R. M. Productions Ltd (2009)
ISBN 9780981013503
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 11) for Reader Views (6/09)

Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is pleased to interview Shiraz, who is here to talk about his new book “Defenders of the Scroll.”

Shiraz was raised just outside Toronto, Canada, but has since lived and worked in Germany, Japan, and Australia as a software developer. Shiraz has typically developed business software, but more recently, he has been making the move to video games. He designed and project managed the games for several interactive movies including “Snowbirds,” which won the 2006 Intellichoice Awards, and “The Dolphin Bay Project,” which has been showing at MOTE Marine Labs in Florida for five years now. He also just posted his first iPhone game, “Drop Zone Elite,” on the app store through his company Gambatte.

Shiraz has been writing for fun all his life, but it wasn’t until he teamed up with Rupinder Malhotra, at R.M. Productions, to create several Series Bibles for a children’s animated series, that he took his writing to a professional level. “Defenders of the Scroll” is actually based on one of those bibles.

Tyler:  Welcome, Shiraz. I’m happy that you could join me today. To begin, will you tell us about the land of Mythos where “Defenders of the Scroll” is set? What makes it a special place?

Shiraz:  Thanks for having me, Tyler. It’s a pleasure to be here. Mythos is much like other places we’ve seen in fantasy novels. It has wizards and warriors. It has creatures that are both strange and magical, some of which are familiar to us like ettins and many new beasts like the bulgors. But there are really three versions of Mythos to talk about. The one I just described; the utopia that was created when Mythos’s king, Mornak, had banished all the evil to the Hall of Shadows; and the dark shadowy realm that Mythos becomes when the evil begins to escape from the Hall. This last Mythos is where most of the story takes place.

Tyler:  Will you explain to us more about what the Hall is and how evil escapes from it?

Shiraz:  King Mornak, who is also a wizard, created the Hall as a magical prison. It has held the evil in the land for almost a decade. However, the evil has infected the Hall and turned it into a sentient, I want to say evil force but I think I’m using the word evil too often. I’ll just go with it. We’re talking about a lot of evil now, and the Hall is letting that evil out, not to destroy, but to torment and corrupt people, so that it can feed off all the negative emotions and grow more powerful.

Tyler:  Shiraz, will you also explain to us what is significant about the Scroll mentioned in the title and why it needs to be defended?

Shiraz:  The Scroll is the receptacle of all of Mornak’s power. It can be used to destroy the Hall or make it invincible. The Hall, of course, wants the latter and, fortunately for our heroes, that’s really what’s keeping them alive. The Hall won’t risk damaging the Scroll so, as long as the teens possess it, the Hall won’t just blast them with a fireball or something like that.

Tyler:  What is the dire situation that develops at the novel’s opening?

Shiraz:  When the novel opens, Mornak realizes that something is wrong in Shadow Wood, the place where the Hall is hidden, but he’s not sure what. He has his first encounter with one of the Hall’s minions.

Tyler:  Will you give us a description of Dara and the group of heroes who come together to defend her and the scroll?

Shiraz:  Dara is the sweetest cutest little girl you’ll ever meet. When you look at her, you just want to help her out. Alex is a wise-cracking teen guitarist from our world. While he has no fighting skills, he’s read the fantasy books, played the games, and watched the movies, so nothing about Mythos really surprises him and he often knows what to do when no one else does. Scorpius is a Roman legionnaire, normally gruff, but now way more so because he’s stuck in a strange world when he should be helping his army on the battlefield. Maya is a cocky Amazon archer suddenly stuck in the company of what she hates most: men. Luckily, they aren’t as bad as she’s been told. Bantu is a mighty African warrior whose size and strength are dwarfed only by his heart. He’s a teddy bear to those who know him and a grizzly to those who don’t. Genjuro is a swift Samurai who is in wonder of the world he’s been yanked into and eager to show everyone that he has what it takes to survive there. And Tenzin is a Shaolin monk who seems to remain calm in the worst circumstances and always has a bit of wisdom to share.

Tyler:  Shiraz, will you tell us about how the heroes have been yanked into Mythos?

Shiraz:  Wow. I feel like I’m giving too much away. I’ll tell you about Alex since he’s the first one to arrive. Alex is the leader of a teen garage band called the Axemen who are hoping to sign a recording contract. On Mythos, Dara who is cut off from her father, tries to use the Scroll to summon Senufer, the leader of her father’s elite guard,the Axemen. Well, she gets the leader of the Axemen, just the wrong one.

Tyler:  Shiraz, will you tell us more about the enemy, the Shadow Lord, and his background?

Shiraz:  He’s not a nice guy. He is an evil wizard, the first person to be set free from the Hall, and the most powerful. While the Hall is the ultimate evil power, it is still new and learning. The Shadow Lord provides it with his wisdom and experience and becomes its eyes and ears in the realm.

Tyler:  What does the Shadow Lord ultimately hope to gain from possessing the Scroll?

Shiraz:  The Scroll holds the essence of Mornak’s magic, magic that also created the Hall. They are linked. If the Hall can absorb the magic of the Scroll, it would become the greatest source of power in the realm.

Tyler:  I understand “Defenders of the Scroll” has won several awards. Will you tell us about the awards and also the responses you’ve received from your readers?

Shiraz:  The list so far is…

2009 National Indie Excellence Awards
Winner: Fantasy and Best Editing Fiction categories
Finalist: Action-Adventure and Young Adult Fiction categories

2009 Next Generation Indie Awards
Finalist: Multicultural Fiction, Best Overall Design Fiction, and eBook Fiction

2009 New York Book Festival
Honorable Mention: Sci-Fi category

2009 Beach Book Festival
Honorable Mention: Sci-Fi and Teenage categories

2009 San Francisco Book Festival
Honorable Mention: Wild Card category

I haven’t had much response from readers yet since the book debuts this month, but several kids (who don’t know me) have loved it, and a few adults too.

Tyler:  Our young reviewer, Ben Weldon, commented that he enjoyed the illustrations as much as the story. Would you tell us about the illustrations?

Shiraz:  Well, there’s bad news and good news about the illustrations. The bad news is that the print on demand service I’m using can only print the books in B&W, so the consumer copies won’t have color pics. However, when we found this out, the artist, Steve Criado, took the B&W versions and enhanced them, so they’re superior to a normal greyscaled version of the color pics. I’ll still have color versions available for special events, contests, and stuff. That way I can give any big fans something extra.

Steve and I worked for months in the evenings on the art, and I’m sure there were times he wanted to kill me, but I had specific images in my head that I wanted to see on paper, and I could only convey them to him through character descriptions and stick figures. So I kept rejecting stuff and drawing more sticks while he kept at it until we got to the finals. I couldn’t be happier, and I know he’s pretty proud of them too.

Tyler:  Shiraz, what do you most enjoy about creating a fantasy world?

Shiraz:  There are many things I enjoy about creating a fantasy world, but I should point out here that Mythos and the Defenders were created by Singh Khanna and Rupinder Malhotra. DotS was originally intended to be a cartoon series for kids, but Singh and Rupinder asked me to write it up as a novel. I had also written the Series Bible for DotS so I knew the characters and the world intimately. Doing the novel was a natural fit. We’re still hoping to do the series at some point. You can see what the characters would look like as cartoons at http://www.rmprods.com/

What do I enjoy most about creating a world? That feeling of satisfaction and happiness you get when you’re done and you can see this world in your mind and know all its little quirks and nuances, and yet it can still surprise you. Mythos and its characters are almost like children to me, and I’m anxious to see what happens to them as they grow.

Tyler:  Will you explain to us what you mean by “Series Bible” and how it relates to your writing of “Defenders of the Scroll”?

Shiraz:  Series Bible is almost like an instruction manual for making a television series. It tells you the premise of the show, has detailed descriptions of the characters and the main settings, and can contain summaries of proposed episodes. The DotS bible has enough information to do a full season of the show.

Tyler:  Shiraz, since you didn’t actually create Mythos and the Defenders, did you find it difficult not to let your imagination take over? Did you have certain guidelines or character traits you had to stay faithful too, and did you find this easier or more difficult than if you had written a novel about a fantasy world entirely of your own creation?

Shiraz:  My imagination did take over at times, but typically with the plot, not the characters. As I said, because of the Series Bible, I knew the characters—their attitudes and their quirks—as intimately as you know the characters from a book or movie you love. So it was much like writing fan fiction. Even a few episode ideas from the Series Bible found their way into the novel. But the story did run along on its own for the most part. We had a list of about twenty plot points made out, and I got to point one before the characters started doing things I didn’t expect. There were a couple of times where I thought to myself “Oh great, they’re all going to die” because I honestly had no idea how they were going to get out of the situations they got themselves into. This seems to be the case in all the stories I’ve written. I just have to get the characters, both good and bad, straight in my head. Once that’s done I just let them loose and see what happens.

Tyler:  Shiraz, we’ve all heard of people who have problems with fantasy novels; books from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to the Harry Potter series have been banned. What do you think is the value that fantasy provides to its readers, especially children and young adults?

Shiraz:  Whatever the settings and characters may be in a fantasy novel, they are ultimately about good and evil, morals and understanding. Every fantasy I’ve read has a hero overcoming adversity and becoming a better person for it. They face ethical decisions, and while they often make the right one, they sometimes choose wrongly and then bad things happen. If children, young adults, and even adults can learn these values from fantasies, then I don’t see the problem. I think too many adults forget what it’s like to be a kid. They love to fantasize and play out characters, but as they grow they become more practical, and the wizards and warriors only come out when they’re reading or it’s Halloween. But those lessons learned in these stories stick with you. I’ve often made the right choices because I knew that that was what King Arthur or Drizzt Do’Urden or even Frodo would do.

Tyler:  As a fantasy writer, what would you say most influenced you—any specific books, authors, or films, for example?

Shiraz:  Terry Brooks first hooked me into the genre with “The Sword of Shannara” and I’ve read almost all his books since. Stephen King’s early work like “The Stand” and “The Talisman” definitely had an impact. Tolkien, of course, whose influence is felt through so many authors. I’m currently reading R.A. Salvatore. On the comic side, I grew up on Frank Miller and Alan Moore. Movies? “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” most of Spielberg’s work, and “LadyHawke” is still one of my all-time favorites.

Tyler:  Shiraz, I understand you have plans for a sequel to “Defenders of the Scroll.” Will you tell us more about it and when readers can expect it to be published?

Shiraz:  No and no. We’re keeping information on the sequel under wraps. I can tell you that things will be notched up a level.

Tyler:  That’s okay. We all like mystery. Thank you for joining me today, Shiraz. Before we go, will you tell our readers where they can go online to find out more information about “Defenders of the Scroll”?

Shiraz:  The website is being revamped, but there’s a link there to my email, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions. There’s also http://www.rmprods.com/ and we have a Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Defenders-of-the-Scroll/100706990195. Thanks for the interview, Tyler. It was fun!

Tyler:  Thank you, Shiraz, for the interview and for sharing such a magical world with us.