Today we’d like to introduce you to Ravek Hunter.
Hi Ravek, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I had the incredible fortune of growing up in the 80’s. Yeah, I know, we didn’t have cell phones, iPads, or the internet, but we did have hairspray, mousse, real music videos, and the greatest Heavy Metal bands ever! It was also a time when kids used their imaginations, played with toys, and read books made of paper. Many consider this decade as the ‘Golden Age’ of Fantasy and Science Fiction in the form of novels, comic books and role-playing games (RPGs) with iconic authors such as RA Salvator, Jack Vance, Robert Jordan, Tracy and Laura Hickman, David Eddings, and so many more, plus a resurgence in the epic 1930s Conan the Cimmerian stories by Robert E Howard. I wholeheartedly agree!
Fantasy Fiction was the genre that attracted my interest the most. It started with the introduction of RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), Car Wars, and Top Secret, where I initially started as a player but quickly gravitated to the role of Game Master or Dungeon Master. It was a natural fit that put me firmly in the driver’s seat of refereeing games while I controlled the narrative of storytelling. I started going to gaming conventions like Fantasy Fair and DragonCon all the while hosting several groups of players every week. Yep, I was a nerd. And I loved it.
The games became a gateway to reading. I evolved into a voracious consumer of every fantasy novel I could get my hands on and eventually branched out into science fiction as well. Believe it or not, these books sparked a passion in me for ancient and medieval history that was not unlike the fiction I was reading, except that some of it was true. Still, the mythology. legends, lore, oral histories, and cultural beliefs of peoples around the world through many ages have informed and inspired playwrights, moviemakers, poets, and authors like me since people began using words to communicate with each other a long time ago . . . if you’re a child of the 80’s you know what comes after that.
The 80’s were fun times, but they couldn’t last forever. Near the end of the decade, I was off to college, career, marriage, whoops – try again, second marriage, kids, blah, blah blah, until twenty-plus years later I retired and decided to check out a fantasy related convention known as Supercon in Fort Lauderdale.
You know how some men reach their mid-to late forties and buy a corvette, find a pretty young woman to drive around with them, and get an expensive divorce? Not me. I went full nerd. But to my surprise, it was weirdly considered cool to participate in games like D&D. Even girls were playing it! So, I brushed up on the rules and joined an in-person group. Before long I was running one, and then one online, then both! A few years of this and I actually delved into streaming role-playing games, built a small studio and today broadcast on Twitch and YouTube under our company name: Legends on Paper.
During this time, I delved into writing. In high school and college, I had written many adventures for the games I ran and was doing so again. I thought it would be an easy transition to writing fantasy novels. Certainly, I had read enough of them to consider myself well versed on the proper flow and structure of a good narrative that I could translate into a compelling story in the form of a manuscript. Easy as pie. Not so. It was not easy, and it was nothing like pie. It was one of the most frustrating challenges of my life, and I needed help. Lots and lots of help.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I started writing as a ‘professional’, I learned two things: 1) I had no idea what I was doing, and 2) my spelling and grammar were about the same level as a 4th grader. Don’t get me wrong, before I retired, I was a professional in a career where I rose to the highest executive levels in the companies I worked for. However, nothing in my career path prepared me to write creative prose. So, I read a few books and articles, did the research, and wrote my first novel. Ha. It was three hundred thousand words of unending diatribe that was basically a working outline. My brother read it and commented that it sounded like one of the adventures I wrote for my games. That told me everything I needed to know. I quietly put my first try aside for another time.
Getting to the help part. I did a lot more research and decided to write something based during the historical period of Sumer, an agricultural civilization that existed in Mesopotamia thirty-five hundred years ago. It was a time period that always fascinated me and one I kept up with since my high school days. The novel was essentially a paranormal mystery that took place in the city-state or Eridu (Sumer) around 12,000BC, which any historian will note is well before it is believed Sumer actually existed. Of course, I knew this, but I wanted the story to line up with my Atlantis World-Setting that I planned to expand on. Thus, rather than a Historical Fiction, it would be categorized as a Historical Fantasy. In any case, I managed to write a solid draft. However, to get to the polished level an editor or agent would take seriously, I enlisted the aid of a published author who spent the next few months guiding me through structure, rewrites, and ambiguous narrative that eventually led to my first published novel – ‘Saving Eridu’.
Now, in a good story, this is the part where I say everything was easy after that and all my future novels were labors of love that came out perfectly from the start. Not even close. I’ve always loved to write, but the editing and rewrites are mostly torturous. It’s just part of the process if you are dedicated to producing quality work.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The theme of my novels, six of which are published: ‘Red Wizard of Atlantis’, ‘The Fallen’, The Imaziyen Druid’, ‘Shadows of Lyonesse’, ‘Beasts of Courth’, and ‘Saving Eridu’ are fictional stories with historical context; otherwise known as Historical Fiction/Fantasy. The first five mentioned are part of ‘The Broken Pithos Saga’, whereas Saving Eridu is considered supplemental to the series in the same time period. The final book in the series is in the works: ‘Ys: Legend’ and should be out by the end of the year. Another common thread throughout all the books is that they are based on the fictional time of Atlantis. That being said, I like to incorporate stories that have a real historical basis, and I often go to great lengths researching their origin.
Additionally, the D&D5e game that I stream weekly under the name Legends on Paper, includes forty plus, three-hour episodes of video and podcasts, in the same world-setting as my novels. As of this writing, current episodes are based in the World of Greyhawk by the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, E. Gary Gygax. However, we’ll be returning to Atlantis again soon.
For the future, I plan to continue to write Historical Fantasy, but I would also like to try my hand at a modern mystery or horror story, and maybe a fictional western. As it happens, my grandfather wrote a very interesting manuscript about his experiences in World War II. I hope to edit the work one day and get it published. I know he would be proud.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
If I could give definition to the way I would like to write, it would be with the alacrity of Robert E Howard and the jaunty prose of Jack Vance.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ravekhunter.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legendsonpaper1/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ravek.hunter.50/
- Twitter: https://x.com/RavekHunter
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@legendsonpaper
- Other: https://www.legendsonpaper.com/
