The first being that half of them featured real people (namely those of Halesowen College) and I didn’t feel it right to rename all those people again – so those stories remain as simple fiction that the Brandon Golden of the Alternate Halesowen and Beyond [AHB] series has or will write at some point.
 
The other reason being that my writing had seen improvement since those stories, and while I could have redone them, I wanted to make a fresh start in terms of shorts.
 
The first short that featured was just a little extra something that had helped craft the dynamic between Jack and Darren of the AHB series. The idea being that the two were wondering London having been at Summer of Sonic the previous day.
 
Part inspired by my own adventures during that weekend with Hayden, I wanted to see how I would get the two characters to react in that situation. It helped a lot in getting the original characters some identity, but the story itself would never be able to be used owing to their disappearance within AHB1.
 
To use the story, I invented two new characters who shared the same dynamic, but gave them a few differences in both actions and character.

Craig and Henry were the names I settled on, wanting to use names that had never previously been used in AHB1 or planned names for AHB2. See, this short belongs in that universe, giving me two other characters to explore should I wish in the future.
 
The second short was added just under a year later, where I had been looking again at those Crazy Shorts, as well as two other stories I’d written but never published.
 
Both of those also featured amusement parks, with one following a family throughout the day, and the other following a student day out. I looked at all three, and decided to base it on a family outing, but to focus on just one part.
 
At this point, I’d released Elemental Heroes, and had started to take a deeper interest in making alternate worlds that were completely manufactured but a person would still be able to fully explore on their own. So the golf course featured within Golf Dimension was one of those worlds.
 
The course itself is clearly something that wouldn’t ever be able to be done within the real world, and how things work while within are different to reality. This was just the first step in exploring the idea of visiting alternate realities and the things that could be done within them.
 
A tamer use of such a thing was used for this next one. Just like Elemental Heroes and Space Race Championship, this was a story concept I’d had, but unlike the other two this one had never seen much development.
 
All I’d had for it was that someone received a letter about a party on Halloween night, but that party wouldn’t be happening as someone had other ideas. It had been more than a year since the last story, so I wanted to write for Shorts of the Rula a bit more regularly than just once a year.
 
This was the first of the two (originally three, had Yogsimulated been included) planned to see the end of the year off. I had looked at that concept for the idea and decided to develop it into a full story. Again, I used the idea of two friends, who were opposites in this story in terms of their reactions to what was going on.
 
Instead of being a creation of technology, the reality alteration this time was through magic and a part of the world rather than seeing a transport into and out of it. The original name had seen a bit of an alteration to reflect the story, though the location of Greenwich Hill still remained.
 
The second of the two stories planned to end the year off was Mountainous Change, and if you’ve been following the GTA concepts I’ve been posting, you’ll know that the state of Herzan featured within the story is from that and that the story is a base for a possible start of a game. That’s true, but the development goes a bit further than that. Or, at least, it starts to.
 
I’d had the name of Herzan down for the state within the GTA-verse since the middle of the year, but the fascination of using Michigan as a base for that state plays into one of the ideas I’d been developing for a standalone story outside of any of the three series I’d now established.

Rather than directly use a location as I was for the AHB series, however, I wanted to develop an entire state to call my own.
 
The map you see developed for the GTA-verse Herzan is based more closely on Michigan than what the state is planned to look like. The counties within the GTA-verse concept are taken from the planned version, with the towns and cities within that concept filling in for states of the original.
 
Once I had published Mountainous Change, however, it seemed wrong to be developing an entire state for just one story (that will be coming to the Kindle Store in the future). While there’s no name for the series yet, that standalone will be the second story within it, and will possibly be the only non-short within it.
 
As for a bit more on Mountainous Change, it had gone through a few changes to get to what I wanted for it, with changes to the events that happen within changing slightly with each iteration.
 
The main concept to get across was the act of being betrayed by a friend, which held the entire story together as more got added to it. I wanted it to be based on a ski resort as I like winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding even if I don’t follow much of the action.
 
That’s four stories already released to Shorts of the Rula, and there’s more I’m planning to add soon. I also haven’t forgotten about Alternate Extras of Halesowen, with stories for that also being planned.
 
That new book for the Kindle Store will be coming in the last quarter of this year, though it’s possible another short set in the state of Herzan will release before it does.
 
However, that is all for this look at some of the planning behind the current stories of Shorts of the Rula. I hope you enjoyed this bit of a look into the planning of them, and will look out for more additions to this and the others mentioned in the future.

The time was around this point last year. The Jingle Jam of 2018 had finished, I’d been watching some of the regular streams over the month, and wanted to celebrate my appreciation of the Yogscast in the way I knew best. But what could I use as a story? Did I want to go wild with it or play it safe?
 
I eventually opted for the latter, but used a bit of creative licence when crafting the characters. All of that came in the last few months before release, however, since for most of the year it was just small bits of ideas that never really got put down in writing.
 
The only thing I had really settled on was – as with all my fan-created works – an alternate reality that allowed me to be a bit more creative with the world.
 
So to start with I had a list of various members who could be used in whatever story happened to uncover. That list was always changing and evolving, and at one point I had considered adding original characters into the ‘cast – though I felt doing so wasn’t in the spirit of what I wanted this to be about.
 
Then there were the events I wanted to happen. I had considered taking the ‘cast on an adventure of some sort, so for the first few months the label of Yogventures was applied to the folder of ideas.
 
Such adventures were to have referenced a few things from the then recent videos I had watched, though such ideas had never been put into data form. I just knew I wanted an adventure to happen. But then I started to think on something I like to say, and decided to theme the adventure around that.
 
“Adventure can be found in your hometown” was something of a phrase I’d say near the summer, as I would sometimes just head out with no end goal in mind. So with the Yogscast being based in Bristol, the adventure of Bristol started forming, with wacky antics being had as they travelled around.
 
That idea lasted a few weeks before I then decided on a new angle. Now in the second half of the year, the Jingle Jam would soon be returning for another December of festive-themed charity streams. I wanted something that would tie in – however loosely – with that event.
 
So, what with the alternate reality in mind, I uprooted something from Elemental Heroes for use here. That being the virtual reality that was pretty much an alternate reality. A video game environment where you controlled every action you made.
 
The idea was that they had been invited by the inventor of the technology to be the ones to make it public. As for what they were doing within the virtual Bristol, I at first flavoured it as a Gmod-like experience, with game modes similar to those the Yogscast have played on the main channel.
 
Rather than transferring them completely over, I started to develop similar modes to fill in for them. Only infiltration – the TTT-like mode – ever had ideas written down for it.
 
Infiltration would have been an objective mode, where the team have a goal that needs to be completed. However, there are infiltrators who aim to stop that goal being completed by killing the other members of the team. For every five players, one would be an infiltrator.
 
Everyone would have a role which determined which weapons they had access to, independent of whether they were an infiltrator. The game would have been played with full communication off, which would have made for a more plot-focused section of the story rather than being character interaction based.
 
Then I added some racing to the ideas of games that would be played in the virtual reality, and since my heart lies with racing, that’s what the entire story became based around. Not only did it allow for character interaction to be at the fore of the story, it allowed for an expression of just how much could be got away with in this virtual reality.
 
You’re not going to be able to zoom around the city streets without repercussions in reality, after all, and that’s something I made sure to highlight within the story, along with a few extra bits about the morality of actions even in a virtual world.
 
The list of characters had been finalised and I got to writing. The first pass at it needed some strengthening in certain areas. The introduction felt weak, and there was little in the way of true interaction. There also needed to be some world building and explanation of the systems at play within this virtual world.
 
The second pass made sure to correct that weakness, adding in the world building elements, while still keeping it all told from Lewis’ point of view.
 
Now, truth be told, it could have ended there, ready to be uploaded to Shorts of the Rula in November. But if this was a celebration, I wanted it done right. There were four groups in the introduction, and so another three points of view were written.
 
Doing so allowed me to include the three journeys in the first half that would never have been told, along with some more world building opportunities. I could also put some focus to areas that wouldn’t have seen much under just the one point of view.
 
Working on those other three POVs brought to light a few corrections and additions I made to the overall story.
 
Looking on what was created, I felt it managed to convey the usual banter and interaction that videos of the Yogscast have, but aside from the world building of the virtual reality technology, doesn’t stand as a massively strong story. It was something made by a fan to celebrate their appreciation of a brand. In this case, the Yogscast.
 
And it does do that, but I’m left wondering what I could have achieved had I kept the larger ambition for the project I’d had at the start. Video content is what we love the Yogscast for, but – while certainly a unique take – doesn’t mean a story written about them has to follow that core foundation.
 
That game mode of Infiltration I have kept as an idea for another time. It won’t see anything major done with it, but it serves its use as a world building tool – whether for a continuation of this story (since I could theoretically make a second story based on the livestream during Jingle Jam I reference in the first) or for another of my worlds as a mode within a standard game.
 
What I do want to try is a story that takes those original ideas of an adventure and make something of them. If I feel the opportunity is there to make another fan-created story using the brand of the Yogscast, I will try to incorporate those ideas into such a story.
 
I’d want such a story to have something unique to it, though, so will only use such ideas in such a way if it makes sense for what I want to achieve.
 
While what I said above does make it seem like I am disappointed in how this came out, I am anything but. As said, it managed to convey the banter and interaction videos of the Yogscast have, and that was what I set out to achieve once I had a goal in mind. I’ll leave it up to you to see if I managed to succeed at that, but I feel it has.

The start of Racing Month was planned just after E3 2019, with me wanting to start it with games that were special to me. Games I had memories of that defined parts of my life. I also wanted to link the two platforms of site and Youtube together, so gameplay was shown and stories were told across four games.
 
Those being Excite Truck, Crash Team Racing, GripShift, and Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Those four games held stories that I wanted to tell, and even though I had a few other games I wanted to feature, I didn’t feel the stories connected with them were strong enough.
 
When it returns this year, there won’t be as strong a link between platforms as that time, allowing just gameplay to feature on its own and more than just stories to feature on the site.
 
There were a number of new releases when it came to novels and free story content, the most recent of which being Mountainous Change within Shorts of the Rula. Keeping with Wattpad content, the rewrite of Pokémon: Shadow Boom continued after being left for a year, seeing four new chapters being added, bringing it halfway to completion.
 
But venturing into new territory, I wrote a fan-created story on a non-fictious brand. Yogsimulated was nothing but an idea for most of the year, with just small amounts of info being wrote down as new ideas formed to put members of the Yogscast in.
 
The idea I eventually settled on formed within the last two months before seeing a release. More behind the scenes info will be released on this one soon, so if you enjoyed it keep an eye out for that.
 
Two novels released to the Kindle Store in 2019, with The Future Adventures of Halesowen being the latest one. It looked deeper into the students of the media course, setting them onto their paths of the future by the end of this third in the Alternate Halesowen and Beyond series.
 
Of greater importance was the start of a new series with the release of Space Race Championship. This is the one I had planned to start the journey of paid-for releases with, having developed it during secondary school and continuing to add to it throughout.
 
However, I’m glad I held off from that early release, as the few years extra spent on it really helped to define it as one of the best I have written. Looking back at how it started and seeing what it has become is honestly a great feeling, even more so than seeing the transformation of TV and Film Residential Camp to Secrets Behind the Truth.
 
But now that I have the world developed, I can expand upon it as I have both of my other series. While nothing will come from it for more than a year, there is more I want to tell within the world going in both directions, so you’ll just have to wait to see which way I decide to go in 2021.
 
There were a few concepts of ideas I posted across last year, with the first quarter seeing me give a few ideas on adding to the tower offence genre of games, and the third quarter seeing another post about Mii Resort Paradise as I define the idea some more. However, it was the last quarter which held some defining concepts from me about one series.
 
There’s been leaks and rumours about the next GTA game for a number of years now, with what has been labelled Project Americas being the most real of them. So I decided to put another concept on hold to craft how the map could look for such a game, and then once that was released, it was back to the project which was recently released.
 
Creating a State Within the GTA-verse was something I held as a project I wanted to do right. I had released a concept of it to GRcade halfway through the year, but that wasn’t a fully realised plan, and I knew that.
 
I wanted this recreation of Michigan to be something that could really fit within the GTA universe, and was looking at the geography of the land, popular destinations, combing the map of the real Michigan for some interesting town layouts, and it eventually saw a release as fully realised as possible.
 
It’s a project that has been one of the largest concepts I have ever created, as there’s still more to talk about that I never covered in the basic overview for it. That will come soon.
 
There’s been a lot of highlights across this year, but I can’t end this without talking about my three cores. There’s not much that I’ve done with Sonic the Hedgehog last year, with just a first impressions of the new Mario and Sonic Olympics (and a video), and a Generations Custom Song video.
 
I am hoping this year sees more that I can do with the series, but that mostly depends on whether there’s a main series game coming. Such was the case with Pokémon, which saw generation eight revealed in February.
 
I had a number of things to talk about before it released and I could give a first impressions on it, and since it was on Switch, I could feature the series in video for the first time.
 
As ever, there was a lot of Star Wars content, and as ever my highlight of it all comes from Star Wars Month. While I had fewer non-Celebration related posts than 2018, it was Celebration that gave us a first look at Jedi: Fallen Order, The Rise of Skywalker, and even a hint that we might be getting a new LEGO game – which eventually would be revealed at E3.
 
But the non-Celebration posts were a two-part series that again held some new concepts as I dove into the Battlefront series as it is under EA and what could be done to expand it further.
 
That’s not to say DICE weren’t doing that, as not only did they give us Capital Supremacy and improve upon it, they’ve continuously been adding new things and making changes across the whole game.
 
Sure, the flagship modes have been abandoned as they put the effort into adding to the new modes, but considering the size the team still working on it as the priority for EA becomes the next generation of consoles, you can’t expect them to easily create content for all of the modes – especially when the priority is supporting those new modes.
 
I’ve shown off quite a bit of that content in videos throughout the year, and this year will see more of it.
 
There’s been plenty of other content in 2019, but these were the things that stood out to me most in looking back at the last year of running DarkRula Media. 2020 is set to be another packed year, and that can already be seen through the first of this year’s monthly updates.
 
As I said in that update, I hope new and old fans alike follow me and my content throughout this coming year, where more concepts will show themselves, more stories will be told, and a lot of fun will be had through it all.

Phase one might have followed with the second in Alternate Halesowen and Beyond, but this time I’m going to leave the fourth in the series for a while and return to another series.
 
As said during the advertisement of it, Elemental Heroes will be seeing five books building up to roughly 35 to 40 episodes in total. The second volume is named Invasion of the Kri’tirs, and sees the elementals dealing with the war that had been mentioned in the first.
 
You can get on Amazon UK here – Kindle Store – to look at more of The Future Adventures of Halesowen. I hope you enjoy reading, and give some thoughts about, this, past and future novels.

The rest of the game passed with him not seeing anyone else, and once again he’d found himself on the top ring just as his gun announced, “Game end. Please return to the armoury.”
 
The doors of the room were open when Brandon arrived. Walking through them, he quickly sat down. He had been unaware of how hot he’d felt while in the arena, and also how much he needed a rest.
 
Within a minute, everyone else had returned.
 
“Hey, Ghost Rider,” Ross called. “Careful you don’t burn anyone with that flame of yours.”
 
Brandon looked confused at that remark. He ran a hand over his head, and felt it was indeed hot.
 
“Look at that steam,” Ashley commented. “Have you turned into a barbeque?”
 
“Really?” Brandon asked. “I’m steaming?”
 
“Like a fresh cup of tea,” Oliver remarked.
 
Brandon gave a nervous laugh as he looked over at the other team. They were looking at him, all with laughter on their faces.
 
It had to have been funny to see. He wished he could see it for himself.
 
“I’ve got the results of this first game,” the host announced, coming out of the control room after a minute. “Team two earned themselves twenty-five points. Team one earned twenty-six. Good job, teams. Are you ready for the second game?”
 
They all affirmed they were, even Brandon, who felt he’d have plenty of opportunity to rest while eating. Although for this second battle, he’d certainly try to not overdo it – especially since there would be a third game no matter who won this second.
 
The second game breezed by, with Brandon having made some faster attacks, though he would still be caught off guard by someone barrelling around a corner and freeze up, allowing that person to get the attack in.
 
After returning to the armoury, and having received yet more comments about his steaming head, the host announced that they had won the round twenty-two to eighteen. The third match would decide the overall winner, and Brandon felt they stood a chance of winning.
 
Within the arena again, Brandon found his way to the ramped overlook as fast as he could, and intended to stay there for as long as he could. One of the other team had obviously thought of the idea before him, as when he appeared at the lower end, someone was already there.
 
He fired a shot and disappeared back the way he had come, found someone else in front of him, and managed to get a second hit before diving down the nearest ramp and hoping he could quickly get across the open area without being hit himself.
 
He managed to hit a few more of the other team during the third game, though sometimes expected a hit to be confirmed but instead got hit himself. Often he would run into Ross or Oliver, and once they all happened to be caught in the open area, getting hit from all four sides before his sister managed to open a route up for them by managing to hit three of them from the very top overlook, which had made the three blocking the routes retreat into the depths of the arena.
 
In the last five minutes of the game they had managed to claw back enough points to hopefully win. Brandon wasn’t expecting it though, as they had been caught in that open area for about a minute.
 
When they all met back at the armoury, Ashely stated, “You know there are more than three ways out of that open space, right? You could have saved yourself instead of being sitting ducks.”
 
Brandon hadn’t known that, and evidently the other two hadn’t either.
 
“That was an interesting one,” the host called as he entered from the control room. “It didn’t have too much of an impact on the points, though. Team one managed thirty points, but team two managed to just get ahead with thirty-one.”
 
They all cheered at that, with both teams shaking hands.
 
“Well done team two,” the host said. “Get those packs off and I’ll take you back down to the lobby where you can get the results slips of the three games.”
 
With the packs off and hooked back up, all eight followed the host through the briefing room to a door on the middle of the left wall. Walking down the ramp that followed the wall, they were back in the lobby. The host waved them off and headed back up, with the eight heading to the reception desk, where the receptionist handed out the results slips and pulled the boxes that held their belongings from underneath the desk.
 
Having collected what was theirs, all eight shared more good games and goodbyes, with the other team heading out before Brandon’s group. Once out, Brandon inhaled deeply and let out a long breath.
 
“That was fun,” he stated. “We heading off to eat, now?”
 
“Yeah, we are,” Ross said.
 
Starting to walk, the four turned left at the end of the road.
 
“I still can’t believe you didn’t know about those other exits from that open space,” Ashley exclaimed. “You could have at least tried to hide instead of looking like you’d been lassoed in place.”
 
“We obviously forgot to check in the heat of the moment,” Brandon said with sarcasm.
 
“It should have been obvious with how open it was.”
 
“Thanks for the save, anyway,” Ross said. “But it was fun, and that’s all that matters.”
 
“Indeed,” Oliver stated.
 
“I really did love it,” Brandon added.
 
“Speaking of love, I think that one with the blue hair wanted to talk to you,” Ross teased. “Might have been a connection.”
 
“Nah,” Brandon said. “She might have been laughing at the Ghost Rider comments, but they all were. Besides… Elizabeth…” He faltered on that last part. Ross seemed to know exactly what he was thinking with that.
 
“Let it go,” he said. He continued in a very pointed tone. “It’s been two months and you’ve barely talked to her. Either get friendly with her again or give up dreaming anything will happen.”
 
Brandon remained silent at that, unsure exactly what to think.
 
He wanted to be with Elizabeth. He wanted to be friendly with her, continue talking normally to her. But fear had gripped him, and he had shut himself off from her. He didn’t even know what he feared, but it was there.
 
He hadn’t even considered that if he wasn’t wanting to be her partner he might once again relax around her.
 
“Who is this Elizabeth?” he heard his sister ask the other two.
 
“Someone in our group,” Ross stated. “Someone he’s been pining for pretty much since we started the first year.”
 
“I haven’t,” Brandon burst out defensively, even though he knew it to be the truth.
 
Ross grunted with laughter. “You haven’t exactly hidden it. You were all over her in the first year.”
 
“And now he’s stopped trying to get her to notice him?” Ashley asked.
 
“I expect there’s a bitterness that she rejected him when he finally did ask her.”
 
“There isn’t,” Brandon defiantly said. “I just- I don’t know. Can we leave this?”

He barely took notice of Ross who was stood next to Brandon, seemingly waiting for him to finish up what he was doing. Quinn was stood waiting at Daniel’s side, ready and waiting to get going.
 
The two had already agreed that they’d use this break to record a video about the modules they had coming up in this second year, though Daniel had a feeling Brandon would want to join them as they took the trek down to the town centre, and wanted to give him that opportunity to come.
 
Standing up, Daniel walked around the row of tables to get in front of the computer Brandon sat at.
 
“What are you doing?” he asked.
 
Brandon locked eyes on Daniel for a second before resuming his previous position. “Just finishing up the writing I was doing.” He let his gaze drift to the right as he continued typing. “Wasn’t Ross waiting?”
 
Daniel had noticed that Ross had left as soon as he had started moving toward them, but hadn’t been concerned by it. With Ross around, Brandon might have been less inclined to join him and Quinn down to town. Though he had been surprised to see the two had been slowly splitting away from each other since they had been back. Ross had already shown a disinterest in the store when they’d first been there and had continued to do so on their numerous visits during the first year, so he shouldn’t really have been surprised that Ross would eventually stop joining them when that store was so frequently visited.
 
“And… done,” Brandon exclaimed.
 
Having saved and logged out of the computer, he slung his backpack over his right shoulder, sidestepping out of the row and heading for the exit of the room. Quinn and Daniel followed.
 
“To the town, then,” Daniel said as they passed the rest of the group.
 
No-one even acknowledged the comment. He’d expected it. If they wanted to come, they’d make their own way down.
 
Outside, Daniel looked back in to see if there had been any movement, and quickly hurried Brandon and Quinn around the building into the car park when he noticed that Ross was near the entrance.
 
“What are we doing?” Brandon asked, slightly harried but curious.
 
“Just getting to a decent area to start the video,” Daniel answered. “A low amount of noise.”
 
He then remembered he hadn’t mentioned the video to Brandon before this moment, and spent a quick moment filling him in.
 
“I’d be a guest on the channel?” he asked.
 
“For today, and in the future if people respond well. I know you say you don’t like being on video because of your voice, but I’ve never heard a problem with it so I’m sure no-one else will, either.”
 
It wasn’t exactly true, as Brandon’s voice would occasionally get picked up weird by the microphone on certain sounds, but he didn’t need to be reminding him of that if he was willing to join in on this video and maybe others.
 
At the other end of the car park, they had a clear view of the hills where he and Quinn had recorded their video on the landscapes of film. It would make a perfect backdrop for the start of this video, and also allowed the rest of the group to get ahead of them on the journey down the hill.
 
He didn’t want any of them butting in and trying to join on this video. He had allowed it on others he’d done while at the college, but this one he wanted to be more focused. Those that had involved the whole group had certainly been lacking in focus, as had been noted plenty of times in the comments.
 
Daniel filled Brandon in on what would happen, though with how many of their videos Brandon had watched there seemed little need to do so, but it was always best to be prepared.
 
Flipping the viewscreen around to where the camera pointed, he turned the camera around so it faced the three of them. His own jet-black hair and light-brown skin showed well on the screen. Quinn’s auburn-red hair provided an outline for her pale face that was merging into the light of the sun. Brandon’s orange-tan skin was also reflecting the sunlight, though not as strongly.
 
He’d had to move the camera to fit each of them in, first focusing upon himself and Quinn, then himself and Brandon. With both times, the hills in the background were visible between them.
He returned the camera to focusing upon himself and Quinn, pressed record, and began.
 
“Hello to all! The Wandering Ramblers are here again! I’m Daniel.”
 
“And I’m Quinn. What you see behind us are the hills where we shot our video on the landscapes of film.”
 
“Half of our timetable has us scheduled to be up here at the media centre, offering a great view of the surrounding area from the car park and a canal that we can walk along.”
 
As he paused upon mentioning that, he had an idea of where they could go to ensure there’d be little traffic and have more time to talk.
 
“But first, we have a guest with us. Welcome to the camera…” He angled the camera slowly to reveal Brandon’s face in a more dramatic way. “Brandon!”
 
“Hello there,” Brandon said, lifting two fingers of his right hand in welcome. “It’s good to be here.”
 
“So, Brandon? What is our topic for today?” Daniel asked.
 
“That topic would be the modules of our second year here at Halesowen College.”
 
“Yes, we Wandering Ramblers will be covering some of the modules we’re doing on the channel, so we wanted to give an overview of what we’ll be doing. Since you’re the guest, Brandon, which of the modules are you most wanting to get stuck in to?”
 
“It’d be obvious to say TV Series Production, but that’s where I feel I’d be able to put my creative writing to work the most. However, I’m also interested in the Producing Installation Work module.”
 
“I think everyone will be interested in that TV Series Production module, and count me as another interested in the installation stuff. For anyone who doesn’t know, installation work is art within a room such as a sculpture that allows people to see it from all angles and sometimes allows for interaction. Mixing in video media with that can add another layer to the piece of art, and I think we’ll be using experimental art to carry this module out.”
 
Daniel angled the camera to include Quinn, and asked her the same question. Her answer didn’t surprise him.
 
“Firstly, the Corporate Video Production module is something I feel I’d be very good at, and in fact already have experience with. Company marketing is an area I’d probably focus on, but I’d also want to look into other areas of marketing, so the Factual Program Production module is also one I want to get stuck into.”
 
“And for me,” Daniel added, “it’d be Multi-Camera Productions. Studio productions are of interest to me, more the behind-the-scenes within the sound deck. We’ll be taking up roles within a production so I’ll be taking the sound engineer role if I can.”
 
He ended the recording, letting his arm drop.

I felt I could make a proper story from it, and while the ending was a bit of a mess, there was still a clear timeline of events that lead to a conclusion (unlike with Star Wars: Darth Maul that tried too much to be like The Clone Wars but failed in its execution, which was then retired without a true ending).
 
While I could see that Darth Maul was a failed project (and I had the Doctor Who: The Stars Wars Chronicles universe to play around in), there still remained the feeling that the story of Shadow Boom could be crafted into a true story.

One that wasn’t a mess and a clear case of fan service before structure. I did the same with TV and Film Residential Camp for it to become Secrets Behind the Truth, so now the next conversion is to begin.
 
Well, I say begin, but it already has. The first part of chapter one was chopped off to create a prologue for the story, covering the same event but with a few tweaks. Chapter one was added around a year ago, showing off the events that led to Ash, Brock, and Misty learning of the Shadow Pokémon and their investigation.
 
Since the original writing and now, there has been two new generations of Pokémon games, with a new point within the TV series I could start this adventure from.

However, rather than just say Ash returned from Kalos, met up with Brock and Misty and was hanging out with them at Oak’s laboratory when the news breaks of the Shadows, I wanted a real reason why these three would be together and why they would be chosen.
 
So I ended up creating an entire alternate universe where the three were more involved with each other – even upending the entire Diamond and Pearl saga to the point where Ash doesn’t even take part in the league in Sinnoh, the same also going for Unova. They were a team, and were called on as a team to stop the criminal teams from enacting their plans.
 
Since the three had experience dealing with criminal organisations, and part-time working for Professor Oak, they were on hand to immediately act when the news broke out. Off to Johto, where instead of following the route into Ecruteak City and down to the Ruins of Alph, they instead go straight from Olivine City into Violet City, then onto New Bark Town – which is where the chapter ends once Pikachu is turned Shadow.
 
The method of Pikachu’s capture and the impact it has are similar yet different between the two versions, and to make Snagem more dangerous, a Pokémon of both Misty and Brock had also been turned Shadow.
 
Chapter two of this story will play out much the same way, with the story of the Shadow Pokémon and Orre being told, but this time I’m not doing a complete retelling of the plot of both games during it.

I’m giving a bit of history from before Colosseum, a brief retread of the Colosseum plot, and a brief mention of Michael’s involvement in stopping Cipher within Gale of Darkness.
 
I didn’t feel the need to retell the plots of both games as in-depth as I did in the original version, as all that needs to be shown is the progression of how serious a problem the Shadow Pokémon have become.
 
Beyond that, nearly everything else is being changed. Chapter three and four still remain in Orre, but for different reasons. Instead of going straight to Hoenn after chapter four, there’s a journey to Johto to settle the events from chapter one. While I’m unsure exactly how many chapters that will take, I’m aiming for around two or three.
 
The final chapters will take the journey to Hoenn, where Snagem will finally be defeated. That Hoenn section will be completely redone, as that was perhaps the weakest of the entire story.
 
The professors of the regions being captured has been retired, as has the entire concept of the Shadow County. The professors being captured never went anywhere. They were just captured, then rescued some time later, barely getting any time spent on it.
 
And while the Shadow County got an extended chapter worth of content fleshing it out, with how this story is now progressing, there’s just no need for it.
 
In the original version, the team get captured at the end of their journey across the Shadow County. That no longer needs to happen with this new version. There will be a few elements returning, such as the meeting with May in Littleroot Town and the final confrontation being at Sootopolis City, but most of the stuff inbetween will be scrapped.
 
By the end of that final confrontation, there were too many characters to be managing. With the Orre section being changed, Professor Krane of the HQ Lab will no longer be with the team. Brendan will also no longer be with the team, and while Wes will still be apart of the team, Rui will have been taken to her grandparents in Agate Village.
 
Then there’s dealing with the Shadow Pikachu, and where that comes into the story. In the original version, it was right at the end, where a return to Pallet Town sees Jessie, James and Meowth holed up in the laboratory after having claimed Pikachu as their own with no way to control him.
 
For the new version, that will be moved to the end of the Johto portion of the story, where the bond between Ash and Pikachu will be explored – which gives a chance to go into some of the alternate history I have written. Team Rocket still feature, though they do go under a new name here, as will be told when getting into that alternate history.
 
Chapter two of this story will be going up next month, where I hope to get one chapter out a month. While the writing of this story happens, I won’t be forgetting about my Kindle projects, with writing and planning of phase two going well. Look out for the appearance of it within the next month, along with a preview of that first book of phase two.

The characters underwent the same reworking, and a new focus took hold that allowed the second half to finally come through. That second half holds the events of the Championship, and it’s there that most of the changes happen.
 
While I hadn’t actually written anything more than notes for what was to happen, the entire outline for how it did – and what the Championship itself held – has been changed. It allowed for character to be injected into it where before it was sounding more like a rundown of events that happened and not much else. The events regarding the subplot that happen were always within those notes, but far downplayed to what they became.
 
Phase two of releases will see another visit back to Halesowen and the media students, with the events of their second year being told. There’ll be a focus put on the store of Gamestation in relation to the future of some of the students, which will be a major path of exploration for all the students – something I’d started to explore during Alternate Adventures.
 
Elemental Heroes will get a new volume, pushing focus away from the city of Ballart and onto some history of Darcy and her people. Along with having the Elementals be outside their depth with little help. The other two for phase two will remain hidden for now, but there’s more for Alternate Halesowen and Beyond, along with further exploration of the newest world from Space Race Championship.
 
You’ll find Space Race Championship here – Kindle Store – on Amazon UK. As ever, I welcome all thoughts about my novels, and hope you enjoy them. Happy reading.

The Space Kicker moved forward with increasing speed, then made a drop at the last second. Lee quickly swapped to the rear camera to see it pulling around to enter the hangar. Swapping to one of the cameras within the hangar, he watched a blue blur appear for a second on the feed.
 
Looking up, the Space Kicker had pulled up in front of the viewshield.
 
“How was that?” Tom asked.
 
“As good as could be expected,” Lee said. “Now would you be able to do roughly the same thing except approach from below?”
 
A pause of a few seconds, in which Lee had a feeling Tom was doing some calculations. “In two tries I think I can.”
 
It took him three. On the first try he overshot and ended up boosting over the DSSC instead of through it. On the second he scraped the upper lining of the hangar and had slammed to the floor trying to correct it. On the third try, there had been a moment where it looked like he might have failed but managed to pull it off.
 
“Yeah!” the exultant exclamation came through the speaker. “This really is great. I really must thank you for entering me into this. It’s the most fun I’ve had in ages.”
 
Lee smiled at that. “You’re welcome. This is definitely fun for me as well. We’ll give it a few more runs before heading back down.”
 
Lee recited the next checkpoint he had in mind. This one involved something similar to what Tom had done during Space Racer, but instead of strafing around the fittings of the hangar roof he needed to dodge around several smaller ‘craft. That couldn’t really be done, but Lee was leaving it up to Tom to create a pattern of random shifts before flying through the DSSC’s hangar.
 
“Going good,” Lee stated, seeing the pattern of left, left, right.
 
The Space Kicker then strafed left sharply before driving a long right. Lee watched as it continued on for longer than it needed.
 
“Pull off!” Lee exclaimed, but only received crackles from the speaker.
 
Lee watched as it finally faltered in its constant speed, then stopped. It stayed still for a minute.
 
“That… wasn’t meant to happen,” Tom said in a questioning tone.
 
“Are you sure everything’s fine with it?” Lee asked. “Do we need to return?”
 
“All reading fine.”
 
“Scanning for static pulses,” Lee informed, having thought on the next reason for a failure. “Irregular patches around, and some thin streaks…” It was an odd combination. The patches were uncommon but not unusual. The streaks of static meant someone had been firing a special type of laser infused with the stuff.
 
Hitting one of those streaks alone wouldn’t be enough to cause issues, but enough of them in close proximity would.
 
“Move away from the area,” Lee advised. “Too much static, and I think someone might be training using CSP lasers.”
 
“Aren’t they meant to be prohibited to security forces only?” Tom asked.
 
“I think they might be, but it’s always possible a friend of someone in security is helping that friend train in a more active way.”
 
The Space Kicker moved away from the area, with the DSSC following suit. The two set up a new checkpoint to practice, but no sooner had Tom started than Lee shouted for him to abort.
 
“Static streaks inbound! Get inside quickly!”
 
Lee kept his eyes locked on the scanner, now tuned exclusively to look out for static, and just about heard Tom say he was inside when the streaks passed over the central point of the scanner.
The lights flickered slightly, but that was the only effect the static had on the DSSC.
 
“I recommend we head back down,” Tom said. Lee hadn’t heard him enter. “Even if we aren’t being targeted, I don’t think we’re going to get much more done today unless we were to head out further.”
 
“I’m sure the crew of the Sur-C are tracking the static appearances, but I’m still reporting it.”
 
“As you should. Land at mine and I’ll get a full diagnostic run on the Kicker when we land.”

Bit by bit I gleaned everything I could, reworking and expanding everything. Characters, the world, even the elements themselves. Then there was the fact that – as I’ve said – twenty slides is a bit too little to be turning into a full story.
 
The story as presented in that Powerpoint is easily told in a paragraph. It’s Halloween, and five teenagers get arrested for something they didn’t do. In the cell they wait, they find five stones and get launched into the world of being Power Rang- I mean police force members.
 
2006 was the year of Power Rangers SPD, remember, and Dino Thunder still would have been in my mind at the time. Those five teenagers are recruited into the force, do battle against a witch named Darcy and her sidekick Draco, and stop her collecting the elemental powers the force possesses.
 
Very Rangers inspired, with the elemental powers coming from Pokémon types and moves. It focused on a few battles and felt very much like a very condensed season of Rangers.
 
A few names were taken from Rangers, such as Brandon and Sky, with others coming from other cartoons of the times (or at least inspired by them). When planning started on expanding everything, the names of those characters changed.
 
Max became Martin. Sky became Kieron. Sally became Emma. Brandon… stayed the same, though the meaning of the name changed.
 
Just as there was a Brandon Golden in the Alternate Halesowen and Beyond series, so there became a Brandon Golden in the Elemental Heroes series. This version of Brandon borrows very little from me as a person, though perhaps is favoured more than the others.
 
With the characters defined, I then did the same with the world, building it up to create a lot of the rules it obeys. From the start I wanted it to be in episode format rather than naming them chapters. A hold-out of the fact I still wanted the Rangers feel within.
 
I wasn’t going to go through an entire forty episodes in one book, but build arcs that were defined by the book. The first seven episodes introduced the mechanics of the world, who the heroes and villains were, and a bit of history as well.
 
The opening episode was changed to have the three prospective force members already be in training. They show their skill to earn being picked for the team. And note that the number has dropped.
 
Another hold-out to Rangers – specifically Dino Thunder – was to not have the full team together at the start, but build it up. However, I was messing with the team dynamics all through the seven episodes to see how the characters would react. At the end of the first arc, the team stands at four of five.
 
The world had taken on a more videogame-like outlook, so I used that to the full. As such, the main villain of Darcy controls very videogame-like creatures such as those found in Kingdom Hearts. I separated Draco from her to become an individual character in his own right, with his own history that gets explored here.
 
The first few missions also play out differently between the two versions. In the original Powerpoint version, the team are instantly ready to deal with Darcy being who they fight. With the full version, the team don’t even have their elements to hand as they are called to aid the primary unit.
 
The second battle involves just the two leaders. Both of those battles are against a few of those creatures. And speaking of leaders, in the original version it is Brandon who was the leader, but I settled for Kieron in the full version as I felt this version of Brandon was better suited to not be constrained by the leadership role.
 
The capture of the commander – Gary – moved up the field a few episodes from the original version. In that original version, he’s captured just because, whereas the full version gives a reason in line with the history on display.
 
Instead, the full version explores the elements and builds up more of the world. It also introduces the fourth member of the team before the story hits the point Gary is captured.
 
The original version then decided to end… weirdly. Evil was still around yet a break was had from fighting. Competitions were held and a holiday to Benidorm won. Christmas and New Year’s parties held, and the next fight with Darcy didn’t take place until February. However, before that took place, the battle with Draco was held.
 
This entire section of the story involved Draco leaving Darcy and mind-controlling the regular citizenry to become his soldiers. Unfortunately, that part of the original version is the weakest of the lot, and wouldn’t have worked with the new history and character of Draco.
 
It was also weak because the team faced no morality about the fact they were defeating the regular folk of the city they lived.
 
In the full version, episode six sees Gary captured and rescued, with the seventh being the victory Darcy had been looking for, only to have it wiped from her. That episode was meant to be a two-part episode, but when I got to writing it, there simply wasn’t enough material to split it into two parts. Besides, it’s not like that was the final end.
 
The sequel of the original version would have involved time travel. Now isn’t that a fun topic to go into. Darcy would have created the time element to send the team back to the time when her sisters were powerful.
 
I don’t need to be using this at all, but the concept of Darcy having sisters – like all the ideas from the original version – got expanded and hinted at the end of the full version. The second arc of the full version will be detailing all that.
 
So far, only a quarter of this entire story has been planned, but I know who the characters are and where they are headed. Since I already have forty episodes pegged total (though that might have to drop a few) I know roughly how many episodes per arc I want.
 
I also know roughly what those arcs will be, with the second arc exploring more of the world and of Darcy, then three more arcs after it. By the time of the final arc, all the elements will be shown off.
 
If this look into the planning has you wanting to check this ebook out, you can find Elemental Heroes here [UK link], and all my other ebooks from the sidebar - which will take you to my Amazon Author Page.