I like to explore. The world has amazingly beautiful places, and often times what's written for fantasy can't compare to what's actually out there. I'm also trying my hand at making board games and I absolutely love playing them. Firefly and the Witcher board games are among my favorite.

I don't really remember, but I found it, or at least what I think is my first story. When I was going through bins of stuff when moving out of my parents' house, I found a single sheet of paper where the lines are massive and the paper is cheap. It had a fan fiction for the BFG written on it. It was horrible, and couldn't read half of it, but I'm sure I thought it was amazing at the time. That there was no grade on it told me this was entirely for my entertainment.

I like to find an inspiration. Currently those inspirations are mythologies from long ago. After that, I try to delve in. There are plenty of books, movies, reference books, and even video games for any given era or fancy. Then I start writing it down. I always build the world first, creating history, culture, and maps.

Once I have the layout of the world, I draft up characters and come up with a tentative plot. Then it's down to writing! It never goes as planned, but as long as I have a clear picture of characters and settings, it ends up salvageable.

In edits, I edit once for consistency, once for quality, then I have an editor look it over to really dig into it. After that, I pick out five beta readers to give the final okay, and off it goes.

With an awesome artist. Usually I have a very loose idea of what I want the cover to be (sometimes as loose as having three or four different ideas). I solicit an artist I think will do well for the inspiration of the piece. From there, more often than not I give the artist a lot of latitude, then we work on the piece together to finish it up.

I love reading mythology. It's so overboard and has such a unique voice. I'm sure it wasn't unique at the time, but in an age where we require so much detail, such a magnify glass on every moment of a character, it's refreshing to get a story that's more about the broad strokes.

This one's really boring. It's a black TV tray table in front of my TV. I use my TV as my monitor as it makes editing really easy, having two items side by side. Then there's the coffee table with my books, alcohol, notes, comics (mostly Deadpool, but some Black Panther), and a 3DS. Working on my Pokemon collection.

The Tales of G'desh series is meant to get people into the world of Drowning the Sands of G'desh, an Arabian inspired fiction. So the plan was to show parts of the world that weren't visited much in the novel, and expand on areas which were visited. The latest story, The Mute of G'desh, has us visiting Abr, which wasn't even directly mentioned in the novel. It was hinted that mercenaries came from the north west, and this is where they came from.

Then I thought up a woman without a tongue, cut off while a slave, but she has a child. I was playing Monster Hunter at the time, so naturally she slays giant beasts in the desert who can swim through the sand. It was just a cool story of someone with a set back making the most of it and thriving. I enjoy those stories.

I'm a little embarrassed to say a part of it is fear. There is always the fear of rejection, but I have gotten published through a couple small publishing companies.

There is also the desire to have control over the piece and the marketing. I get to decide what is done with the works. Since it's a series that will eventually lead into a much bigger world, this control of my ip is important to me.

Writing it. Letting words fly from your fingertips in wild abandonment, messy and incorrectly flowing onto the screen. Sure you need to come back to it. Sure you're going to stare in horror. But it's there. It's out. And then you have to edit. But yes, definitely the world building and writing the first draft. Basically everything leading up to editing.

I need to finish the Scrolls of Order and Chaos which take place in Ji-Wei, which G'desh is a part of. So the next novel is a Norse inspired one, then India, and finally Japan and China. While doing that, I'll also be completing short stories for each world. The next short story for G'desh is Ladan and the Djinn, which is actually a story almost directly taken from Arabian Nights in where a djinn seeks to be freed.