Tales From a Thousand Worlds
Updates Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
Monthly Archives: May 2015
Upcoming Stories
Posted by on May 30, 2015
I currently have rather a large collection of short fiction written up, totalling near 40 stories, ranging from very short stories to much longer novellas. Between them there are near 400,000 words, or around the length of four average novels.
Those are just the ones written. There are a number more in planning or the early stages of writing.
Over time they will all be making an appearance here. Given the number of stories already written, it may be a while before all of them are shared. Plus there will be some proper serials starting up at some point as well.
As an indication of what will appear here, and the types of stories they are, here are some of them.
The Deeds of Peregrine and Blade
Pulp style sword and sorcery short fiction influenced by the likes of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock, this collection of sixteen currently written stories (and eight more already planned) follows the adventures of Peregrine, the Aedring swordmaiden, and Carse of the Red Blade, swordsman, dabbler in magic and former assassin.
The first of these stories should be shared soon.
The Adventures of Sir Richard Hammerman
Set in an alternate steampunk/weird science/fantasy Earth, this collection of stories features gentleman-adventurer Sir Richard Hammerman, and his friends and colleagues, including Captain Archibald ‘Archie’ Hammerman, Professor Hamilton Gooding, Obadiah Crabb and more, as they travel around the dark continent of Africus and beyond, encountering pygmies, pterodactyls, weird cults and more.
Primal Tales
A collection of short fiction set in a primordial fantasy world, a place of ancient forests and ruins, of mega beasts and predators. It is in this world that the Huatti lizardman Tudhala Ramal and the human hunter Braega make their way.
The Adventures of Ray the Robot
A SF/comedy series, Ray the Robot is a possibly malfunctioning robot tested to the limits trying to keep his ‘master’ Brian out of trouble, a fact made more difficult by Brian’s tendency to naively jump both feet first into trouble.
These are just some of the stories that have been written and will be shared here.
Coming Up Next
Posted by on May 26, 2015
The Merchant’s Legacy has reached its conclusion and so we will be moving on to the next story in The Chronicles of the White Bull. Echoes of Dark Reflections is around 7850 words and tends towards being darker than the previous stories.
In a barren, dying land the giant white minotaur Nhaqosa and his band of hardened gladiators come across a broken, crystal tower. Horrors lay inside, horrors that must be defeated, no matter the cost, for if they are not the lands are surely doomed.
Schedule For The Rest Of The Month
Posted by on May 24, 2015
For the final week of Short Story Month, I have decided to do daily updates. So for the last week, each day I shall add to the story in progress. The current one, The Merchant’s Legacy, will be finished in that time, and the next one, Echoes of Dark Reflections, will commence.
May is Short Story Month
Posted by on May 9, 2015
I recently found out that we are in Short Story Month. As a short fiction writer, this piqued my interest. It seems to have been declared back in 2013, so it is a new happening. It isn’t a big event yet, with world wide coverage and sponsorship and the like, but it is one I hope can go from strength to strength.
As it is Short Story Month, and I write short stories (and novelettes and novellas), I plan to get involved. Well, more than I already do with my thrice weekly updates. I will have to consider some way to properly mark the month.
The Origins of The Pit
Posted by on May 5, 2015
The Chronicles of the White Bull collection was actually born out of another project, one that hasn’t been completed yet. That story featured Elad, the knight who appears in The Pit, as one of the main characters.
At the time I was just starting to get interested in writing short fiction and decided to do a piece featuring him, to get a idea of who he was and the setting. It was while writing that story that Nhaqosa emerged. Initially he was there to provide an outsiders view of Elad, but right from the start he began to take over the story as a major character in his own right. And then he demanded further stories to be written about him.
In the end eight stories were written of his journeys and the story that spawned it still hasn’t been written yet. While his journey is complete it may be that he will make an appearance again in the future.
Coming Up Next
Posted by on May 5, 2015
With The Pit having concluded, the next story in The Chronicles of the White Bull will be starting up. The Merchant’s Legacy continues the story of Nhaqosa, his companions and their travels. At around 12,300 words, it is about twice as long as The Pit, in the range category of a novelette.
A stranger to the dying world he finds himself in, the white minotaur Nhaqosa is met with suspicion and distrust on all sides, even when he is seeking to aid the sore oppressed in lands beset by troubles. An encounter with bandits, and their captive, a merchant named Kythias, may change all that.
Why I Write Short Fiction
Posted by on May 3, 2015
Flash fiction, short stories, novelettes and novellas. I’m a big fan of all forms of short fiction, both reading and writing it. I didn’t used to be so enthusiastic about it.
Once upon a time I was an avid reader of the epic doorstopper form of fantasy, with its multiple volumes of weighty tomes and series that didn’t end. However, the more that they didn’t end, the more I began to drift away from them. Waiting 20+ years for the conclusion of a story I started when much younger began to wear thin. As did the padding that became more ad more pronounced as the series went on that filled out the books solely to keep the series going.
In addition I didn’t have as much time to devote myself to such weighty series. And so I began reading other forms of fantasy – short fiction. The epics went unfinished – there are only a few that I have completed. I grew to enjoy the shorter form for its sharp action, succinct stories, lack of padding and general fun of action and adventure.
The more I read of them, the more I wanted to write them as well. I had always thought I’d write those sprawling epics when I was younger, but just as my reading tastes have changed, so have my writing. I began to write short fiction and found it much easier and fun. While I knew making a living from short fiction was harder than novels I had found my style and wasn’t going to let that stop me.
Over a couple of years I’ve written a large number of works of short fiction, with a whole bunch more planned. I look forward to sharing them and hope people have as much enjoyment reading them as I did writing them.
Tales From a Thousand Worlds 
Recent Comments