English layout reviewed, survey results, book extract

 I have some great news! My English publisher Austin Macauley sent me the layout of the English edition of the Dragons Out book, and I've just reviewed it. The work proceeds nicely. I also got an estimate that the publishing date may be in about two months. We are getting there! A more precise schedule will be available once we get to the printing process. Those who have preordered the English version of the book will soon get their books!

In my last blog, I published the feedback survey for all others who have ordered the Finnish book than the schools. You may remember the great feedback averages from the first responses to the school survey. Now, I'm happy to give you the first results of the other readers' survey. The book gets a super average of 4.8 on a scale of 1-5. The presentation gets a 4.33 average. The readers estimated also how much the children liked the book, too, with an average of 4.0. Thank you all who answered the two surveys so far. Keep the responses coming! The reader survey is here. There is the draw of one Dragons Out Finnish book per survey. Let's see if you are lucky!

Concerning book orders, currently, I'm taking preorders for the English Edition on my own web site https://www.dragonsout.com/p/preorder-dragons-out-book.html and guiding the buyers of the Finnish Edition to my Finnish publisher Avain's online store. Whichever edition you like, get your copy! And share the news about the book to everyone you think who may be interested. Something that came from the readers of the Finnish book is contacting the Parent's Associations of your own schools. I warmly recommend you to contact them and share the word about the great book!

Then, time for the book extract. Now on the brink of the English Edition publishing, I think it is good to remind you why we do software testing. It's a bit about values and ethics. So the extract is chosen accordingly. Here goes!

The two knights helping Swanlake, the Knights Bluebird and Whitegoose, were ready on their horses at the opening of the palisade. They both had a sword and a spear. Whitegoose had fetched Swanlake’s spear. Together, the trio rode toward the rumble. The dragon was still in the forest, but it was approaching steadily. That large dragon would do great damage if it reached the village. They should stop it quickly. Swanlake had identified the dragon as one of the obese dragons that could no longer fly with its small wings. However, this type of dragon was usually very powerful. Dragon-fire could burn down all the wooden houses in the village. The dragon had noticed the palisade was unfinished and decided to use this moment to attack. 

People can expect that the troubles the dragon would cause (lots of fires). In the online store, faulty calculation of prices would lead to customers paying either too much or too little. Someone would suffer.

I'll throw in another similar excerpt. Here goes!

Identifying and vanquishing dragons at Forest Castle had been very exciting. These events were still in the minds of the youngsters. The dragons had been very damaging to Forest Castle. The villagers had to get rid of them. It was necessary to kill them. The youngsters felt that they had done a good thing, even though the killing felt terrible. They made Forest Castle safer. It was the most important thing. The peaceful daily life of Iron Lake put their worries into perspective. For people to experience such calm days, dragons had to be banished or, if necessary, killed. The work of the knights was vital.

In the story, Laura and Tom ponder whether it is justified to kill dragons. It feels terrible, but still right because the reason for killing dragons is important: the safety of the villagers. Similarly, in the world of software testing, most testers feel that they have a bigger goal than finding individual defects. They improve the quality of the system. Users are happier when software defects are discovered and fixed. Of course, through testing, they only find defects, and software developers need to fix them. Still, their input affects the quality of the system as a whole.