What prompted you to start this series?
David: Well, I've had a lifelong love for swords & sorcery fantasy and Arthurian legends. This includes playing 1st Ed. AD&D and Red Box/Keep on the Borderlands Basic D&D in the early 80s at the very height of the "Satanic Panic" media scare surrounding the game at the time. I found all the hoopla ridiculous because as a player I knew how innocent and fun the game was.
Now fast forward 20 years and the Lord of the Rings movies are being praised for their (alleged) Christian themes by some of the same type of conservative watchdog groups that once condemned Dungeons & Dragons. I found that hilariously ironic and also as equally ridiculous as the early 80s scare.
In other words, I didn't see the Devil in D&D and I didn't see Jesus in Lord of the Rings. Now, I know it's possible to play a very dark campaign, but I also know it is not intrinsic to the game and there's room for something quite the opposite. I've always seen D&D as an exercise in collaborative improv storytelling and that always appealed to me.
Now I should make it clear that I am a professing Christian and I do my best every day to live accordingly (with full acknowledgment that I fail often and sometimes spectacularly so), but it is quite interesting to me that so many conservative groups and a subset of Christians have such discomfort with the entire genre of Fantasy. I've spent time pondering that. How is a fantastic story blasphemous or threatening to the Faith? It's interesting how quickly the conversation then turns to the idea of religion or the common use in Fantasy of a polytheistic pantheon. There just seemed to be *something* that intertwines the subjects of Fantasy and spirituality in people's minds, for whatever reason that I can't explain.
I simply felt like this disconnect and this discomfort was where the dramatic conflict could be. I wanted to lean into the idea of Christianity existing in a fantasy world where magic is real. I wanted to set out to disprove the Satanic Panic of the early 80s while knowing full well the Bible warns us strongly against witchcraft and divination.
By the mid-80s I was an assistant DM and helped develop the original campaign setting that we used. In 1984, the original Dragonlance Chronicles came out and I knew right away that I wanted to one day adapt D&D adventures into a novel. Now, it was in no way a Christian-themed campaign. It wasn't until the LOTR movies that I started considering writing a novel, but once I did hit upon the idea of that central dramatic conflict, I remembered our old campaign setting.
So very quickly I had a theme and a setting. And I even brought in three characters that were PCs in our mid-80s campaign. The rest of the cast (including the main character) and all of the plot were created after I started developing the novel series. This included role-playing sessions with just me and a single player, a friend of mine who helped me develop the main character. And through our game sessions, many of the series' action set pieces were devised and improvised.
Is there something in particular about knights and the genre that draws you to it? What is that?
David: There must be, but I'm not sure I can articulate it. I saw a production of Camelot at a young age and my Dad raised me on Errol Flynn's Adventures of Robin Hood and the Robert Taylor Ivanhoe film. I just always loved that romanticized idea of the Age of Chivalry. I was particularly drawn to the King Arthur and Robin Hood stories. But then you add in fantasy elements like wizards, dragons, and magic swords and how can anyone resist? Having a great D&D group at the right impressionable age probably really cemented things for me.
It's rich ground for themes revolving around duty and honor and other heroic ideals. It also lends itself easily to epic stories with the fates of entire kingdoms often at stake. What's not to like? Knights are cool.
You have said before that you wanted to write something that talked about faith but not as a direct allegory, such as Lewis, or to a lesser degree, Tolkien. Why did you want to avoid that and what did you want to say about the life of faith?
David: Well, to clarify, while I do not think I've written in allegory, I've also not done anything to hide the idea that this story very much is set in a world that has had Christianity introduced to it. The backstory is that at the fall of Camelot, Merlin cast the final act of magic our world would ever see to send Sir Galahad away. Galahad is the knight of the round table that found the Holy Grail and in my version of the story, Mordred was after it in that final battle at Camelot that saw him kill King Arthur. Honoring Arthur's final wish, Merlin kept the Grail safe by sending it with Galahad through a hastily summoned portal. That portal took the knight to the world of Lanis and he happened to have his Bible with him.
My story opens several hundred years after that and we see that Galahad spent the rest of his days traveling and spreading the Word and now there is some form of his religion from the World of Adam that has taken root and grown prevalent. Before he died, he was given a vision of basically a global reboot, similar to the Great Flood account in Genesis in which the world is all but destroyed for the purpose of starting over. This prophecy of his became known as Galahad's Doom.
But I did write the story to not be preachy, to not be some kid-friendly, contrite Sunday School lesson. I very much was concerned with writing an epic-scale action-adventure that would appeal to everyone regardless of their beliefs, or absence of beliefs. Partially to that end, the names God and Jesus never appear in the books. The words Christianity and Bible never appear in the books. It's not that these ideas are avoided, but that different nomenclature has taken root in this world of Lanis.
This is a cool action adventure first, albeit one that just happens to be informed by my personal faith. This is not written at a juvenile level; I wrote for me. The story I wanted to read didn't exist, so I wrote it. There's a large cast, a complex plot with multiple subplots, and shades-of-gray characters. Not every good guy is a believer, and not every believer is a good guy.
Think of it like this: Krynn -- the world featured in the Dragonlance series-- includes gods such as Paladine and Reorx that I do not actually believe in. Yet, I'm able to accept that they are the gods of that story and I'm still able to very much enjoy it. If someone out there believes in Jesus about as much as they believe in Paladine then they can still enjoy my story, just like we all do with Dragonlance. It doesn't have to be any different than that and, by the way, the story is awesome. I'm especially proud of the third book in the trilogy, The Armor of God, that just came out. If you'll come along for the ride, I promise you'll be blown away. I'm just so extremely pleased with how the final book turned out and how the whole series ends. It is so worth the investment of reading the first two books to get to it. The best part is I am 100 percent convinced that every single member of my large cast got exactly the right ending. I can't wait to hear back from readers.
His arc in the first book, My Brother's Keeper, is very much a metaphor for my own journey. (Even though I've never had a magic sword. As far as I know.)
What is your work schedule during the time you bust out a novel the length of these?
David: Ha! Well, for anyone who's been following along, it's no secret that years and years have gone by between each of my novels. That's one reason I'm so happy to have completed the trilogy: now, all the delays are behind me and people can start the series and not be left hanging.
I wrote the first book in just under a year during a time when I was traveling a lot for my job. Hours and days spent in airports and hotels, away from my family, gave me plenty of time to work rather quickly.
By the time of the second book, I had a different job and had a regular life of coming home to a family every day who needed me for the boring real-life stuff. So I just wrote when I could and never really figured out a good writing schedule.
With this third book, I developed an idea for a new workflow approach that I think could have helped me a lot, but as it turned out I didn't need it, so I haven't tested this idea yet. So my biggest challenge with sitting down to write is having the time to go back over my notes and what has been written before and just needing a long ramp to tap back into that creative vibe to be able to start knocking out scenes again. I came up with an approach to minimize or possibly eliminate that long ramp. Maybe detailing that idea could be a subject for a different interview, but suffice it to say that the third book came to me so easily that "ramping up" was never an issue.
While this third book has come out several years after the previous one, it was actually written in a trio of 60-day bursts. I first cracked the story in 2018 and wrote about 30k words in just a couple of months. Then a bunch of Real Life happened. I got a new job which involved a big move to a different state and I also lost my laptop. I knew I had backed up my work to Dropbox but I couldn't restore access to that account so for a long time I thought my work was lost. Luckily, that got resolved. Then in early 2020, I opened up the project again and it all just started pouring out of me. I couldn't type fast enough. It all came to me so fully realized that I just had to get it all down... until I got to the end of the second act.
Then I came to a screeching halt. I had two ways in my head for possible endings, but I also didn't know what role my large supporting cast could have in the final act. So I walked away and trusted my characters to solve it for me. I was not the creator of this story, I have been merely the reporter. All this stuff has really happened, it has just been my job to discover it and present it in the coolest way possible. Eventually, a character whispered the answer in my ear one night and I was off to the races again.
I've never had writing go so easily for me as with the writing of The Armor of God. As the third installment, it was just a race to the finish line and the pace of the book is exactly that. It's just relentless with the only levity coming from my bard character's storyline. I'm proud of that one. A true bard's adventure where winning the day requires writing the perfect song. (If it all lent itself to dozens of hidden Beach Boys references, well, I just can't help that. I'm just the reporter, after all.)
What are the books and who are the authors who influenced you in your growth as a writer?
David: My four main inspirations for the Galahad's Doom series are: L'morte d'Artur by Sir Thomas Malory, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, and The Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis and Hickman.
(I pay homage to all of these with a quartet of redshirts named Malory, Lewis, Reuel, and Krynn).
I also owe a huge debt to Van Allen Plexico and all the New Pulp and indie authors I know.
I have studied Joseph Campbell and also found studying short stories to be an easy way to discern story structure. To that end, I read a lot of Poe and O Henry.
Tell us about your other work too.
David: The books in my Galahad's Doom trilogy (My Brother's Keeper, Marching As To War, and The Armor of God) are my first three novels. In addition to those, I have had short stories included in The Sentinels: Alternate Visions and Gideon Cain: Demon Hunter by White Rocket books and in Hero's Best Friend from Seventh Star Press.
We'll see what's next. I have both Untold Tale-style short story ideas and prequel novel ideas for the world of Galahad's Doom. I'm also definitely open to the idea of inviting other writers into my sandbox for an anthology. So if that sounds good to any writers out there (including you, Sean!) then reach out and let me know.
In addition to my writing, I have a YouTube channel called American Soccer Quick Kicks where I discuss the Men's National Team, MLS, and the rules of the game to casual fans of the sport, or just soccer-curious sports fans. It's all short-form content: no deep dives, usually just ten minutes or so to keep you updated and then get you back to your day.
Where can we find out more about you and your work?
David: My website is http://www.galahadsdoom.com
My YouTube is http://www.youtube.com/@americansoccerquickkicks
On Twitter, I am @defdave
Now that the series is complete, I hope to devote more time and effort to marketing. I thank you for this interview. I'm open to other bloggers and podcasters out there and I'll be looking at getting into whatever library shows, lit fairs, and retailer expos I can manage to find regionally.
What's the best advice you ever received about writing?
David: Observe life. Our world is too rich to ever have boring characters.
Also, make sure writing stays fun. Take pleasure in language. Relish it, savor it. Wield it like a scalpel... or maybe a Sword +2.
But what really unlocked me as a writer was understanding story structure. Take that seriously. Understand what makes stories work. Once I got my head around structure, the rest came easy for me.
Extremely interesting interview!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It was fun.
Delete