A post like this has been a long time coming. I’m honestly a little embarrassed to talk about it, because it has been so long since an official post. Did you know that the last State of Tellest we ran took place in 2020? Multiple books have released since then, and we did an immense amount of other work outside of the regular releases, so this newsletter is going to cover some of the accolades we’ve had, and some of the things that we have coming up. I’ll make it worth your while, too, as we’ll have some goodies to talk to you about toward the end of this post.

Stories Added to the Catalog

You can’t talk about a literary universe without talking about the books, so we’ll start things off there. Over the three years since we’ve released a State of Tellest, we’ve released two new books. The first is D’Aprile’s Fools, which received some nice responses from Outstanding Creator Awards, as in 2021, it received the Best Writing in Fiction award for the Winter season, came in second place for Best Fiction Book, and had many honorable mentions in other categories.

We also released Tales of Tellest: Volume 2, which introduces readers to 24 new stories in the Tellest universe, from five authors, and it moves the overall tapestry of the world along in some very interesting ways. And even though we had released that book, we had also been hard at work releasing more stories for the universe as well. We’re already well on our way to filling the pages of our eventual Tales of Tellest Volume 3

Upcoming Books and Stories

Of course, where we’re going is just as important as where we’ve been, and we have a lot to talk about there as well. At the time of this writing, I am in the process of editing two books which we are trying to release later this year

The first is the novelization of Quantum Quest. This story has been a long time coming, and after a lot of work, many cuts, and a lot of bonus scenes, it’s nearing completion on my end before it goes to the editors (I actually sent it out late last week). It’ll be great to show that off to players so that they can see that, even though Quantum Quest is a relatively simple game, it can still have an interesting backstory behind it.

The second book that we’re working on cleaning up and getting out into the world is the trilogy capper for Ancestral Magic, Adelia’s series. Wild Magic is an immense story that sort of serves as Adelia’s odyssey, bringing her as far from her home as she’s ever been, and helping her to learn more about herself, her history, and her powers. This book was much tighter from the beginning, so it shouldn’t need as much cuts and stitches. We’re looking forward to bringing Adelia’s story to life as well.

After that, my focus is going to shift to Silver Serpent’s second book. I had already nailed down a decent chunk of that story back in 2020, but life pulled me away from it, and I decided to focus on D’Aprile’s Fools instead. I have been eager to get back to Silver Serpent for quite some time, because there is a much broader part of the tapestry that those tales tell, and the heroes that we follow there are very compelling.

If I manage to wrap up Silver Serpent in an acceptable amount of time, I may shift over to The Whispers once more, as we left that story unresolved. There was a reason for that, however. Where last we left Declan, he had suffered a grand defeat. In all that time, we don’t know where he left off, but my suspicion is that when he wakes up, he’ll have even more voices in his head than he did before…

After The Whispers, I’m going to try and cap off the Thunderfury Saga as well. All of our characters from the Tales of Tellest series ought to be getting their third books before long, and I’m excited to show Bolt’s wrap-up because we do some awesome things with him and his story.

Now, one of the things that has eluded me for a while is The Maelstrom, which is the second book in Icarus’s saga. I’m trying to get it done right, and that means I take my time with it a bit more than I probably should. I write in strange circumstances with that book, but I think we’re going to have to tweak what we’re doing there in order to bring it back in house and hurry up production on it. Time will tell.

We also have our very first children’s book taking shape, and we’d like to do all we can to get that prepared for Summer if we can. As we rely on the work of an artist to help us realize that project, things are up in the air with that based on his schedule. We’ll let you know more once we get that wrapped up.

Circling back to Wild Magic, as that is the first trilogy capper that we will have released in ten years, we are going to go all out when it comes to promoting it. There’s going to be an immense push to make sure people are aware that Tellest exists, and to try and continue to bring fans into the fold, where they can see a world that grows by leaps and bounds every year.

The Art of Tellest

One thing that we never, ever stop is the art that we continue to pull together for the Tellest universe. Whether it’s character art, concept art, or cover art, there has always been a tremendous amount of work that is done to make sure that fantasy lovers can immerse themselves in the world of Tellest. This expanded to things like maps and sigils in 2019 and 2020, and since then, we’ve made the entire world interactive on World Anvil.

The World Comes Alive

One of the ways we have begun using the art is on our Etsy shop. Over the past eight months, we’ve stocked the Tellest Etsy store with hundreds of items, from posters, to mousepads, to stickers and bookmarks. We’ve got more things than ever that we’re showing off, and we’re becoming a one-stop fantasy shop that you can truly lose yourself within.

Patreon Updates

Part of the reason that we even thought to make an Etsy store to begin with was that we were trying to add value to the Tellest Patreon, and give people even more reasons to want to support our little fantasy world. We added things like the sticker club and the poster club to Patreon to make sure our biggest fans would receive awesome content every day, monthly, and ongoing. Tellest patrons can also get items from the Etsy store at a nice discount.

One of the things that we did this year was introduce Tellest Battlemaps to both Patreon and Etsy. At least twice a month, my brother Matthew and I put out a new battlemap that you can use for your tabletop games. At the time of this writing, we’ve already got 13 battlemaps out, with 45 variants to those maps that you can get on Patreon.

Wyrd Witch Wands

And those are not the only items that we added to the Etsy shop and the Tellest Patreon. One of our biggest new items are Wyrd Witch Wands, which is Rhianna’s newest project, and something that brings her immense joy. Rhianna crafts these beautiful, one-of-a-kind wands out of wood, clay, and precious stones, and really brings magic into this world.

But one of the coolest things is that we’re planning on integrating it a little more deliberately into the Tellest universe, as Rhianna has been working on a story that ties everything together very nicely. She has been working like mad during her downtime to build up her inventory, and we are looking forward to showing all of those off more as we build up our brand.

Quantum Quest

Now, looping back to Quantum Quest… Our novelization is not the only project we’re working on when it comes to our dungeon crawling side project. We’re making moves with the Tabletop versions of Quantum Quest again, and are going to be really focusing on getting Reinforcements out this year. While we have to live with COVID (one of our friends was sick for a week with it just last month), we know that we can’t hold onto this expansion forever, so we’re going to let it out into the world later this year as we launch our Kickstarter for it.

And not only that, but we’re looking to begin showing previews for our second expansion, which adds to the game’s mechanics in some very cool ways. Quantum Quest will always have an element of luck to it, but this adds more tactical value to the game, and we’re excited for folks to experience what we have to share.

TowerSphere

Now, Quantum Quest isn’t the only experience that we’re working on anymore. In 2022, we also introduced the concept of TowerSphere into Tellest. It’s a sporting event that begins to take the world by storm, and though it will certainly be present in stories going forward, we’re also working slowly but surely to turn it into a game that you can experience on your table as well. And we’re going all out on it, making tremendous strides toward branding to make sure that you can find your favorite teams and root for them on the table, in stories, and beyond.

Fan Expo 2023

One way that we can bring all of this together is by getting in front of the people who take the magic we put out into the world and multiply it a hundredfold. It has been three long years, but Tellest is doing what it can to make it back to a live convention later this year. For our big return, we’re planning on breaking out all the stops. Everything you see up there plus some is what we’re planning on bringing to the convention, though we certainly have to be aware that space is limited.

With that in mind, for some of the items, most notably the ones that are more “produce on demand”, we are going to do things a little differently than normal. That’s why we commissioned Francois to create this incredible brochure for us:

Right now, that might look a little small and busy, but that’s going to be a pretty sizable 11×17 brochure, and it’ll hit on a big chunk of what we do—yet not even all of it. You’ll notice that TowerSphere isn’t mentioned anywhere, nor is there a sign of our upcoming children’s book. But Tellest is growing by leaps and bounds, and this will continue to be something we refine over the years.

Riddles and Rewards

For all those who are here on the website who have not subscribed to the newsletter, one of the things that we do on the newsletter is something called Riddle and Reward.  Anybody is free to enter, and I don’t even need the right answer for you to qualify to be a part of our drawing.  The person who is randomly chosen is given their choice of reward, which as of right now is one of the three of these:

• A $5 Amazon eGift Card
• A 4-pack of Tellest posters
• A $5 coupon to use on one of Rhianna’s wands on the Tellest Etsy store

Let’s take a look at the most recent riddle I ran:

I cover cities and destroy mountains,
I make men blind, yet help them see.

The answer we were looking for here was sand. But even if you would have said “shoes”, I would have entered you into the drawing.  Everyone should be having a good time!

And of course, every week I’m also showing off tons of great Tellest goodies, like what comes through on the Etsy shop, what new projects we’re working on, and some other neat things from the world of Tellest and beyond.  So what are you waiting for?  Subscribe to the Tellest newsletter today!

The post State of Tellest – March 2023 appeared first on Tellest.

The last time I spent a few moments to talk about how Tellest was doing, we were deep in the throes of several projects.  Now, just a few months later, several of them are almost ready to be ushered out into the world.

If you’ll allow me a few moments, I’d love to talk about what’s coming soon to Tellest, and how you can get your hands on it!

Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon

The first big bit of news is that Tellest’s first spin-off video game, Quantum Quest, has officially been funded on Kickstarter!  Just last week, we wrapped up that campaign, and it looks like we’re going to be launching the game as expected in just a few weeks.

Merge Dungeon has been a very interesting project to work on, and it’s another very cool item that I can tick off my bucket list.  I’ve always wanted to make a video game, so the fact that it’s this close to coming out is almost more than I can bear!  We’ve got a lot planned for it as well—even though it’s a casual game, we aren’t being casual about its development, and we have a pretty extensive road map planned for it over the next year.

Best of all, Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon is completely free to play.

If you want to see more about Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon, definitely feel free to check out the campaign page at the Kickstarter.  The campaign itself isn’t active anymore, but you can watch the video for the game, and play the demo!

Quantum Quest: Reinforcements

Merge Dungeon isn’t the only Quantum Quest getting some love.  We’ve also got the Reinforcements tabletop expansion coming to your gaming table later this year.  We’ve still got a tiny bit of testing to do, and we’ve got to tell a bit more of a story for a few characters, but the new expansion will be here in time for the holidays.

And best of all, when the game is gearing up, we’ll be getting new characters from the expansion into Merge Dungeon, adding further connections between the two.

Finally, Quantum Quest is getting some more love with an official novelization.  This companion tale connects Tellest and Quantum Quest in some very interesting ways, and leaves room for the world of Quantum Quest to continue to grow and feed into Tellest.  More on that later, though!

The Whispers

You’re seeing it left and right, I know!  The Whispers has been a project that I’ve been working on for more than half a year now, and it’s definitely one of the stranger ones that I’ve done.  But with dozens of votes cast, I’m not the only one telling this story!

Remember that when you see an email for The Whispers drop into your inbox, that’s your chance to help Declan save all that he’s ever known.  I anticipate that we’re nearing the halfway point to this story, but that means you still have plenty of power in your vote—join the Council of Whispers, and help them do what’s best for our unlikely hero!

Tellest Legends

Last but not least, it’s been a long time coming, but we’re still working on the final books in the Tellest Legends set of books.  Part of the delay there is me adding more books to the mix every few months, but I really should have committed to my schedule!

The good news is that among the two books that we have left, The Maelstrom and Tales of Tellest, Volume 2, the latter is nearly complete.  Since the anthology is being cleaned up by our editor currently, I imagine it will only be a few weeks before we start putting some more stories on the Tellest website.  Then, probably by the time we go to Keystone Comic Con later this year, we’ll have the newest set of shorts ready to dive into!

I want to thank you for being a part of the world of Tellest.  It’s people like you that keep me inspired and excited to make all these projects, and I feel like we’re exploring new and creative ideas all the time.  Hopefully soon we’ll have a slew of other cool projects to show off to scratch your fantasy itch!

The post State of Tellest – February 2020 appeared first on Tellest.

Back in October of 2017 (really!), Silver Serpent hadn’t even been released, and since then, we’ve had a handful of other books come down the pipe.  Quantum Quest wasn’t out yet, and we hadn’t even started the first Kickstarter for it.  Since then, though, we have seen a lot of momentum on a lot of different battlefronts.

Tellest Legends and Beyond

We’re nearing the end of this beautiful, long-gestating project.  I’m so close that I can almost sense the impending doom of when I have no more books I’m “committed” to writing!  I kid, of course.  While The Maelstrom is the end of a new era of Tellest books (Tales of Tellest, Volume 2 not withstanding), I’m excited to wrap up this second phase of novels.  This was the biggest commitment that I’ve ever made for Tellest, and I’m happy that I’ve been able to show people that it can be done!  I’m going to be even more careful about it next time though, because as we know, my writing process is a little on the slow side.  My game plan for the next big “set” of books is to have more of the books done prior to running an event like a Kickstarter.  While I’m incredibly blessed that people have been so patient, it also kills me that I can’t be as quick with the stories as I want to be.

That’s not to say that there won’t be little one-offs here and there to shake things up while we wait.  As you know, there are little secret side projects that I’m always working on, and they’ll fluff up my library over the long spans between those big releases.  Speaking of…

The Whispers

Back in June, I began the process of starting a new project that honestly has been very interesting to try and adjust to.  The Whispers is a story that has a life of its own—it’s what I’m calling an interactive novel, because the story doesn’t quite write itself, but needs the input of other people, in this case the readers.  This month we wrapped up the third chapter, and gave the story’s protagonist, Declan, his third set of choices.  I know a lot of the beats, but I’m being surprised in more ways than one about how we’re getting to where I expect to go.  Because of the structure of the tale, I have to be aware of more than just the linear path.  It’s strange and exciting, and knowing that the way that I expect to go could be the “wrong” way gives me a detour that I have to adjust to on the fly, but it’s actually been really fun putting it together.  I thought more people would have voted the opposite way as they did in the first chapter, and I’m excited every time I wrap up a chapter, to see what choices come next.  If all goes well, the story will go on for quite a while, and when it’s done, we’ll have a book to publish with a lot of acknowledgements inside!

Tellest Visions & Art from the World of Tellest

Also back in June, I finally put something really awesome together that I’ve been dreaming of doing for a while.  Tellest now has an official artbook, which chronicles the Tales of Tellest and Tellest Legends.  Believe it or not, we only barely scratched the surface of all the art we’ve amassed over the years, and if things keep going the way they are we’ll have a second book before we know it.  Tellest Legends collects more than 100 beautiful pages of artwork from so many of the great artists we’ve collaborated with, and you can get your signed copy right through the Tellest website.

Just as important as where we’ve been is where we’re going, and I can tell you that you’re in for another fantastic year of art through the end of 2020.  We’ve got new artists, new art styles, some old favorites returning for new sets of art, and more.  As we continue to perform well with all that we offer, we’ll attempt to surprise you in even more ways!

Quantum Quest: Quarterly, Reinforcements, Merge Dungeon and More

I didn’t realize just how much content we’ve put into Quantum Quest until I wrote out that header.  We’ve got a lot of love for this spinoff, it seems, and it should show based on how much we’ve done for it, and how much its expanded.  This is the piece I’ll probably spend the most time talking about, since we have so much coming out (or that has already come out).  First and foremost, hey, we released a tabletop game!  Within months of our last “State of Tellest” feature, we officially released Quantum Quest: The Living Dungeon, and it has gone on to be a hub for other projects that we’ve worked on over the two years since.

First, let’s talk about the Kickstarter that brought our game to life.  We missed our mark on the original Kickstarter, which would have allowed us to have the game printed overseas for a much better price.  From there we would have had to figure out distribution and storage and things of that nature, so it might have been a good thing that it didn’t work out quite like we anticipated.  A Kickstarter with a smaller goal several months later meant that we were able to have a domestic print run which completely blew up and did beyond what we needed.  That was fantastic, and we’re so blessed to have such awesome fans that helped us make that a reality.  All of our games were delivered and it sounds like people had a lot of fun, and we’re still adding value to that in a lot of different ways.

At the front of the pack, a few months ago we released a supplemental magazine for Quantum Quest that told our story, including the new projects we were working on, tips and tricks, and even a short story that will be exclusive to that magazine until Tales of Tellest Volume Two comes out.

Let’s talk about the other projects that are coming down the pipeline though.  We’ve been talking about Reinforcements, the first expansion for Quantum Quest, since the first Kickstarter came out.  And it’s remarkably close to being done.  In fact, the only thing we have left to do for it is continue balancing and tweaking to make sure it is as tight as it can be.  Although, to be fair, we’ll also probably get together a few more cards to do a special Kickstarter and Convention exclusive like we do for the original box.

The project that’s coming out before that, though, is one that we’ve been working very hard on for the past few months.  Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon is a game that’s got the specifics in the name.  The objective is to merge monsters for the dungeon master.  In doing so, you make them stronger, and more valuable to the Living Dungeon.  Originally, it was a game that strictly adhered to the merges, and the need to see what monster you were creating next, but it evolved to also include a pretty cool arena, where you’ll see the adventurers from the card game, done up in an entirely new style—yet still with Sergei at the artistic helm.  We’re also adding awesome support in the form of our programmer, Jordan Hoover, and our composer, Dakota Pawlak.  We’re so close to putting together an open beta where people can actually play the game on their own computer, and give us feedback as to how to make the game play better, and what else they’d like to see.  We’re aiming for a late 2019 or early 2020 launch, depending on how things go, so keep your eyes peeled.

We’ve got even more potential Quantum Quest video game stuff coming down the line, too.  In addition to Merge Dungeon, there’s another project that we’re working on that we’re incredibly excited about.  It’s still in the very early stages, but we’ll be giving news on that before you know it.

Finally, we’re not far off from one last piece of bonus content from the Kickstarter we ran, and it’s going to be going out to backers from our Quantum Quest and Tellest Legends campaigns.  Quantum Quest is getting its own novelization, and I’m so close to the end of that story that I can almost taste it.  It’s surprisingly deep for the novelization of a tabletop game, and it leaves tons of room for intriguing questions and as yet unanswered mysteries.

That will wrap things up for now, but as you’re always aware, I’m constantly trying to explore new things for Tellest.  We’ve done so much already, but by this time next year, maybe we’ll be offering up some brand new ways to experience the world of Tellest.  Make sure to check back weekly for new art, and monthly for a new chapter from The Whispers!

The post State of Tellest – August 2019 appeared first on Tellest.

I always said it, but it’s hard to think this time is finally here.  I started saving for early retirement in 2018, and my hard work paid off, but it’s still bittersweet.  It’s time to spend a little less time squinting at the screen while I’m typing, and spend a little more time with my family.

My last official State of Tellest will come in July, about a week before my 62nd birthday.  That one is going to be mostly me saying my goodbyes as a writer, and moving on toward other things.  With this one, I wanted to address some concerns you might have, as well as dispel any fears about the future of Tellest.  Let’s get on with it, shall we?

The Tellest Cinematic Universe

Of course the show must go on.  With thousands of written stories and only a few dozen tapped into, the TCU is going strong.  I am stepping away from the consulting role a little bit more as I transition into retirement.  Sure, I’ll still make cameos in all the movies in some fashion, but we’ll let Feige take the reins as far as continuing to develop the living, breathing world that is Tellest for the silver screen.  After all, if Eliza’s father Kevin could do it, why not her?

Actually, I’ve got one big surprise for you.  They’ve given me permission to announce right here on the ol’ blogarooski that a final movie to round out the Feather and Stone trilogy is coming in 2048.  Lily Rappaport is reprising her role as Kyrie, of course, and we’ll have some promotional art coming later this week that shows off the title, with the teaser to come by the end of the month.

Legends of Tellest

Who would have thought that this would be the 10th year of Black Furnace Games’ sprawling virtual MMO.  Sure, we’ve seen dips in subscribers here and there, but every time we announce a new expansion, those numbers shoot up.  Well I’m excited to see if we can strike lightning again, because as of 7am this morning, Director Quentin Aguilar over at BFG let the world know that our fifth expansion is on the way.  In Memories of the Forgotten Keep, you’ll experience all there is to understand of Cora.  Is she more than she says she is, or is she a maligned gods as some of heroes have come to expect.  While Aguilar didn’t mention a release date, I’d start saving your money for a good Black Friday deal!

Tellest Tech

A new line of augmenters is going to be on sale just in time for my birthday.  Now you can pop one of those shiny silver buttons on your temple, and with a touch of a button, your friends won’t be able to tell the difference between you and Garon Bloodaxe.  The augmenter will project out a new face for you, and change the sound of your voice so that you’ll really sell the idea!  Or maybe you want to be the sweet and innocent Liliana?  And of course, who doesn’t want to be the grizzled old veteran, Anson Fysis?

If we had these kinds of things when I was a boy, it would have made your head spin.  I’m so excited that the Tellest line of augmenters has become so popular.  I have a box full of them at home, and I can’t wait to add these new ones to the collection.

Well folks, that about wraps it up for me today.  This little break has been a long time coming, but I promise, I won’t be completely removed from this company I put together all those years ago!  With our third grandkid on the way, I’ve been thinking a lot of doing some light-hearted children’s book tie-ins to the grander Tellest tapestry.  Any takers?

Ever upward, my friends!

The post The State of Tellest, April 2046 appeared first on Tellest.

It’s time once again to let you know what’s on the docket.  With so much planned out ahead of us, there’s no better time than now to tip our hands.

Legacy Novellas

I’m still at the point right now where I am very, very happy with what we managed to pull off regarding the Tales of Tellest books.  From Mageborn to The Fall, every one of those books feels like good writing to me.  The stories are compelling, and the prose is relatively tight compared to my earlier work.  Sure, they’re shorter stories, but they taught me a lot, and they end when they are supposed to.  Not every quest is going to involve a thousand people, and not every memory is going to involve traveling across the world.  Somehow, we’ve still managed to tell what I believe are very compelling stories in the same world that will ultimately add to the overall universe.

One thing that we wanted to do to improve upon that quality included going back and tightening up some of the problem places we had.  Tellest developed a style guide a few months back, and we’re busy putting together some finishing touches on those five novellas and the short stories.  As such, we’d like to welcome Brandi Salazar to the team.  She’s a delightful second pass editor who will snag some of the problems that Nace and I may have missed. Sometimes, when you’re a little too close to a project, you can miss things more readily.

As of right now, there are no plans to give the original trilogy the same treatment.  We have a different game plan for that collection, but we’re not quite ready to divulge the information on that just yet. Just know that we are committed to bringing you the best stories we can.

Short Stories

Speaking of bringing you great stories, you’ll see that we’ve quieted down a little bit in the short story outlet in the previous few weeks. Preparing for the Kickstarter sapped my energy, and I aimed most of my creative output toward the bigger stories that you’ll see starting at the beginning of next year.

With that in mind, we’re happy to announce that we’re bringing Aaron Canton back for another set of three short stories that we’ll be preparing soon.  We also have some other writers that we’re hoping we’ll be able to debut, and we’re contemplating opening up Tellest writing prompts again to see if we can find the next Aaron Canton!

New Novels

So, word counts can be a bit dubious in nature.  NaNoWriMo considers a novel to be 50,000+ words, while the Nebula awards requires books to be 40,000+ words in order to qualify.  In any case, we’re hoping that our new books coming out starting next year will mostly qualify as novels.  With the exception of Dragonspeaker, each of these books should be longer than the books from our last wave.

Anyway, that was a bit of rambling preceding some awesome news. You see, even though we had the Kickstarter running, I’ve been on pace to knock out two of my books before their soft deadlines.  If things keep going well, both Lord of Thunder and Transformed will be done by the end of October, in first draft form.  They join the likes of Dragonspeaker which is already complete as a first draft, and Heart of the Forest, which is more than 70% complete.  With that in mind, we’re well on track to keeping up with our new goal of releasing a book every 10 weeks starting in March of next year.

NaNoWriMo

Last year, I participated in my first ever NaNoWriMo event.  I had to completely change the way I go about writing, but I learned a lot, stuck with my word goals, and managed to crank out my 50,000 words.

We’re going to be participating again this year, although it’s going to be a little bit off-rules, I’m sure.  I’m aiming to make Silver Serpent Chronicles my “novel” this year, and it might not qualify in format or word count.  We’ve been putting a lot of behind the scenes work into it though—much more than I typically do.  I like to learn the story along with my characters.  I’m a pantser more than a plotter, but I’m hoping that the outlining and preparing we’re doing for Silver Serpent Chronicles really makes it feel good when all is said and done.

It’s not official, but Rhianna is also planning on participating in NaNoWriMo—a mini-mo, if you will.  Come November, we’ll see exactly how far we’ve come!

Card Game

By now, everyone should know that our big side project, that we’ve been unveiling piecemeal, is an upcoming card game.  It’s influenced by Monopoly, D&D, Boss Monster and most of all, Tellest.  We’re still a little ways off from drawing back the curtain entirely, but we’re getting closer than ever.  We’re about 90% done preparing alpha art assets for the game, and then we’ll do a fair amount of internal testing before we introduce a beta team to join us.  After that, we’re actively seeking space at conventions to debut our game to a whole slew of new fans.

If all goes well, we’ll be ready to crowdsource next October.  Keep your eyes peeled for all the news we can hope to bring you regarding this cool new adventure in Tellest!

That’s it for now, but as always, we’ve got a ton of content just around the corner.  We hope everyone has an awesome holiday season, and we’re so looking forward to bringing you some great new books starting in March of next year!

The post State of Tellest, October 2016 appeared first on Tellest.

Tellest Art

Alright, this is a tricky one.  We told you back in May that things weren’t looking good, but we’ve actually been doing pretty well.  The Tellest Patreon has a few more patrons,  and we’ve been able to continue some collaborations with some of our favorite artists. With luck, as of right now, our current setup will carry us through the end of January—though you will see the curtain drawn back on one of our other projects.

Our Other Projects

So, over the course of the next several weeks (probably starting around the middle of November, really), you’ll start to see these other projects taking place.  They’re smaller pieces to the bigger puzzle that is Tellest, but I think they’ll add to the overall tapestry, and make it a lot more cohesive and fun to venture to.  It’ll be the first step in a few new directions for the universe, and I hope it appeals to a whole heck of people.  In any case, stay tuned for that.

Kickstarter and Tales of Tellest

We’re at the point now where we are just about done with our commitment to the fine folks that backed us on Kickstarter so very long ago.  I’m still hopeful that I’ll be able to get everything out this year, hopefully by Christmas, but we’re still wrapping up the last three stories:

Touched‘s first draft is complete, but I have it in the hands of an expert right now who is working on verbiage and dialogue that would be suitable for this particular story, which happens to deal with someone who is on the autism spectrum.  I want it to be tasteful and entertaining, and this professional is doing me a huge favor by lending her hand to the world.

Midwinter Requiem is Rhianna’s first big writing dabble in the world of Tellest.  She’s telling the story of a dwarven people who have been mentioned before in the series, the Coldwhistle clan.  She’s nearly complete with her draft, and then we’ve decided that I’m going to take it and throw my own touch on it before sitting on it for a week or two, finishing it up and then sending it to our editor.

Finally, we have Keeper of the Void, a kind of cohesive set of bookends that loosely ties all of the stories we told during these last two years together.  It deals largely with time and space, and we’re working this into one of those side projects we talked about earlier. I just finished this story this morning, so it needs to be typed up and edited before it’s good to go.

I’m really hopeful that these stories will be ready to go out before the end of the year.  With luck, about 98% of our Kickstarter backers will receive their rewards—we have one big holdout, being the audiobook version of The Fall.

The Future of Tellest

Those few months ago, I told you that the plan for the future of Tellest was to continue with both the novellas and the feature length novels that follow the huge ensemble that we have in place. I’m happy to say that everything is going according to plan.

The first feature length novel was a slow burn to start—I was starting with some fresh characters for a prologue—but now we’re roaring forward since we’ve stepped back into familiar territory.  I’m going to try to keep these books to a reasonable length, as well.  The Enemy Within was over 800 pages before we culled it down, and even in its finished form, I think it’s a bit much.  Not to mention, there was a lot of time invested in that story, and in that time, a lot of attention disappeared from the first two books, which had already been released on Amazon.  As of now, the plan is still to do about five books in this “series,” but I’m going to play it by ear as best I can.

As for the novellas, and what I’d probably end up calling Tales of Tellest, volume two, they haven’t had their “official” start just yet, but they’re coming together a lot more decisively.  I have a whole rainbow of notebooks in my desk that are just waiting to be scribbled in, but the notes are taking shape on my computer.  I know where the characters are going, I have some rough ideas of what the titles will be, and I know the breadth of this second volume of stories (hint: there’ll be more than five novellas this time around).

With luck, since I’m picking up the pace again, we’ll be able to really put pencil to paper on these stories relatively quickly.  It’s easy to get discouraged, but I’m thinking positive again.  The stories should flow fairly well since they’re familiar, and I’ve been getting some really good vibes about the direction I’m taking.

The Tellest Community and the Mageborn Audiobook Contest

I’d also just like to say how happy I am that the Tellest community is growing so well.  In the last several days, the amount of newsletter subscribers went up quicker than I could have imagined.  I’d like to welcome all the new fans—I hope we give you a lot of entertainment for years to come!

Finally, there’s the matter of the Mageborn Audiobook giveaway.  I just wanted everyone to know that the winners have been chosen. We sent out messages to those who did win.  If you didn’t get a message, don’t be discouraged—we’re going to try to hold these contests about once a month.  There’s plenty of cool swag to go around!

That’ll about do it for this State of Tellest, but as you can see, things are really beginning to come together.  Keep an eye on us and be prepared for some awesome new things to happen here at Tellest!

The post State of Tellest, September 2015 appeared first on Tellest.

Tellest Art

First, some “bad” news, just to get it out of the way.  Over the past year and some change, we’ve been doing an awesome job of getting character and concept art in front of interested fans.  For a little indie publication, this is an incredibly huge feat.  You don’t often get the little unknown guy making a big splash with that kind of thing – it’s the people who have already gained popularity, and fans pour their hearts into art for their favorite new series.

As it stands, we have art that’s going to run for about three more months before we’re all tapped out.  See, that’s part of the plan right now.  Because of where I’m hoping to take Tellest in the future, as well as other life events (Rhianna and I are getting married this year… yay!), I need to be a little more frugal with finances, and invest properly.  That’s not to say that the art will be completely cut off.  I’m going to have certain needs for art that will require my attention (like cover art), and I have certain talented people who are both affordable and dependable, so I will lean on them whenever they are available.  Also, it’s completely possible that Tellest breaks out in the next few months.  When it happened in 2011 (albeit for only a few months) it was a complete surprise, so I’m not discounting the possibility.  But, in the case that it doesn’t play out like that, we’ll still be getting more pieces, just not at the same pace we’re getting them now.  As I said before, it’s ludicrously lucky that I’ve been able to do this as long as I have!  As for some of those other investments…

Side Projects

Part of what I love about Tellest is how accessible it is to other mediums.  This is a written universe about medieval superheroes. How awesome is that?  It would be a wasted opportunity not to try and see where else Tellest could go, and in a lot of ways, we’ve already scratched the surface with ideas (see Heart of the Forest – not dead, just sleeping).  Part of the reason that these have just been scratched, and not really followed to their truest potential is the aforementioned lack of capital.  And one of these ideas has potential financiers, which is an awesome thing to say the least.

In the interest of being transparent, I have about 10-15 ideas for games stirring around in the back of my head (including card and board games and video games).  I really want to be able to set my sights on things like those.  But there’s also plenty of opportunities for Tellest to evolve into the realm of comics as well.  Kev and I have been talking about that for years, and the nature of this universe fits that kind of thing perfectly.  But again, to do that, we need capital, which brings me to my next point.

What’s Next for the Tellest Written Universe?

I might as well get this out of the way first.  The Fall, the final book in this most recent endeavor, is nearly done.  To give you an idea of when I think that will actually be the case, I believe you’ll see me on Twitter next week telling you “the dragon is slain.”  It’s been an amazingly long process – something that somehow wasn’t as daunting for the other four novellas in the Tales of Tellest collection, and I hope that the care and patience I gave to it comes across well to all who read it.  Still, finishing that initial draft is only the first phase of the writing process – Nace and I still have to go through about three waves of editing before it goes to the Tellest street team (don’t forget to sign up for that and our newsletter over on the sidebar – free books are never a bad deal).  I’ll let them mull over it for a few weeks and we’ll try to have it out in time for my birthday in the middle of July.

And here’s the big reveal.  I don’t think that I’m done with the Tales of Tellest.  I really don’t.  It wasn’t done intentionally for this reason, but there were always threads that I lay out a little loosely in each of these stories.  There were ideas that I’d come back to them eventually, but I didn’t think that I’d have the itch this soon.  In fact, I was even ready to pass along the torch for Mageborn to Rhianna, who had a lot to do with the original story.  After some consideration though, I think we’re going to co-write the sequel to that, and I’m going to work on follow-ups to each of the other stories in the quintet, with the ultimate goal being a set of five trilogies (at least). Now, this is by no means a formal reveal of this goal – anything can change, but I’m very interested in continuing these stories.

Now here’s the rub: I’m still committed to continuing the story that was unlocked at the end of The Enemy Within.  There are still things that haven’t been explained.  How did Steel Tip end up in a tower in Blacklehn?  Why was Eltan Mane held captive in Viscosa?  How was Bolt able to use the ring of amplification?  These are all things that need to be told.  And on top of that, there are other novellas that I want to write, too!  I have 11 other novellas with various bits of pre-production done on them, and I don’t want them sitting down on the back burner for too long.  So what’s a nerd like me to do?  I really need to sit down and put my nose to the grindstone.  Last year, I was working on Tellest for at least 2 hours a day.  I’d like to resume that pace and eventually eclipse it – after all, some day I would like to make this a full time job.  There’s no better time to practice than now.

Grand Announcement

If you’ve been clamoring for some nice summer reading, we released our first bundle on Amazon.  The Child of the Stars Trilogy, books 1-3 are available now for the low price of 2.99.  Three books for the price of one isn’t a bad deal!

So be on the lookout for The Fall in the next few weeks.  When that comes out, I do hope you enjoy it.  I spent a lot of time on it, and I really hope that it shows.  In the meantime, I hope you’re picking out a bunch of other fantasy books for your summer reads, and that none of them disappoint you.

Until next time!

The post State of Tellest, May 2015 appeared first on Tellest.

Things have been somewhat quiet here for a little while.  We’ve had plenty of great authors featured in our book promos, and of course we haven’t gone a week without missing an awesome art update.  We even had a new short story that ran over the past month or so.  But there’s still more to come, and I wanted to pull back the curtain a little bit so that you could see what to expect.

Tales of Tellest: Volume One

While we’re working on the final novella, The Fall, we’re also trying to figure out where we’re at with the rest of the stories that are supposed to comprise this first bargain set of Tellest stories.  First off, let’s just talk about that fifth novella for a moment.  It’s a stubborn itch to be sure, and I’m not sure exactly when it is going to be done, but I can tell you that I work on it every day.  I probably should have expected as such from it – it’s such a crucial element in the overall Tellest story that I should have never been taken as off guard as I was with it.  And even fleshing it out as much as I am, I still feel like it is moving so quickly.  That said, we are nearing the end here.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and at that point, we’re really just putting all the pieces together.  After a quick stop at the editor, the final component will be in place.

We’ve also put together a “final” list of all the stories that are going to comprise this first set of Tellest stories.  Brought to you by a handful of authors, this is going to be one of the coolest things that I’ve ever done, and I can’t wait to actually be able to bring it to you.  Below, you’ll see the list as it stands right now.  Things are always subject to change, as we have a couple other writers who are considering things too, so a reshuffle is always on the table.

Tales of Tellest: Volume One:

• Mageborn
• Son of the Storm
• The Tinker’s Tale
• Awake
• The Fall
• Becoming a Man
• The Bubbles
• Cloudrider
• Dragonland
• Dream No More
• Fallen
• The Littlest Kobold
• “Masquerade”
• The Night Before Nadeus
• Practical Warrior
• Remembered in Gold
• “Untitled”

Tales of Tellest: Volume Two?

What’s that you say?  Volume Two?  Yes, it’s always been in the works, from the moment I started the Kickstarter for the original five.  When you have a mind that flows as much as mine does, it can get a little out of control, but I’m usually able to reign things in enough to get a cognizant idea of what direction I’m trying to go in.  And while I’m not sure of the details of other stories, I do know at least the five novellas that are going to make up this set.  By title alone, see what you can divulge from this:

• Alura Une
• The Crimson Veil
• Escape from the Nexus
• Ghosts of the Highlands
• King of the Forest

We’re still a long way away from the second volume, mind you.  These stories are going to be secondary to the return to the feature length novels.  Kaos, Steel Tip, Christopher and all the rest of the heroes from the Child of the Stars trilogy have many more stories to tell, and it’s possible that the scope of the world is going to grow that much wider because of it.

The Enemy Within Rerelease

Part of the Kickstarter deal that I made was getting new art for the original set of books.  We’ve had one that’s been kind of holding out for a while now, but we finally have it in place.  Leo is working on the cover for The Enemy Within, and even without full color, it is a sight to behold.  It really is a great way to end the commitment that was made, and I can’t wait to finally show everyone.  I’m also hoping it revitalizes sales on Amazon and Smashwords, but that’s yet to be seen.

The good news is, after that’s all put together, there’s just the matter of cleaning up The Bindings of Fate a slight bit in an effort to bring it up to the same quality that you’ve come to expect from the novellas.  Four or five years makes a heck of a lot of a difference in the quality of a writer’s work, and I want my readers to be comfortable across the board.  So stay tuned for that!

That’s not all that we’ve been working on.  As always, we’re on the lookout for new talent, new opportunities, and new adventures.  We’re in talks with a few close contractors that you might have seen us work with before, and, behind closed doors there’s a super secret project that we’re beginning preproduction on.  Once some steps have been taken to protect our interests, we’ll announce that.

In the meantime, thank you for being a loyal reader.  We’re going to make sure you never regret putting your faith in Tellest.

Cheers,

Mike

The post State of Tellest, March 2015 appeared first on Tellest.

We’ve gone nearly half a year without an informed blog talking about what our plans are, and I thought we needed to remedy that today.  Between writing, planning updates, working on side projects and personal enrichment, you’d think that there wouldn’t be much time to talk, but oh, you’d be wrong!

Let me address just a couple of the things that are going on in Tellest.

Continuing to Evolve

Once again, we’re constantly switching up our presentation.  Recently, Paul Davies spruced up our header, and Kevin Gallagher gave us a video that much better demonstrates our values.  Now that we have higher quality art constantly on display, it makes sense to have a more beautiful look for ourselves.

We’re still going to make tweaks and adjustments, especially as the new book covers continue to roll in.  When we have The Enemy Within, As Darkness Falls and The Fall spruced up with new covers, we’re going to make a new content trailer that will help get the word out about Tellest somewhat.

And of course, we’re going to continue to invest in great art that demonstrates crucial environments, characters and races of Tellest.  That’s what we’ve found to have made one of the biggest impacts this year, and we don’t want to stop doing that, even if we have to slow down.

Tales of Tellest ,The Child of the Stars Trilogy and Beyond!

The Tales of Tellest is nearing its end – at least for the first volume.

We’re going to continue putting work into the Child of the Stars trilogy, so that it can be the best fantasy series ever.  We want the quality of The Bindings of Fate to be on par with the new stories.  The Tales of Tellest is a great entry point for the universe, but we want Kaos’ first adventure to be just as alluring.

While we work on the rewrites for Bindings, we’re going to work on new Tales of Tellest stories on the side.  The novellas are a great way to keep interest in the world at a fair pace, but we have other stories that we want to tell as well.

The Tales of Tellest: Volume One stories that we’ve told had a lot to do with characters we’ve had some familiarity with.  The next group of stories is going to focus on new characters instead.  In the meantime, we’re also going to try and take a few steps back and see some prequel material for Kaos and Mathias.  Our goal is to make sure that you always have something to read, with a minimal amount of time between stories.  Whereas this first run for the Tales of Tellest has been relatively non-stop, we’re going to have larger gaps for our next run.

Encyclopedia

What we’ve decided to do is consider every big flow of encyclopedia entries a season.  We had the initial 25 entries that we released, and then we moved into another 50 items, which we are considering season one.  Now, season one is coming to a close, and we’re going to take some time off until Season Two begins.  What we’ll do in the meantime is freshen up some older encyclopedia entries with new pictures and links so that it feels like a wiki.

In the future, when we have more authors working on stories concurrently, these encyclopedia entries may have smaller gaps, but for now, the quality cannot be undermined by the quantity, so we hope you understand.

Heart of the Forest

We’ve got one more bit of news that reflects our need to take time into consideration.  Heart of the Forest, the game that will focus on Steel Tip, is being put somewhat on hold.  This is because the main part of development has transitioned over to programming, which is a very expensive part of the plan.  We’d need about $2000 before we could have a very basic demo in place.  Unfortunately, with a wedding coming up, I can’t be throwing my money into this project as much as I want.

That said, you never know what could happen.  The books could start selling three hundred copies a month like they did back in 2011.  With what equates to another paycheck each month, I could probably bring Heart of the Forest back into the forefront again.  For now, it’s just taking a much needed reprieve while we focus on the books that have become so important.

Besides those things, we’ve been keeping our nose to the grindstone.  The Fall is coming along nicely, as are some of our short stories, and you’ll have more to look forward to in the weeks to come.  We’re nearing the end of our banner year for Tellest, and I have you to thank for it.  You’ve been incredible, and I hope that these books are a well earned reward!

The post State of Tellest: September 2014 appeared first on Tellest.

What I’d like to do now is let you know what we’ve got planned so far for the rest of 2014.

A New Look

As you can see, the look of the site has changed somewhat…

One of the things that highlighted our big push for Tellest in the end of 2013 was a new website.  Nace Phlaux did a fantastic job of putting everything together in a convenient little package, helping us get to the point where things posted in the right spots automatically, and it all wrapped up with a nice little bow.

Now, we’ve reached a point where it’s time to update once again.  Because of the added content, chapters from the books and novellas and so forth, we need to forge a new path once more.

We know now that there are still some tweaks that we can make to push the website even further, from giving it a unique personality all its own, to helping with readability.  We’re going to continue to bring you great content, and we hope to be able to expand the amount as well.

Tales of Tellest and The Child of the Stars

We’re pushing ahead full steam with the Tales of Tellest series, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to maintain that momentum.  The third tale is in edit mode right now, and I’m on the back half of writing the Awake, with hopes that it’ll be ready to be swapped over to Nace’s hands when he is done with the The Tinker’s Tale.

The fifth story, The Fall, is going a little bit more smoothly because I have more time to work on it, and I knew better where that story was going.  It also doesn’t hurt that the plot is awesome.

Meanwhile, we are taking a step back to the Child of the Stars trilogy once more, because Leo is hard at work on the cover for Bindings of Fate!  We’re in the preliminary phase, where he’s working on sketches and we’re coming to agreement on what works best for the piece.  That looks like it’ll be right on schedule for a big May rerelease.

Side Project

I am always very tenuous when it comes to announcing a new project when it doesn’t pertain strictly to writing.  I’ve been working in the shadows with a couple other people though, and I think it’s time to reveal what else has been going on.

Those that have followed my blog for a while know that I’ve always been very passionate about games and game design.  I’ve often said that I wanted to bring a game into the mix for Tellest, and we’re getting to the point of late where one is starting to come together.

Now, we’ve been down this path before.  I’ve started preproduction on a title once upon a time and seen it fall to pieces.  This time though, I feel like something is a little different.  I’m working with another designer and artist, and he’s just as interested in the project as I am.

I don’t want to give away too many details just yet, because it is still early in preproduction, but it’ll highlight Steel Tip’s arrival on mainland Draconis, in the country of Daltain.

When we are ready for a big push, we’ll likely use the website as a kind of developer’s diary.  The fans of Tellest have been integral in just about everything we’ve done so far, and the game is likely going to need the same kind of sense of community.

Coming off the heels of what I’d consider a monumentally successful Kickstarter campaign, I’d be foolish not to try and secure the same kind of release structure for this game, so be on the lookout for details over the next few months regarding this development.

Other than that, it’s business as usual here at Tellest.  We’re still interested in how to best help out other writers, so the monthly writing prompts are continuing.  For now, we’re trying to set ourselves in place a little more firmly, and if that should go well, we’ll begin taking submissions for full length novels, but that’s still just a bit into the future.

Thanks everyone for making this the best year so far for us.  We can’t wait to bring more great stories and content your way!

The post State of Tellest, March 2014 appeared first on Tellest.