Patrick Young: Writing Part 4

I lost an old friend on March 31 of this year. It put me in a weird place. But I survived. I’m back now. And I want to talk about it.

I grew up with many extraordinary people in my childhood. I’ve tried to keep up with all of them, but it’s rather tricky as more time goes by. Despite modern technology and things like Facebook and other instant messengers that provide immediate communication, people grow apart.

After I finished my first book, Yuri And The Dragon Key, I decided to reach out to some old friends. If nothing else, to make contact again. And also to spread the word that I had written this kick-ass book and I wanted everyone to know about. Let’s be honest about it.

One of my friends that I reached out to was Patrick Young. He and I used to watch old James Bond movies when we were kids. The ones with Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and George Lazenby. Man, we LOVED On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it had some killer ski scenes which we went gaga over as we also skied together. The last movie we saw together was The Living Daylights, and we both decided we couldn’t stand Timothy Dalton as Bond (I DO like him in Flash Gordon, but that’s another post for another day).

Anyway, Patrick moved to Los Angeles after our freshman year in college to study film. He ended up staying there permanently. He even lived in an apartment where he could see the famous Hollywood sign from his balcony. So, yeah, you guessed where I was going with this. I needed to see what my Hollywood friend thought about my book. Maybe he knew some people and could even get me a contract to have this bad boy put on film.

Anyway, I emailed Patrick. We would later (just weeks later) meet again to have dinner in Charlotte and discuss the book. It was the first time we would see each other in years. He told me that YATDK had sparked something in him and that he wanted to be the official voice of my series The Kon’s Wrath Saga and create the audiobooks.

Unfortunately, we both got busy after Covid ended and didn’t get around to the audiobooks. I kept thinking that I needed to contact him to see if he was still up for pursuing the project, but I didn’t get around to it. And then he died. It was totally unexpected. I couldn't believe it. But that’s how life goes sometimes. Anyway, I’m writing this so that everyone else can see the impact Patrick had in just one small part of my life. And, I think you can see what a talented writer he was as well.

The following are our emails leading up to our first meeting in years. Unfortunately, it would also be the last time we would see each other.

Ahoy From The East Coast Party Town Of Lex Vegas

Yo Patrick,

Extremely long time no talk. Hope the West Coast is much more exciting during a pandemic than Lexington, where there still remains little to do. You're still not missing anything here.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you that my book Yuri And The Dragon Key just came out January 29, 2021. Thought you might find it interesting/amusing since we grew up inventing all those fascinating stories that we would act out as the aspiring young actors we wished to be.

You can get it at BarnesAndNoble.com at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/yuri-and-the-dragon-key-d-s-siceloff/1138550521.

Or, you can get the Amazon Kindle version for only $0.99.

Not try to bug you, but thought you might find it fun...especially when the world is so boring right now.

Hope all is well!

Peace!

Daniel Siceloff

Daniel,

I hope you’ll forgive my late response to your email but I hope the length and depth of this email will make up for it.

You were so cool to personally reach out to me to let me know about your book. I spent $100 buying three hardcover copies on May 1st – one for myself and two to give away.

I read your book in one sitting last weekend. All 230 pages and seventeen subdivided chapters. Here are my thoughts:

Page 2: RedBand Publishing. Clever.

Page 3: I had to go to YouTube to gloss your epigraph because I’d never heard of Rhapsody. Most epigraphs reference some obscure, arcane, 12-volume work on something translated from a foreign language centuries ago. Yours is a song that runs less than 90 seconds. That alone must be something unique in literature.

First question: Where did the name Yuri Yountz come from? Your hero has a Slavic first name and a last name that reminds me of some kid named Brian we went to Dunbar Elementary with. I’ll go with it, however.

First tangent: This is not my kind of book but that’s not your fault. Science fiction is not my genre. If I had to pick one North Carolina author whose complete works I could take with me to a desert island, it wouldn’t take me long to pick Thomas Wolfe over Orson Scott Card. I’ve read exactly one book each by Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, and Frank Herbert. (Try to guess which three books. You’re right!) People like me tend to latch onto concrete, real world references that pepper science fiction works and cling to them – like when you mention “The Gold Rush of 1898” (10), or when Yuri looks out the windows of the Sour Dough Express and sees the peaks of the Yukon looking exactly the way they would look to us now, or when Professor Eldritch starts his “Modern” History class with the birth of Athenian Socratic scholarship. Those references are fleeting, however, and we readers must let those pass and remember that this is an exercise in suspension of disbelief and we’re either along for the full ride or we’re not.

It appears religion may have disappeared by your 22nd century. Even though there is still “Christmas Break” at the Academy (12), people “thank god” with a small ‘g’ (20) and thank “The Lord of Steel” rather then the Lord, Thy God. (165) I like to hear some backstory on what finally happened to religion and whether any souls, or “S.O.U.L.s” are still being saved. Perhaps Professor Eldritch could tell me. At least Yuri still believes in karma. (88)

On page 40, Yuri thinks how “Lucky for him, all fifth-years got their own room so that they didn’t have to have a roommate.” Wow. What a snap to ***** *****[Name Deleted]! And did the Granville Towers cafeteria ever serve Gelagurt? All I can remember is a lot of chicken.

COMPLIMENTS:

I love section four of Chapter One. The third paragraph of page 16 is really beautiful writing. I found the character of James fascinating and I was sorry to see him go so soon. I would love to have him return in the next book and have one of those rare heart-to-heart talks with his stepson, whether Yuri wants it or not, that only middle-aged alcoholics can have. Their relationship has a lot going on and has potential to expand. It intrigues me...As do “robomance parties.” (19)

“He couldn’t imagine that there was even an entire world outside The Net. But there was, or so he was told.” I like when you end sections like you do on page 35. The ending of Chapter 5, with Yuri’s nightmare, is absolutely terrific, Daniel; but I think Chapter 12, The Road, might be my favorite chapter of all. The pacing, the suspense and the writing are all first rate. One overall complement is how great the symbolism is of students learning from a teacher about when and “how the Net changed life” (60) and how an entire society became “trapped by the Net”. Aren’t we all now?

I’m sure you already know how great your Mercurian short story is; so I don’t need to dwell on it. (It’s fucking great, though. Oh, wait, that’s page 173!)

CRITICISMS:

The early-90s slang that the boys use with each other is a bit distracting and anachronistic. I don’t believe anyone would talk like that in a hundred years or so. Slang is tricky. The most brilliant writers can invent their own argot, like Anthony Burgess did for his teenage characters in Clockwork Orange. You’ve come up with some cool new terms for your world, from ro-dos to Robo-Dra-Go-Gons. I would encourage you to come up with some cool new slang as well.

Finally, the Jupiter-Arias-is-Yuri’s-father is obviously derivative of Darth-Vader-is-Luke’s-father; but it’s still a kick-ass ending and I remember well that you always had the most Star Wars toys of all of us, from the Millennium Falcon to the Ewok’s Village.

That’s all for now. I never knew that you had this talent in you. I remember having dinner with you at the Franklin Street Burger King on our first ever night in college and talking together about what we expected from our college education. You never mentioned any aspiration to be a writer. I knew that you probably would not spend your life drilling cavities out of the rotten teeth of strangers; but I didn’t know that you would one day put an entire world that you created in your head into print. You did that; and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I’m flying back to North Carolina tonight. Annie finally has the chance to get her daughter baptized after coronavirus knocked it off the calendar last year. Guess where she lives now? Chapel Hill! My whole family will be there, which will be awesome because we did not even get to spend Christmas together. I love any excuse I can get to come back there.

Incidentally, I never thought of Lexington the way Yuri thinks of Dawson - as some “backwater, rundown mess of a city.” (10) Here I am in Hollywood, California on Tax Week 2021; and my tax returns are still being handled by little old Turlington & Co. @ 509 East Center Street! Whenever we are at our family farm outside of Thomasville, btw, we head in to Lexington at least once to hit up the Bar-B-Q Center. Perhaps next time we do that could be a chance for you and I to finally meet back up in person. I’d like to talk to you about audiobooks. And robomance parties.

Your very proud “growing-up friend,” (23)

Patrick

Patrick,

Thank you so much for your very kind analysis of YATDK. It truly made my day.

I’m going to respond to some, but not all, of your questions/responses as many of them will be answered in the next few books and I don’t want to spoil the fun for you. You’d actually be surprised at how I’ve been stopped multiple times around town while riding my bike by people who “have a couple questions that they would like to talk to me about.” Although I wrote the book intending for it to have a target audience of the Young Adult (specifically boys aged 13-17), it’s really taken off with women 65+. Please explain THAT ONE to me.

I’m happy that you mentioned that you read YATDK in one sitting. I actually designed the book so that it could be read in 1-2 sittings while on the beach (or anywhere, for that matter).

So, Yuri’s name? That’s what you want to know? I came up with this story and thought about it for a year before even really starting world-building on notecards and such. RedBand, Mercury, and Jupiter were names that I kept dreaming about. I actually planned the whole story around the last chapter and worked my way back, but chose to wait until I got to the final chapter to actually write it so that I could enjoy it more. It really was fun. Anyway, Yuri is “short” for Mercury, and Yountz just had a good ring to it. I’m sure if I looked over my hundreds of notecards there might be a more interesting answer. (I know for a fact that there is already a theme song for Robo-Dra-Go-Gons...but you’ll find that out later.)

Mercurian, The Demon-Dog Who Eats Children’s Souls? Mercurian came to me in a dream in 2014. In my original dream, Mercurian is a demon dog that can change form and preys on children to kidnap them and then ransom them back to their parents for jewelry. In the dream I promised him that I would not forget him. He got modified a bit when I started writing his story, but you get the point.

Science fiction books you’ve read? Soooooo, Ender’s Game, Starship Troopers, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and Dune? Lemme know if I’m right/wrong.

I don’t think you asked “Why the Yukon?” I’ll tell ya anyway. There’s this Finnish symphonic metal band I like called Nightwish. A few years ago, the keyboardist released an instrumental solo album titled “Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge,” based on the graphic novel “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” by Don Rosa. Yeah, you can guess the rest. I read the book, got inspired, and began traveling in Scrooge’s footsteps. You’d be surprised where it’s led me, most notably: Dawson. I love that town. The Sour-Toe Express came from the Sour-Toe Cocktail you can drink there in the Downtown Hotel. Look that one up. I’m officially in the club and have the card to prove it. (Note: Don Rosa is a really cool dude, more popular in Europe, but isn’t the best stuff also?)

Religion...my dad has always told me not to discuss politics or religion in the dental office. Your thoughts on the subject matter are very intriguing to me.

Yuri’s single room? Ha! Yeah, you nailed that one. Good memory, by the way!

James Yountz is a very interesting character to me also. That story arc will be concluded. Don’t you worry. Wink, wink.

It means a lot that you enjoyed reading the book. That was entire purpose of it. Escapism. Simple. Something fun. I’m hoping for a December release for “Savage Savior” (Book #2).

Ahhhh, Chapel Hill. Ya know, I was so excited when out of the blue we were in rooms across the hall from one another, however briefly that may have been. I too remember discussing what we thought college would be like at the end of our teenage years. It’s always great to return to Chapel Hill. I hope the baptism reunion is wonderful for the entire family. Enjoy that precious time with everyone!

As for Dawson/Lexington having that backwater, run-down feel to it? I don’t really think that way about either town. Otherwise, I wouldn’t still live here...I think. It’s fun for the story though, and I think that a lot of teenagers DO actually feel that way at that age in a small town.

So, tell me. How’s Hollywood? I want to leave that question as vague as possible so that it is very open-ended. I’ve only been to California twice (both times to San Francisco and Napa). I’ve always wanted to visit Hollywood/LA.

Robomance parties? Book 2.

Audiobook? I’m interested. Let’s talk. I’ve actually been trying to figure out how to do just that. Too many projects, too little time. My original thought about that was to have two different versions: one read by a male voice and one read by a female voice (Kate Hedrick, my editor). I thought having two different recordings where the listener could choose which one (or compare them) would be kind of cool.

Peace out, growing-up friend. It’s great to hear from you!

Sincerely,

ds

Much More Than "Growing-Up Friends"