8. My next choice is an opening line, which gives you a one in seven chance of guessing right! It actually comes from the final book, The Fire Ascending. When I first began to write, I tried some short stories. Any writer will tell you that the short story form seems easy, but actually requires a lot of skill. One really good tip I was given was to begin the story with a line that tells the reader something about the story as a whole. At the beginning of The Fire Ascending, I had such a line. It’s very simple, but very powerful: I was a boy of twelve when I watched a dragon die. That single line spawned the whole 20,000 words or so of Part One of the book.
9. The penultimate example is also from The Fire Ascending and everybody’s favorite villainess, Gwilanna. No list would be complete without her involvement. Most of her remarks are pretty scathing, of course, and I could have picked lots of moments that have defined her wonderful character. But the one I really like, and that actually makes me cry whenever I read it, comes toward the end of The Fire Ascending when Gwilanna has finally turned to the good. She walks over to the dead polar bear Kailar, grips his ear, and offers him back the fire tear of Gawain, and she says, “Here you are, ice bear, this is for you. Let me be an angel once in my life.” We all deserve one chance of redemption, and this is hers.
10. And for my favorite moment in the whole series I turn to Fire World and the wonderful librarium, that fantastic store of books on Co:pern:ica that I’m sure must keep a set of the Last Dragon Chronicles, carefully guarded by firebirds! So often throughout the series, I’ve found myself drawing topical issues from the news into the books. While I was writing Fire World, a debate was raging about whether e-books would finally replace real books (or “tree” books as people wittily call them). Having been brought up in the computer generation, I can see the argument for both. But clever as modern phones and tablets are, I don’t think anything will ever provide the same sense of connection to a story or its writer that a paper book does. The librarium, with its endless floors of reading material, is a giant statement in favor of the book. And though its disorganized shelves could in no way compare to the power and speed of today’s Internet, all wisdom is there nevertheless. More important, that body of wisdom reaches out beyond the librarium, because it’s not just knowing how to source knowledge that matters, it’s what you do with it once acquired. It’s what you create from what you learn that adds more floors to the building — ad infinitum. This is why David and Rosa find it so hard to reach the roof. It’s all summed up in one fantastic line from Mr. Henry, the librarium curator. When asked by Rosa, “What’s it like up there? What can you see?” he replies, “Everything. All the world can be seen from the roof of the librarium.” If you don’t believe that, ask a librarian….
Phew! That simple query nearly created a story in its own right.
Very impressive — but for me there are two questions that stand out from all the thousands of those that Chris has been asked. The first is:
“Where do you want your ashes scattered when you die?”
As it happened, Chris had a ready (and truthful) answer — the library gardens in Bromley — but for sheer originality that conversation-stopper certainly gets its inquirer ten out of ten.
The question in the second one was straightforward enough:
“If you went to a desert island, who or what would you leave behind?”
But it stands out more for Chris’s reply:
“A misleading note giving my incorrect whereabouts.”
Perhaps it was just one question too many that day.
One of the great advantages of being an author is being able to meet the fans as well as just hear from them by letter or e-mail. Chris used to love signing autographs, and in the dim and distant past would practice his signature endlessly (or so it seemed) in hopes of “just once” being asked to sign a book or two. Time and circumstances have changed, and now he gets writer’s cramp just thinking about it. The record for the most number of books signed in a single session currently stands at around seven hundred, I believe.
In these numbers, Chris will only sign his name, but if he has the time he will also add a dedication — the person’s name and a short message, too. Incidentally, we found out that a book signed by the author but with no other wordage added is more valuable than one signed to someone.
The only exception here, apparently, is if there is what is called “good provenance” in a dedication. This means that if the book was signed to someone who was famous in their own right, say, and it could be proven that the dedication was genuine, then that would be worth more than a book with the author’s signature alone. Of course, a personal message is always worth more to the individual than any monetary value that could be put upon it, and quite rightly so. Chris has twice signed books with messages in a foreign language: German and Welsh. He had to learn them deliberately before he started, but the recipients were surprised and delighted.
And while we’re on the subject, the Last Dragon Chronicles are themselves available in a number of different languages. The countries where translated editions are published include Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Brazil, and Japan.
The dragon books are incredibly popular in the United States. Chris now wishes he had tacked a map of that country up on the wall, so he could stick a pin in for every state that he’s had an e-mail from. He thinks it must be every single one by now. It would certainly seem so, as the series has consistently appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists.
The foreign editions are beautiful creations. Some have a few black and white line drawings in them, but the Japanese versions are especially awesome. As well as line drawings, they also have full-color illustrations at the front of the book. Or rather, the “back” of the book, as we would perceive it, since the Japanese language is written in ideographs (glyphs or “pictures”) and read from top to bottom and right to left, in columns. So starting in the top-right corner, you read down the rightmost column first, then go back up to the top of the page and read the next left column till you get to the bottom of the page again, and so on. Thus you would appear to be reading the book backward when compared to the way we are used to in the west.
The Fire Within – Czech Republic
Icefire – Germany
Fire Star – Japan
The Fire Eternal – UK
All the translations for foreign editions are done in the country of publication (Chris is ace at English and passable in dragontongue and felinespeak, but useless at any other languages), and according to friends who have read the books in their own native language and in English, they are pretty faithful to the originals. Translations do not seem to pose too much of a barrier for those doing them, except that once Chris had a frantic e-mail from the Japanese translator, desperate to know what “daft as a brush” meant. The complicated plotlines and esoteric mysticisms were easy-peasy, allegedly, but that one had them stumped. Colloquial English is a tricky idiom to explain, even for the English native speaker, and Chris did his best, but he’d love to know how that phrase was expressed, in the end.
Chris also wrote a spinoff series from the original novels, for younger readers mainly, though it seems all age groups (including adults) are enjoying them, from the feedback received. Each book features one of the Pennykettle dragons and tells the story of its creation and its own special ability.
The two books currently published are about Gruffen and Gauge, both of whom appear in the Last Dragon Chronicles series. The Wayward Crescent books are meant as a prequel to The Fire Within, as they are all set in the Pennykettle household before David arrives as their tenant. They also fill in a lot of background history to the Pennykettles and their dragons, which is what has piqued the interest of some people from older age groups.
Chris has also recorded a couple of songs relating to the Last Dragon Chronicles. Called “Fire Star” and “The Fire Eternal,” they can be found on Chris’s Web site (www.icefire.co.uk), but as yet they are not available to downlo
ad (though this may change if any record companies take an interest!). All instruments are played by Chris, and all the vocals are his, too, but sung from David’s point of view. The lyrics are as follows, for those of you who are interested:
“Fire Star”
There is a sign in the heavens
Another light in the darkness
A better time is beginning
There is a fire star coming
I see the mark of the ice bear
In the tears of the dragon
And you’d better start wishing
There is a fire star coming
Stay with me, my love….
There is a sign in the heavens
Another light in the darkness
And you’d better start wishing
There is a fire star coming
“The Fire Eternal”
It’s like breathing in several degrees of the sun
The ice and the fire all rolled into one
And look at the shape of the man you’ve become
It ain’t easy, touching the sky
It ain’t easy, learning to die
It ain’t easy, stepping outside of the circle
Into the Fire Eternal
How could you think this is all we were worth?
My love for you beats at the heart of the Earth
I was around with the stars at their birth
It ain’t easy, turning the page
It ain’t easy, taking the stage
It ain’t easy, facing the final rehearsal
Before the Fire Eternal
And, hey, what you thought was finality
Preys on your fears of mortality
Here, in this changing reality world
Stand on the edge of the light with me
Take in the wonders of flight with me
in this calling, truth and love are one … om
Atoms and dust at the core of your star
But what you perceive here is not what you are
The journey to wisdom is not very far
It ain’t easy, taking the stage
It ain’t easy, turning the page
It ain’t easy, stepping outside of the circle
Into the Fire Eternal
Into the Fire Eternal
Love is the Fire Eternal….
The first line of the “Fire Eternal” lyric was inspired by a line David speaks in Dark Fire, in response to a question that Zanna asks.
Chris also has several other songs, unrelated to the Last Dragon Chronicles, posted on the Internet at www.myspace.com/chrisdlacey.
And for those few of you who have been astute enough to notice the dots at the beginning and end of the poem at the conclusion of the third book, Fire Star, yes, that does mean that the published lines are only a snippet of a longer piece. They are an abridged (and slightly adapted) version of a poem Chris wrote, again from David’s point of view, called “G’lant.” G’lant is an invisible dragon, given to Zanna by David when he has been pierced through the heart with a spear of ice. For the first time in print, here it is in full:
“G’lant”
That night I gave you a Valentine dragon,
a fissure opened deep within the Earth
and all below me tilted. Frosted crystals
chimed the air, melting on your tender kiss
as all your warmth and bliss came mine,
for one degree of sway, of time.
On that beat, my heart struck up
a plangent chord and drew
whatever magma rose to light
that single shining spark within
your dark, breathtaking eyes.
So brown, so like the Earth herself.
This moving ground, this slanted shelf.
Here is my quest, my pledge to you:
that life and all its tangled plights
could not call down a single wake
to quench this dragon’s winter task.
Until the stars have blinked their last,
wherever on this Earth you walk,
he will arouse, excite, inspire,
and keep alight that spark,
this fire.
I trust you’ve found this ramble through the Last Dragon Chronicles and its author’s life entertaining and informative, but I really can’t finish this book without a last word from Gadzooks — which is, of course, hrrr….
I usually split this up into two categories — human and dragon. Let’s deal with the human first. It’s very hard for me not to choose David, as he is based on me when I was a young man. If the series had gone no further than Fire Star, I probably would have chosen him. Of course, there are many characters I could opt for. Gwilanna has been fantastic to write — villains always are. And Anders Bergstom intrigues me as much now as he ever did in Icefire. But the human I really like is Zanna (and her “alternative” in Fire World, Rosa). She has a lot to deal with throughout the series. I love her spirit, particularly the way she copes with David’s disappearance in The Fire Eternal. And she’s a great mum. I would have loved to have met her when I was David’s age!
As for the dragons. I’m in danger of being seriously scorched, here, by the ones I leave out. Seriously, I love them all. They make me laugh and cry in equal measure. Sentiment says I should pick Grace, because she will probably never get over having her ears broken by David. In the end, if I’m forced into a corner, it comes down to two. Gretel is just brilliant. Her feistiness, especially in Icefire, is legendary. I like the way you can never be quite sure about her and how she thinks the other Pennykettle dragons are “useless.” But even she would forgive me for choosing the one and only Gadzooks as my favorite. How could a writer not choose the writing dragon? Notice that The Fire Ascending is dedicated to him. That just about says it all.
Again, very, very difficult to choose. For a long time I would have picked The Fire Within, because it’s not a book about squirrels and it’s not a book about dragons; it’s a book about creativity and where ideas come from — a subject close to a writer’s heart. When I wrote Dark Fire, that took over as my favorite for a while. It has so many lovely twists and turns and it was great to write about Gawaine, the queen dragon, coming out of stasis. Then came Fire World, and my feelings changed again. At the end of Dark Fire, I knew I had to come up with something spectacular to explain the ending at Scuffenbury Hill. It was a real gamble to dive into the alternative world of Co:pern:ica, but, boy, was it good fun! A small number of readers just didn’t get it. But those that did couldn’t praise it enough. I absolutely adore Fire World. I don’t think it’s the best book of the series, but it is my favorite — just.
The Fire Ascending, without a doubt. It wraps everything up so beautifully. Again, I took risks. I knew I wanted to go back in time and examine the story of Guinevere and Gawain, but I wasn’t expecting to write a 20,000 word chunk of prehistory without any chapter breaks that didn’t include any of the known characters (or barely any) and introduced a villain we hadn’t met before! That spirit of adventure set the tone for the rest of the book. It was just a question then of how to mix the old with the new and bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. I think The Fire Ascending contains some of the best bits of writing I’ve ever done.
The only two characters that weren’t entirely made up are David and Zanna. David is a name I’ve always liked and wouldn’t have minded being called. Zanna came about after I met a girl at a signing who called herself that. She was a Goth and very striking. I asked her if “Zanna” was an Eastern European name, to which she replied, “No, it’s short for Suzanna, you …” I won’t repeat the rest! I thought it was such a cool name and immediately wrote it into Icefire. Nearly all the other names, including Gadzooks, just floated into my consciousness when their character was first introduced. It rarely takes me more than a minute to find something I like or that seems appropriate. And the character will soon tell you if the name is wrong; they dig their heels in and refuse to be written. I was really struck
with Ingavar (the polar bear), because it conjures up an image of a hugely powerful and courageous bear. It was always good fun making up names for the Inuit characters. Tootega was my favorite. Voss was interesting. I wanted to give the opening section of The Fire Ascending a vaguely Scandinavian feel. I typed “Norway” into Google and one of the first words I saw was “Voss” (an area of Norway). I liked it and it stuck. Henry Bacon, I have to confess, is a slight homage to Mr. Curry, the annoying neighbor in the Paddington Bear books. Curry? Bacon? See the connection? Many people have asked if the use of the names Gawain, Guinevere, and Arthur is some kind of nod to the Arthurian legends. No, not at all. I just liked the sound of them. Gawain, particularly, is a wonderful title for a dragon.
There’s an old saying that goes, “every story is as long as it needs to be.” I don’t think anyone quite expected seven books at a time when trilogies were all the rage, but I always felt that if the story was there I would be happy to continue adding to the series. I did consider writing The Fire Ascending as two books, where book one would have dealt with the historical stuff (Agawin, Grella, etc.) and book two the Ix inversion. But after a little discussion with my editors we felt that one volume would be enough. I did cut out a long history of Co:pern:ica, and I would have seriously liked to have dedicated more chapters to Gwilanna’s illumination to Gawain. But I’d rather people have a book, not a doorstop. I’m happy with the way things worked out. As for the ending, would you believe I didn’t know the exact ending until a few days before I wrote it? I decided from the start (well, from Icefire onward) that I would write these books “organically.” In other words, I wouldn’t plan them at all but would just let them take me wherever they wanted to go, to keep them “true” to what David does when he writes Snigger and the Nutbeast for Lucy. With every book, I always knew what the beginning would be, and I had a vague idea of the ending. Everything in between was an adventure! It’s a scary way to write, but for me it’s the only real way to do it. I placed my faith in the Universe — and let Gadzooks do the rest! Of course, there is a great responsibility on a writer to wrap up a big series in a satisfactory manner. I’m well known for leaving dreadful cliffhangers at the end of my books. I couldn’t allow that to happen with The Fire Ascending. It had to have a definite end and it had to be good, but more than that, it had to be different. I came up with the idea of the interview sequence before I started the book, but didn’t tell anyone except Jay about it until it was done. I’m absolutely thrilled with the way it came out. It puts the whole series into perspective and is both funny and moving in equal measure. The closing lines didn’t really come to me until very near the end. What I like about them is how they address the two main themes of the series, i.e., the power of the mind to create ideas and whether dragons exist — or not.
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