What’s to Come From The Great Beyond

The future is near.

I’d like to take some time today to share about some of my plans for the future of my website. There are many things I’d like to add to the site. Some of these changes are around the corner and others will takes months or longer. So here are my current plans, and if you find yourself more interested in one of these than the others, feel free to comment to let me know.

If I get enough comments supporting one change over the others, I’ll definitely consider (heavily) bumping up development time on it.

The near future.

The first change is creating a new home page. My current home page is a showcase for my blog. The blog showcase will still be around, just under a Blog tab in the site’s menu, and an original home page will be replacing it. I still don’t know exactly what the home page will look like, though I’d like to have a video playing as a site trailer whenever you load into the page.

YouTube content. I still plan on filling out my YouTube channel with videos on writing and storytelling. With this will come a page on the site that is dedicated to my YouTube videos. I may even have exclusive videos for this page, though I’m not settled on that.

Short stories. I’ve written quite a few novellas and short stories. Right now I’m focusing on self publishing my stories from The Children of Gomorrah series, which make up the majority of my short stories/novellas. But I’m considering putting up snippets of TCoG stories, and I’d like to post some of my fantasy short stories as well.

Sample chapters. I’ve written drafts for two fantasy novels, so I’m considering putting up a few chapters from those, as well as a fantasy WIP I’ve got cooking on the back burner. A considerable amount of work would have to be put into getting these chapters ready to read, so these bits of content are probably the farthest out.

The far future.

I’d like to have a very special segment of my website dedicated to a fantasy short story series of mine. I don’t want to go too into detail, but if I can pull this off, there will be secret buttons to click for the extra inquisitive viewer–like an online scavenger hunt. Maybe there’ll be clues. I’d like to have some of my art as assets for this project. If this were to happen, I’d definitely have the short stories posted on the site. I’m really quite excited about the idea of this, though it’ll take a long, long time to put together.

Another really far out idea is having a store. I actually know how to set one up on my site, so that wouldn’t be an issue. But the reason I’m thinking this would come later is that there isn’t a demand for what I’d want to sell. I’d for sure have my books in eBook format, but I’d also like to have T-shirts, mugs, and beanies. All with designs from my stories.

From The Great Beyond.

You may be wondering what’s up with the title. What is The Great Beyond? And why have you seen it lurking around the website. Well here is a little teaser/insight into the tagline.

The Great Beyond is a reference to one of my fantasy works in progress. This WIP has a working title, but I won’t share that just yet. In case you’re wondering, I do plan on having this WIP released on the website. This is another project that I’d like to have some of my art featured in (don’t expect professional level stuff–sketches and the like).

In context The Great Beyond is anything and everything outside our universe. As an example, my fantasy stories happen in another universe; so my fantasy stories are being brought to you from The Great Beyond.

Next Tuesday I’ll share in depth on the various hats I’ve had to wear to kick off my self publishing (career?).

Until then, I hope you have a wonderful day,

Colin J Switalski