How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a writer?
A: I was two and we lived on Grandma and Grandpa Ross’s ranch still. We were visiting with them in their house and I was in the living room. What I remember most was sitting on the big stone hearth with Grandma’s white porcelain cat. I am not sure if it was Dad or if it was Grandpa that gave me the first box of pens and the two column lined notebook with the yellow paper. I don’t remember what everyone was talking about. I do remember Grandpa always had lots of books, my parents had books, and the adults were always talking about things such as travel and telling stories to each other. I’m not sure what it was about this time, but this is the earliest that I can remember wanting to be an author and artist.
Who are your favorite authors? (Please limit your answer to five or ten.)
A: Oh, only ten? This is hard, one of my favorites is going to have to wait in the wings. Ten it is then.
- Peter S. Beagle: “The Last Unicorn” and “Unicorn Sonata”
- K. Rowling: “Harry Potter”
- R.R. Tolkien: “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” but I am also reading my way through his other works.
- Tanith Lee: “The Black Unicorn,” “The Gold Unicorn,” “The Red Unicorn”
- Hiyao Mizyaki (he counts)
- Steven King: “The Gunslinger” and “The Dark Tower” especially.
- James Clavel: “Noble House” “Tai Pan”
- Eiji Yoshikawa: “Mushashi”
- Anne McCaffrey: The “Acorna,” “Pern,” and the brainships.
- Issac Asimov.
What are your greatest sources of inspiration?
A: Nature has to be my biggest inspiration, especially the mountains, the seas, the stars, and the storms. After that comes mythology and folklore, as I love to imagine what the different creatures and deities would do if viewed with more than a snapshot. My family and loved ones also are in the list, and it is usually them that keep me going on with my projects.
What genre(s) do you write?
A: I write spiritual adventure fantasy mainly. My active projects center around characters that balance more than one world while finding their own footing and path in life. As that is the sort of story that has always spoken most strongly to me. I have a sci fi idea I poked at some and would like to return to, but high fantasy is my favorite. I also write poetry, normally with a mythical slant. Sometime in the future I also have a non-fiction idea to pursue in the mythology and folklore division.
Do you have any current or future projects?
A: The “Selkies’ Skins” series, “Dragon Shaman” series, and “Mythical Minstrelsy” are my current projects. At times I also work more on revamping, rewriting, and reconstructing lost stories for my “The Shadow Chronicles” series that I had begun in the early 1990’s. The “Selkies’ Skins,” “Dragon Shaman,” and “The Shadow Chronicles” series are all intertwined and take part in a shared larger multi-planar or multi-dimensional (depending on who you ask within those) world(s). At some point I may work on Amethyst’s “Gardens of Jardinia” but it will not be until I have completed my three fantasy series and the story that is to follow when the leads of each of these three have achieved their individual goals and meet each other properly to deal with the threat of Astereth and the Fire, and sow seeds for the reintegration of Mythical, Magical, and Cowan societies. Somewhere in all of this I will need to find time to do another poetry or general writing workshop with the Astral Sector Alpha and Trotsdale libraries in Second Life again as well.
Do you have an author website?
A: I do not have an author website, but I do have a publishing website, THG StarDragon Publishing. I also have a webserial novel archival site at Selkies’ Skins Official Site. The closest thing to an author website that I can think of is my Patreon, which does have a lot of public material and some reserved strictly for Patrons at: Patreon.
Do you have any blogs?
A:
- I have a publishing blog at THG StarDragon Publishing.
- I have a Live Journal at Rainstardragon
- I have a Dreamwidth at Rainstardragon
- Sometimes I post in my deviantArt’s (yes, that is actually how they do the capitalization) journal at AmehanaRainStarDrago
Where can people find your work? (to purchase or just to read)
A: My work can be found under Teresa Garcia on Amazon, Lulu, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other sites. I also have my first released works still available under Teresa Huddleston-Garcia. If it is marked as from THG StarDragon Publishing I had a hand in it somewhere, whether it was as the author, an editor, or publisher. Illustrations can be found in some of the books through my company, but examples can also be found at AmehanaRainStarDrago . I am available for illustration work.
If you could feature just one title, what would it be?
A: I would feature book one of “Selkies’ Skins,” entitled “Selkies’ Skins: Castle and Well” as I feel that Kirsty Makay has a more interesting starting place in her personal story than do BlowingWind MountainChild (“Dragon Shaman”) or Willow/Angelina (“The Shadow Chronicles” and cameos in “Dragon Shaman”).
Do you have any pseudonyms?
A: I am also known as Lady Rain StarDragon, Amehana Arashi, Amehana Ishtari, and Amethyst Stormrider. Those short stories under Amethyst Stormrider are currently in retirement but may be reworked some day into longer sci-fi books.
Do you have any other hobbies besides writing?
A: I used to ski a lot. I also like to bead and make bookmarks. I also write role play quests for DragonHeartsRPG and help as a lore writer with the Dreaming Twilight (formerly Nisa) community in Second Life. I also enjoy adventure RPGs such as Call of Cthulhu and Iron Claw. In addition I volunteer as a curator for the Trotsdale library and Astral Sector Alpha libraries in Second Life and perform live book readings for the virtual library patrons to introduce them to works they may not have heard of.
I recently got into selling candles from JIC Nation, but as that is closing I am being transferred to JewelScents and Gemstra. The domain for my candle shop is JIC Nation and will redirect to the new storefront once that transfer is completed July 1st of 2017. Between the books, handbeaded bookmarks, illustrated bookmarks, and candles I have things that give me a route to get past my shyness and run a booth in community events, socialize, and people watch.
Tell us something interesting about yourself.
A: I was a competitive ski racer in high school. My friends and I were not interested in the sports that our high school offered, but we were interested in skiing and snowboarding. My best friend’s dad once had the opportunity to compete in skiing in the Olympics, but turned that down. I cannot remember anymore if she was the little one that the stayed for or if it was one of her sisters. We wanted to form a ski team though, so he became our coach, along with my parents. We learned a lot on and off the slopes, as we had to do a lot of fundraising in order to purchase our gear, passes, tickets, and everything else. Because of my involvement I can say that I competed in blizzards as EVERY Friday in my Senior year (1998) it seemed to choose that day to dump on us and every other school that came up for meets. I’m also able to say that we all skied in the Championships.
Health and injuries have kept me off of the slopes for years, compounded with not having enough money for the tickets or time to go up during the times I was healthy enough. I hope that this will be the year that I will be able to go back up on Mount Shasta and do the snow dance with my favorite mountain.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
A: I am incredibly proud of my kids. Much of their lives I have either been sick, injured, recovering from surgery, or buried under mounds of university coursework fighting for my B.A. in International Relations. As soon as she was 14 my daughter joined the local volunteer fire department’s Explorer’s program for fire fighter and medical training, so that she would know what to do if her brother or I were hurt or I had another medical problem. There is also a tradition of fire fighting in my family and her father’s family.
As soon as my son was 14 he followed her, so that he can learn to be a fire fighter. What motivates him is much the same as his elder sister. However he also was one of the students at Weed Elementary the day that the Boles forest fire took out much of Weed, California in 2014. This year was his first in the Explorers and his first time competing in the annual Fire Muster (firefighter games) traditionally held the third weekend in June in McCloud, California.
Jen's Favorite Authors 