About the Author:
I have been a teacher
since 1990 working in the Waldorf school system. In the Waldorf
schools, teachers have the opportunity to accompany a group of
children through their elementary and middle school years, grades
one through eight. Part of my role as teacher is to be a
storyteller. Nearly every morning, I tell the children a story that
relates to the subject we are studying. In first grade it may be a
fairy tale. In eighth grade it may be the biography of Thomas
Edison. Every day, a new story to meet the souls of the children
and fill them with powerful imaginations.
Donald is available to give presentations to schools on the creative writing process. For more information, please click on the "School Presentations" link to the left.
Click here for video of a sample talk to an elementary school in Colorado entitled: "From Inspiration to Finished Work." |
Inspiration for The Star Trilogy:
Here in the Occident,
dragons are traditionally malevolent. Bilbo’s Smaug is a classic
example, and Harry Potter continues to have bruising, and at times
blistering, run-ins with dragons. The Orient, however, takes a
different view. One rare western account that inspired me was
Fuchur, the optimistic Luck Dragon from Michael Ende’s The
Neverending Story.
Every year in
September my school celebrates a festival called Michaelmas. This
festival marks the battle of St. Michael with the dragon. Other
traditions recognize him as St. George. In one version of the
Michaelmas story, the dragon is not killed, but tamed. I have
watched this story played out in a pageant year after year. Every
Michaelmas, I tell the children in my class the story of Michael
(pronounced My-kah-el). Then came one Michaelmas and I wanted to
offer my children a different version. Questions tickled and
provoked me: How did Michael figure out how to tame a dragon? What
was his boyhood like? What good is a tame dragon, anyway?
One morning I woke up
and the beginning of this story was waiting to be remembered at the
edge of my dreams. As I told my children episodes over the
following weeks, it took the form of Books 1 and 2 of The Star
Trilogy.
About
the Story:
The wizard Aga
delivers an orphan into the care of an old woman. She has a
mysterious connection to the kingdom’s unique resident, Star, an
emerald-green luck dragon. After her death, the boy is accepted
into the dragon compound where all the workers are of the nobility.
Some scorn him, but most welcome him. The boy is simply happy to be
around his beloved Star.
One day the boy
discovers that Star will obey his commands. This uncanny influence
places him in a position of trust. Daily, all alone, he takes the
dragon to the river for a scrub. Then he discovers that Star can
talk. How the boy understands him is shrouded in the mystery of the
ancient race of Dragon Tamers. One day, Star suggests that he train
the boy to fight, thus beginning a long apprenticeship. During this
time, Star reveals the Great Secret, the one that tames the heart of
a wild dragon.
After years of
sparring together, their activities are discovered. The boy is
immediately exiled for inciting the dragon. However, Aga has
watched over him all these years, and now equips him with a horse
and armor to begin his life as a wandering knight.
