Cross-Platform Fantasy Storyworld "Ballads of the Distant Reaches" Launches Premium Subscriber Features

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ballads of the Distant Reaches, a new cross-platform fantasy storyworld from the writing/producing team of Benjamin Reeves and Robert Frankel, has launched with stories from top contemporary fantasy writers and original illustrations from Eisner Award-winning lead artist Shay Plummer.

"We've created a rich storyworld for the Distant Reaches and brought together an incredibly talented creative team," creator and co-editor Benjamin Reeves said. "We tell gripping, exciting stories across platforms and really bring our audience into this fantasy world."

At the core of Distant Reaches are fantasy short stories published every other week at DistantReaches.com. Each story is written by a leading fantasy author and accompanied by an illustration from a team of artists led by Plummer. Readers can subscribe at DistantReaches.com to receive each story directly in their inbox.

The first narrative cycle will run until July 2023 and uses the "Conclave of Bards" — a gathering of storytellers from across the fictional Amal Empire — as a narrative thread, creating an anthology of short stories within the shared storyworld.

The narrative continues across platforms, with lore, art, and stories shared regularly on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Future stories will be developed for other media, such as podcasts, novelizations, comics, and streaming video.

"We're experimenting with a new, exciting kind of narrative structure," co-creator and co-editor Robert Frankel said. "It's a shared storyworld, but it's also a story within a story. Our writers can explore with a ton of creative freedom, allowing the stories to grow and expand organically across media as we add additional platforms."

The project began publication in mid-July, and new features for premium subscribers — including an exclusive lore section called "Secrets of Amal" — launched on Sept. 20.

The creators cited several factors for their early success, including a commitment to fairly compensate writers and artists from launch. Another factor is the combination of a deeply developed storyworld with narrative flexibility, which allows writers and artists to experiment within the universe of the Distant Reaches.

"Of course, we've also had some amazing early support from readers and fans," Reeves added. "Our audience has already embraced this world and genuinely seems to care about the characters."

While all the stories are fantasy and take place within a world of magic, ancient gods, and uncanny beings, they cross with such genres as horror, comedy, romance, mystery, and even westerns. Visitors to DistantReaches.com will find not only the full archive of short stories, but also "Echoes from Amalcross," a biweekly exploration of the world's lore and a peek behind the scenes with interviews, additional art, maps, and other fascinating artifacts from across the Distant Reaches and the Amal Empire.

About the Creators:

Ballads of the Distant Reaches is a product of Blood and Tonic LLC, founded by Benjamin Reeves and Robert Frankel. Both earned MFAs in screenwriting from the Brooklyn College Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Contact: For more info, partnerships, or interview requests, contact Benjamin Reeves at 3475992507 or [email protected]

SOURCE Ballads of the Distant Reaches