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.
Rain pours down from the skies like the weather dragons have collectively decided to dump the entire year’s worth of water at once. Rivers fill and spill, lakes become small seas, overly large chunks of snow bob along from place to place like freaky misplaced icebergs.
Where’s Fetu…? Well, that’s great.
Help shape the story by playing along at www.DragonHeartsRPG.com.
I have been quiet here recently. My foray into Haiku Month got cut short as I was unable to keep up with the one-a-day pace due to, this time, a family emergency which resulted in a very long cross-country drive. This was easier on my back than I expected but there were OTHER health dilemmas that relegated me mostly to the back seat. The hours trapped in a truck barely able to move my feet around at least paid off. I saw two uncles that I had not seen in about 30 years. The one who we were most worried about seemed to be actually getting better while we were there, and hopefully that trend continues so that his grandchildren (my very small cousins) will have a bit longer with him and so he can meet the one currently gestating like an egg under a heatlamp.
For the record, my family seems to have a lot of Pisces and Aquarians... and I'd forgotten, temporarily that one of my cousins and I almost share a birthday.
I have a book review or two I need to type out, which I was unable to write out while on the road. I couldn't even doodle, the roads were that rough. The others I don't know how they could deal with me, and it was a good thing I had stuff on my phone and tablet to read since I couldn't doodle.
Now that I'm home, there's a comic script I'm finally able to read over since THAT apparently hadn't transferred to my tablet. *Raises her eyebrow at her iPad pointedly.* I need to settle in and do some sketches for that, some doodles and an art piece for another person, catch up on those haiku purely because I don't want that dangling over me and irritating me so I won't lose motivation for the upcoming Mermay, recheck where I am on printing out things I've edited for a client to send off to them, review what is left in the files & folders I was derailed on due to health the previous months, and write out questions for an interview.
I also need to remember to answer a cancer history questionnaire for an upcoming video appointment.
Also the spring seasonal quest for Dragon Hearts RPG needs to be hammered out.
So, yes... I'm quiet HERE but still busy behind the scenes.
Now that my head feels less like it will explode when I do more than exist I will be able to calculate royalties and sales and pass that info on to authors and illustrators. Where appropriate I may send out royalties but I would honestly prefer to send your royalties out after December's figures are in. I did get a request for updates recently that I was unable to reply to. I will compile info from all outlets today, but again, this is going to change after next month's sales. And yes, I plan to take part in next month's Sale on Smashwords/Draft2Digital (they merged, and are still working on that according to my last mails from Smashwords). That Smashwords sale usually seems to help sales figures.
In other happenings yesterday I managed to finish writing the Yule 2022 seasonal challenge for Dragon Hearts RPG and submitted it to that project's coder/owner so that it can be set up and implemented for the site's players. Please be watching for an announcement when that goes live.
Things have been busy with Dragon Hearts RPG lately. The Halloween/Samhain seasonal quest for the year has been pushed live on the main website after the code was play tested.
Challenge setting:
Once again the leaves phase colours into their fall glory and then dry to blow away in the winds moving between the worlds. Did the forest really produce this many leaves though? Something doesn't seem quite right. Piles of leaves reach to the eaves of the houses and obscure the entrances of caves. They swirl through streets, forest paths, and even over the oceans and deserts. Carve a pumpkin? Expect to be greeted by an explosion of leaves and squash guts once you've got that top circle done.
Thank you Bear for all your hard work steadily redoing the code base to make for a more stable game site. It is exciting to see the progress toward being able to eventually merge these changes to the live main site.
---
Now, as to why I've been so quiet lately:
I have been dealing with some physical issues but I have also been very busy working with a client on their book during the few hours a day I am physically able to do so. I have several books that I need to post reviews of though and hope to be able to make more progress on my own writing and illustrations for a couple customers 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.
THG StarDragon Publishing is pleased to forward this announcement from Dragon Hearts RPG, for which I write the challenges for.
Leprechauns and Clurichauns have returned, the gates to the land of the Fae flung wide upon the Tor deep within the forest. Rainbows abound as Spring begins her return. Find and visit them all to find out what sort of chaos exists today!
To celebrate the change in the seasons everyone has been given a "Lucky 2021 Clover" and "Equinox Crystal A 2021" visit your inventory to use them!
Also shenanigans is happening at the Coffee Empire and Thieves' Guild! Visit them in Rhian to see what's up!
The Dragonmas challenge is now live at https://www.dragonhearts.rpg and available to play. This year Fetu plans to rescue Dragonmas with his usual ulterior and questionable motives.
Completing the challenge will unlock the new area that has been on the back burner for years. Players are advised to make sure their email address is up to date and valid, as we are nearing being able to push live some changes that will necessitate a password reset. Behind the scenes stuff is much closer to being ready.
This announcement is not as a paid promotion but as an announcement regarding a project that I work on, as I am the quest/challenge/lore writer for Dragon Hearts RPG (DH) and the on-staff nag. I've not had to do much nagging or whip cracking lately since Obs/Rowan has had more coding time available. The tutorial video on site usage is on hold until the big changes are in place.
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.
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.
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?
