That is,
I was really and truly surprised and delighted when “Time Lost, Time Found”
was singled out by readers of the semi-annual D&D Newsletter to win
the 1999 “Eric” Award in the Elseworld category.Allow
me to quote from an interview:
"The first
thing I'd like to add is that I really am overwhelmed, since the
competition
was very strong in this category. I was never a fan of "The
X-Files",
but throwing Scully and Mulder into the Realm gave a nice balance
to
the kids while keeping the original perspective: a sword-and-sorcery
fantasy
seen from our world's point of view. (And as I told Maureen O'Brien,
she
completely won me over when the story chimed in with one of my favorite
folksingers,
the late great Stan Rogers.) And as for Vicky Bishop's "The
Dollmaker"--that
one had (sometimes very decadent) Victorian atmosphere from
the
first paragraph. I'm still eagerly awaiting the conclusion of that one.
This
isn't false modesty, but I didn't expect to win in this category!"
D&DNEWS:
What was it about the episode "The Time Lost" that inspired you to
write
"Time Lost, Time Found?"
PD:
Oddly enough, even though there's been a lot of speculative fiction on
the
theme of "What if the Nazis had won?"--especially recently--I haven't
read
any of it. Certainly the scene between Venger and the kids, where he
paints
a verbal picture of their annihilation, had a lot to do with it. It's
one
of Venger's best scenes, and some of the series' best writing. However,
there
wasn't
a special moment of inspiration; I just had a notion in passing, jotted
down
some notes, expanded on them later, then just kept going.
D&D
NEWS: The construction of the alternate world you present in "Time Lost,
Time
Found" is incredibly detailed and seamless, with such a deep knowledge
of
both historical and social factors of the WWII time period (which is what
was
part of what made it such a fabulous story!). How did you go about
constructing
history in such a believeable way?
PD:
Like a lot of ideas for fanfic, it started out just with a mental game
of
"What
if...", but I have my own interest in the Reich. My mother's family is
from
Prague, and when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia, my mother was
considered
an enemy of the state--and she was only about ten at the time.
(Long
story short: her father had fled to America; her mother was acceptable
but
she was half-suspect.) So the Nazis showed up on her doorstep to take
her
to a POW camp, although they were nice enough to wait until her 12th
birthday.
After 2 years in a camp near the Czech-German border, she and her
mother
finally were allowed to go to America as part of a Red Cross sponsored
prisoner
exchange.
I
suppose my interest in the history of that time and place is based on
growing
up hearing about that experience, and trying to answer the question,
"How
could it have happened?" It's so unlikely, so improbable, and yet there
it
was.
To
simplify matters in the story, I fantasized not a German invasion exactly,
but
a rise of home-grown fascism (which we've seen all too much of in recent
years,
I'm afraid). From there, it was logic that dictated what was what;
there
could be no Disneyland, for instance, because Walt would have had to
flee
the country. And of course anything that put the Nazis in a bad light,
like
"Casablanca", would be banned. The infrastructure would stay pretty
much
the same. It was just a matter of settling on the kids' characters,
then
following from there until they all meet up.
I
should mention one more fact about the writing of the story. I hit a block
in
the middle; had the characters set and I wanted them to meet at Coney
Island,
the ultimate amusement park. But I couldn't just create a Dungeons &
Dragons
ride. Then I saw in an antique store near my home some Life magazine
photos
of Coney from the 1950s, and I saw how the parachute tower completely
dominated
the landscape. That cleared up the block. (By the way, I've never
been
to New York, but Spike Lee's wonderful film "He Got Game" confirms that
the
parachute tower still dominates the Coney Island skyline.)
D&D
NEWS: What made you cast the gang in the roles you did? What spoke to you
about
each of them that made you create their lives in the way you did?
PD:
I knew that I had to create alternate lives for them that were very close
to
the good old gang that we know, and yet have that unique twist because
of
the
change of circumstances. In that respect, making Diana a descendant of
Jesse
Owens was a natural; it keeps the athletics connection while at the
same
time having her work against the lie of white supremacy. And when it
occurred
to me that history books would be rewritten to get rid of Jesse
Owens,
that was perfectly consistent with what fascists have done. Working
against
it gave Diana a role to play that showed off her courage, which to me
is
one of her more standout traits.
Presto
was sort of easy, changing his card tricks to the slight-of-hand of a
pickpocket.
Still, he had to be "pure of heart", so I made him a virtuous
pickpocket:
only taking from Party brass, and giving away almost everything
he
took. I gave him an Italian girlfriend partly to echo "The Last Illusion",
but
also so that I could get the word "Presto" in there somehow! ;] Bobby
still
had the baseball connection that popped up in "Night of No Tomorrow",
and
I could have done more with that in this story, but it would have been
too
much of a digression.
I
liked working with Eric in this one, because we got an expanded look at
his
home
life and his relationship with his father. (He drops some interesting
clues
about that in the series.) Like Hank, he had the courage of his
convictions,
but unlike Hank, he didn't exercise them until he absolutely had
to.
I
made Hank and Sheila a couple, clearing up THAT ambiguity. And I suppose
there's
something stealthy and Thief-like in Sheila trying to recruit Hank to
the
Resistance. Hank's being a lay brother, on the road to taking orders as
a
Catholic priest, was probably influenced by what I was reading at the time
I wrote the story. I'd just finished reading
about Pius XII and how the Vatican was, let's say, less than helpful in
defending the victims of Fascism. Yet having, by the time of the story,
the appointment of the very same pope we have now pointed to the payoff
of the story: the world was going to be set right and the kids were going
to the Realm after all.
D&D
NEWS: Besides the terrific ongoing fan fiction episode "sequels" you have
been posting at your site, do you have any other D&D projects in the
works you'd like to tell the fans about?
PD:
This current series will bring the kids home once they figure out the
"wild
magick" they have been given. I honestly don't know where else I can
take
the characters except further into the future where they end up growing
up
and facing grown-up problems as in "Return to the Realm". But, there is
one
idea that isn't going away peacefully. In "Return to the Realm" I have
Uni
promise the gang that, if the need existed and a way could be found, she
would
come to Earth to visit them. I've had a few thoughts on that one (some
of
them rather dark, I'm afraid), but I'm not really prepared to write them
down--yet.
There’s
a “last but not least” question that deserves its own page (and involves
a lot of graphics).Step
right this way…