The official blog for THG StarDragon Publishing. Publishing spiritual/paranormal fantasy and poetry, and open to non-fiction spirituality works. Please don't forget to visit the side pages and check out the main site as well. There is now also a podcast!
Selkies' Skins
Current book in series Temple and Skinquest. Enjoy Castle and Well from Amazon, B&N and Smashwords while waiting for that and the prequel's audiobook "Pearls of Sea and Stone: Book of Seals".
The minions have been hard at work behind the scenes to rewrite the game from the ground up. There are numerous changes more than can be listed, some stuff is probably broken or has been forgotten, if you find anything raise a help ticket by clicking "Help" in the menu, or messaging me here! Dragon fangs are on a two for one sale to celebrate the relaunch.
Redoing the game from the bottom up for Dragon Hearts 2.0 has been a years-long project. We've relaunched the gamesite. It looks very different than 1.0 did. For older players it may be a bit confusing. For new players it is hopefully easier to navigate.
Amehana (Teresa Garcia) will be working on a tutorial video and intends to have it ready soon.
Rowan's been continuing plugging steadily away at the recode project for Dragon Hearts. Per Obs:
"The Beta site has been updated. Conclaves have been added including battle groups! Only the conclave leader has staff powers, they can assign extra staff.
It's been a long project rebuilding the site and adding new improvements as he works through it. Once he's done it will be easier to do world expansions than it used to be. I've certainly not forgotten about the pirates and the exploration expansion, the commerce guild, or other things that have been approved. Groundwork has to be done first. This new code makes for a more efficient game engine.
This is quite a milestone, 8000+ lines of code later, Rowan Wookey at Dragon Hearts RPG added all 170+ special items, the coffee empire, snowflakes, and dragon fangs as well as fixing a few bugs.
Samhain or Halloween is here. The leaves fall and crunch below feet after blazing in glory. The nights are filled with even more magic. Not all is quite right in Rhiana though and the air does not carry the usual smells. What's going on? Is is safe to take the hatchlings out? Find out here: www.dragonheartsrpg.com
Dragon Hearts is a text based role playing game that I particularly enjoy writing the seasonal and permanent challenges and quests for. When I was brought on board for the challenge and lore writer position the specific requirement set for me was quirky. One does not find many dragon centered games that are silly or quirky.
Responses will be recorded and posted on my Youtube channel, my
podcast, and on my blog.
Thank
you for agreeing to be interviewed. Below are several questions. You
do not have to answer all of them but the more that are answered and
the more detailed they are the more viewers and listeners get to know
you and your work. Some may seem a little silly. If there is
something that hasn’t been asked on this please feel free to make
an addition and share your answer. Based on the answers to the
following questions there might also be some additional questions I
end up asking you before this is read out and recorded.
Please
also send the author/illustrator/etc picture that you use associated
with your work’s image (or your book in the wild photo if you’re
shy). If you do not yet have one please have someone help you with a
photo that you feel captures how you wish to present yourself to the
world. This can also be a stylized drawing of your or your persona if
you have reasons (such as safety or transitions) not to show yourself
in a recognizable fashion.
===
Pre
Interview Questions:
a)
What name and gender are being used to refer to you? If they do not
match your birth name and gender are you open about it? You do not
have to disclose legal/birth name and gender, but if you want it
mentioned you write under an assumed identity or have more than one
identity you work under for this industry that can open up new lines
of discussion.
Rowan
and Male
b)
Are you an author, poet, illustrator, editor, game writer, game
creator, publisher, or multiple? If you have multiple roles in the
publishing community then which ones are they? If you have multiple
roles feel free to answer each question with sections for each role.
Game
creator and general nerd.
c)
What books, games, or other publishing related projects have you been
involved in the production of?
DH
===
1.
What got you interested in (writing/illustrating/editing, etc)?
Many
moons ago before the advent of smartphones and when laptops were
about as portable as a ton of bricks, I played other games of a
similar ilk and got fed up of them being buggy or the developers
buggering off for real life (touch of irony there). So I decided to
create my own.
2.
What company or companies are you doing work for/with?
Apart
from my own none I can say.
3.
What projects are you currently working on?
I
really..really..really..
want to get DH updated to new shinyness. I’m also doing my Masters
degree does that count as a project? Then of course there’s the IVF
stuff now that’s a project ;) not really work related but time
consuming. Most of the other stuff I can talk about is on github
https://github.com/rwky/
4.
Do you have any future projects in mind to take on?
Yes
tons, of which none I can think of at the moment but there’s a huge
list somewhere..
5.
What is your favorite project?
DH
will always be my fav.
6.
Is this career something that you always wanted to do?
Nope
I wanted to be a biochemist when I was at college, even got accepted
for MSci (Master in Science) at Nottingham University but decided it
wasn’t for me.
7.
Do you find it difficult, or find some aspects more difficult than
others?
Sitting
on my arse for 12 hours a day isn’t so good when you’re in your
30s. 30 year old me wishes he could tell 20 year old me to go outside
more so the 30 year old me bits would ache less.
I’m
pretty well adapted for the long distance asynchronous communication
(i.e. email) but being on call 24/7 for the past 10+ years does get
a little tiring at times.
8.
What is a normal day like for you? Is this your side job or main job?
In
the words of Forrest Gump “What’s normal anyways?” I don’t
have a normal day, every day is different. Assuming I’m at home I
wake up, check my emails/calendar and write today’s todo list, then
I get cracking on it. Most days I get through most of it but
inevitably some days something blows up (normally multiple things in
one go) so then I have to deal with a mountain of shit.
DH
is a side job (though was main job for a while years ago) my main job
is “making bits of the internet work” (quoting myself), if it’s
to do with Linux servers or web programming then I probably do
it/have done it.
9.
How do you manage balancing this with family and any other work you
may have?
I’ll
let you into a secret, there are two of me! (Something I often tell
clients when they wonder how I can do so much). I don’t really
manage to balance I just do what I can and let some off the less
urgent stuff fall by the wayside. Adulting sucks ya know!
10.
What hobbies do you have?
Is
beer a hobby? If so then that. I’m also a fairly avid pokemon go
player and also play on steam/nintendo 3ds/nintendo switch. TV is one
of my favourite things to relax with especially in the bath. I’m
endeavoring to read the Anne McCaffrey Pern series again (takes a
while) on kindle.
11.
If you could be anything in the world besides this, what would it be?
Can
I say a cat? Seems like they have a good life! Though job wise. I
would like to work in the space industry.
12.
Do you feel that school helped set you up toward following this path
in the publishing industry?
Not
at all. I did all my relevant qualifications after getting into
programming.
13.
If you could go back to school is there anything you wish you had
paid more attention to?
Nah,
I was one of those annoying people that’s good at most academic
subjects. TBH IMHO most of high school was a waste, I’m not a fan
of how the UK education system works, it’s highly focused on
memorizing things instead of being able to use knowledge. Degree
level isn’t much better which is why I left Manchester Uni to go to
the Open Uni. Manchester’s masters courses are “read this book,
remember this algorithm” where as the OU is “Here’s a project,
go figure out how to do it”. Since my memory is abysmal these days,
in the words of homer simpson “everytime I learn something new it
pushes something old stuff out of my brain”, the school of
remembering things by rote is useless to me.
14.
What advice do you have for the next generation?
* Go
outside the world is big weird and wonderful, go see it.
*
Don’t fall for rampant consumerism this planet is finite, try not
to screw it up for yourselves and future generations.
*
Keep your options open, what you think you want to do now probably
won’t be what you want in 10, 20, 30 years.
*
Relaxxxxxxxx….that thing you’re worrying about probably isn’t
that bad (ok sometimes it is but unless you’re dying it’s
probably not).
15.
What advice do you have for your age peers that may also want to take
part in the publishing industry and specifically with your area
within it?
Don’t
be afraid to take the jump into something new, it can be scary
especially when you have a significant other, kids, mortgage etc. but
if it’s something you really want to do then go for it, life’s
short so try and be happy with it.
16.
Is there anything else that you’d like to add that we didn’t
discuss?
