Dragon Moon Press Newsletter

Quests have been a mainstay of storytelling for millennia, going back to the earliest folk tales and legends. Beowulf? A quest. Greek and Roman mythology? More quests. King Arthur? Too many quests to count, including the big one: the Quest for the Holy Grail. Indeed, the 21st Century fantasy genre might not exist in a form we would recognize without the very famous quest in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

It might seem that quests have been done so often that nothing new can be added. Yet they remain popular. What gives quests their staying power? I believe the idea of the quest is compelling because it calls on some of our deepest instincts. Take travel, for instance. Humans are curious, with a powerful urge to roam. We need to find out what's beyond the next hill. Yet many of these stories come to us from eras when travel was difficult. There could be robbers in the woods and wild animals in the mountains. Good maps were impossible to come by. Going on a journey was a big deal.

Today, humans still have inquiring minds. If you've ever read travel brochures or articles about adventure sports, like mountain climbing, you might have noticed how they emphasize exploration and discovery. They're designed to appeal to our sense of adventure. So do quests. Humans also have an innate longing to reach beyond our own trivial lives. We want to be part of something grand and wonderful. An epic tale provides that. As the characters triumph, the reader shares that feeling.

Speaking of characters, the main character(s) are almost always very heroic. They're the kind of people we can relate to, yet admire. Often the leader is a brave man, like an Arthurian knight -- but not always. Goose girls and farmer's sons can also go on quests. When the humble rise to greatness, we feel that we can, too. (Even if "greatness" just means answering telephones in an office somewhere.) For a writer, the quest has a lot of bonuses:

Everyone knows what a quest is. You don't have to explain anything before readers can enjoy your book.
With a quest, the story automatically has a purpose. And there's a natural conclusion.
The quest is usually important, so it has urgency. There's often a time limit, which raises the stakes further.
Quests often include dramatic figures like kings or wizards.
Being out on the road means there will be lots of chances for setbacks. Ambushes, washed-out bridges, you name it. Delays to the quest raise the stakes yet again.
The characters are out of their comfort zone. They might not know all the rules, so there can be social complications as well as logistical ones.
Readers will expect the quest to end in victory, but there are any number of ways a writer can add their own gothic or ironic spin.

So don't give up your search for the perfect story! Even after all these centuries, the quest still has a lot to offer us.

QUESTS from Dragon Moon Press
MOREVI by Tee Morris	ALIEN REVELATION by Tony Ruggiero	THE DARKLING BAND by Jason Henderson

News, Updates and Articles

VIRTUAL EVIL, written by Jana Oliver, won a Gold Medal for Science Fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
It also won an Honorable Mention from ForeWord Magazine in the Science Fiction category! VIRTUAL EVIL is the second book in Jana's award-winning Time Rover series. Congratulations, Jana!

From Selina Rosen, author of SWORD MASTERS.
Dragon Moon Press will be publishing my new book, JABONE'S SWORD, the sequel to SWORD MASTERS. I just got home from Con-quest in Kansas City where I was a guest author. It was a great convention which of course to me means I sold a lot of books. I will be Toastmaster at Sooner-Con in Oklahoma City on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June. I will be a guest at Apollo-con in Houston Texas June 27th-30th and at Conestoga in Tulsa OK July 25th-27th.

Also, I just sold stories to Esther Friesner's new anthology WITCH WAY TO THE MALL and the horror magazine COVER OF DARKNESS.

From Jeanette Cottrell, author of THE SHADEBINDER'S OATH, and editor of the wondrous newsletter you're reading now--
I've finally found a little courage! I'm releasing my first book, a young adult fantasy titled THERE'S NO SUCH THING! as a podiobook. It's now available for download at podiobooks.com. As I'm abnormally shy, it was a real trauma forcing myself to talk into the microphone. Fortunately, I bullied my husband and son into helping me with it. I've got a contest running, too--check out the details below.

From Karen Webb, author of THE CHALICE OF LIFE
Well, I've got nice news! Gwen sent the contract for the second book in my series, TAPESTRY OF ENCHANTMENT. It's possible that Dragon Moon Press will take the entire series!
The first book I edited for Virtual Tales, The Haunting of Melmerby Manor, went live a few weeks ago. It's not the fantasy genre in which I usually write, but another of my favorite genres: paranormal murder mysteries (i.e., paranormal elements, but ultimately the ghosts didn't do it).
I've finally at the end of my first year of doing CONs. I sense an article coming on... I have a new reason for CON-crawling. A friend and I have purchased a business called Mad Science (science enrichment for kids) which adapts easily to subjects that are CON-crowd friendly like Harry Potter Potions 101 or the Elven Magic of Galadriel.

This brings on another story--the Tolkein Festival 2008 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. I was asked to run a game and came up with Tolkien Jeopardy. Left to right are contestant Mike Crawford, myself, and my business partner Laurie Larsen. I went in my nice Renaissance Italian SCA garb and introduced myself as the lovely Luthien Tinuviel *after* she married Beren and became mortal. (I'm afraid I decided she became subject to the usual middle-aged mortal female afflictions of aging and putting on weight). I introduced my business partner as my mom Melian (Laurie's actually about 10 years younger than I am, but, hey, we're both dark as described in the Silmarillion and Melian, and at one point we would have looked younger, since she remained immortal and was a Maia to begin with). Then Laurie and I regarbed as Professors McGonagall and Trelawney (my husband stood in as Snape---he does a bang-up Snape voice, although without the British accent---and Laurie's daughter Alisa we introduced as the new prefect of Ravenclaw) to do a Harry Potter Potions 101 class with the KidCON group.
This is part of my new endeavor as the co-owner of the local chapter of Mad Science, a program that delivers science enrichment activities to kids and is headquartered on Dragon Moon Press's side of the border (in Montreal).

From Erik Buchanan, author of SMALL MAGICS
Look for me at Polaris 22 this summer. I'm a Guest Author!" Polaris 22 will be held in Toronto at the DoubleTree By Hilton - Toronto Airport., July 11 to 13, 2008. I"ll be doing a reading of Small Magics, and teaching two theatrical fighting workshops: Instant Kung Fu and Things that Make You Go "Eeewww!" (a workshop on dirty fighting).

Jeanette Cottrell, author of THE SHADEBINDER'S OATH, is holding a CONTEST!

Win actual real books you can hold in your hands, --your choice of either THE SHADEBINDER'S OATH, an adult fantasy, or a combo set of Jeanette's two Young Adult titles THERE'S NO SUCH THING! and SLIDING ON RAINBOWS.

To enter, all you need to do is listen to the first episode of THERE'S NO SUCH THING! using the link at right and e-mail your answer to the following 'question' to jeanettecottrell (at) msn (dot) com.

Name three characters in the first chapter who have a speaking part.

For more details, and another free offer, check out Jeanette's most recent newsletter here.

Dragon Moon Press | Gwen Gades, Publisher

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