Rebecca's Interview with David Dun
Author of
Necessary Evil.

Rebecca :
You really grabbed me - Necessary Evil is a grand read - well done! What inspired you to put Jessie Mayfield, an FBI computer agent currently on leave from her New York offices & Kier Wintripp, a veterinarian with a Native American mother & a white man's education, in a Californian mountain winter?

David :
Interesting conflicts make good stories. Within Kier there was the conflict between his spiritual self, nurtured by his Grandfather & his intellectual self, encouraged by his mother & developed at the University. To interact with Kier's conflicted personality, I wanted a strong female character, perhaps a little thirsty for the spiritual side of life.

As Jessie observes Kier, she interacts with both aspects of his personality. You can tell she is drawn to the spiritual side of Kier because she is interested in Grandfather & in that particular influence. I made her an urban person because that creates an additional conflict that goes three ways. Because of her instincts, honed by civilization & a highly specialized society, she struggles with Kier. She also struggles with herself, her past & the environment.

There is a larger conflict in our society between the benefits of technology & its potential burdens on the spiritual side of life. I was using these conflicts, with which we are all familiar, in an attempt to make a good story. It seems that in all of my stories I tend to want to create male & female characters who have many natural conflicts but who nevertheless fall in love. I have not yet figured out why I tend to do that

Rebecca :
Tell us a little about Native American populations on reservations & government or private sector sponsored medical research.

David :
I did not study a great deal about life on Indian reservations in preparation for drafting the novel. My study was much more related to Native American mythology, Native American spiritual beliefs & practices & Native American traditions. I was attempting to understand cultural things about the Native American experience. I deliberately ignored a lot of the sociological issues facing Native American communities in modern times.

With regard to medical research, I tended to focus on the technical biological side rather than exploring ethical dilemmas created by modern medical research. The ethical dilemmas are fairly obvious but the solutions are far more taxing. The notion of Necessary Evil actually came as a result of thinking about the potential fruits of genetic research. Suppose we could cure most major disease processes through the study of, for example, aborted fetuses.

What will society ultimately decide is a Necessary Evil in order to achieve a greater good? Of course, the most obvious application was Kier's struggle with the use of violence. I think the ethical dilemmas surrounding genetic research are a potentially more profound example of Necessary Evil. I would hasten to add, however, that I don't believe any right-thinking people would suggest creating infants for purposes of medical research. That is hopefully an over-the-top idea that will not be undertaken by mankind. But you never know!

Rebecca :
Both the villain & the hero are extreme hunters - one from a rich man's obsessive hobby & the other from mortal & spiritual survival - how important is the clarity between evil & good?

David :
The third question you pose is one of the most difficult. It is very important that, as individuals, we all distinguish between evil & good. On the other hand, there are many circumstances in which the difference can be difficult to fathom.

Kier's struggles with the use of violence to solve a violent threat is a good example. He is trying hard not to kill anyone. Nevertheless, there comes a point where Kier has to decide whether he wants to win (&, therefore, kill people) or lose & sacrifice his life. Kier's problem, of course, is that there is a much greater evil than the mere loss of his own life. There is potentially the threat to his tribe & perhaps a major threat to mankind. Ultimately, he chooses to use evil means in an effort to achieve a good result.

Kier lacks some of Jessie's socialization & also lacks confidence in institutions that might provide him assistance. In this regard, Jessie's wisdom & experience is superior to Kier's & she ultimately turns out to be right - namely that the government, in the end, is part of the solution even though, in the beginning, it may have been part of the problem. This is very much a story about two people &, in many important respects, Kier can learn a lot from Jessie.

As to both men being hunters, I think there is a vast difference between Kier's use of hunting & Tillman's use of hunting. Tillman hunts for the challenge, for the thrill of besting an adversary, be it man or animal. Kier hunts as part of a cultural expression rooted in survival.

Rebecca :
Had you meant to write a love story?

David :
I certainly did intend to include a love story in the plot. Personally, I enjoy a good love story. Of course, Necessary Evil is primarily a thriller & the love story must be subordinate to the other elements of the plot.

Rebecca :
Necessary Evil is also the story of genetic manipulation, surrogate motherhood & scientific profits - when such fields are not in a writer's ken, how does a writer find resources?

David :
Well, since I am not a geneticist, I had to rely upon the research effort of Ruth Johnson; my personal study of all of the materials which she garnered; & the invaluable assistance of Dr. Michael Kinsella of the University of Washington.

Dr. Kinsella is involved in genetic research & was of great assistance when it came to expounding on basic biological concepts. In this day & age, most subjects can be researched. Also, many professionals are willing to lend some assistance to people who are struggling to write a novel.

I received assistance before I had ever published and before it was at all apparent that I would, indeed, be able to publish. It's a little more difficult for unpublished writers because people always enjoy the intrigue of knowing that their work will find its way in print. Nevertheless, there is help available & there is plenty of research material available on the Internet & in libraries.

Rebecca :
You could have kept Jessie a helpless damsel in distress - you chose otherwise, why?

David :
I never considered even for a moment making Jessie a damsel in distress! I suppose the traditional “damsel in distress“ does not interest me as a writer. Although I don't claim to be good at it, I want all of my female characters to be multi-dimensional personalities. Since I am writing in the action genre, my female characters will generally be intelligent, assertive & part of the solution.

I cannot imagine writing a story about a very strong male character who rescues an ineffectual female. Boring. I believe that strong female characters are intensely interesting. For example, Clarisa Starling was a major part of the success in Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal, in part, could become one of the arch-type villains because he had such an interesting adversary in the person of Clarisa Starling.

Rebecca :
I liked the idea that Grandfather, the finest of storytellers, didn't show up on the infrared detector - in this day & age when science seems to have explained everything, how important is keeping mystery in a story?

David :
I love some mystery in a story. With regard to most things, I like to have potentially spiritual (or almost magical) explanations as well as “natural” explanations. I like to let the readers sort out for themselves the extent to which they want to believe in the mysterious.

Certainly, there are riddles out there which cannot be satisfactorily explained. Those make a good story, so long as they are not over the top & so long as we are not asking people to depart completely from their common sense. For example, a skeptic could believe that there was simply a glitch in the infrared detection equipment or that the pilots, in their excitement, made an error. I don't ask readers to believe that Grandfather became a spiritual apparition & disappeared off the face of the earth. Of course, there are a lot of good books that do drift into the “magical.” However, I like to have a strong reality element in my books & I am only willing to go so far into the world of make believe.

I think mysteries with spiritual implications always enhance a story if they are done correctly. For my taste, there can't be too many & they can't be too outlandish.

Rebecca :
Where did the Tilok come from?

David :
The Tilok are not an actual Native American tribe. However, I heard about a nomadic tribe in the State of Washington that used to migrate from the low country to the high country & I used that as a basis for the idea. I did not want to use a real Native American tribe because I felt there was too great a likelihood of significant misrepresentation. The beauty of creating a wholly fictional tribe was that, within reason, I could create them & not be strictly accountable for accuracy.

Rebecca :
Each of your chapters is headed by a Tilok Proverb - tell us a little about those proverbs & the contest you have going.

David :
The proverbs were actually quite difficult to write. In the beginning I thought of a few, but after coming up with 5 or 6 it became increasingly more difficult to create the rest. By the end I was taxing my mind to come up with new Tilok proverbs.

Rebecca :
Thank you, Respected Author, for such a hair-raising & memorable adventure! What else do you have up your sleeve?

David :
I have just completed a novel entitled At the Edge. which is due to be published in April, 2002. I am work on my third novel. For those who are curious, the first chapter or so of At the Edge is posted on my website.

I am delighted that you enjoyed the story.

(Published May 20, 2001)