Sixteen-year-old Molly Wilder just discovered what appears to be a dragon fossil on her summer internship in the Badlands of Montana. After a secret organization steals it, she must pair up with the world’s most renowned paleontologists to track it down. 

Rome, A.D. 306. Emperor Constantine converts the Roman Empire to Christianity. Over the next two decades, his armies destroy pagan idols across Europe and the Middle East.

England, A.D. 1830. Paleontologist Mary Anning writes to Sir Richard Owen, describing a fossil that she discovered in the cliffs of Lyme-Regis. She writes that the fossil is a large wing made of black bone.

Montana, A.D. 2023. Sixteen-year-old Molly Tanner discovers a mysterious fossil while on a summer internship. The fossil has a large wing structure, horned skull, and black bones. Neither famed fossil-hunter Derek Farnsworth nor renowned paleontologist Dr. Sean Oliphant can place it in a recognized dinosaur family.

For 65 million years, the Badlands of Montana have held a secret hidden in their depths...

What makes this book special?



1) HARD SCI-FI MEETS YOUNG ADULT. The Bone Wars blends the young-adult genre with hard science-fiction. The novel is chock full of both globe-trotting adventure and science, in this case paleontology. Young readers will feel like they too are paleontologists.


2) A BOOK WITHIN A BOOK. The novel is quasi-epistolary, with a series of fictional letters between Mary Anning, Sir Richard Owen, and the other major 19th-century paleontologists. The letters provide an alternate history in which these paleontologists sought to prove not just the existence of dinosaurs but actual mythical creatures.


3) WRITTEN BY AN EXPERIENCED PALEONTOLOGIST. The Bone Wars evolved from a story Erin made up for her own children, telling it to them at bedtime each night. The novel brings that experience home for everyone else’s children.


4) FIRST IN A SERIES. While the novel can stand on its own, it is intended as the first novel in a series. The second novel (already outlined) follows Molly and the other main characters as they travel across Mongolia in search of more rare fossils.