A wonderful story so far. I wait eagerly for more!

Thank you. :) Always nice to know people are actually reading it.

I don't feel I have the level of talent needed to actually bring a book or chapters into play like all you have posted here. I'm sure I could, I just get to points where I can't go further or it angles in a direction I don't want to go in. I'd be honored if you would represent my silver dragon character, Mereneth, in one of your future stories as a guest or something, though. At least he'd be seen in a good story until I can get myself in gear to come up with something for others to enjoy as well.

Mind my curiosity on how much work that took, and any tips for an aspiring writer?

I started writing chapter one of this story in 1996. :) I finished writing chapter eleven, the final chapter, in 2008. Though that's misleading, since I actually wrote up to this chapter here sometime around 1999, I just ended up getting distracted and not coming back to finish it until years later.

Then on the other hand, Blood Choice, the little vampire novella I posted here, was written in slightly over a week, and it's almost as long as this.

So... it does take a lot of work, but sometimes it flows more readily than other times.

My two biggest tips are to read, and to write. The more books you read the better your command of the language will be, the more familiar you'll be with how good stories work, and the easier the writing will flow. And then just write. Write a little every day if you can. Whenever you find yourself going "I'm bored" take a minute and write. A lot of what you'll write will probably be crap. Don't be afraid to edit, or to just throw it out, some writing is a bit like doing sketches for a painter, it's just practice, it's not going to be good enough to finish.

And don't be afraid to write ideas that other people have already written. Part of why I dropped this in 99 was that I read a book about a human boy raised by dragons, and I felt that my story had already been told and I wasn't original anymore. There's no such thing as original these days, everything has been done. This story isn't identical to that other story though, so it's worth telling anyway. Just don't actually steal the entirety of somebody else's plot, try to put your own twist on things.

I'll stop now before this comment turns into an essay. :D