by Shami Stoval

Academy Archanist
Mimic Archanist
Abyssal Archanist
Death Lord Archanist

 

A young man goes off to a mystical school, where he meets an eclectic group of friends, and encounters an evil overload…  Sound familiar?   One could easily hear a brief description of the Astra Acamedy series by Shami Stoval, and think that this is a road that has already been tread.  However, if one were to dismiss these books because of a surface-level similarity to a very popular movie and film franchise, you’d be missing something both wonderful and different.

 

The protagonist of the books, Gray Lexly is the son of a chandler (candle maker).  Gray is tormented by dreams that cause him physical harm.   During one of these dreams, he meets the kindly Professor Helmith, who protects him and eventually invites him to attend Astra Academy,  a school for archanists,  their world’s version of a wizard or magic-user.

 

Gray is an interesting point-of-view character because he does not come across as likable.  He’s constantly exaggerating, stretching the truth, and outright lying – even when there’s no cause to do so.  He is also slightly narcissistic, thinking that everything is his fault or responsibility.    This might be off-putting to some readers, but when I think back on my worldview from my late teens, I realized how well Ms. Stoval captured the inner workings of many a young person at that age.

 

I instantly fell in love with all the characters, from Gray’s kindly twin brother Sorin, to Gray’s rival and eventual love interest Ashlyn, and most of all Sorin’s eventual sweetheart Nini Wonderlin.  All of the characters are well-written, and most are likable.

 

As wonderful as all these elements are, the books shine when Ms. Stoval introduces her universe’s cosmology.   Her portrayal of the Abbysal Hells–the place where souls go to be reborn, is fascinating and well done.  Creating an interesting take that has the air of mythology, as if someone were reading from some ancient faith while tying into the plot of the main book, and explaining how magic works in the world.

 

This series of books is for anyone who enjoys an interesting and different take on magic, young-adult adventure, or YA books.  I recommend these books to anyone ages 12 and up.

 

The Spaceman gives this 4.5 rocket ships.

After airing our interview with Lydia and David Sherrer, we had one of our listeners reach out to us asking how to become an illustrator in the games industry.   I reached out to the tabletop communities that I’m still a part of, and here’s the answers that I got.

 

  1. Have an online portfolio – Opinions were mixed where it should be, but it wouldn’t hurt if it was in multiple locations, Deviant Art was one suggestion.
  2. Have a price sheet – Publishers want to know up front what your fees are.
  3. Be active on Social Media – One of our respondents  mentioned that they found most of their artists from following them on Twitter (X).  
  4. Approach the publisher you’re interested in working with directly.  Several publishers have dedicated contact pages/forms specifically for artists to submit their portfolios for review.
  5. Establish a reputation as respectful and professional.  The tabletop publishing industry is small, and word gets around.  To wit…
  6. Communicate.  Keep your clients up to date on where a  project is at. 
  7. If you sell at conventions, potential publishers may approach you there. 
  8. See if the publisher has a Discord server, and if so join it.  
  9. Join any of the several Facebook groups for tabletop games publishers and freelancers.
  10. Finally, an edge case.  If you publish stock art through Drive Through RPG, you can join the DTRPG Publisher’s Discord.  Publishers often look for writers and artists within this community.

I hope our readers find these tips helpful, and I  personally want to thank the members of the Creative Indie RPGs and The RPG Brain Trust Facebook communities for their suggestions for this list.   — Spaceman

As 2023 wanes and 2024 dawns, we have a lot of changes on our minds here at Spaceport Shireton.   Based on our experience last year, the Halfling and I know that saying what you “will accomplish” in the form a new year’s resolutions is a futile endeavor – the Nornir (Fates) have their own plans for you, and there’s only so much you can plan for, but with that in mind, we have some simple goals for 2024.

  • Move Journeys in Active Fandom to video where possible and upload the conversations to both YouTube and our audio podcasting platform.
  • Build out our guest room as a podcast and YouTube studio so that we have a dedicated space to record.
  • Find new bumper music for the podcast which reflects our love of all things fantasy and science fiction.
  • Launch our new show The Halfling and the Spaceman Play… Where we get together monthly here at Spaceport Shireton with people from a variety of backgrounds, and play games… on video!

All of these things while we continue to produce the podcast, “Catching Up With”, and attending and covering conventions!

Black Speculative Fiction Month, celebrated every October, is a month to commemorate speculative fiction written by and about Black folks. Author, Afroretroism expert, and game writer Balogun Ojetade cofounded the month along with writer and publisher Milton Davis. On our podcast we’ve had the pleasure of talking with several black creators and writers. What follows is a list of those we talked with and links to their episodes. Please check them out and join us as we celebrate creators of the African Diaspora.

 

Nicole Givens Kurtz, Author and Publisher

James Bullock, Convention Organizer and Anime Fan

Milton Davis, Author and Publisher

James Young, Author

Barr Foxx, Cosplayer and TV/Film Producer

Wole Talabi, Author

Dru Phillips, Photographer and Cosplayer

Matt Jones, Comic Book Writer, Publisher, and Convention Organizer

“Coach” Monroe, Publisher and Writer, Essential Comics

Eugen Bacon, Author

Linda Addison, Author and Poet