Dragon and Dinosaur Chronicles by Rick Williams Sr. – Presented By The Children’s Book Review

May 19, 2026 · by sybrinapublishing

Promotional graphic for a virtual book tour with Rick Williams Sr. featuring the book 'Orion Fire Storm' from the 'Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles, Book 2'. The design includes a dragon illustration, images of characters from the book, and emphasizes themes of dragons, dinosaurs, and destiny.

Dragon and Dinosaur Chronicles

By Rick Williams Sr., Brady Williams and Caleb Williams with Illustrations by Prayan Animation Studio

ABOUT THE BOOKS

Book cover for 'Star Life Keepers: Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles' featuring characters with bows and arrows under a starry sky, alongside dragons and pterosaurs.

Star Life Keepers: Dragon and Dinosaur Chronicles

Written by Rick Williams Sr. and Brady Williams

Illustrated by Prayan Animation Studio

Ages: 10–14 | 388 Pages

Publisher: Legacy KidLit Press (2024) | ISBN-13: 9798987420010

Publisher’s Book Summary: With dragons and elves as allies, three cousins must save two worlds before time runs out. Join cousins Jason, Amanda, and Elisa as their desperate wish to undo family tragedy launches them into the war-torn, mythical realm of Belacamber. Guided by the legendary Star Life Keepers—an extraordinary alliance of elves, shapeshifting dragons, and prehistoric predators—the trio faces relentless foes, including terrifying flying T. rexes and vicious ptero-raptors, while battling to protect their own family back home. A thrilling middle-grade epic blending fantasy with time travel, dinosaurs, and dragon-filled skies.

PURCHASE LINKS

Amazon | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble

Orion Fire Storm

Written by Rick Williams Sr. with Caleb Williams

Illustrated by Prayan Animation Studio

Ages: 10+ | 417 Pages

Publisher: Legacy KidLit Press (2026) | ISBN: 979-8-9874200-7-2

Publisher’s Book Summary: During this time of renewed interest in space travel, Orion Fire Storm follows Jason, Amanda, and Elisa—modern-day teens who travel among the stars and into the past—as they join forces with elves and shapeshifting dragons to save their nations. Continuing the adventures that began in Star Life Keepers, they face even deadlier trials in a medieval world of gryphon-riding wolf guards, roaming dire wolves, and flying raptors. Messengers from Orion’s Belt equip the cousins with magical gems to unlock the power beyond the universe. Features original illustrations, detailed maps, and an Encyclopedia of Creatures.

PURCHASE LINKS

Orion Fire Storm: Amazon

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Legacy KidLit Press. The opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.

Guest Post

What I Learned Writing Space Adventures for & with Tweens

By Rick Williams Sr.

There are many ways to time-travel. C. S. Lewis chose a magic wardrobe. Marty McFly, in Back to the Future, rode in a stainless-steel car back in time. Meg Murray found a “wrinkle in time and space” to rescue her younger brother from an unknown planet. My grandson and I created a Star Globe.

At age 8, Brady decided that he and I would write a fantasy novel together about three middle-school cousins in a land of archers and knights, and dragons and dinosaurs.A trip to our local planetarium solved our transport problem.

I took Brady and 2 other grandsons to the Moorhead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, near where we live in North Carolina. We discovered that 62 Apollo astronauts had trained there, amazingly using ancient navigational instruments.

While starting a scientific business in Shanghai, I often visited a park with a small museum near my hotel. Intrigued by the 16^th-century collaboration between Italian mathematician Matteo Ricci and the Chinese astronomer Xu Guangqi, I learned how they used an armillary sphere and a celestial globe to study the stars, thereby advancing calendar science, agriculture, and the timing of seasonal planting.

When I saw the planetarium’s Apollo exhibit, I recognized the same astronomy instruments I had seen in China. Brady and I then combined the armillary sphere and celestial globe to create a way for the Blakeslee family to become star travelers. This was also the spark that led us to develop “astronomy magic” for young Star Life Keepers.

In the first book in our Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles series, Jason, his sister Amanda, and their older cousin, Elisa, commandeer a Star Globe that their father and grandfather had secretly built using artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The middle school students virtually travel through a portal in Alnilam, the center star in Orion’s Belt. After ending up in the Belacamber parallel universe, the three cousins find out that they are part of the royal family in Bukania.

Astronomy has become a bigger component of our fantasy novels than expected.

Jason, Amanda, and Elisa find out that there is a giant Alnilam meteorite, around which the Hall of Endless Light was built. Bukanians have not only ground up pieces of the meteorite to create the Star Globe but also starfire. There is a lab underneath the Royal Archives where scientists make Alnilam starfire to light businesses and homes—and to make magical swords, knife blades, and arrowheads.

As second-generation Star Life Keepers, the 3 cousins master fighting with starfire weapons to defeat the Jurassican invaders in West Bukania and retrieve a medicinal plant, Carmanixia, to save the life of Queen Dhyanna.

Jason, Amanda, and Elisa sometimes need extra help. So, Brady and I created Kesil the Swordsman for Star Life Keepers. As an angel-like Star Messenger from Orion’s Alnilam star, he appears to encourage them during the challenging military campaign.

The elves receive their magical assistance from Mintaka, the right-hand star in Orion’s Belt, while the shapeshifting dragons obtain support from Alnitak, the left-hand star.

I discovered from early readers that they liked learning about astronomy in our first book, as well as paleontology. Regarding the latter, we created an Encyclopedia of Creatures in the back matter of Orion Fire Storm. It’s organized like a classification system for dinosaurs.

My grandsons enjoyed the STEM concepts, too. With 50 years of developing and commercializing scientific innovations, I was also intrigued by the idea of incorporating more of my experiences into our books. However, I’ve been very careful to keep the stories focused on fantasy and adventure while adding only a scientific flavor.

In Book 2, Orion Fire Storm, two more Star Messengers show up: Leah the Archer provides lavender jade stones to Amanda; Celeste the Phoenix gives lapis lazuli stones to Jason. Kesil reappears, entrusting Elisa with magical onyx gems. The three cousins must use their astronomy magic—sometimes holding their stones together—to overcome new challenges as the war with the dinosaur crossbreeds and humanized creatures escalates.

Brady’s younger brother, Caleb, helped us with world building and took over as my collaborator for the sequel. He and I came up with the idea of a giant underground worm, inspired by my trip to China’s leading silk museum in Suzhou, which Ekronn the LifeTwister uses to create hybrids of dinosaurs and humans, such as the wolf men and women Ironclaw Enforcers.

I also introduced the concept of “fantasy biotech” in Orion Fire Storm. Having helped to launch the biotech industry, I wanted a fun way to demonstrate biological innovations. The chief sorcerer, Ekronn the LifeTwister, uses fantasy biotech to manipulate life chains (what we call DNA today) to generate human clones that are trained to become Jurassican spies in Bukania.

For the third book in the series, Young Dragonriders, readers encounter new constellations such as Draco,linked to the dragons, and Cygnus, associated with a Jurassican sorceress. We have also been drafting manuscripts for an origin novella (Dragon Thrones) and crossover series called Constellation Isles, where the source of dark magicresides.

When Brady asked me to co-write an epic fantasy novel for mid-grade readers, I put a completed international thriller book on hold. If readers continue to embrace Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles and Constellation Isles, I hope to reimagine that thriller novel as an urban fantasy in which our heroes “forward star travel” to Silicon Valley where my family and I once lived.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rick Williams Sr. is a former biotech executive who writes the Dragon & Dinosaur Chronicles series with his grandchildren and other Story Apprentices. Inspired by a visit to Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium—where Apollo astronauts trained—the series features a Star Globe that transports young cousins into a parallel universe where they heroically use astronomy magic to save their nations.

His debut, Star Life Keepers, became a top Amazon children’s eBook in Space Exploration and Time Travel. The adventure continues in Orion Fire Storm and the upcoming Young Dragonriders. Companion short fiction—including the Orion Dragons’ Holiday Tale and Dragons & Betrayals—explores story origins and expanding worlds in the series.

Through the Creative Writing Lab at thestorymakinghub.com—featuring the Story Writing workbook—Rick provides roadmaps and free materials to equip a growing community of young creators who want to share their own voices.

To learn more, visit www.rickwilliamsbooks.com.

https://www.instagram.com/storymakingwithrickwilliams

https://www.facebook.com/storymakingwithrickwilliams

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/84161.Rick_Williams

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-williams-31136919

Tweets by StorymakingHub

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

Prayan Animation Studio is a creative animation studio with an expert team of creators, artists, and designers specializing in custom artwork, mapmaking, and videos.

To learn more, visit www.prayananimation.com

GIVEAWAY

Readers who follow along on this virtual book tour will have the chance to win an out-of-this-world prize pack! Three winners will each receive signed hardcover copies of Star Life Keepers, Orion Fire Storm, and Story Writing: A Workbook of Creative Writing Prompts for Kids 8–12. One grand prize winner will receive all of the above plus an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids—perfect for diving into even more adventures. Enter.