Susan Fletcher (Dragon Chronicles) Books In Order

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Susan Fletcher b. 1951, USA

Born in Pasadena, California in 1951, Susan Fletcher moved with her family to Ohio at the age of seven. Ms. Fletcher shares how in third grade she dreamed of being a writer. Her maiden name is Clemens, and she thought becoming a writer was fate. Samual Clemens, aka Mark Twain, had a daughter named Susan Clemens and the coincidence struck her strong.

Her time in Ohio was short-lived as the family moved back to California when she was in sixth grade. Ms. Fletcher graduated from high school in 1969. She was the fiction editor of her high school’s literary magazine when she was a senior there.

Her next educational step was at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in English. Afterward she earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in English. She left Michigan for Colorado where she worked at an advertising agency. That’s where she met Jerry Fletcher, whom she married in June, 1977.

They moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and found work writing advertisement for a radio station. Her husband was transferred to Portland, Oregon and she thought she was find a similar writing job there. When she and her husband learned they would be having a child Ms. Fletcher pivoted to magazine writing. Shortly after that she became an author of children’s books.

The Haunting Possibility, published in 1988, was inspired by the practice of draining Lake Oswego in Oregon. She figured out characters and plots as she wrote and completed the manuscript. It was submitted to nearly twenty publishers before it was accepted for publication.

Ms. Fletcher writes for youths and the young adult. Her novels, Walk Across the Sea, Alphabet of Dreams, and Shadow Spinner, have won numerous awards.

Her Dragon Chronicle series, Dragon’s Milk, Flight of the Dragon Kyn, Sign of the Dove, and Ancient, Strange, and Lovely have been highly praised by readers and reviewers. These novels, with a medieval context, are inspired by the Welsh countryside. Ms. Fletcher traces her own family roots to the same Welsh countryside. She lives in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Shadow Spinner, written by Ms. Fletcher and illustrated by Dave Kramer, is one of her earliest young adult novels. This story gives us a new spin on the legend of the young woman, Shahrazad. The story of Shahrazad has inspired many stories, movies, and a symphonic suite by the famous Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsacov.

The vulgar and powerful Sultan has many wives. After one of the wives cheats on him, he becomes angry and decides to marry a new woman and then execute her the next morning. After too many killings, Scheherazade volunteers to become the next wife to try to stop this horrible behavior.

Scheherazade’s plot is to spin a story each night for the Sultan- her genius is to leave the story hanging so he has to wait until the next night for more. After 1001 nights, her decides to keep her and the killings stop.

Walk Across the Sea by Ms. Fletcher, is a historical fiction story for young readers. Set in California in the late 19th century, it was a time when violence against Chinese citizens was rampant. The public, particularly in the San Francisco bay area, felt threatened and thought the Chinese would take over. They accused the Chinese of taking their jobs and robbing their people. The bigotry was acted out in violence against the Chinese with beatings, burning down homes and business, and murders.

In March of 1886, the lighthouse island off Crescent City, California is manned by Eliza’s father. The island is able to be accessed twice a day, only at low tide. This pathway is treacherous with slick, sharp rocks, hidden pools of water, and unpredictable “sneaker waves.”
Eliza sees the young Wah Chung the first time when he is on some rocks painting. She is careful to avoid him as she’s been told many times to be afraid of “Chinamen”. At the appearance of a sneaker wave, Wah Chung warns her and helps rescue Eliza and her goat, Parthenia, saving them from both being swept out to sea.
Eliza realizes he could have simply let her be swept away. Now, due to Wah Chung’s act of kindness, she starts rethinking what she has been taught. Are the Chinese immigrants really a threat? Are they heathens? Why are the townspeople forcibly expelling them? She tries to reconcile what she has be taught by her father versus what she has observed and experienced.

In Ms. Fletcher’s Alphabet of Dreams, a young adult fiction, we return to the deserts of Asia. A fantasy of fiction with the flavor of the Arabian Nights, we travel with Young Babak and his older sister, Mitra. Living on the streets, doing whatever is necessary to survive, Mitra is sworn to protect Babak, who’s talent for prophesy is a source of money for them.

A powerful Magus has asked Babak to dream for him. His dream comes as a vision of two dancing stars in the night. The Magus take the boy and his sister on a journey across the desert to try to solve the prophetic riddle. Their discoveries will change the world in ways no one could have predicted.