A revived segment of my blog is The Author Takeover, where an invited guest is asked to contribute a blog to my site. This allows my readers to connect with more authors and celebrate the world of literary in a different way. Today, welcome Don Bourque as he talks about Dungeons and Dragons, retirement and passion. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for a special monthly question and answer with him, too!
Blog Bytes by Don Bourque
“Don, you’re getting ready to retire. What are you passionate about?”
That question was not answered quickly, or easily. I enjoy pipe band drumming, but my back was already beginning to protest. My oil painting is amateurish at best. Writing? Option 3 for the win!
Picture this. It’s October, and I’m in Grade 3. I enter and win an essay contest for Fire Prevention Week. Although that has been my only literary award to date, it did set me on a path I now choose to follow. I’ve always written here and there, mostly poetry, over the past several decades. My Grade 12 English teacher encouraged me to never stop writing.
Lots of my early poems were written in my “tortured soul” years. You all know the period: away from home (university in my case) and not having the social graces to keep cuddly company. It wasn’t until many years later that I was invited to contribute a chapter of non-fiction for a book series at the Canadian Defence Academy. The subject was my operational tour in Afghanistan in 2003. The book series is in limited distribution. I wrote more poems since then, cheerier this time, and finally answered my friend about my post retirement “career”.
I’ve also taken up the throwing of darts after a 20+ year break. This is relevant, trust me. Keep reading.
Back to the biographical sketch you’ve tuned in for. I was born and raised in Southeastern New Brunswick. I spent my teen years with a local Army Cadet Corps, and my enjoyment of the lifestyle led me to join the Army Reserve when I came of age. The 37 years I served in the Reserve Force informs my writing, as does my combined major in psychology and sociology/anthropology.
We’re told to write what we know. I’ve never met any elves and sprites personally, but by using fantasy and science fiction as a lens for real world issues, I can bring attention, and have, to racism, colonialism, and religious acceptance, among other things. That’s all found in my first trilogy, Willow’s Wake.
This begs the question of my inspiration for this first foray into published work. Aside from my part-time Army Reserve service, I also worked in public education and later in mental health. I saw bullying, and racism, and my own higher education taught me much about the colonial experience. But these were all contributors, in addition to some other factors. For one, I helped raise two stepdaughters and appreciate the strengths and resilience they’ve shown as adults. I also had a number of young people who I worked with in mental health who formed a composite muse for my first main character, Willow herself.
My first novel was in fact a trilogy of novellas itself, with a conclusion. Then, I had to add an epilogue that teases more to come, and so followed two spin-off/sequels. I won’t flog the trilogy further than to identify the titles, for anyone interested in the volumes: “Willow Awakened, Ascended, Avenged’, “The Grand Chieftain”, and “The High Priestess”.
Now, a funny story about darts. As I said, about a year ago I got back into this enjoyable pastime. To do so, I needed darts, so last summer I was looking through my basement and couldn’t find them anywhere (spoiler – I bought new darts). Serendipity had me instead find a 3.5 inch floppy disk (Remember those? Carrying a whole 1.44 MB of data!) which contained an outline, author notes of world building, for a Dungeons and Dragons styled epic quest, collecting dust for a couple of decades. I spoke to me editor, asking if there was a market for such a thing today, and he excitedly told me about a D&D revival ten years ago that’s still going strong, with people creating their own board games, et cetera. He told me that if I switched things up a bit — I did reinvent elves and sprites in my first trilogy — I could have a hit on my hands. This brings me to my Work in Progress, or WIP. It’s no longer an epic quest of a group of chosen youth in an academy setting. What it is, though is a quest that has magical elements and a “steampunk” level of technology with introductions of other settings.
I like a moral to a story, so mine is this: while I wrote on and off my whole life, my author journey began at 54. There’s no set age for you to begin your own journey, so pick up your pen!
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Thank you, Don, and thank YOU reader, for joining us today. If you’re an author who wants to be featured, please reach out and we’ll schedule your Author Takeover soon!
Happy reading!
Sarah Butland