DMag - ‘Fun, Discovery and Adventure’ - is the ‘zine of choice for today’s discerning young reader. This month’s edition features an interview with Richard Newsome, author of The Billionaire’s Curse.

Billionaires and curses

What do you know about billionaire’s and curses? DMAG asked the same thing of Richard Newsome, the author of The Billionaire’s Curse…

Richard: I actually worked with a couple of billionaires in my former corporate life and they are a breed apart from normal people, which does make them a good topic to be writing about.

DMAG: And what do you know about curses?

Richard: I don’t think I’ve had any applied to me yet, but who knows! Curses are often something that people derive of their own free will, they bring them upon themselves sometimes because they behave in a certain way when they know they probably shouldn’t. They can become a bit self-fulfilling in that regard. But I think that the curse that Gerald comes up against in this book is really based around greed and how best to avoid becoming too greedy when you are faced with different choices.

DMAG: Is Gerald based on you at all?

Richard: No, the character in the book who is most based on me is Gerald’s butler Mr Fry. He has quite a few of my personality traits. Gerald is a bit of an amalgam of different folks. The great thing about Gerald is that he’s willing to give new things a go.

DMAG: Mr Fry treats Gerald with disdain doesn’t he?

Richard: Oh, very much so. I think Fry is very much set in his ways. He liked the way things were going before Gerald came on the scene. I think the notion of having a young child as his new boss isn’t something that sits too well with him and he treats Gerald accordingly.

DMAG: Did you write this book for your children?

Richard: Yes, it started out as a bed-time story for the kids because they were getting a bit sick of the same old stories. And it got more and more advanced and they kept saying “didn’t that happen before?” So I had to start writing it down and it grew from there.

DMAG: What feedback did your kids give you?

Richard: Well Sam and Ruby (Gerald’s friends) are named after two of my kids, the two who I was telling the story to. Ruby, who is now 12, was really helpful with some of the dialogue. She said, “no, people don’t talk like that Dad.” And she coached me on how to make it sound more realistic.

Taken from Dmag issue 90 – Sept 2009