It's time to continue with our Signature Week. This month's Signature Author Background features Dragon's Treasure by Signature Author David McLeod. Cia was kind enough to do an interview with David to help us get to know a bit more about both the author and the story. If you haven't already read, Dragon's Treasure, it's there, just waiting for you to take a gander at it! Now, let's see what David had to say!!!
Interviewer: Cia
When did you first start writing?
That would have been a very juvenile science fiction story written when I was in the fifth grade. My mother (naturally) saved it. I pull it out, occasionally, and just shake my head.
Most of the writing I did through graduate school was only that which was required—themes, essays, book reports. It wasn’t until about ten years ago I started writing things I didn’t have to write.
Who has been the most supportive of your writing over the years?
Friends I’ve met through writers workshops and writers circles, and on-line. There are several folks, authors and readers on the
GA
site, who have provided excellent feedback, critical direction, and superb ideas. I can't list them all, here, but I have acknowledged and thanked them along the way.
You write a lot of fantasy stories; do you have a favorite fantasy story or book to read?
Anne McCaffery is nonpareil. And dragons rule!
When you began writing Dragon's Treasure, did you know where the story was going all along? Or did your characters and story take on a life of their own?
My goal was a “grail cycle,” a form of literature that I think one of my early English teachers invented, as I can find no reference to it, today, outside of Camelot and Lancelot. (If anyone knows a better name, I’d sure like to hear it.) The notion is that a hero, perhaps not knowing that he is—or is to become—a hero, undertakes a mission, perhaps not knowing immediately that he is on a mission. Along the journey, he gathers companions. Each of the companions brings a critical skill. It’s formulaic, and therefore fairly easy to write.
Once started, however, the characters in “Dragon’s Treasure” (like most others) took on lives of their own, and I was hard pressed to keep up with them.
If your story was made into a movie, who do you picture playing each of the four boys' part?
Unfortunately, the ages of my preferred characters are much too far apart, today, and one is dead. I’d like to have seen Ulee played by Asa Butterfield at the age he was in “The Boy in Striped Pajamas.” River Phoenix at his age in “Little Nikita” would have made a wonderful Ian. Will Wheaton of “Stand by Me” age might have been a good Druid; and a younger Corey Feldman (“The Lost Boys”) would have made an excellent Thief. (Thorby, by the way, was inspired by Robert Heinlein’s “Citizen of the Galaxy,” Thorby Baslim, later Thorby Rudbeck.)
What is your favorite part of the Dragon's Treasure?
When after repeatedly being beaten down by evil or desperate people, Ulee and Ian find refuge and a mentor. That was influenced by Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” model, another but more difficult (IMHO) formula for storytelling and one I've never been able successfully to follow.
Is there anything you'd do different, if you were to write the story over?
I would make the last scene in the mountain meadow less abrupt, and lay the groundwork for it more carefully. Don’t want to give that away, so I’ll not say more.
Dragon's Treasure is an older story, but do you think you'll revisit it again in the future?
I am grateful to the staff and readers of the
GA
web site for the opportunity to post stories, to receive feedback, and to “experiment” with technique, characters, plots, and other elements of writing. Although the flaws in "Pilots II" and "Translator III" were too obvious to ignore and I plan to rewrite/repost those stories, I would rather create new than revisit old. I doubt that I’ll get back to “Dragon’s Treasure,” however, the treasure, itself, is featured in other stories. There are in development several stories that take place on World, including “Prince Errant,” “Smith’s Son,” and a Part II of “The Squire and the Acolyte.”
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