DC Sheehan
Biography
Early Life
DC Sheehan (Dominic Shaheen) was born in Stratford, Aotearoa New Zealand, the eighth of nine children. Stratford is located in Taranaki, an area dominated by Mount Taranaki, a dormant volcano that sits in the middle of the province.
In 1976 his family moved from Stratford to Hāwera. That move inspired his first novel Finding Home although Dominic describes the book as ‘based in a time and place I know well with certain scenes from my childhood, but otherwise completely fictional’.
Dominic attended St Patrick’s College Silverstream boarding for five years. There he excelled particularly in debating and public speaking, winning his way to the finals of several national speech contests. He then studied at Auckland University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology, and a law degree with honours. As part of his BA he completed a creative writing credit run by author Albert Wendt. Finding Home had its genesis in the short prose pieces Dominic wrote during for that course.
Career
After university, Dominic joined Auckland corporate law firm Simpson Grierson where he specialised in environmental and local government law. However, he quit after two years. ‘I so disliked being a solicitor that it made me realise what I really did love—which was writing’.
An avid television fan, it had always been his dream to create and write sitcoms and drama he decided to pursue that as a career. However, during his time as a lawyer he had attended a creative writing workshop run by author Joan Rosier-Jones. ‘That weekend retreat crystallised in my mind that, much to my surprise, I also wanted to write a novel’.
Dominic finished several novels that failed to find a publisher before he wrote Finding Home which was published by Secker and Warburg in 1996. Finding Home won Best First Book of Fiction at the 1997 New Zealand Book Awards.
While completing Finding Home, Dominic found work on infamous New Zealand sitcom Melody Rules, and then later wrote scripts for well-received drama The Strip. Between television writing gigs, he clean houses and worked at various non-profit organisations, including the NZ AIDS Foundation, NZ Opera, and the NZ Writers Guild. He also penned a fortnightly humour column for Express newspaper.
In the early 2000s Dominic abandoned television writing for the certainty that comes with a full-time nine-to-five job and because ‘having achieved my dream of writing for television I discovered that it wasn’t my dream after all’.
Dominic went on to become Executive Director of the NZ Writers Guild and then CEO of the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
The Mythic Series
While at the Authority he began writing The Mythic. The Mythic Series sprung from his desire to create fiction with an inclusive cast. ‘Growing up, I never saw myself in comics, on TV, or in film. This world is a wonderfully diverse place and we all deserve to see ourselves reflected in popular culture’.
He chose to publish The Mythic himself to retain the rights and secure his creative vision. ‘One thing I learned from my experiences with Finding Home and in television was that if you don’t own the copyright, you are ultimately just a passenger. For my lead character’s journey in particular, it was vital that I drove the trajectory of her arc’.
His series currently consists of five books with The Mythic, The Mythic and the Horses of Doom, The Mythic and the City of Sweet Sorrow, and The Mythic and the Illustrious Lie, and The Mythic and the Rosetta Engine.
Dominic has tended to continue to work full-time while writing The Mythic Series, including two and half years as the General Manager of Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films Productions where he oversaw a broad range of businesses and years as a political advisor or assistant to various Labour party Members of Parliament.
Personal Life
When not working or writing Dominic watches too much television and is an avid music fan—especially 1980s pop and Eurovision. Despite writing novels, he doesn’t read them, preferring super-hero comics and non-fiction, especially books on history, politics, language, and popular culture. He watches a lot of horror movies but his go-to comfort rewatch films are Hairspray (the 1988 original) and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
He is a Taurus, with Aries ascendant and moon in Capricorn (Western astrology), and a Fire Goat (Chinese astrology). ‘I find astrology fascinating, primarily the personality aspects associated with each sign and even the actual signs themselves. For example, my signs are all represented by animals that, in the real world, are known for their obstinacy, but they’re also very placid if you leave them be. In other words, exactly like me’.
Mount Taranaki has featured in all of Dominic’s novels. ‘In Māori legends, Taranaki originally sat in the middle of the North Island, and fled to his current spot after a battle with Mount Tongariro for the heart of Mount Pihanga. I heard this growing up and was terrified that one day Taranaki would steamroll us flat as he strode back eastwards. I later learned that my paternal grandfather chose to settle in Taranaki because it evoked memories of his home village Bsharri which sits underneath Mount Lebanon’.
The Mythic Series has its genesis in his interest in ancient mythology, but also in his study of semiotics while at University. ‘I love finding layers of meaning in everything – letters, names, words, colours, shapes, symbols, and stories themselves. The premise of The Mythic Series allows me to pull things apart and put them back together in new and, hopefully to the readers, interesting ways’.
