The Last Dragon Chronicles: The Fire Ascending (50 page)

THE LAST DRAGON

CHRONICLES

THE FINAL Q&A!

Author Chris d’Lacey looks

back over the series

Which is your favourite character in theseries?

It’s very hard for me not to choose David,

as he is based on me when I was a young man. 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). 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 beingseriously scorched, here, by the ones Ileave out. Seriously, I love them all. Theymake 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 favourite. How could a writer not choose the writing dragon? Notice that
 
The Fire Ascending
 
is dedicated to him. That just about says it all.

Which is your favourite book in the series?
 
Again, very, very difficult to choose. Fora long time I would have picked
 
The Fire Within,
 
because it’s a book aboutcreativity and where ideas come from - a

subject close to a writer’s heart. When I wrote
 
Dark Fire,
 
that took over as my favourite 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! I absolutely adore
 
Fire World.
 
I don’t think it’s the best book of

the series, but it is my favourite - just.

So which book is the best of the series for

you?

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. That spirit of adventure set the tone for the rest of the book. I think

The Fire Ascending
 
contains some of thebest bits of writing I’ve ever done.

Where did you get your character namesfrom? Are they made up or did you chooseany of them in homage to anything else?

The only two characters that weren’tentirely made up are David and Zanna. David is a name I’ve always liked andwouldn’t have minded being called. Zannacame about after I met a girl at a signingwho 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 polarbear), because it conjures up an image ofa hugely powerful and courageous bear. Itwas always good fun making up names forthe Inuit characters. Tootega was myfavourite. 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 neighbour 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. And why do all the dragon names begin with a ‘G’? Well, read
 
Dark Fire
 
or Jay’s
 
Rain & Fire
 
guidebook! The answer’s in there.

When did you know how the series was goingto end? Did you plan it from near thebeginning?

There’s an old saying that goes, ‘everystory is as long as it needs to be’. I don’tthink anyone quite expected seven booksat 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 theseries. I did consider writing
 
The Fire Ascending
 
as two books, where book onewould 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 which might yet turn up in a revised edition of
Rain & Fire,
 
and I would have seriously liked to

have dedicated more chapters to

Gwilanna’s illumination to Gawain.

As for the ending, would you believe Ididn’t know the exact ending until a fewdays before I wrote it? I decided from thestart 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.

The Fire Ascending
 
had to have a definiteend and it had to be good, but more thanthat, it had to be different. The closinglines didn’t really come to me until verynear 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.

What have been the highs and lows of theseries?

It’s been a delight to unwrap so muchwonderful story. As I said above, whenyou write the way I do you’re never quitesure what’s going to happen. So it’s reallyexciting when fantastic scenes pop up outof nowhere. Developing the covers hasbeen another thrill. My favourite cover is

The Fire Eternal
 
(love the planet in theeye), closely followed by
 
Fire World.
 
Someone jokingly suggested that I couldn’twrite any more books because we’ve runout of colours! Pink dragon, anyone? Maybe not.

If I had a low at all, it would be thefeeling that over a period of years, bookslike these tend to be taken for granted. People see three, four, five come out andassume they know what they’re getting.

My answer to that would be, read
 
Fire World.
 
I’m sometimes told as well that the

plots are confusing or complicated. Yes, they are, probably because of the way the books are written. And maybe it’s partly due to the fact that my two favourite television series were
 
The X Files
 
and

Twin Peaks
, which had so many layers ofintrigue that it was virtually impossible tofinish them conclusively. I learned alesson there. I think
 
The Fire Ascending
does have a strong conclusion, one whichbrings the whole series together.

What will you miss most about writing theseries?

I’ve lived with these characters for over

ten years. It’s going to seem odd not writing about them. I’ve always felt happy in Wayward Crescent and will miss visiting the kitchen at number 42. I can see Bonnington at his food bowl as I type this. More than anything, I will miss the Pennykettle dragons. Their innocence and humour and occasional mischievous

behaviour was always a joy to

experience.

Although I could see me writing anotherbook about dragons, it almost certainlywouldn’t be about those dragons. There isa degree of sadness about that. But nomatter what else I do, I will always beassociated with David, Gadzooks and the Dragons’ Den, which is fine by me. Theyhave made me what I am and I would miss

telling their stories at school visits - not that they’ll ever let me ignore them (they’re hurring in my ear even now… ).

What won’t you miss?

Writing a lengthy series like this brings itsown kind of pressures. To keep themomentum going, the books have to bedelivered regularly. That has not always

been easy. I could have written a different ending to
 
Dark Fire
 
and quit the series there, but it would have left too many unanswered questions. I could never have put the
 
Last Dragon Chronicles
 
away without feeling entirely happy about the ending.

Other than that, I don’t think there’sanything I would miss. These booksopened me up to a new genre. They havetaken me to places in the world I mightnever have visited otherwise and broughtme into contact with lots of wonderful

people. But I guess the last word should

go to the fans. I’ve had thousands of messages over the years from boys and girls (and, yes, many ‘grown-ups’)

who’ve told me the books are amazing and

even life-changing. That’s a humbling feeling when you get right down to it. I want to thank you all and say I hope you enjoyed the conclusion. One day, we will get a movie (or three) for you. Then you can say you were there at the beginning, before everyone knew the meaning of hrrr!

Chris d’Lacey

January 2012

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