Author Interview: Allan Richard Shickman

This week, I have interviewed Allan Richard Shickman, author of the fabulous Zan Gah series! He has very kindly answered a few of my questions. Check it out below!

1. What inspired the Zan Gah series?

 The Zan-Gah stories begin with geography. I have always maintained that a change in geography is good for an artist or author. He sees things with "fresh eyes," and what might be ignored by a long-time resident can be dramatically new to a visitor. That's the way it was with me when I left the city of St. Louis to travel across the American West by automobile to California. Most of the territory I crossed is relatively arid and largely unoccupied. It raised in my mind the question: how did people survive here before air-conditioned cars and water faucets? It was over a year before I started typing Zan-Gah, but that is how the idea came about. The first book is largely a tale of survival in a bleak and arid land.

2. Did you have to do any form of research in order to make Zan Gah an accurate depiction of prehistoric life?

 I wish I could say that the Zan-Gah stories are completely accurate, but my approach was not primarily archaeological; it was humanistic. Zan-Gah is about courage, brotherhood, and compassion, among other things. Were prehistoric people compassionate? I doubt it. Nevertheless, I tried to be accurate where it counted. I researched slings and hand fishing. I researched prehistoric twins, discovering that in some early societies twins were terribly frightening and killed immediately—and so was the mother (not the father). That information was important in the development of my plot. I had never actually been inside a cave, so I visited Onondaga, one of the world's great caves (my state of Missouri is famous for them), and was overwhelmed by the experience. I took notes furiously. I was the only guy in the whole cave who was taking notes. Some of them appear almost verbatim in the first book.

3. You have depicted such vivid landscapes in the Zan Gah series. Were they inspired by any particular place(s)?

 Yes, they were, but I have to stress that although I was inspired by my travels in the West, I had no intention of copying the geography literally, or setting my stories specifically there. If I wanted a mountain or a gulch in my story, I put it where I needed it. But I did see a great, profound gulch (in New Mexico), red rocks (in Colorado), and stone arches (Utah). There were indeed rainstorms where the water ran red. Still, I insist that the stories could take place in many places: Turkey, Africa, Asia, Europe. You may remember how Zan confronted a snake. Well, it was a rattlesnake until I realized that that species only lives in North America; so I took it out, and turned it into a hissing variety. I didn't want to glue myself to North America. Too bad, really. I liked Zan being frightened by the sound of a rattle because he immediately knew what it was.

4. Which of all your characters do you think you're most like? In what ways?

 It is said that Dickens was Scrooge, and that Dostoyevsky was old Fyodor Karamazov. I'm sure there is some truth to that. Some authors model their characters after people they have known, but I believe that most of us dredge them out of our own secret psyches. Dostoyevsky was Ivan, Dmitri, and Alyosha too—and most certainly the axe-murderer Raskolnikov. As that great author shows, people are deep wells springing from, and containing, many complex and contradictory currents. We hardly know what is half-formed inside of our minds, but I believe that every one of my characters is a part of myself—either what I am or what I want to be. In my dream life, I can be clever, thoughtful, and resourceful like Zan. And sometimes I am angry, bitter, depressed and violent like Dael—or awkward and "different" like Chul. (I hate that word, "different.") (Dwayne: I'll react to that - I totally admire Chul!)


5. How and when did you decide to become a writer?

I have always been interested in writing well, and used to record my nightmares in vigorous descriptive prose. When I became an art history professor, I was expected to publish scholarly articles, which I have done in both art history and English literature journals. Only when I retired did I get interested in writing fiction, or have the time to do it.

6. As a writer, who do you look up to and admire most?

I like the great classic novelists mostly of the 19th century. I have already mentioned Dostoyevsky, my favorite author. His stories have profundity, and cut to basic human dilemmas. His characters are magnificently believable, and have been rightly compared to Rembrandt's. One cares about the people in his books, and one wants to read the books again and again. Those are my tests for an author. I don't care a hang for a book that doesn't elicit a tear or a hearty laugh, or both. I love Thomas Hardy's novels, Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Scott's Ivanhoe, and laughed my head off at Fielding's Tom Jones and Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Huckleberry Finn is one of my favorites, and Catcher in the Rye, and......and Shakespeare. Maybe you found in Zan-Gah an echo of Othello's "antres [caves] vast and deserts idle, rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven," not to mention the Anthropophagi! Do you have Anthropophagi in England? (Dwayne: Plenty!)

7. Are you currently working on another book (maybe the third book in the Zan Gah series)? If so, can you give us a little information about it? :)

My experience is that if you talk too much about a projected book, you are much less likely to actually write it. Still, I will tell you this much: I am working on a third Zan-Gah book. It is in the dreaming stage right now. Whenever I get an idea, small or large, I write it down on a card. I will arrange the cards later. The story continues with Dael's self-imposed exile, as he seeks some sort of redemption or resolution of his life. He will go to live with the crimson people (introduced already in Zan-Gah and the Beautiful Country). I think I will call it Dael and the Painted People. But first I have to write it.


Yes! There is a third book! :) Good luck with the writing process, Allan - I do hope we get to read more of Dael's journey soon! I enjoyed this series a lot and am excited to read more, so do check them out! If you haven't yet, you can read my review of Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure HERE. My review of the outstanding sequel is found HERE.

Thank you ever so much to Allan and Bonnie for being so patient with me and for agreeing to this interview! I hugely enjoyed reading through Allan's answers - I hope you did too! For more information about the Zan Gah series, visit the official site.