Featured Author: Matthew Carauddo

Some creators enter storytelling through the page.

Matthew Carauddo entered through performance, through movement, sound, discipline, combat, and the deep instinct of embodying a character before ever writing one.

For over thirty years, Matthew worked as an actor, director, staged combat artist, and licensed fencing instructor. Under the name Novastar, he became known throughout the lightsaber community, teaching hundreds of students and shaping entire creative subcultures around precision, discipline, and imagination.

That blend of artistry and physicality eventually evolved into something larger:

Diamond Dragons, the epic fantasy–sci-fi series he writes, illustrates, designs, and even voices himself. 

Set in the mystical lands of Taelondria, Diamond Dragons follows ancient societies of dragons locked in a race against time. Legends whisper of a phoenix of immense wisdom — a creature whose survival could alter the fate of the world. But Nitrozite, the ghost dragon, rises with undead armies and a singular mission: to consume the phoenix’s power and extinguish it forever.

At the centre stands Jackralvian: young, untested, unexpectedly burdened with purpose. His coming-of-age unfolds against war, prophecy, and the heavy truth that time spares no creature, mortal or dragon.

Matthew’s worldbuilding reflects the layers of his own journey.

Decades of choreography, martial arts, theatre, production, sound design, and storytelling converge into narratives shaped by momentum, consequence, and dramatic tension. His influences range from Shakespeare to Carl Sagan, from classic literature to the immersive worlds of The Elder Scrolls and Deus Ex.

What makes Matthew’s work stand out is not just his skill across disciplines, it’s the sense that every page carries a lineage of all the arts he ever touched.

Every fight scene has the clarity of a trained fencer.

Every emotional beat comes from a lifetime of performance and character study.

Every creature, sound, and spell is crafted with a creator’s precision.

Matthew is currently developing Diamond Dragons VI, which may — or may not — be the final chapter in the saga.

You can explore his work here: https://diamond-dragons.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@diamonddragonstale/videos