star knights

Q&A #18 - August Questions

Here comes another big round of Q&As! Thanks to everyone who sent these in. Some questions are being saved for next time, so if you don’t see yours here, it might show up in a future post!

Misfit Mansion

Q: What do you think Larkspur’s personality would be like if he wasn’t locked up in a basement?

A: Probably very curious and more sociable than he is now. I think he would have liked to see more of the world, which is probably what he did for the year he was gone. Larkspur’s pretty introverted though, so he likes being at home too!

Q: What does Iris like to do fun?

A: She likes being a part of everything! But her favorites are playing active games, watching tv and eating snacks. She’s watched an impressive amount of movies and also likes watching commercials. Iris also tries hard to include the shyer housemates in these activities.

Q: We already know that dreamons are born from human dreams, so what do you think where the dreams that manifested both Iris and Larkspur?

A: This is recently answered in MM2, but Halloway had a pretty simple dream about a field of larkspurs, while Mathias dreamed about the girl he drew.

Q: Where exactly is Dead End Springs and Perdita located?
A: They're both loosely set in rural North America but the towns are 100% inspired by the Professor Layton games haha. So kind of just an amalgamation of random places. They're not set in the same universe though. Oddity Woods also takes place in an earlier time period than Misfit Mansion.

Oddity Woods

Q: What’s Wyatt’s favorite food? If he has one.

A: In the woods, anything he can find. On a serious note I think he’d like most foods and isn’t that picky! Marietta on the other hand would be an extremely picky, “eats chicken nuggets only” type.

Q: Why did Lawrence change his hair after his parents disappeared?

A: He wanted to play the “cool mysterious innkeeper” character, so he gelled it back! He stopped doing this after the inn collapsed though.

Q: Why is Capella's shirt so big? I think it's cool though!

A: Big dress! She hides her hands because she’s always holding knives.

Q: When Marietta takes her magnifying glass from the cabinet, there's the outline of another object that isn't there. Is that object with her father?
A: Oooh maybe!

Q: And is Whistle the ghost of the dog in the picture of the police force that her father has? Is the car attendant that one guy in the picture of all the cops during Marietta’s flashback?

A: So many secrets.

Q: Are Gloria and Detective Doubts a thing? Or do they just take family pictures together?

A: They are in a “will they won’t they” situation, but also they’ve been close friends for a long time. They are basically family.

Q: What inspired you to create Owen? Was he just a random side character and also how did you come up with the design?

A: I originally wanted a rival character for Marietta who would show up throughout the comic, but when I was actually writing the inn chapter, I thought it would be more impactful to show the result of the Conductor’s contract. Owen was meant to be a character you feel you can trust, someone around Marietta’s age who is different from the shadier guests at the inn, and someone Marietta might warm up to quickly, as he also gives detective vibes. I feel bad since he seems to have a lot of fans…

Q: Will you finish the little Oddity Woods camp comic you made and if not then what happens next?( I think they're really funny and cool!)

A: Thanks! I get this question a lot. Unfortunately I have been way too busy with other comic things to continue it, and I don’t know if I ever will, but I will post it here for other people to enjoy. This was basically a silly alternate universe comic I was posting on my Patreon long ago where the characters went to summer camp. This comic is NOT canon and shouldn’t be used for theories!!! As for what happens, I can’t really remember. I don’t think I wrote that much of it… but I do remember the Conductor shows up as a mythical urban legend-type monster at some point.

Q: Are the people of Oddity Woods really familiar with some sort of sign language? I just remebered that when Anita said not to hurt anyone, Capella and Arthur were both able to understand her.

A: I think a lot of people there do, not for any big lore reason but because I think it would be cool if more people knew sign language.

Q: Did Lawrence and Harris remember Anita when she turned up at the dinner party? Or was she just a friend of their moms that they didn't know very well?

A: They didn't know her very well personally, and I don't think she visited much in the past. Anita's job as a wildlife manager has been really busy lately with all of the monsters running around. Harris is also too young to remember her and I think Lawrence probably thought he was too cool to hang out with his moms's friend anyway haha.

Star Knights

Q: When Cygnus fought Stello, would Stello have been willing to actually attack Cygnus with his sword, since he’s such a kind soul? Or was he just trying to tire her out to take her star crown?

A: Probably the later, though I think he was just trying to disarm her! Stello could never hurt anyone.

Other

Q: If the cast of the three books ( OW, MM1, and Star Knights) met up for a hide and seek game, out of each book, who would be the best/worst at hiding and/or seeking and who would be the best at it out of all of them? 

A:

  • Star Knights- Best at hiding: Astrid (tiny), Worst at hiding: Cygnus (her feathery clothing would stand out, and she’d probably start talking if it took too long). Best at seeking: Corva and/or Tad (can fly and jump around), Worst at seeking: Stello (I think he’s so easygoing he’d probably stop to enjoy nature and forget what he’s doing).

  • Misfit Mansion- Best at hiding: Dahlia (can fit anywhere because no bones), Worst at hiding: Iris (knows the best spots but always forgets to hide her tail) and Kel (always hides in the greenhouse). Best at seeking: Agnes (She knows every spot in the house!), Worst at seeking: Mathias and Larkspur (Mathias would try but isn’t familiar enough with the house yet, while Larkspur would just give up before the game starts.)

  • Oddity Woods- Best at hiding: Wyatt (used to it) or Whistle (can disappear!), Worst at hiding: Lawrence and Capella (both talk too loud). Best at seeking: Marietta (no contest!), Worst at seeking: Leo (would say they’re counting and then leave).

  • Top players would probably be Dahlia or Marietta! I don’t know if anyone could find Astrid though.

Q: How would Tad, Iris, and Marietta react to meeting their creator(you!)?

A: I would probably be pretty boring to them haha.

Q: As someone with adhd I wanted to know: Are any of your characters (from any of your books) neurodivergent? Iris and Wyatt really stuck out to me as nd while I was reading which made me wonder.

A: Yeah honestly I think so! While I can’t say I originally wrote them with it in mind, recently I have felt like both Iris and Wyatt are probably neurodivergent. I for sure want to research and be more intentional about it in future works, but I think it’s cool people can see themselves in the characters.

More next time!

Fan Art Feature #4

Amazing fan art from this month! As always, thanks for sending/sharing these with me, they are all wonderful!

Q&A # 17 - July Questions

Happy July! There’s a little less than a month before Mayhem at Misfit Mansion is out, so I’ll start this Q&A out with some MM questions. Also, as a head’s up for those who need it, there’s brief discussion of death in the third and thirteenth question.

Misfit Mansion

Q: Does Iris enjoy reading? What kind of books does she like?

A: I think she is more of an outdoors-y sports person, but she likes comic books. It was hard for her to get the latest ones when she was stuck in the house, and Halloway was bad at remembering which ones she already had, so she has a bunch of random volumes. She decided to make up in her head what happened in between each one.

Q: Does Larkspur have any particular things he enjoys cooking? Does he ever use Iris as a taste tester?

A: He tried but she kept eating stuff before it was done and now she's banned from the kitchen. For food, I think he likes challenging himself to make more complicated meals.

Q: Trigger warning: death. Sorry if it’s a little dark, but what would have happened to a dreamon (Larkspur) if the dreamer (Halloway) had died? And vice versa. 

A: This is actually something I’ve thought about when I was thinking of concepts for a third book. To be clear, I don’t know if there will be third book (the publisher would have to request it), but I did wonder if maybe dreamons without dreamers could gain full control of their powers, and potentially shapeshift on their own. A dreamon passing away would probably be very emotionally painful to the dreamer. I also wondered if there’s a way to break a dreamon/dreamer bond without one passing away, and what that would mean. Would there be effects on them both in that case? There’s definitely a lot to think about. For simplicity’s sake, and because I don’t want it to be super dark, it would be very sad but nothing horrible would happen to the other.

Q: What inspired you to create the characters Iris and Mathias in book 1?

A: I can’t quite remember where the concept of dreamons first came from (I’m planning to rummage through all of my old MM concept stuff soon and post it!), but a core part of the story has always been overcoming bigotry/ learning to understand people who are different from you. I grew up in a community that taught me to hate groups of people who were different from me, which caused a lot of fear and judgmental beliefs within myself as a kid. When I was able to leave that community, I realized how hateful it was, which is in part why I wrote Star Knights and Misfit Mansion— to push back against that narrative. Mathias was raised to believe that horrors are dangerous, but because Iris is the only one in his life who has showed him kindness, he is able to change his beliefs.

I’ll talk more about them and their designs in an upcoming post!

Q: In the first book, Halloway says that dreamons are brain children. Does that mean Mathias is Iris’s dad?

A: Dreamons can show up for many reasons! Halloway sees Larkspur as his child because he had wished to be a dad. Mathias’s wish was different, which we’ll see in the second book.

Oddity Woods

Q: When Mary met Wyatt why did he tremble and stammer when he saw the magnifying glass?

A: “Weird living girl has magical item, huh?????”

Q: How much time will have passed between the first two books?

A: The second book continues right after the first! I wanted Marietta to have different clothing throughout the book, so I decided a long time ago to change up her outfit with each chapter. I draw a bit differently than I did when I drew the Labyrinth Inn chapter in 2017, so the characters may look a bit different, but they're the same age.

Q: How did you come up with Wyatt’s design?

A: I like science-themed characters haha. I've had him since 2012. I drew him thousands of times until I felt the design was right. It was a lot harder to figure him out than Marietta. I think the eyes gave me a lot of trouble and they still do sometimes!

I kind of want to do like a progression of every year drawing these two just to see the difference over 14 years.

Q: Does Wyatt ever wonder about his family outside of the woods?

A: Probably, among other things. Like, is there a family even out there?

Q: Just to be clear, Wyatt has been missing longer than Owen and Velia right? It seems like Owen remembered more than him.

A: Hmm I'd say for this one, there may be another reason Wyatt's memory loss is worse. I think the woods definitely have an effect on living people, especially if they've made a contract, which is why Owen was forgetting stuff. But if that means Wyatt has been there longer or not... we'll see.

Q: Even after the Conductor takes your soul, you can still be found wandering the woods as a monster right? I think that it would really freak Marietta out if she saw Owen as a monster.

A: Haha yeah. That would be bad.

Q: Are there any reasons as to why Wyatt hates ghosts so much even though he loves every other paranormal creature?

A: It's probably safe to assume (from the flashback near the end of the inn chapter) that he might have had a bad encounter with a ghost once!

Q: TW: death. Did Whistle die violently? He's a poltergeist so I thought maybe... poor little guy.

A: Most poltergeists do die from a violent or sudden death, and the memories of their pasts and refusal to accept death is what gives them powers. Perhaps Whistle died "violently" or perhaps he just has his memories from before. Dogs can't be vengeful so he is a little different!

Star Knights

Q: Other than if the wish turns evil or if you break the mini crowns on the head, do the Star Knights have other weaknesses?

A: It would depend on the type of animal! Like, maybe amphibians like Tad and Stello can’t deal with dry places like deserts, or maybe Cygnus can’t cast water spells well if it’s extremely cold outside, since they would freeze. Corva’s weakness is shiny objects.

Q: What was the relationship/dynamic between Corva and Cygnus before Cygnus became a Star Knight? 

A: Best friends, Cygnus was kind of a crybaby when she was younger, but Corva’s always been good at cheering her up. Cygnus liked pretty things, so Corva would find stuff for her in typical crow fashion. I think Cygnus probably had a crush first as they got older. She didn’t confess until after the events of the book though.









Q&A #9- Star Knights Silly Questions

Q: So does Tad croak when he’s scared, or does he use it to fend off bigger enemies? (that’s a real frog fact!) Can Tad control his croaks? Or is it an allegory for something else?

A: If you've seen videos of frogs yelling after being picked up, Tad croaks like that when scared haha. I don't think he's quite intimidating enough to scare enemies with it... but I do think Star Knights tend to have some animal characteristics that carry over from their animal forms!

Q: What do the stars in the Star Knights universe taste like?

A: Candy corn, but don’t eat them!

Q&A #5 - Star Knights

Q: Do you think we'll ever see Tad and co., again, or is their story finished?

A: Their story is finished for now, which is a little sad, but I like to tell fans of Star Knights that they can continue the story with their own characters! I still like drawing Tad and Stello.

Q: After the events of Star Knights did the animals make peace with each other after fighting on the moon? Are salamanders and frogs no longer hated? Did Astrid and Cygnus forgive each other?

A: Much like in real life, there will always be those who are still set in their old judgmental ways, but I like to think most of the animals changed their minds and learned to be better/ are working to make the world better. I’m also sure Astrid forgave Cygnus.

Q: Out of curiosity, how big are Tad and Stello in and out of their Star Knight forms? If they were stand next to Marietta or Iris, would they be about the same height or would they be the size of actual amphibians?

A: They are baby sized!!! The Star Knights universe is kinda weird, since they're technically space aliens, so their heights aren't 100% true to human heights. But I think if Tad stood next to Marietta he'd be this tall.