Planning over

As the title suggests I’ve finished planning the next couple of stories. As these stories are setting up the novel I’m having to do a bit more work threading them in so they make sense and the characters are in the right place but it’s all going well.

To be honest as well I’ve been hovering over the break a little bit as well. I was working really hard on the others and by the time I got to writing “The Frozen Keep” I felt a little burnt out and it was a real struggle to fall in love with that story and add twists that would keep it interesting so I feel like it suffered a little bit and so that didn’t happen again I wanted to break away and come back fresh.

I’ve also started thinking about series 2. (Which is what I’m calling each set of short stories finished with a novel). Some new characters, new locations. Without giving out any spoilers it’s going to be featuring the Elves more as I haven’t really jumped into the Elven culture too deeply and I’ve got a lot of ideas that require a lot of research. The latest stories though are featuring characters that you should be familiar with by now. Exploring the relationships further and creating some adventures.

That’s where I’m at anyway. I promise I’m going to knuckle down and get on with it now.  Thank you everyone who has been so generous as to send donations using the “Support” button up top. It’s really incredible that you care so much about this little project and it makes me really determined to develop it and make it into something truly great, so thanks a lot everyone (of course I thanked you individually as well).

Thanks everyone

More stories coming.

We’re all settling in well to the new website. The artwork is looking great as always and I’m enjoying the freedom of being able to post all these things myself.

After finishing the last story I decided to have a little break. I’ve been at this for seven months straight now and inhabiting a fantasy world for that much time is detrimental to ones health I think so I decided to pull back a little bit and work on some other projects. I feel a lot better for it to be honest and whilst I know where the overall story is going sometimes I want to rush to get there and I think that is damaging to the individual stories in some ways, there are many I’m proud of but some that I feel are a little rushed out because I’m to excited about whats coming next.

Having a little break has given me a chance to think about the next two short stories though. The challenge now is to create standalone adventure stories that also link in to my idea of the novel which is on it’s way. But the next two stories have been planned, I’ve started writed number eight (although I’m only two hundred words in). These ones are mostly character based much like the frozen keep I think in that it’s more about how the characters interact and learning more about how they think in a pressure situation etc. I’m going to write some action scenarios in though of course. Although from the look of my notes the novel is going to be heavy on the action, I’m really looking forward to writing that .

Well, I’ve rambled enough in here. Thanks for reading everyone and thanks for the e-mails of support, I do try to reply to everyone, if you can’t find me I’m always at mike@storiesofatlas.com.

Coming soon

I’ll try to add upcoming news from my end as often as possible. The problem is trying to find something interesting to say, I don’t have any pretties like Tom does when he blogs all I can say is I’ve done a bit more writing. But boy have I been writing. The next installment should be ready and published at some point this week hopefully, I hope you all like it.

Anyway, onto the reason I’m blogging (because there has to be a reason). The next couple of stories may take a little longer to produce, I know where the story arcs are going I just need to plan because I think there will be two more short stories before the first novel.

The idea is to have the short stories as stand alone adventures but also that they all build to a ‘cataclysm’, an event that changes the world in someway and might change the dynamic between the characters or motivations. The first one is quite a big deal for me because I’ve never attempted a novel before and I’m not sure how it will turn out so I want to spend as much time on it as possible and plan it quite heavily. As it will be almost four times bigger than the other stories as well it might take a little longer to write, second draft and publish so I hope you can forgive the slow release. I’m looking for ideas of content to publish in that time though, thinking heavily about maybe character bios or maybe something else, any suggestions would be received gratefully.

That’s the near future anyway, hopefully I’ll have a novel to show you guys for the 1st anniversary of Atlas in October but it will be ready when it’s ready.

Welcome to the new look site

As you’ve probably already notice we’ve changed the way the site looks. We decided to make it a little easier for everyone to use (mostly me cause I am an idiot).

I’m actually really really pleased with the way it’s worked out, I didn’t think we could improve on the first site but I’m really excited about the changes we’ve made. As you can see the stories are all still here with a list of everything archived at the side for easier navigating. Our artist Tom has also agreed to do a art blog, I’m really excited about all the posts he’s making, I’m always really impressed with his interpretations of the stories and seeing how he get’s there is fascinating.

We’ll continue to think of more and more content to add to the site. Atlas is definitely growing. If you want to be a part of the future of the site you can join really easily by clicking the join link at the top of the site, or you can join the forum which is still active (you can find it in the side bar on the right).

Look forward to hearing from you soon.