“You think I’m too old for adventure? Nonsense! Every evening I pour a light wine, sit by the candles, and lose myself in the rollicking shenanigans of my favorite book heroes.” — Sir Wilhelm Jareth, paladin of Abriana
Facebook: Dhea Loral
Twitter: @ThaminDheaLoral
Douglas was born on Nov 28th, 1971 . He lived many different places while growing up, courtesy of the assignments the US Army offered to his father. Too quiet and too shy for too long, there were always dreams of other worlds and places…and the desire to write about them.
He got into fantasy role-playing games in his mid-teens. The first such games played on a computer were offered by a Commodore 64. Often Douglas and his brother would create their own tabletop fantasy games and rules as well, all using very basic 6-sided die. Eventually, they also got into Dungeons and Dragons (©Hasbro). As MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) appeared, he tried a hand at several of them and made several new friends across the internet. To this day he has friends whom he meets in tabletop role-playing games, as well as online adventures. Many of his characters evolved in games, and each developed their own personality.
Inheritance of a Sword and a Path is the second book he has written, though the first published. It starts The Earthrin Stones trilogy, set in the fantasy world of Dhea Loral…a world he created for tabletop role-playing. The Widow Brigade is set in the same world, but a different locale and characters. While The Earthrin Stones trilogy servers as a good overall introduction to Dhea Loral, The Widow Brigade is focused on the dwarf widows of Tok-Maurron and their struggles. Douglas continues to write novels and think up short stories, while pondering the changing literary world of print vs ebooks vs audio.
Douglas lives with his wife and two children challenged by autism in Minnesota. He works in health care, serving people’s needs in imaging. When most people see him, he is wearing scrubs.
FUN FACTS:
Most influential authors: R.A. Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, Joel Rosenberg, Terry Brooks
Favorite meal: Sausage and pepperoni pizza, (But no longer with a Pepsi, gave up sodas and lost a lot of weight doing so)
Favorite role-playing class: Rangers lead the way
Hobbies: Online fantasy games, collecting swords, local Pathfinder games (Paizo)
–Graduated high school at age 16, then faced resistance from the state of Wisconsin because they felt no one under 18 should hold a full-time job.
–Lived on an army base in Germany for 3 years.
–Most loved RPG character endured a long campaign in which he lost twelve horses out from under him and more magical weapons destroyed than he could count. The Dungeon Master finally let him earn an unbreakable sword and an intelligent, high-level monster mount. The sword melted in acid and the mount was accidentally killed by a party member.
–Wouldn’t be surprised if he has Asperger’s Syndrome, since the more he learns about it in his oldest the more it sounds like his own childhood. Douglas sees no point in trying to diagnose it since he’s an adult.
–Won the middle school spelling bee, but didn’t last long in the regional contest.
–Played the following characters in school plays: Blackbeard the Pirate, Squanto, Mr Smee (Capt Hook’s First Mate), and…..R2 D2, whose lines were all beeps and whirring noises.
–Spent several years in Civil War reenactments, portraying the Red-Legged-Devils of the 14th Brooklyn, NYSM.