Q: End of Book 1? Why? What does that means?

A: It was supposed to be “End of Part 1” but a reader suggested I numbered the parts of my story, so after doing that, “End of Part 1” became “End of Book 1”. It will be Book 1 of “The Dungeon Hive: Volume 1”. The reason is because the story will now change with the story taking place beyond the dungeon. Also the story will now be told from the POV of the wolfgirl and the hive, so it make sense to me to state the change as the end of the first part of the story.

Q: Why a “hive” dungeon?

A: Because no one had done it yet. No one had done a story where the main character is a dungeon with a hive mind so I saw an opening.

Q: Why the “first” dungeon? Why not set the story in a world with dungeons on it already?

A: I need to show my age here. When I first started playing and reading fantasy, dungeons are simple things. We go in, kill everything, loot everything, kill the boss, and walked out. The idea of “farming” the dungeon did not occurred to us. The concept of having a relationship with the dungeon boss might as well be something from outer space. Nowadays, it’s common but in my youth, it was something we never even thought of. Yet I have to admit it does make a certain amount of sense. If the dungeons has been in the world for hundreds of years, then it makes sense for them to have a certain relationship/understanding with the people of the world.

That’s when the idea of the overall plot of my story came about. I will show the changing relationship of the dungeons and the humans of a fantasy world. How they went from an “I will kill you or you will kill me” relationship to an “unfriendly partnership of mutual need”.

For this to work though, I need to start from the beginning thus “The Dungeon Hive”. The first dungeon where it has an “I will kill you or you will kill me” relationship with the humans and how as time passed and other dungeons come into being, the relationship between the two species changes. The timeline of the overall plot will take place over centuries and, if I can maintain my interest, I will show how the world changes along with that relationship.

Q: Is your story set in the early fantasy era? Why?

A: Yes, it is. The reason is because of the plot of the overall story. I needed to start from the beginning, so setting “The Dungeon Hive” in the early fantasy era made sense.

Q: What does “early fantasy era” means?

A: Think early Hyborian Age. For those who don’t know, that’s the world of Conan: The Barbarian. My vision is a world and time where there are still barbarian tribes and nomad clans roaming the world but the early cities had risen and they are the new rising power of the world. The idea of kingdoms and nations are in their infancy and organizations like guilds and orders are local affairs, not world-wide groups.

Q: Why the “Rage-Stamina-Mana” magic system?

A: I needed a magic system that’s simple because this is set in the early fantasy era so this makes sense to me. As the years pass and new generations grow up, the magic system will change accordingly.

Q: Why the simple classes? Where are the Paladins, Death Knights etc?

A: The same thing for the magic system goes for the classes. It’s early in the world so I only have the base classes like warriors, hunters, and mages. Anything higher would be classes like high mages, veteran warriors, master hunters etc. No special classes till later in the age. In fact, I’m toying with the idea that there are no magical weapons at all in the world and that the hive would be the one who introduced them to the world of Ioplan.

Q: What do you mean the Wolfmen are the first of the Beastkins?

A: There will be other hybrids made in the future by the hive and together, these half-man/half-animal creatures will be known as the race of “The Beastkins”. I’m a little undecided on the next Beastkin but currently leaning towards The Ratmen, similar to The Nezumi of L5R. Could change though.

Q: Would there be other magical creatures made?

A: Yes. I have plans, and hopefully I will catch readers out with some of them.

Q: Are there any other races outside the humans? Where are the elves?

A: After some thought, I decided that the humans are the one and only natural race in the world. I will have the various dungeons introduced the other races. I have the idea that each dungeon will introduce 1 race into the world. The hive will have the Beastkin; other dungeons in the future will introduced races like elves, dwarves, goblins etc. Honestly I’m not sure it’s that good of an idea but that’s what I’m going with currently.

Q: How long do you intend to continue with the story?

A: As long as it hold my interest. Sorry, can’t give you anything better than that.

Q: Is this a book?

A: Yes. I'm treating it as an early draft of a book. Thinking of a title and the best I could come up with is "The Dungeon Hive: Instinct" (Volume 1 of the Dungeon Hive series). I foresee finishing the book, sending it to several publishers, getting rejected, and going the self-publishing ebook route.

That's it! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments you want at the bottom and I'll get to them as much as I can.

...............................................................................................................................................................................................

Please visit my blog on http://ghosttalesstories.blogspot.sg