Fairytale writer gives the treasure hunters few clues

Author Michael Stadther says he wanted to make the treasure hunt in his new book, Secrets of the Alchemist Dar, so simple that a child could solve it.

He's staying mum, US children's author Michael Stadther. Not a single miserly clue about where he's hidden $3.2 million of jewelled rings which readers have a chance at finding through clues embedded in his new fairytale.

The book, Secrets of the Alchemist Dar, will be launched worldwide on September 26 and will spark an international treasure hunt for 100 rings - one of which is worth $1.6 million - by jeweller Aaron Basha.

"All I say is I guarantee everyone has the same chance. Anyone can play and everyone has the same chance. All 100 rings could be found by people who live in New Zealand. I doubt it, because it's statistically improbable, but it could happen."

In his first book, Treasure Trove, released in 2004, clues in the text and illustrations pointed to 14 gold tokens hidden in tree knotholes around the United States.

A reader who found a token could claim jewellery in the shape of the creatures in the book. Together the finds were worth $1.6 million, and the single most expensive worth $710,000.

This time he will not say if knotholes are involved, but the treasure hunt is international - although for legal and taxation reasons only residents of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and New Zealand can claim a ring.

Treasure Trove was a fairytale about forest creatures which Stadther illustrated himself. He also published it himself because no publisher would touch it. The book made it on to the New York Times bestseller list.

Also self-published, The Secrets of the Alchemist Dar is another fairytale, with some of the main characters of Treasure Trove.

"There's the good fairies and the bad fairies and a new bad guy who is trying to get the fairy rings of eternal life, which are worn by the good fairies," says Stadther.

The author likes fairytales.

"I have no experience in anything modern. I don't have experience writing about cars that transform into monsters ... What I enjoyed best was the turn-of-the-century fairytale."

Stadther said he wanted to make the treasure hunt so simple a child could solve it. Aside from that, he's not giving anything away.

A clue: the Herald may be wrong, but there is one world to which everybody has equal access. Stadther used to be a software developer, and what world does software open?