, for the first time, in the same direction. Each wants to protect her from the invaders who killed their fourth head—the same invaders who seek to conquer Kardoša. When the academy comes under attack, can this wild dragon and his wilder rider save their homeland together?

There’s a fuzzy little topic on my mind this morning. In all of the interviews I did ahead of release, the question I was asked the most was: What kind of book is this? Where does it fit?

Is it Epic Fantasy? Is it Pratchettian Fantasy Comedy? Is it Sword & Sorcery for the critters who can’t hold swords? Is it a Romantasy from the point-of-view of a monster who’s outside the Romance? Is it an LGBTQIA+ book? Is it a book for disabled readers?

It took me a while to find my answer. Where does The Dragon Has Some Complaints fit?

It belongs a day’s ride from Underlook, an inconvenient distance for anyone to travel, so that the dragon never runs into Shesheshen, and Shesheshen never runs into him, but they always know where each other is, and when the humans are up to something foul, they do find each other. Meanwhile, Homily would constantly be trying to befriend the dragon, and his bottom-most head would absolutely drag the others to sample her treats, and both Shesheshen and all the other heads would be hilariously vexed.

This is a dragon that my Heracles would try to adopt into his found family immediately, and two out of three heads would valiantly try to keep the third head from eating him. Hera would stay out of it, but she would, at least, understand that angriest head.

In his heart, my dragon would love to share a world with 133 Poisonwood Avenue, but that haunted house would always worry about its occupants’ fire insurance going up. He would fly Anton and Grigorii from That Story Isn’t The Story to safer places. All his heads would gaze in wonder upon the rain that youths conjured with DIY magic wands.

It’s a book for dog moms, and cat dads, and ferret uncles, and estranged-but-fondly-yearning siblings of parrots, and otter chaplains. It’s a book for disabled readers, and queer readers, and readers whose imaginations know how to dance. Most of all, it’s for people who would see an injured dragon, and want to help it fly again.

A normal book, right?

Today, I head out on my first book tour since all my illnesses and injuries. Four broken ribs and a collapsed lung didn’t stop me. If anything, I feel closer to my dragon than ever!

I’ll be in NYC tonight, and Doylestown, PA tomorrow, and then in Wilmington, DE, and Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD. It’s the furthest I’ve even traveled on a book tour. I am an excited tangled knot of a human right now.

I’d like to ask a favor. If you can’t make it to the tour but ordered the book online or get it at a store, would you send a photo of your copy? I’d love to know where you got it. Shelfies are a great sort of love. And I’m so curious to see what places my dragon managed to fly to.

Thank you all for making this a special day. I hope my stories can brighten your year.

I am John Wiswell. And I am never going to stop wanting to hug the monster.