Free: Tales from Evigone from the Platinum Mind series
During his studies at Rhyton University, James Stone reads several folk and fairy tales - reproduced here in their entirety
The university was central to the second book of the Platinum Mind series and needed to be visualised before I could begin writing. The over-all appearance was dictated by its geographical position next to the river, rising up on a series of terraces to the foot of the cliff at the back. The colleges and the student village came next and I thoroughly enjoyed adding all the buildings. The names and symbols for the colleges were derived from the maps, based on their economic and political backgrounds. After many hours of work, I had a setting for the characters and could begin working out a plot.
This is the poster that was on Fadge's wall in the House of a Thousand Hours - a cartoon depiction of the species of the Second Sphere. Its origins go back a very long way to a game I created many years ago. Each species was drawn on a little card and they had to be collected to win the game. I recreated those cards and added backgrounds for another book I wanted to write, based on an explorer going the Second Sphere centuries in the past. That book is still in production but I thought the cartoon-like pictures would probably be attractive to somebody like Fadge so I mentioned it in the book.