Magic and mystery, two indispensable ingredients in any fantasy, weave their way into the story of Willow Ufgood, making his tale a wonderful epic adventure. But forget all you know or think you know, this is an adventure like no other. Even the cover of the novel, Willow (published by Ballantine Books, $3.95) by Wayland Drew, due out in early February--four months before the film's debut--promises more than a typical fable. Three lines on the cover of the book proclaim its depth and richness:
      A wonderous tale of a child...
      A prohecy...
      And the power of magic...

According to writer Wayland Drew, whose previous credits include Dragonslayer and The ErthringCycle series, Willow is a story with heart. "We're not off on some other planet," he says, "we're dealing with real people and real human issues besides all the wonderful and fantastic characters."

The novel cover

Drew is ecstatic about being involved with such a wonderful project as Willow. He recalls his first impressions upon being asked to write the novelization of the film.

"It came quite suddenly and I'm not quite sure how. I suspect that George Lucas remembered that I did the novelization for Dragonslayer and perhaps he liked that. And when the time came for him to deal with this genre, he gave me a call. Of course, I was very excited and especially excited when I read the script and realized what it was. So, then, we went on from there. George gave me a great deal of latitude and I hope I've done justice to the characters. But I had a great deal of freedom and an enormous amount of help from George in the time that I met with him over in London. He was very, very sympathetic and enormously perceptive and bright. He was able to give me a lot of back-story which hadn't been apparent in the script but which had been part of his thinking in working on the script. I used two of those back-stories in the novelization. You'll come to three places where little embolisms occur in the movement of the novel. One of these, I invented, but the other two were gifts from George. So then, I simply went away and wrote the book in a fairly quick time.

"But Willow was so coherent as a script," Drew continues, "that it made it easy to follow for the novel. I felt quite safe working with it. There were no major inconsistencies of character or plot development. It's a beautiful piece of work, so I was able to elaborate a little here and there."

Good writing is never easy. Although the joys of writing a novel as complex as Willow can be numerous, so, too, can the difficulties that arise, especially the tight deadlines.

"I think the most difficult thing was the time factor I had to write the book," Drew revealed. "Just the knowledge that you are under considerable pressure makes you have to watch your health closely. You know, the deadlines break down into daily dealines. That's difficult. But as far as the most enjoyable thing, I would have to say that it's the sense that I was dealing with a wonderful story. It's a rich, beautiful story. It's an extraordinary fable and it's full of mystery. It has some wonderful themes: people finding themselves, the land being restored, the theme of the little man, Willow, who is completely unexceptional and who draws on what is best from him; his sense of justice and what is naturally right and his enormous courage. All of that is wonderful and it is just a wonderfully warm-hearted story. I loved that about it instantly. When I read the script, originally, I felt attuned to it and felt that if I survived the time pressure, I could make a good book out of it. But the story itself, I thought, was a soaring, wonderful idea. And that is what was best about working with Willow.

Willow author Wayland Drew

After immersing himself so deeply into the story of Willow for several months, Drew became quite acquainted, so to speak, with the characters in the story. After all, it was up to him to bring them to life on the written page just as it is George Lucas' and Ron Howard's job to create life within the characters on the movie screen. But if Wayland Drew had to choose a particular character he liked best, who would it be?

"Actually, there are a couple," he reveals. "I really liked Willow's small friend, Vohnkar. It's his backstory that I created for the novel and his journey and his coming back to the Nelwyn village. He returns with a sense of responsibility to it and that he really has to defend it. And, in that, he pays a personal price. I like that about him--that sense of responsibility.

"I also like Madmartigan. I like the changes that he goes through in the story. I just love the back-story that George created for me when we talked about what happened to Madmartigan. The swing that the man goes through from total brigandry and irresponsibility to a sense of duty and being redeemed, gives his story also a sense of magic. I identified with him and I liked him a lot. He was a character that I had some reservations about when I first read the script. But after going to England, to the set, and seeing him there in the flesh, it helped me get to know him better. And I think he really works in the novel and I ended up liking him a great deal. In a strange way, he is a hero."

Books and films are two different things. Books tell a story with words, and films do the same thing with pictures. Sometimes a scene will play well in both mediums with little change. But not always. There are times when situations and circumstances must be altered when adapting something from one form to another. So, obviously, a book based on a movie will be different in some ways. Wayland Drew tackled this problem while writing the novel of Willow.

"I guess there are some incidents in the novel that don't take place in the film," he explains. "There are certain scenes in the film that just don't work in the novel where the reader has more time to think about it and is not carried by an image or a musical score. So there are some things where you've got to build some bridges. There are some characters that I dwelt on a little more as well. The character of Mims, Willow's daughter, for example. When you read the novel, you'll see that she has a certain precedent that is not there in the movie script. The whole feeling of the film, and the novel, is that magic is free on Earth and that people can participate in it. And that little girl does. She inherits, fully, Willow's rather flawed magical powers. So I was able to develop the characters a little bit and give them some background."

Willow, the epic adventure, filled with wicked queens, battles, outcast heroes and little men fulfilling big destinies is sure to be a hit as both a film and a book. But of all the elements in this story, what is it that appeals to author Wayland Drew the most?