Frequently Unasked Questions

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An interview of the Bright Dreamer, by the Bright Dreamer

Q:  So, Bright Dreamer, who are you anyway?
A:  I am a lazy beast, said to passably resemble a human female, who spends far too much time daydreaming, doodling, reading, writing, and websurfing, not necessarily in that order.  In the real world, I reside somewhere in the Pacific Northwest of America and just started what I hope will be a relatively tolerable job with the local library shipping center.  I suffer from Lazy Perfectionism Syndrome; I have many things I want to do with my life, but, because I know I won't do them as well as I wish I could do them on the first try, or because I know it will take a lot of practice time and even expensive training and equipment to do them right, I keep putting off starting them.

Q:  Hang on a second, didn't you used to call yourself the Master Dreamer?
A:  Yes, well, I thought it was time for a change.  My domain's "brightdreamer," my blog's under Brightdreamer, and I go by Brightdreamer online in many places.  It seemed a bit less pretentious than claiming to be a Master of anything, even dreams.

Q:  And interviewing yourself isn't in any way pretentious?
A:  I fail to see the relevance...

Q:  I'm not surprised...
A:  What was that?

Q:  Never mind.  Anyway, about Skyhaven Adoptions...  what is the purpose?
A:  Like most things I do, Skyhaven Adoptions has no constructive purpose.  It started as an offshoot of my original site, the Realm of the Bright Dreamers (now Dreamspire Castle).  I spent too much time looking at other people's adoption sites and decided that I wanted to try my hand at cyberpet adoptions as well.  It was a "haven" for critters, and they had wings (my first creatures were the Skyhaven Dragons, followed by the Griffins), so Skyhaven seemed an appropriate name.  It quickly became apparent that just drawing a dragon and throwing it on a page wasn't going to be enough for me.  I wanted to talk about the dragons themselves, how they came to be and what kind of creatures they were.  Having long wanted to write fantasy but never having the guts to actually sit down and do so, I thought that Skyhaven, like the Realm, could serve double-duty by being not just an adoption site, but also an idea playground, a place to toy with creatures, settings, and ideas that intrigued me.  Hence, Tirialle was born as a place for Skyhaven Keep to exist, a world for me to explore and fill with exotic creatures and stories.  The name "Tirialle" comes from The Imagination Refined Into A Luminous Land Eternal, which says about as much as can be said about the "purpose" of Skyhaven Adoptions.

Q:  The Imagination Refined... so, how much time did you waste coming up with that?
A:  More than I care to admit.  Next question, please...

Q:  And the creatures... er, and beings?  What about them?
A:  The first step is coming up with an idea... or, rather, coming up with a viable design.  Ideas themselves are pretty easy to come by.  I read lots of fantasy (and other books), but I also get ideas from dinosaurs, nature, animal/human anatomy books, myths and legends... anything that catches my eye.  Even interesting cloud formations are known to spark ideas for me.  This means that there are many half-formed imaginary creatures crawling through my mind.  Designing an interesting creature in an interesting pose, though, takes a little more effort.  This can literally take years of on-again/off-again sketching and toying with various ideas before something "clicks," though some Skyhaven critters come about much faster.  After the design has been drawn (in pencil ) and inked (in pen), it is then scanned into my computer, where it goes to Paint Shop Pro for cleanup.  Once I have a clean black and white design, I add color to make a color template, a template from which I can create the many colorations of a given creature.  Most are solid fills, but sometimes I use gradients and patterns, with the occasional special effect thrown in.  More elaborate creatures, such as the Jewelwing Fairy Dragonflies, have more advanced coloring procedures and thus take longer to produce. (Generally speaking, the longer it takes to make a critter, the harder I make it to find, which is why the Hunt creatures are often more colorful than the Keep creatures.)

Q:  Speaking of the Hunt - it's back now, but it's kinda skimpy, isn't it?
A:  Yes, it's a bit on the small side at the moment.

Q:  A bit?
A:  Well, we all gotta start somewhere, don't we?

Q:  That's not much of an answer.
A:  That wasn't much of a question.

Q:  Anyway, the Skyhaven Hunt isn't the only peculiar puzzle floating about here.  I take it there's a reason?
A:  As implied previously, the point of the Hunt is to expand the land of Tirialle beyond the walls of Skyhaven Keep, to provide more places for me to explore as a pseudowriter (and you to explore as a visitor), and to give me a chance to pretend I have some sort of cognitive functions by concocting puzzles.  Yes, I do make up all the puzzles myself, because I got sick of seeing rehashed riddles from The Hobbit passed off as "original" challenges; nothing against Tolkien, but I wanted my hunt to be a more level playing field, with no advantage awarded to people who happen to have read certain books.  I first started with the puzzles because I was, for a while, addicted to other people's webhunts and site puzzles.  Since Skyhaven was becoming more than just an adoption site (to my mind, at least), it seemed a natural extention to put some more colorful or unique creatures in a place that visitors had to work to get them.
As for the other puzzles... well, I'm just evil incarnate, I suppose.  I also figured that the site itself might seem a bit wordy and dull, so I tried to concoct an incentive to wade through all this junk.

Q:  No arguments here...
A:  I heard that.  You know, I did invent you strictly for the purposes of interviewing me.

Q:  What's your point?
A:  First off, that's about the most overused comeback line on the planet.  Secondly, I'd be a bit more careful of your tone if I were you.  I do know where you live, after all.

Q:  Okay, getting back on track, any plans for the future of Skyhaven that you care to divulge to us, the oh-so-worshipful and unworthy general web-browsing public?
A:  That's more like it... I think... unless that was sarcasm... Anyway, I have many plans for the future of Skyhaven.  What I lack is time, skill, ambition, and talent.  This revamp, for instance, was step one in creating a better Skyhaven, and the ongoing Hunt improvements should be step two.  I will be adding (and re-introducing) more species in the coming year, hopefully with more template variations.  I've also started attempting to teach myself Flash in the hopes of creating more dynamic content, though how soon this could come to pass depends, once again, on time and my ability to learn.

Q:  Oooh... that is a major stumbling block, isn't it?
A:  Sarcasm, again?

Q:  If you have to ask, it's not worth answering.
A:  Okay, I've had just about enough of this!  One more question, then I'm wrapping it up before one of us says something they'll regret.  And it had better be a legitimate question, or so help me you'll be in the next file sent to the Recycle Bin!

Q:  Temper, temper... any last words in the off chance anyone's still reading this?
A:  I would like to extend my deepest thanks to all of you who visit Skyhaven (with the exception of image thieves - you know who you are, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.) It's nice to think that, maybe, I've helped spread a little joy and magic to others through this place.  Know that I check my guestbooks very often, and I check my e-mail almost as often.  I am paying attention, even if I don't always respond immediately, and I do visit websites if people leave working addresses.  I like seeing what people do with their adoptees, what worlds they create for them, whether or not they use any of the ideas I kick around in the Official Guide.  It's nice to know that other dreamers still exist in the world.  The ever-expanding land of Tirialle is ultimately made of imagination and dreams, and dreams cannot exist where there are no dreamers.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some deleting to do...