Tales of the Ocean City Series by Christopher Kaufman Trailer, Excerpt & Interview

 

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past.

 

Title: Tales of the Ocean City Series

Author: Christopher Kaufman

Genre: Classic Epic Fantasy

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past – THE VORM.

The main characters are a young man named Harl’ut and his lifelong companion Vispushin – who is a perIanth, a kind of telepathic pegasus. Join them on this epic adventure as they lead a group of young warriors into the heart of the Vorm Hive.

Book One: Battle In The Sky is the first of five books which comprise the opening series of this epic tale. Here, Harl’ut and Vispushin and The Princess Bryn’lynn, engage in desperate battle over the southern plain with savage Vorm warriors. You will be uplifted by the passionate and thrilling conclusion of the first installment of this fantasy adventure. 

In Book Two: Descent Into The Abyss, Harl’ut recovers from his harrowing adventure from Book One: Battle In The Sky. He walks through the streets of The Ocean City, visits the Sculpture Garden and his friend, Elá, the bard, and engages in exciting training games with warrior/mentor, Calanctus. Then the story takes you down the throat of the vast volcano, Pla’than’taa, once worshipped as a god, where Harl’ut enacts a deadly initiation ritual, confronts the barbaric past of his people and battles a terrifying monster. 

Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/. 

Here’s what readers are saying about Tales of the Ocean City series!

“A collage of vibrant images adorns the pages of Tales Of The Ocean City, treating readers to more than a simple fantasy narrative. Well-chosen colors and designs add emotive elements and offer thoughtful reflections of the unfolding battle sequence, creating an intensely immersive experience. Matching the feel of the imagery, the text includes abundant use of descriptive, almost poetic prose, which adds vigor to the exciting storyline. I found the overall experience to be hypnotic, both in the book’s vivid presentation and its innovation. Mixing qualities from graphic novels, abstract art, classic fantasy, and creative fiction, Christopher Kaufman’s book is an imaginative adventure that is sure to engage your senses.” 

— David Korson for Readers’ Favorite

Book Trailer

Book Excerpt

“Vispushin! Aloft! ” cried Harl’ut.

With a thrust of her wings, the white pegasus shot upwards through billowing clouds. Harl’ut stood with his arms held out, balancing on her back. They burst into vast heights, the realm of Kurl’wra, the morning sun, whose powerful beams illumined iridescent mist on his golden skin. Far below, the ocean roared and thundered.

Vispushin reached the pinnacle of her high arc.

“Now…” she thought to him.

The pegasus hovered and Harl’ut dove backward from her haunches. In a swan dive, he clove through tiers of frothing clouds. He used his chest and arms to glide in a spiral through the planet Tir’whol’s thick atmosphere. He reached the cool misty air just below the clouds, jack-knifed and straightened, and sliced right into the churning ocean currents.

Dark purples and greens suffused his eyes as he penetrated cold shadowy depths. He arched his
back, frog-kicked and drifted lazily up towards a ceiling of shimmering blue light.

He felt rough tickles on his skin as he passed through a multitude of bulbous purple sea stars. A powerful current buffeted him as he reached the water just below the surface.

“Here!” Vispushin’s voice shimmered in his mind like watery light. With a vigorous kick, Harl’ut vaulted through crashing waves and snagged the sharp hoof of his bond-mate.

“Aloft!” he cried again.

Blazing glare trails blinded him. He grasped the white-gold mesh which clothed Vispushin’s supple form and clambered onto her heaving plush back as she strove upwards.

Reaching the air above the clouds once again, she settled into a steady rhythm of flight towards Ocean City!

It was time, he thought, time to join fully in the city life, The Ocean City…

Harl’ut pictured clearly in his mind the city carved from great spires of rock at the belly of a massive volcanic mountain once worshipped as the god, Pla’than’taa!

Now a vibrant city teeming with life. A place of hope, dreams and vision, where a young civilization was turning the corner into the future. A future Harl’ut yearned to be a part of.

The piercing cry of a sea-eagle shattered his thoughts, a winged shadow passed across the sun at a great height.

Harl’ut leapt to his feet, cupped his hands to his mouth and issued his characteristic call…

“Keeyaaaa!”

The giant eagle paused in its flight and answered, then turned and flew off.

– Excerpted from Tales of the Ocean City: Book 1: Battle in the Sky by Christopher Kaufman, Three Dashes Publications, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Christopher Kaufman is an author, composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of nine. During high school years he found music and attended The New Orleans Center for The Creative Arts and went on to major in music composition in college. He finished his schooling – earning his DMA in music composition at Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize Winning composers who prize his abilities as a composer.

Christopher is the type of person who needs imaginative fantasy scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, he emerged from Cornell, not only with his degrees in music, but with the full event structure for his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The Ocean City in his mind.

He began writing the story down in the early 2000’s, but it did not really come to life until he developed his home music ‘laboratory’ and started creating the music and text at the same time. Thus books one and two of TOC came about simultaneously as both graphically illustrated pages and effulgent audio albums filled with cinematic epic symphonic music.

They exist now as physical books and audio albums (that go together) and the new Video Book version.  He performs live tours with the music pouring through speakers, live narration and the colorful pages streaming on screen – a true immersive multi-media experience.

He also maintains his career as a composer for the concert stage with a full body of work, from solo works thru orchestral. He specializes as well in ‘environmental works’ which feature soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds, live musicians (from soloists, chamber groups and to full orchestra), videos filled with both natural and artistic images and readings from the works of John Muir and others.

Interview:

Where are you from?

A far off world…where imagination reigns supreme…I mean, Cleveland… :) Actually, I moved around a lot when young…we went from Cleveland straight south to Atlanta then New Orleans.  Then I went back to Cleveland to go to music conservatory there, then ended up in Ithaca, New York and finished my schooling phase at Cornell (Doctorate in music composition). I lived in Ithaca for about sixteen years and ran a music and arts performance group called CHIRON Performing Arts.  

Now I live in Brooklyn with my wife and daughter - where I present new music and art to audiences of all ages and work on my Storytelling  works - fantasy stories with audio albums filled with music, narration and sound design, like Tales Of The Ocean City. I’m on book eight now of this ongoing series.

So I’m from New Orleans, Ithaca and Brooklyn.

Tell us your latest news?

I performed my first live readings for Tales Of The Ocean City a couple of weeks ago. I created a system where I have a gorgeous screen on wheels for the graphically illustrated pages to float by as my cinematic music pours through my Bose PA, and I live narrate…really fun…audience was appreciative!

When and why did you begin writing?

I started writing fantasy books with illustrations when I was nine years old. Later, I discovered music and lived the life of a composer for many years. My stories never left me. In fact, I am the type of person who needs some kind of active imaginative world to get myself to sleep. I emerged from my schooling phase with a Doctorate in music composition (Cornell) and the complete event structure for Tales Of The Ocean City through book eight, which I am completing now. Of course, when I get to each new area of the story it burgeons out, grows new branches and new things happen from the early conceptions.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I started writing down the Tales Of The Ocean CIty stories in the early 2000’s, but it was only when I initiated my home music ‘lab’ and began creating the text, music and narration at the same time that I found my voice as a storyteller. After two Audio Albums (TOC books 1-2), and then adding the element of the graphically illustrated pages filled with art and color, the style for these works was established.

As I just mentioned, after completing the first two books, I had found my voice.  When I came back to it later, I was able to write without the music…and things progressed from there.  Even so, I still consider myself more of a Storyteller - and have, in many projects, used all of my talents to express the story: prose, music, live theater, film, acting and on. Getting into words what I imagine in my mind is quite a task - but I feel I am getting better at it with each written phrase.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I have an intensely prolific creative mind. My imagination never lets up.  Getting my stories into words has been a long and glorious process.  I think I just have the need to express myself in words and music and illustrative art…it is just who I am.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I mentioned above how my style evolved by creating the story and music together…and narrating aloud.  So the sound, rhythm and feel of the words is paramount. Composing music has also given me a powerful sense of pacing - of knowing when to use very short sentences to propel action (of which there are tons) and when to take time to paint a beautiful scene.

How did you come up with the title?

The title for Tales Of The Ocean City came to me long ago…I have been working on this project on and off…now fully on…for over 30 years.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I believe in the transformative power of imagination, especially as demonstrated in the fine arts.  That’s why I like to use the word classical in defining TOC, i.e. Classical Epic Fantasy.  Much of my work is about feeding and growing imagination in one way or another. I hope people experience my work and then feel differently about how they experience the world around them.  Imagination is the highest function of the human mind - it gives us art, music and scientific theories…and helps us envision a better future for ourselves and our civilization. It has been damaged in many ways in our modern lives. Fantasy can help cure this.

Tales Of The Ocean City delivers this message in countless ways.

How much of the book is realistic?

Tales Of The Ocean City is classical epic fantasy. Like all the big stories there are many facets of our world embedded or referenced in it.  In fact, much can be said to be commentary on our world as it is or could be.

Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

There is much autobiography in my stories.

In Tales Of The Ocean City is chronicled a young civilization turning the corner into the future. The main characters are young Harl’ut and his lifelong companion, Vispushin - she is a perianth (a kind of telepathic pegasus).  They are close, like family, and speak to each other mind-to-mind.

Before moving into the future, the citizens of The Ocean City must face their brutal and primitive past. This happens in multiple ways. For Harl’ut, he undergoes an initiation ritual adventure at the end of Book Two where he faces images and personifications from the past, resolves them and battles a terrible monster. The Ocean City itself, in the over-all five book opening series, must face an enemy from ancient times, The Vorm, with whom they co-evolved on the ancestral isle and who are now threatening their very existence. In books four and five, the heroes of The Ocean City engage in epic war with the Vorm and Harl’ut and Vispushin lead a cadre of young warriors into the Vorm Hive on a vital mission.

Much of this can be interpreted as a metaphor for my personal journey. I emerged from much conflict in my youth to a very positive place filled with career and personal success and am moving forward as a storyteller. When writing TOC, I realized that there were specific things that relate to my childhood experiences and that certain characters relate to people of my past and present. I will save going into those specifics for another time - but am happy to report that the perianth race is based on my animal family - we call them pets…but they are so much more.

What books have most influenced your life most?

Thank you. To answer this, I would love to acknowledge the writers that have informed my work and imaginative life and to whom I am eternally grateful; Tolkien, Lovecraft, McCaffrey, Moorcock, Burroughs, Dunsany, Lewis and my favorite, Lloyd Alexander - who spoke about writing for adults for many years and enjoying it, yet, when he started writing for young people, the emotions became deeper and more powerful, not less so.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

As mentioned above - Lloyd Alexander…for the reasons I explained.

What book are you reading now?

I have been rereading some of my favorites - like Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné and The Swords trilogy.

Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?

I am always looking for new voices.

What are your current projects?

I will be performing my environmental music, i.e. pieces that include live performance, soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds and video, at The Queens Botanical Garden and other places this spring.  I am working on my books, making trailers and completing book eight of Tales Of The Ocean City. It has also taken many hours to build up my store at kaufmantales.com - and my distributer Book Vault in the UK.

Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members?

I have a long list of amazing teachers who have had a powerful affect on my life.

What would you like my readers to know?

In general - that I am a creative artist and a storyteller. I create books with vivid audio albums filled with cinematic/symphonic music, narration and sound design and which are also live theatrical shows. I compose music for the classical concert stage and film. I present multiple concert series’ and perform as reader, conductor and player.

I have a mission:

To help reconnect people with their imaginations.  Much of it is lost in today’s world. Reinvigorating the imagination is the function of fantasy art.  In my work I use everything I can - Story, Music, Illustrative Art, Live Performance, and even Puppetry sometimes, to deliver the most powerful storytelling experience I can. I have worked with young people for many years as well…my concert series, ‘The Phantastic Theater - new music and art for people of all ages all at once’ is, in fact, the arts education branch of my efforts as an artist. In these concerts, I find fun and creative ways to introduce young people to the arts and to re-invigorate the imaginations of their parents.  It is a mission that will never end.

I hope experiencing my work help you to see and experience life with imagination. Everything around you is alive, everything is a story waiting to be told.  Tell yourself these stories as you walk through life.

If interested in perusing the breadth of my career in the creative arts thus far - visit my overall home site: soundartus.com

All best - Live With Imagination!

Christopher Kaufman

His home page is – soundartus.com. 

His author page is talesoftheoceancity.com.

His you-tube channel is SOUNDARTUS.

Visit him at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talesoftheoceancity.

Christopher believes in the transformative power of imagination.

“Live with imagination!”

 

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