We spoke with Privateer Press staff writer Zachary C. Parker about his experience writing “Wrath of the Dragonfather,” a dragon-flame-fueled epic sure to please any fan of the Iron Kingdoms. Zachary’s answers shed some light on the process of tying together the disparate threads of one of the Iron Kingdoms’ most exciting storylines.

You can pick up a digital copy of “Wrath of the Dragonfather” at the Skull Island eXpeditions website, The Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and DriveThruRPG.

1) What led you to take on the story of “Wrath of the Dragonfather” in the first place?

With the new editions on the horizon, we wanted to tie up some of the events we had been building toward in the meta-fiction for some time. The scope of these events required at least two books, “Wrath of the Dragonfather” and The Blood of Kings, the latter of which will be available in May. The initial plan was for Doug Seacat to write both books—he knows the setting better than anybody, and he had been working on these plotlines for years. In the end, it came down to time. Writing a novel is a ton of work, and with all of Doug’s many responsibilities, it became clear someone else would need to tackle one of the books.

With all of its complexities, we knew Doug was the only one who could write The Blood of Kings, so that left “Wrath of the Dragonfather.” I had only been working at Privateer Press for about a year at that point, but I’d written the fiction for HORDES: Devastation (with considerable assistance from Doug), and Will Shick suggested I take a crack at what we were then calling the ‘dragon war’ novella.

2) This tale is the pinnacle tale of a long-developing conflict among the dragons of western Immoren. What preparation did you have to do in order to tackle such a big story?

The short of it is I read everything and talked to Doug. We had ideas about how we wanted the events in the book to end up, and we had a few things that had to be included. We spent plenty of time spit-balling ideas and looking over maps—events move pretty quickly in the book, but geography was really important to how things unfolded—as we tried to get the pieces to fit together the way we needed them to. In the process of brainstorming, we both came up with some unexpected ideas I think did a lot for the book. The Storm Strider chase and the confrontation between Krueger and Lortus are two of my personal favorites.

3) The book takes on the perspective of a number of different heroes and villains. How did you decide who should have a point of view, and what was it like to tackle the story through so many different characters’ eyes?

The points of view for the story were largely chosen out of necessity. The plot is complex, and I needed specific characters to tell it fully. Some of them I knew I’d need from the start and others I adopted over the course of writing the book.

Author Benjamin Percy once said that managing the various problems characters face is like juggling flaming chainsaws and that success as a storyteller is dependent on one’s ability to do so. Adding more points of view adds more chainsaws to juggle. It’s fast and flashy and exciting, but you can lose your head if you aren’t careful, and catching all those chainsaws when you’re through can be quite the trick. I’d like to think I still have all my limbs intact, but I guess that’s for the readers to decide.

4) What threw you for a loop? In other words, what was the greatest challenge in figuring out how to write this story?

Perhaps the biggest challenge was figuring out the specifics for a tenuous alliance between some of the characters. Whenever you have heroes and villains working toward the same goal you have to be careful not to lose sight of who those characters are and what makes them tick. In an earlier draft, this alliance formed much sooner in the story and carried through, but it didn’t quite feel right. I had to dial that back and make some significant changes. I’m happy with the way things turned out in the end, though.

5) Do you have a favorite scene that was especially fun to write?

I really dug writing the arrival of the dragon alliance. There was just something cool about introducing each dragon by their various names and giving bits about their background. For me, it has the epic feeling I hope carries throughout the book. I also enjoyed writing some of the fight scenes near the end, but I’ll refrain from spoiling any of that.

6) Do you think that story is done? What might follow the conclusion of “Wrath of the Dragonfather” that would make the next great novel in this part of the saga?

I think the story of the loose athanc is finished, but there are still plenty of stories to tell that are related to the events of the book. I’m not sure there is room here for a direct sequel or anything, but I can see some offshoots. The story of what happens to Saeryn and Rhyas is one people are going to be asking about, and I think it would be cool for the twins to get some more screen time. Toruk’s state at the end of the book is going to have some major repercussions in the next few years, starting with an upcoming Skull Island eXpeditions release from Miles Holmes later this year.