The Strangest Thing Happened Last Year

So now we're going to talk about the future

Jun 07, 2022

But first let’s talk about you.

You subscribed to this email list either when we met at a writing event, through our fiction giveaways, or from one of my social media posts.

I’m glad you did.

You’re here because you wanted to hear about astounding science fiction or innovative fantasy. You wanted to hear about the books Future House is publishing, what I’m writing next, or what movie or game I’m working on.

You wanted to hear Stories of the Future.

A Reboot

So that’s what I’m calling this newsletter series. I’m rebooting it with fresh content in more categories, all of it relevant to the science fiction and fantasy stories that you love.

For some of you, it’s been awhile. I think that it will have been worth the wait.

You see, after 10 years of writing and publishing books, and 20 years making blockbuster movies, I finally took the plunge on something big.

But First, Some Backstory…

If the last two decades of leveraging technology to make blockbuster VFX and animation films has taught me anything, it’s that storytelling is evolving. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some of the greatest movie franchises in the world: Transformers, Tron, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Kong, Marvel films, etc. More than a dozen blockbusters and a few Academy Award-Winners under my belt.

Want to see some of it? OK. These are the actual shots I helped awesome teams of artists and engineers create:

Before the year 2000, you couldn’t build these worlds for film. They could only exist on paper. Computer graphics technology just wasn’t advanced enough. Then the world of storytelling changed forever with the development of software like Maya and Renderman at studios like Industrial Light + Magic and Weta Digital.

Once relegated to the background, science fiction and fantasy took center stage as a genre. It became pop culture.

The way we looked at stories changed forever.

In 2007 the eBook was launched en masse to the world. Books had to become page-turners because authors got paid per number of pages read. Storytelling changed again.

Then video games developed into massive multiplayer online worlds, iPhones gave us casual gaming in the form of apps, we got audiobooks, virtual reality, Pokemon Go, and now this thing they call the metaverse.

Anorak holds the key from *Ready Player One*

And each one of the worlds that has captivated our attention started with a few words written down on a piece of paper somewhere.

Enter Future House Studios

This is the big thing I’ve been working on. In May 2020 multiple serendipitous factors aligned (more on that in another email), and I did the thing I’ve been hoping to do for years: I started an animation studio. It was like a dragon hatching from an egg.

It grew. We made games. We made apps. We did some work on some big VR experiences. And it grew. And then we animated Sonic the Hedgehog and it grew some more.

We won awards. We built games. We made virtual reality experiences. We created TV pitches. We started building this thing they’re calling the metaverse.

The rapid growth to me is an indicator: we are moving into a new era of technology in storytelling.

At Future House, we’re looking at how we take the stories we’ve published on paper and developing them for a new age.

Books. TV. Film. Games. VR. Mobile apps. The metaverse.

Here’s just one example of an app we built (it won an award from Niantic, the makers of Pokémon Go!) that I could see being the basis for a new book, or tying into one of our existing series:

The wizards in this game are Worldcasters: powerful wizards who can draw elements from the world around them to cast spells.

A New Era

So buckle up. I’m going to be talking about how we’ll read, play, and consume stories in the future, and highlight some favorite recommendations just for you.

Before you go, there’s a new feature in this email list that allows you to comment on this email. I want your book recommendations! Tell me what you’re reading right now. I want to hear about it in the comments.

And Another Thing…

Book that Future House Publishing is publishing soon, from Hugo Award-Winning Author Will McIntosh: The Classmate

The Sword of the Week: Andúril.

"Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West."
—J.R.R. Tolkien

Join the conversation: come give me your thoughts on this social media post that’s been getting a fair amount of attention.

Stories of the Future