Besides his abilities as a aircrew survival equipmentman for Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139, PR1 Daniel J. Willyard is also an author. He has completed writing the science fiction novel “Draknos: The Legend Returns”, which will soon be published by Eloquent Books.

Willyard began his journey to author status 12 years ago when he began writing the novel. A longtime fan of reading science fiction books, Willyard wanted to one himself.  Although lacking any writing experience, he had an active imagination and started jotting down ideas. He based the book on the cartoon “Voltron: Defender of the Universe”, a cartoon about five pilots commanding robot lions that aired on ABC from 1984-1985.

Willyard began writing in 1997 and continued through 2000. He started with ideas for the middle of the story. Little by little he crafted the back-story about how the characters got to where they were and what they were going to do next. 

When he finished writing, the process was far from over. 

“Then I had to find an agent and get it professionally edited, which took about a year,” said Willyard.

After finding an agent through the internet, he chose an editor that would look at all facets of his writing: grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, and flow.  Following the edit, Willyard would get it back, make corrections, and then have it reedited.

Following the attacks Sept. 11, 2002 the agency he was using closed because most of their clientele had been in the World Trade Center. From 2002 to 2006, while stationed with VFA-192 in Atsugi, Japan, Willyard did not do any more work on the book. He picked it up again after moving to Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

“That’s when I contacted World Event Productions, who owned the copyright to Voltron, and they read the book and said it goes too far, since I based it on Voltron and they didn’t like the way that I changed the storyline,” said Willyard. “All in all they said ‘No, can’t use it.’”

Following that disappointing news, Willyard decided he would rewrite the book in order to keep the storyline.  He turned the lions into dragons and changed the names of the characters.  He found a new agent, had the book professionally edited again and found a publisher. 

Fellow Cougars Airman Kelly Sunderlin is helping Willyard by proofreading the book.  “It’s actually a really complex story and really well crafted. I really like it,” said Sunderlin.

“It kind of reminds me of the military and carrier environment,” said Cmdr. Darryl Walker, VAQ-139 commanding officer. “It’s a very detail-oriented book that is easy to read and follow. He did a great job on this book and I look forward to purchasing the hardback copy when it is released.”

Willyard is already turning Draknos into a screenplay. He is also working on a prequel and thinking of ideas for a sequel. He said he is looking forward to seeing his work on local bookshelves and hopes readers enjoy it.