Tales from the Multiverse and other things...
First off thank you for the feedback from the poll today. I read all the comments and they are reflected in modifications I made to my outline for book 7 today.
The general consensus that I took away from it is that most people think that the balance is fine now and the others are fairly evenly split on whether they want more Silas or more side characters.
I think when I distilled everything down it has helped me to decide on something that I was strongly considering before.
So I'm going to announce it first here- but I'm going to look into opening up two things.
1) An anthology of short stories (under 20,000 words) set in the cosmos of Welcome to the Multiverse. I'll let authors or those who want to be authors pitch their general story concept - whether that be following one of the existing characters or creating a new character to help flesh out the multiverse. I would also be writing at least one short story to go along with the book and might at the same time right a patron only story that will never get published to cover a character or part of the story yet to be voted on.
2) A search for authors or authors to be who would like to write/co-write the story of one of the side characters in more detail as a full book or even a trilogy. This was done really well by James Hunter with Viridian Gates and by Tao Wong with his System Universe.
These would be intended to fill in gaps that I may never be able to cover in the main novels.
I'm open to any feedback.
Comments (14)
First, I can’t offer enough gratitude for your books. I had surgery on 1/23 on both legs and ended up having complications in my left, been confined to bed rest since. I’m an athlete and incredibly active, and your WTTM series has kept me from slipping into a depression. I used to do tons of fiction writing, but now working on some nonfiction work. Funny I see this post, as while laid up I was thinking of how fun it would be to write a fan-fiction about how a “normal” family would have handled the induction.
Sorry that you’ve had to deal with this but glad to be helpful to you. Not focusing on our problems is often what it takes to be successful. If you do want to write a short story like that for the anthology, I’d be happy to review it for inclusion in the anthology.
I'm now thinking of Crembori meeting a "kid" who is a combination of Wozniak/Jobs. And the "atomic Boy Scout." (I.e. garage inventor with ideas how to integrate high energy physics and magic).
For sure. Would be great addition.
I think that this will be an excellent way to move forward. Being able to have a hand in writing something for this Multiverse would be amazing.
If you're interested then when I get this set up, feel free to pitch what you'd like to do.
Count me in... happy to write a short on my namesake's experience--either training under Kumo or what happened to him in London when the System officially appeared.
I was hoping you would. And you know Kumo pretty well too so... Lots of periods of time we could cover for him.
There are a ton of avenues you can take on this. Since I'm not up to date on the most current books (audiobooks are my jam) I didn't participate in the poll. But, I'm honestly curious and hopeful that people will take up the banner of this multiverse to play, enrich and expand upon the worlds and people's in it.
There's some interest and hoping for more. I think it's a good way to flesh things out that I'll never have time to reach.
Only marginally relevant, but I've been waiting to see a character type that I don't really see often anymore. So much so that I can't really think of a specific instance off the top of my head. Just a character that is basically at the pinnacle who doesn't necessarily progress the story, but you walk away not really sure who they are. They could be divine intervention or they could be future you. I would like to see how Silas would react with the flash forward stuff. Drive by Elminster would be the closest I could describe. Anyway, random thought over. Ps thanks for keeping your characters true to thier personalities. You're awesome.
Interesting concept and I'm a huge fan of Elminster.
I like both ideas. Viridian Gate Online did both successfully and both anthology and subseries added to the universe while not being necessary for people who aren't interested beyond the main series. The more I thought about the earlier poll, the more I realized how much history the Galenians have to be explored. Even just the formation of our three favorite blue adventurers would be fun to read.
And it eats me up that I don’t have time to tell all those stories.