Meet David Willits
I’m David Willits. Saint Paul, Minnesota is my home where I live with my husband, and a black cat I call The Dark One who spends most of the day ignoring my existence, punctuated by occasional growls, as well as an assortment of carnivorous plants.
My first introduction to fantasy came from my mother, who, in her attempt to entertain my brother and sister and me on long car road trips, introduced us to C.S. Lewis’ Narnia and The Arabian Nights, both of which I found far more spell binding than her attempts to introduce us to Laura Ingalls Wilder, although I now can say I know how to churn butter and grow award winning pumpkins. Thanks Laura.
As a kid, I was led to the fantasy section at shopping mall book stores by the cover art of Michael Whelan who illustrated such classic series as Elric of Melniboné, The Dragon Riders of Pern and John Carter of Mars. Now I do my best to trail behind the master, painting my own covers while I try to write the kinds of stories I’d have loved reading when I was young.
In 1979, a friend reserved a room at the local library and invited a group of us to play a new game called Dungeons & Dragons. At the time it blew my mind and I’ve been playing it with friends ever since. The magic of D&D is how it makes every player an author of their own fantasy stories. Nowhere is this clearer than the writings of R.A. Salvator, whose D&D inspired books I’ve poured over. I bought my first Dungeons & Dragons book with money I made mowing lawns, and now have a book case filled with them. I began writing fantasy by inventing character origin stories for my assortment of characters, most of whom were barbarians.
It was the Brothers Hildebrandt’s art in the 70’s, blazing with images of dragons and balrogs, which led me to the Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings, books which led me down the fantasy rabbit hole from which I have yet to return. I borrowed them from my aunt Louise who, twenty years later, asked for them back. They weren’t in as good a shape as they were when I got them, having been read a dozen times.
During those years, the magnificent illustrations of Michael Whelan led me to writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Anne McCaffery, L.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Azomov, and Michael Moorcock. I still have Michael Whelan’s coffee table book of illustrations sitting above my desk.
Nowhere is the merging of art and fantasy clearer than in comic books. My basement selves are stacked with them, collecting dust, but still too precious to throw away. Comic books introduced me to authors like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, both of whom have a noticeable influence on my writing.
I recently retired, which I highly recommend, and now spend my days writing and painting, when I’m not swimming or biking.