I wrote a three part 330,000 word manuscript that I called The Steel Dragon. Originally I thought of it as one big novel. Each of the three parts is a self contained story, though each of course is connected to the one before it. I named the three parts Expedition, Colony, and Dominion. There is a time difference of three to five years between each. My heroine is nine years old in part one, twelve in part two, and seventeen in part three. Once I had it complete, it seemed obvious that if I wanted it published, the book would have to become a trilogy. I needed names for the three volumes. The first was obvious– The Steel Dragon. I tried out several possibilities, and eventually came up with the other two titles– The Sorceress’s Apprentice, and The Two Dragons. The final title is both accurate, as there are two dragons in the story, and a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Two Towers.