As a romantic idealist, worldbuilding is my number one passion. Whether writing or art, digital or physical, it doesn't matter. I love the contrasts of human strength and weakness, invariably set against an idyllic backdrop, as I explore the dark and light within us all.
More importantly though, isn't that cover photo fricking awesome?
A brooding hot guy in a ragged thong standing on the helm of a steampunk submarine with a shark knife and diving helmet. No one has ever written that sentence before, and I promise, something's about to go down.
Is he slave or soldier? Villain or hero? Is he about to shank the officer, or charge outside to fight off an octopus swarm? And what's with the zombie eyes on the guy in the background?
This could all turn dark very quickly. I can feel the tension in my loins. I bet you can't guess what happens next. That's OK, nor can I - I'm still writing the story in my head.
Enduring worlds I've created
I've created two worlds over the years in painstaking detail, then populated them with countless characters, each with their own backstory, quirks, and dreams.
The two worlds exist in different mediums, but that doesn't really matter. Art is art.
Irukandji
I'm best known for creating the Kingdom of Irukandji, a publicly-accessible virtual world that has existed on multiple platforms, including Second Life, InWorldz, and DigiWorldz.
Irukandji is a chain of tropical islands that came to life in 2006, and exists to the present day. At its peak, the Irukandji Continent was massive, the largest virtual world in the southern hemisphere. Seven hundred people from around the world lived in my gated kingdom, renting land, making friends, and building their own visions of paradise to complement my own.
Nowadays, and happily, I've let Irukandji settle down. It's represented in-world in my region of Arius on the DigiWorldz grid. A microcosm of the greater kingdom, I still have many businesses on Arius, now populated by interactive NPCs going about their daily lives, and I imagine it will stay that way forever.
It's still public access. Feel free to check it out.
Teleport to Arius
If you have a viewer installed, click the landmark to teleport to Arius, an Irukandji outpost.
Khataria
The Khatarian Empire exists on a not-too-distant planet, populated by the descendents of crash-survivors from Earth a thousand years before.
I began writing the Khataria series of novels back in 2000. Paintings followed, then short stories. I became too invested in its telling, addicted even. It began to show. With six novels finished or in advanced draft, I filed them away to come back to and finish later in life.
Thankfully, I discovered virtual worlds around that time. I buried my creative energy in the new world of Irukandji. But now that tale has run its course, and my thoughts return to Khataria.
I was 32 when I started writing its stories, and now I'm 60. I'm ready now. It's time.