fantasy

Dragons with Fantasy Author R.A. Douthitt

Author Interview, books, Uncategorized

Today’s interview guest is fantasy author R.A. Douthitt! I spent this afternoon with my crayons and one of her beautiful coloring books.

You’re the creator of dragon coloring books, dragon picture books, and middle-grade dragon novels. When did dragons first capture your imagination?

When I saw Disney’s The Sleeping Beauty and watched Maleficent transform into that black and purple dragon…wow, I was hooked on dragons forever. I was six years old. I’m 56 now and I still love to draw and write about dragons.

R.A. Douthitt’s latest release–a fantasy coloring book

What inspires the physical and personality characteristics you give your dragons?

I see them as a paradox: They can be hideously ugly or gracefully beautiful. Incredibly fierce yet vulnerable. So, in my stories,  that idea inspires how I write their physical and personality characteristics. In my worlds, they are wise, intelligent creatures that desire to live with all creatures in harmony. Yet some are treated cruelly or even trained to be evil. That’s what complicates things! 

R.A. Douthitt books on Amazon

In my Elves of Vulgaard series, I wanted to show how the Elves can communicate with the dragons and they work with the dragons. In Dragon Games, the main character is a boy who discovers that dragons are being abducted and taken to a mountain prison to fight each other. Kieron works to free them. In Dragon Riders, Everleigh, the main character, earns a spot on the queen’s elite squadron of dragon riders to protect the kingdom. Dragon Sword will be more about the dark wizards who want to enslave dragons again.

In this series, the dragons work with the elves. It’s a clean alternative to some of the dragon book series out there that have sex and violence. 

visit R.A. Douthitt’s website

What do you hope people will take away from your books and art?

Inspiration! I hope kids will be inspired to draw and be creative. For those who may not like fantasy, I hope they are inspired to reconsider how they feel about dragons, fairies, and fantasy art in general. 

Read my interview with Sara Ella

If you met a dragon in the wild, what would you do?

Approach cautiously! Hold out my hand in hope that it is friendly. Then pray I’m not burned to smithereens!

I hope you enjoyed meeting my wonderful friend! For more, you can find her on Instagram or on her podcast.

James R. Hannibal: Fighter Pilot Turned Bear Knight Author

Author Interview, Blog, books, Uncategorized, writing

A Christian fantasy series based on adventure board games? Yes, please! Today I had the priveledge of talking to James R. Hannibal, author of the Lightraiders Academy trilogy. The second book in the series, Bear Knight, released in February of 2023 from Enclave.

Bear Knight

How has your background contributed to the action scenes in Bear Knight?

I’m always aware of the physics when writing action, whether hand to hand combat or aerial battle.

Having studied multiple martial arts and having trained US troops in hand to hand combat certainly helps with the fight scenes. Having flown fighter and bomber aircraft also helps with visualizing the aerial scenes. Of course, everything must be adjusted for the physics of the fantasy realm.

Bear Knight has some awesome maps! How do you come up with the landscapes you invent?

I had a great foundation to start with. The Lightraiders Realm was first created by Navigators author and Christian counselor Dick Wulf back in the 80s. When he handed the world to me, I had a fairly detailed world map to start with and a few towns or locations that were created for the original game. That became my palette from which to build out other locations and fill in the map.

Read my interview with fantasy author Sara Ella

From there, I develop a landscape or village in my head and then work with fantastic artists and cartographers like James R. Brown and Jog Brogzin to bring them into visual reality for a reference.

What books or series inspired your love of fantasy?

This entire series is based on the original DragonRaid game by Dick Wulf. Our team is grateful he had the opportunity to write the forward for Wolf Soldier, the first book in the series, before he went on to be with the Lord. Both Dick and I have been inspired by Tolkien and Lewis primarily.

Bear Knight

What do you hope readers will come away with after reading Bear Knight?

The theme in Bear Knight is courage in the face of our fears. We’re talking about fear of physical danger as well as less tangible but just as frightening fears. The characters deal with fear of being left behind by peers, fear of failure, fear of becoming someone they don’t want to be, etc.

I hope that readers learn that no matter what fears they face, they can always find peace and hope in Christ and His promises, and thus the courage to face those fears head-on.