Review of Hunt for the Dragon Egg Thief

 Hello! For the past few months, I've been tossing around the idea of doing book reviews or author interviews on here occasionally, and TODAY IS THE DAY. I read a short story and now I'm going to review it!

First of all. Look at this cover:

So pretty.

Hunt for the Dragon Egg Thief is a newly released short story by fantasy writer, R. Joy. It is fast-paced (I would have read it in one sitting if I hadn't been interrupted) and has loveable characters and cool worldbuilding.

It is written from the point of view of Asa, a Soulreader dragon who lived through the terrible Shadow Wars and is now investigating the disappearance of several clutches of Frostcreeper dragon eggs. The dragon taxonomist in me is insanely happy. She is joined by a woman named Caelan, a.k.a. the Fair Wolf. Throughout the story, we get familiar with the dynamics of this duo and are able to see how they support each other and work together to accomplish their goal of taking down the dragon-nappers!

Though this is a very short, very character-oriented story, we do get glimpses of what promises to be a vast and colorful world. It takes place in a snowy land that makes me think of the Northern Water Tribes from Avatar the Last Airbender, and Joy does an amazing job of invoking icy imagery. It is also filled with dragons. Several species of dragons are mentioned, but their physiologies and behaviors are only touched on (furry dragons with four wings!!!!). I want to know more.

While I wish some scenes went into more depth, this is categorized as a short story, and it's very evident that there will be a follow-up novel. In fact, it looks like there will be a follow-up series! I am very much looking forward to reading book 1.

Thank you for letting me nerd out, and have a good week.

(Also, I'm twenty-nine, as of yesterday. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.)

Jade OC-Training Tasks

Hi, I'm back. I debated what to post for a few days and finally settled on this. A couple of years ago, I joined this group on deviantArt called OC-Training. For those of you who aren't in the loop, OC stands for original character. The group is dedicated to helping OC artists develop their characters, stories, and drawing skills by going through a set of ten character-focused art prompts. It's pretty effective. I've been through four rounds now-- I jumped in on Round 12-- and have created about a hundred illustrations pertaining to Ravenheart as a result. The community is super friendly and creative. I help admin the group now (though I got pretty sucky at it after starting a new job, then after witnessing a murder, but I'm hoping to be better for Round 16!). 

Anyways, I've shared all my illustrations on deviantArt, and a few of them on Instagram, but I figured I could share a few here too.

The first character I entered was Bradley Link, the super lovable and very unlucky uncle of Seth and Annabelle who just wants to piece his family back together. He was promptly followed by Jade Tyran during the Unofficial Villain Round, where everyone dared each other to enter the worst of the worst. 

This is Jade: 

Ah, Jade. Super smart scientist, pretty and organized, and completely horrible. Jade is the leader of a ruthless gang of dragon slayers who use the devastation that resulted from Cobalt the Wicked as a platform to advocate for the destruction of all dragons. They are effective dragon hunters, and when Jade steps up, they begin to use science to eradicate dragons. Of course, this doesn't sit well with Annabelle, who happens to be part dragon, and thus you can see where the conflict of the story arises.

Though I kind of hate her guts, writing Jade is fun, and her chapters have gotten a good response from alpha readers. Here is her Profile task from OC-T: 

The Profile task entails drawing your character's body type, any scars or defining features, and four expressions. I'm a nerd and I try to do comics for every task, and this was the result for Jade. I wanted to show her interactions with fellow slayer, Markus. He's lovely, I know. I also wanted to show a bit of Jade's research. She has a secret lab, where she keeps her mutated sharks, and she's on the verge of developing a new technology that will allow the slayers to beat the dragons at their own game.

Page 5 of the comic is a nod at poor Emory. Rose Meadow left him with deeper scars than the ones on his face, and Jade's experiment aggravates them.

This is her Personal Life task:

I had a lot of fun with this one, and these are all scenes directly from some of my favorite chapters of Kingdom Animalia.

The next OC-T round starts in the next couple of months. I'm still on the fence about who I will enter. Marvin was slated for Round 16, but I also may need a break from the heavier parts of the story, so I might consider a character not involved with Ravenheart. We'll see. Also. I've reached 37,600 words. It's getting closer every week.

Thank you for reading and have a good week.

Renaissance Nonsense

I was told I should update my blog, so here we go. 

This one is a few years old and I made it after some friends and I went to a Renaissance Festival in Missouri. 

Emory wants to sneak out of work to goof off with his best friend Marvin. Marvin is trying new things and Mags is very proud of him, as he's spent the past year depressed and isolated and she was very worried. I'm still slogging through writing book one and have found that Emory still manages to be the center of attention even when he isn't present or accounted for. He's that obnoxious burr that none of the other characters can get rid of, no matter how hard they try. It's his special talent. 

Emory and I are alike in that people generally don't trust us with knives. Neither of us understand.