I can’t believe the release of Tales from Portents is only two months away. It seems like only yesterday I was sketching out a possible short story to share with my readers in between the full-length novels of the Greystone’s first cycle.

One. Uno. That was where this started.

A little confession.

I’m not a short story fan. I have trouble writing them. I have trouble reading them. Not because of quality issues. It is more of a mindset. I like something more immersive. To be lost in a world so completely for hundreds of pages that I have trouble leaving it at the end of the day.

Short stories seemed ancillary. Not as important. Less than crucial to the mythology. Sort of like the one in done episodes of The X-Files. The mythology was what brought me into the series. Answering the bigger questions kept me coming back. The one in done episodes seemed to be filler material against the grand tapestry of the series.

I was wrong.

Making each short story matter.

Going back through The X-Files a few years back I realized my error. Each episode brought with it fantastic character moments and some truly memorable roles. When I list out my top ten episodes few are mythology based. (My sister is screaming Conduit at me, right now. Quiet down over there!)

That was the mentality I brought to Tales from Portents. How to overcome my own misgivings with short story collections and make each one matter. To make each one vital to the overall story of the Greystone series.

Some might not seem that way at first, while other connections are very clear right from the start. That was the fun in putting it together. The challenge of understanding how smaller moments build to bigger ones. How an image, a reference, a location creates future stories.

Challenging the process

I enjoy long-form storytelling. The epic feel of series like Lord of the Rings or the great journey within The Dark Tower novels. I also prefer to write in that format. Having the room to explore, the space to breathe, rather than rush headlong from start to finish in 3.6 seconds or less.

Part of me needed an answer as to why that was, and to challenge my writing process to create within a specific framework. To build smaller stories that mattered without losing my voice or the importance of the overall picture.

I am incredibly glad to have taken the journey. Tales from Portents has many wonderful moments within, most surprised me when they came about. But all matter in the end.

The shadows in Portents are growing. A dark light fills the city.

And the circle is closing.

In two months we move one step closer to the end of the beginning.