Swords, Magic, and the Armor of Author David Wright

A Georgia Bulldog and Atlanta United fan living in Middle Tennessee, David Wright grew up on comic books and Swords & Sorcery novels, where he gained an early passion for storytelling. Ever since he read Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in 1984, he knew he wanted to write an epic medieval fantasy series. He's also a friend, and I think you should get to know him too!

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.

I developed story ideas throughout the first half of the 2000s, spending all of that time not thinking it was very realistic to actually put out a novel. That all changed with Van Allen Plexico launching White Rocket Books and publishing his Sentinels series, beginning (I believe) in 2006. Suddenly, a novel seemed very realistic and that really lit my fire and I finally got serious about it all. I ended up getting a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from Van, and it is likely none of these books would have ever seen the light of day without him. So big shout out to Van!

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.

As for what I want to say about the life of faith, my themes are universal, dealing with duty, honor, temptation, corruption, and redemption. And in Galen Griffon, I have a protagonist who struggles with feelings of unworthiness and is forced to choose between serving his god or his king. Church or State.

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.

David Wright -- Maybe His Brother's Keeper After All

Tell us a bit about your latest work. 

My first novel has just been published by White Rocket Books. It is called My Brother’s Keeper and it is the first in a planned three-part series called Galahad’s Doom. It is Swords & Sorcery fantasy adventure with a spiritual theme. It is primarily a story about two brothers, Galen and Lucas Griffon, and the different paths their lives take, but I also weave a bunch of other story threads, as well.

I remember as kid growing up in the 80s, all the controversy surrounding Dungeons & Dragons and how it was an occult practice. Yet in the early 2000s, a lot of the same type of conservative groups that had condemned D&D were now praising the Lord of the Rings movies for their Christian message.  Both instances confused me. I didn’t see the Devil in D&D and I didn’t see Jesus in Lord of the Rings, and I found it very interesting that there seemed to be a contradiction there.

It occurred to me that, in a day of Harry Potter stories that seemed to grow increasingly darker and draw increasing concern from watchdog groups, perhaps there was room within the fantasy genre to demonstrate a lighter sensibility. So I ended up with a spiritual theme to my book.

Galen is a young soldier who finds himself torn between duties to church and state; he must choose if he will serve his king or his god. Where Galen’s crisis is spiritual in nature, Lucas struggles with the physical and the emotional. He routinely makes bad choices and finds himself fighting for survival and acceptance. Meanwhile, there are wizards and demons secretly vying to control the fate of the world and war is brewing.

The backstory is that a religion called The Way was originally brought to this world by Saint Galahad from the World of Adam. Before he died, the Saint received a vision of a cataclysmic future. Not so much End-of-the-World Armageddon, but more like The Great Flood, where the whole world was wiped out for the purposes of basically starting over. But will this coming disaster end with all evil removed from the world, or all good? That is what is at stake in the Saint’s prophecy, which is known as Galahad’s Doom.

And, of course, Galen may just find himself at the heart of the prophecy as events begin to unfold.

I’m very excited about the book, very pleased with how it came out. I hope folks will check it out.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work? 

I don’t have a large body of work. I work during the day as a mild-mannered video producer. I began writing fiction in 2007. Since then, I have had a total of four short stories published and now this novel.

I had two stories appear in The Sentinels: Alternate Visions (White Rocket Books), a story and a poem in Gideon Cain: Demon Hunter (Airship 27) and then earlier this year Seventh Star Pressed published a story of mine in Hero’s Best Friend.

So I don’t know if I have a large enough body of work to recognize any threads. Although both Galen and Gideon Cain are spiritual, I suppose. And racial tensions are present in two of my short stories as well as My Brother’s Keeper.

My Hero’s Best Friend story, “Wind of Change”, is set in the same world as my novel and features two of my favorite supporting characters. It’s basically an origin story, telling how these two characters—one of which is a hawk—first meet each other.

Galen’s story is a planned trilogy and I have all kinds of ideas for short stories set in the same world, so I imagine all of those will end up sharing common themes.

What would be your dream project? 

Well, my dream would be that somehow this novel catches on with the general public and is successful enough to allow me to write future installments on a full-time basis. I have been developing this setting and these characters for years and I’m full of story ideas. I live with a constant anxiety that I will never get these stories told before I die.

Or maybe I should say I’d love to one day serve as producer and creative consultant of the feature film adaptation of my book series.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do? 

My only regret is that I waited until 2007 to start writing. I wonder what I would have accomplished by now as a writer if I had just decided to pursue this wonderful hobby much earlier in life.

My father actually passed away in the middle of the writing of My Brother’s Keeper. And I ended up drawing on that experience towards the end of the book when Galen found himself with questions about this father.

My dad gave me my joy of reading and he and I enjoyed the same types of stories. He would have loved this book. So if I had a do-over, I’d only wish I had started in time to allow him to read the finished product.

What inspires you to write? 

I’m not so much inspired as driven. As I said, I’m filled with anxiety that I might not ever tell all the stories I want to tell. There’s a constant, gnawing urgency that I often must ignore because of more pressing concerns.

It’s not so much that I want to write, as it is I must write.  Does that make sense?

What writers have influenced your style and technique? 

The obvious influences on this book are JRR Tolkien, Sir Thomas Malory and Howard Pyle. And probably Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I’m also influenced by my peers such as yourself, Van Plexico, Ian Watson and a bunch of others.

I’m also influenced by my own sense of visual storytelling. I’m a 20-year veteran in the world of video production and through that I’ve developed my own sense of how to build a scene and convey the action in an interesting way.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug? 

Right now, I’m just trying to promote My Brother’s Keeper. It will be debuting at the Alabama Phoenix Festival in Birmingham, May 30-June 1st.   I am more than halfway through writing the sequel, which will be called “Marching As To War”.

There are Amazon links on my page at www.whiterocketbooks.com and I’d love for everyone to follow my blog at galengriffon.blogspot.com. More than anything, I crave conversation and discussion with readers of my book. I encourage everyone to talk to me after they’ve read the book.

Thank you, Sean. I appreciate you giving me the chance to talk about my book.