Three Questions with Derrick Ferguson

Given the recent release of Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask Derrick Ferguson a few nagging questions.

1)Your previous novel, Dillon and the Voice of Odin, has a few horror-like elements, but in Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell you fully embrace certain horror elements and mix them in with the spy genre in a fascinating way. What's more, you make it seem effortless. Is there any precedent for a "James Bond meets Cthulhu" type mishmash and what inspired you to go this route?

Just my own perverse desire to mash genres and see if I can get away with it. I like the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink nature of Dillon's adventures and it helps me from getting bored with the long and sometimes tedious process of writing a novel. In the original draft of GOLDEN BELL (which was easily twice the length of the finished book) there was doubt if Tikon actually existed or was just part Evarghan Trout's madness. But during the rewrite I said, what the hell and just went for broke.

2) Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell is the sequel to your previous novel Dillon and the Voice of Odin. What prompted you to revisit the character of Dillon and does this book actually take place in sequential order or does The Golden Bell take place prior to The Voice of Odin?

In my original Dillon Chronology GOLDEN BELL actually took place before VOICE OF ODIN. But since VOICE OF ODIN happened to be published first, I futzed around with the chronology so that now, yes: GOLDEN BELL takes place roughly a year after the events of VOICE OF ODIN.

3) One thing I enjoy about the Dillon novels is the glimpses of the world and people around him. Dillon does not exist in a vacuum and many of the bit players and movers and shakers you bring into the story are just as interesting as Dillon (for example: Brandon, a boy with an organic computer brain, adventurer Eli Creed, mercenary Awesome Times, director of the American Intelligence Machine John Velvet, and the list goes on and on) --and some of them share a history with Dillon. Do you have any plans to revisit Dillon in the future, and if so can you divulge who among your wide ranging cast of characters might show up?

Growing up I loved reading comics, novels and TV shows where the supporting cast was just as interesting and fascinating as the main character. Any of the supporting players in a Dillon adventure could easily take center stage and star in their own story and indeed, I have gotten many requests for an Eli Creed story.

And I do deliberately have Dillon and the other characters refer to events and characters outside of whatever adventure they're involved in now because that's what people do in real life: they talk about past events, or relate stories about things that have happened to them or refer to other people and places.

Will Dillon be returning? You bet your bullets he will. If my plans don't go gangagley later on this year you'll be seeing THE ADVENTURES OF DILLON, VOL. I which will collect all of the Dillon short stories and novelettes that have been floating around on various web sites over the past few years. At last I've gotten off my lazy ass and put them together in one book along with two new stories: "Dillon And The Last Rail To Khusra" and "Dead Beat In Khusra" which finds Dillon once again trading insults and danger with his frienemy, your Sly Gantlet.

And then after that will be DILLON AND THE PIRATES OF XONIRA which will see a lot of the characters from GOLDEN BELL returning.