Danny Doc Dilly and the Dangerous Duck

by M.L. Archer

Genre: Fantasy

Release: May 25, 2012

Editor: Katie Hines

Line editor: Richelle Putnam

Cover Designer: Suzannah Safi

Words: 53259

Pages: 147

ISBN: 978-1-77127-066-3

Price: $5.50

Back Cover:

Danny Doc Dilly learns his homeland, the Tropic Kingdom, is in danger of complete collapse. Makers of the greatest chocolate in the world, the kingdom is a land of jolly, friendly souls, who even share the same first name, Danny. It is a place loved by many.
But not all. The kingdom’s cocoa fleet has been raided so many times that the chocolate-making grinds to a halt, shops close, and people are leaving.
King Danny Jack Merriweather calls the finest minds in the kingdom together to make plain the problem. His youngest adviser, Danny Doc Dilly, embraces the challenge and calls upon his friend, the dragoness Hephzibah to assist him in finding out what happened to the cocoa.
When Danny Doc and Hephzibah find the cocoa thief it is a revelation so strange and awkward, he dreads to report it as the thief appears to be a giant mechanical duck. And yet nothing in Danny Doc’s life prepares him for the reality of what happens when he discovers who made the creature. The answer could alter the Tropic Kingdom forever.
After that, the only question left to answer is…will they survive?

Excerpt:

“Yes, stay close. Stay in my shadow,” the dragon whispered as he slipped into the water.

“I quite agree,” he said keeping himself level by her large, amber eye. He checked the horizon again, and gasped, “Good Lord! Look!”

They turned to watch, and even though he saw it with his own eyes, Doc Dilly could not believe it. A huge bird bore down on the little skiff. It had a shiny, forest green head, tree-brown feathers, and a rust-colored, rounded bill. Much too large to perch on the boat, it landed next to it with a huge splash, then craned its neck over its side, and to his surprise, when it spied the sack of cocoa, the beasts eyes shone red. It then tossed the sack into the air with it’s beak, caught it in it’s mouth, and devoured the entire bag in one gulp. Danny Doc gazed at it from the water in opened mouthed wonder. Those weren’t real feathers. From the way the sun glinted off the thing it was clearly made of metal.

Hephzibah sounded perplexed. She whispered,

“Most unnatural. This cannot be as it appears. It

cannot be a--”

“--a giant duck?” Doc Dilly finished.

MEET THE AUTHOR

REVIEWS:

5 star Amazon Reader Review: I will probably end up reading this story to my kids one day. Made me laugh, wonder what would happen next, and give a sad sigh at the end when it was over. Can't wait for the next story! I would definitely recommend!

5 star Amazon Reader Review: Okay, I'm 18, I read the title and thought, "No way." But I saw the dragon, the guy holding up a ball of light and thought, "Uh, maybe." Damn! Glad I did! This is a great story! It starts out like a fairy tale, you know, the cute little kingdom doesn't have enough chocolate...awww...So you ease into it and then the whole story slowly turns on you and it is the darkest, weirdest thing you could imagine. It should be a movie, I'm NOT kidding!

Danny Doc Dilly is an old school hero, he has a love interest named Danny Pim Lacy and a pet dragon named Hephzibah, who has to be one of the greatest fantasy dragons ever. ML Archer could do a whole story on her dragons alone, they were so good.