Tales From The Forest

New story is getting some major attention!

2010-11-21T10:20:00.000Z

I have a warm and fuzzy feeling today, because Wow! I've just checked, and the new story just published "The Ice Cavern" has already had 2650+ downloads on iTunes in just a couple of days! The podcast has also been featured in the number one spot on Mypodcast.com - the biggest free host site for iTunes, plus the Tales From The Forest podcast series has been featured in the "what's hot" section on iTunes in the literature podcast section.

I'm feeling warm and fuzzy, because I know that the whole weekend I spent putting this story together was not in vain. People don't generally realise the time and effort that goes into the making of these stories. There is the script adjusting, the recording (which can take many hours to get right), then there's the editing - splicing together all the best versions of each spoken line. Then for my style of story, there's the adding of the atmospheric music and sound effects. Have you ever tried to match a piece of music to a particular scenario or scene? It can be massively time consuming. I have built up a large library of music that I am licenced to use in my audio recordings, but finding a piece for each scene usually involves listening to 40+ pieces of music at a time to track down a suitable candidate. There are usually 10+ music scenes in each story, so that's the equivalent of physically sifting through 400+ pieces of music per story, just to find the exact piece that sets the mood and tempo.

Of course, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't enjoy doing it, as I don't get paid for it - It's just a hobby, but it is nice to see the listening numbers climbing so well. To me this means people are getting enjoyment from my work, and that makes it all the more worthwhile.

New story added! - Bailey and the Bear - "The Ice Cavern"

2010-11-18T10:44:00.000Z

I was approached by author A. J. Norton and asked if I could turn one of her stories into an audio recording.

After reading the excellent story "The Ice Cavern", which is the first in a planned series under the title of "Bailey and the Bear", I decided I definitely wanted to work with it.

It took a full weekend to create and edit but, I'm happy with the result, and I've managed to upload it to the story website today.
It is now available for download or to listen direct from the website here.

From The Forest Audio CD now available

2010-03-31T10:28:00.002+01:00

Well it's taken me over a year, but I've finally managed to get around to designing and making available the Tales From The Forest Audio CD, which containes many of the stories contained on the website.

It includes the award-winning "Story Beach" and other audio stories from this website. The disk contains 10 of the most popular stories, and and is presented in a DVD-style case with a beautifully illustrated cover capturing the spirit of the enchanted forest, as well as a printed Audio CD disk to match.

At only £6GBP it is a bargain, makes a perfect gift, and will bring joy to any youngster who listens to it.

Click here to see the finished product

My Story has just become an award winner!

2010-03-31T09:54:00.007+01:00

My story titled "The Story Beach" has just become an award winner :o)

Got an email from these folks a few days ago congratulating me and presenting me with a number of different sized award icons to display on the website.

To be honest, I didn't know there was an award for Children's Equestrian Stories, but apparently there is.

.

New inspiration....

2009-08-16T15:08:00.009+01:00

Main website is here: http://talesfromtheforest.co.uk

From time to time I get the occasional feedback e-mail about the Tales-from-the-forest website - usually from teachers saying how much they like the stories and use them in their classes.

However, today, I got an extensive feedback letter from a kindergarten teacher in Indiana USA, who provided me with some really useful and detailed feedback that has been incredibly instrumental in getting me back into the idea of writing more.

I have to admit, until now, with feedback being so rare, I've not been that inspired to continue with the stories, but this new letter appears to have changed that.

She provided me with some potential new directions that my subsequent stories could take, and I now feel a growing inspiration within to get back to the enchanted forest and create some brand new adventures for some of the characters I have already created.

I find the idea of re-uniting Nigel with the black horse once more, quite appealing, and possibly involving the good king too - bringing the so-far seperate elements of the enchanted forest together into one or more new stories.

Until now, being too buzy has been my generic excuse to not get back into writing, (plus I didn't think people were that interested with the lack of feedback) - but I think I will try to make the effort to make time, and put pen to paper again.

Watch this space!
Rick

PS - if you have any story suggestions / plot suggestions/ ideas that you would like to see happening within the enchanted forest, then please TELL ME! I need all the help I can get to "hatch" these ideas :o)

Tales Update

2009-08-06T09:29:00.002+01:00

Good grief has it been that long since I posted a blog entry? It seems only a short time has passed since I recorded The Story Beach - the last story that I placed on the Tales From The Forest Website. Where does the time go?
Actually I've been extremely busy with numerous other projects on the go - sometimes I feel like the guy with the plates spinning on the sticks, just trying to keep all these projects rolling.

It's nice to see the tales site is getting lots of visitors despite my not updating for a while. I get the occasional e-mail from time to time from people about the stories, either thanking me for putting them up, or asking if they can use them for their classroom activities - which of course, I'm happy to allow.
Anyway, I have no immediate updates planned, but hope to get back to the writing just as soon as time will allow. in the meanwhile, if you have a story you wouldn't mind being turned into an audio book and published on the site, then feel free to email a copy to me and I'll let you know if I can work with it.

Have fun!
Rick

Brand New Story published!

2009-02-03T23:12:00.003Z

Hi Guys & Gals!
Ok,this is by far the biggest and best story (of my own) that I've done so far.

It's called 'The Story Beach' ( although I was originally going to call it 'Nigel and the Horse!' ) and it has been created using some of best and the most atmospheric music I have ever heard for a childrens audio story.

I went out of my way to ensure the sound effects and the atmosphere was just right with this one, which meant blowing almost a week's salary on purchasing the right kind of licenced music!

If you are able to listen in headphones, then all the better as some of the sound effects are in 5.1 stereo!

Anyway, here is a link to the page if you haven't already found it.
http://rickvanman.byethost22.com/pages/the_story_beachpag.html

Feedback:
I really would like to hear feedback from anyone willing to spend a couple of minutes writing me a quick email. To date I've heard nothing from anyone, and I haven't a clue whether there is demand for my stories or not, although 1000 downloads from iTunes seems to be suggesting that people are interested.

I hope to not leave it so long for my next entry.

ATB

Rick.

Tales From The Forest - Video

2009-01-21T18:09:00.001Z

Just thought I'd re-publish the video - enjoy!

The Tales From The Forest is now on iTunes!

2009-01-21T17:48:00.004Z

Tales from the Forest has now been accepted into the iTunes directory, so all of the stories are now available on iTunes (Type children's stories into the iTunes search bar, then expand the "podcasts" section and there we are) so you can download them onto your ipod.

Podcasts now active

2009-01-12T10:28:00.003Z

Tales From The Forest now has its own podcasting channel:

http://talesfromtheforest.mypodcast.com/

The last few weeks have been quite hectic, and I haven't had much oppertunity to create new recordings, but things are settling down now and I hope to be back behind the microphone before the end of the week!

I was rather hoping for some feedback for the site, even if it's to say I'm wasting my time! but to no avail yet. Ideas and suggestions, are always most welcome.

Rick

Looking for more children's stories to convert to audio!

2009-01-06T14:48:00.003Z

If you have written your own short stories for children or young people, I am looking for new material to make audio recordings of.

At the moment I am relying on stories that are in the public domain which are often quite hard to find, but would like to publish children's stories by "living" people!

Also, many of the public domain children stories are not relevant to today’s society, some are just too long, and the language is often antiquated with irrelevant or obsolete wording.

I believe what I do is for the benefit of others, and so I give my recordings away for free. If you want me to publish children's stories on your behalf, you must understand that I would want to make the audio recording of it available for free also.
You would retain the copyright to your story of course, and I would retain the rights to the Audio file so that I can make it available for download.

It would be a zero-cost arrangement where no money exchanges hands from either of us, however, I am happy to include a link you your website / contact details if you like, on the page displaying your story.

You would obviously need full publishing rights and ownership of your story in order for me to record it. Should you wish to withdraw it at any time, I can make it unavailable from this website, but will have no control over any of the copies that have already been downloaded.

If you would like to send a story, please go to the website and use the contact information.

Thanks
Rick

New story and audio book added

2009-01-06T13:45:00.003Z

Tried my hand at writing a story called "The Good King". My mum came up with the basic setting a few days ago, and I fleshed it out whilst driving to the coast yesterday using a dictation machine! . - turned out better than I thought! I’ve also gone for more descriptive music - kind-of like the same arrangement as Jeff wayne’s War-of the Worlds - only less scary!.
I’ve got a couple of drafts for some new stories I’ve created which I hope to work on tomorrow, one of them has a unicorn in! - hopefully they will be audio books by the end of the working week.

Permalink: You can see my latest audio book "The Good King" Here

Tales from the forest - now online!

2009-01-06T13:25:00.001Z

Welcome to my first entry in this blog.

I've never done blogging before and so amd still a bit naieve abot how it all works.

Basically, I have created a website to give away the free story audio books I create for children.

I happen to be an amateur film maker, so here is a promo videio I did all about the enchanted forest (where my website is based)

enjoy....