Author: John Dahlgren
Title: Sagaria
Publisher: EDM
ISBN: 978-9814260527
Pages: 504, Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Author Interview with John Dahlgren
Author Interview with John Dahlgren
Interviewed by: Brandon Nolta, Pacific Book Review
Today we have the pleasure of being with John Dahlgren, author of the new fantasy book titled Sagaria and The Tides of Avarice, thank you for taking your time to be here today.
JD: Thank you for having me. It’s a real pleasure.
PBR: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
JD: Then I was about ten or eleven, I remember writing a fantasy story (more like unreadable scribbles) about gnomes helping my family out with different chores e.g. taking out the garbage (which I usually had to do) and other tasks. I don’t know where it is now, but from that moment, I never stopped writing. I took part in every short story event arranged be the school (seldom was won but it fun nevertheless). After that I studied creative and fiction writing at different universities (Oxford was perhaps the most important one as they were very strict but also fair and gave real honest opinions).
PBR: How long does it take you to write a book?
JD: Well, it depends of course whether you’ve got kids or not (joke). Normally, as these two book are quite large, it took me one year to write The Tides of Avarice and about two years to write Sagaria.
PBR: What specific inspirations did you draw on for writing your books?
JD: The Nordic sagas and mythologies has always had a place in my heart and while growing up in Sweden with it untamed landscapes, old forests, wide oceans and so on, I was inspired by them since an early age. Even today, elderly people leave out some food for the gnomes before going to bed. Silly superstition of course, but it does still have a strong impact for many Scandinavians. I got the inspiration for Sagaria many years ago when I was out walking in the woods with my dog. I saw an abandoned forest well and since I was reading a lot of fantasy novels at the time, I simply couldn’t resist fantasizing about a gate or portal leading to a parallel world or fantasy realm from that well. Of course, for a boy to wander into a magical land is by no means extraordinary when writing a fantasy book (sometimes for writers who cannot think further than their noses) but I’ve tried to emphasize on the characters themselves and what motivates them and of course to try to make them as three-dimensional as possible. I guess my background as a psychologist helped a little to get into their minds and how each character would react when facing an unusual situation. They all have their own unique personalities and backgrounds.
PBR: Which of your characters is your favorite?
JD: My favorite and the most challenging character to create was definitely the villain Captain Terrigan Rustbane in The Tides of Avarice. He was inspired somewhat from the captain in The Sea Wolf by Jack London and Long John Silver from The Treasure Island. He’s a very complex character. Highly intelligent, sophisticated but also very brutal and merciless. One might even detect schizophrenic tendencies in his behavior both in words and action. So, yes, he was quite a challenge to create. I also wanted the reader to sympathize with him, especially at the end of the book. My other favorites would be little Flip and Sir Tombin,
PBR: What kind of plans, if any, do you have for further Sagaria tales?
JD: There’s a third, large Sagaria novel being written and several Sagaria “spin-offs” are planned (not so longish though).
PBR: Certain themes, such as relying on reason over dogma, seems to crop up repeatedly. How much of that was intentional, and do you intend to expand on those in future works?
JD: The only world the lemmings know about is their small town and its surroundings. The scrupulous rulers are using an oppressive religion and dogmas as means to control the population. Anyone who questions these views is being disposed of by the regime in an ingenious and cruel way. However, they’ll not get away with it. Was I inspired by this “dictatorship” theme from real life? Yes, I was. When you’re living in a world where corrupted politicians and religious leaders get away with anything and people of good will and decency get punished for speaking out loud it has to get to you.
PBR: *Spoiler question* The end of The Tides of Avarice seemed to swing the book’s genre toward science fiction. Will future works continue in that direction, as Anne McCaffrey did with the Pern books, or will future Sagaria stories stay within the more traditional fantasy genre?
JD: I’ve always considered fantasy to being the most boundless form of literature, but as I learned at Oxford, even has to obey certain rules (it has to make sense). So, by including a little Sci-Fi was actually intentional and I think suitable.
PBR: Are you working on projects other than the Sagaria stories, and if so, what can you tell us about them?
JD: Yes, I’ve written a satire and a romantic comedy that will be released later this year. I hope they will be somewhat well received by the readers.
PBR: This all has been very interesting, and we wish you the best of success with Sagaria and The Tides of Avarice. Thank you again for joining us today.
JD: Thank you for interviewing me. It has been a pleasure.
With best regards,
John Dahlgren
