Dragonmas 2019 Player Challenge has gone live on Dragon Hearts RPG

It's Dragonmas! Fetu is still behaving suspiciously good. What long game is he playing? Or is he just trying to get presents? Did he just resurrect that blasted frost dragon? And a return of the fruitcake? The quirky game I write for has a new seasonal challenge live at www.dragonheartsrpg.com rpg. What ultimately happens this season? It is up to the players to decide.

Interview with Dragon Hearts RPG Creator Rowan Wookey

Podcast: http://www.flashfictionfridays.com

Patreon Post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/26968361

Podcast/Youtube/Blog Interview

Submit to Teresa Garcia

ladyrainstardragon@hotmail.com (in case of FB problems, for backup)

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.

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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

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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?

Pie should be a mandatory food group.