Reader’s choice – Book review

In every quest there is a dragon—real or metaphorical—for the hero to slay. Baton Rouge author Robin Mayhall turns this plot formula on its head in her recently published The Quest for Dragon Mountain, the latest installment in Graphic Universe’s Twisted Journeys children’s series.

The Quest for Dragon Mountain combines styles of Choose Your Own Adventure, a popular series a few decades ago, and the graphic novel, now a hot literary property. Mayhall’s genre mash-up is a series of richly illustrated fantastic tales in which the dragon is the hero and aimed at imaginative tween readers.

Mayhall is a Baton Rouge public relations professional who freelances as a writer and editor, including copy editing for 225. She took the first steps toward fiction writing in the 1990s when she worked as a writer, editor and web content creator in Austin, heady days for publishing and web companies. While she built a reputation as a wordsmith, she connected online with a group of writers who were avid fans of the graphic novel series ElfQuest. The group wrote their own fan fiction stories sparked by the popular series.

One of the writers in the group Mayhall met was Carol Burrell, a children’s book editor who later got a job with the Graphic Universe imprint and asked Mayhall to contribute.

“I never planned to write children’s books—not that I’m anti-children’s books,” Mayhall explains. She just assumed the genre was too specialized. Over time, though, she did some proofreading work for Burrell. When Burrell needed reliable writers for two installments of the Twisted Journeys series, she turned to Mayhall and another of her fellow ElfQuest fans.

Mayhall’s assignment to write The Quest for Dragon Mountain came with strict guidelines. The main character had to be presented in a gender-neutral way. A certain number of pages had to be reserved for art, text and reader choices. The protagonist could not be rewarded for negative choices.

After seeing her book in print, Mayhall is pleased. “I had a definite idea about what the dragon should look like.” Plus, she adds, “It’s pretty neat to see your name on a book cover. “

Mayhall, who had her first published poem nominated for the Rhysling Award—“Beginner’s luck,” she claims—has plans to continue writing for both younger audiences and fans of science fiction. Readers can look forward to at least one more of her Twisted Journeys, this one set under the sea.