The AAU Story

The origins of "Adventures Across the Universe" began in January of 2000 during Christmas break. In its earliest form, the story was to amuse the 11-year-old mind of Tom Steele. As it developed and formed, the story centered around mystical gems with good and evil life forms perusing them. The story remained this elementary plot while characters began to emerge. Characters such as Nasil the Great, Kenex, Protoshon and Grimis, the Magician, and Octgoña were very "one-dimensional" and were nothing like they are in the final draft.



A major development came in the late fall of 2000. During mid-October and early November, Tom read different parts of the Bible; the Book of Judith, Genesis, parts of Acts, and Revelation. These readings impacted Tom's life greatly. After reading the final book of the Bible, Revelation, it was decided that much more of the story would focus around the struggle between good and evil and the workings of God (the Superior Spirit) in the lives of the world.



As the story expanded, the need for a suitable villain grew; thus, the Dark One's character was born. The character of the Dark One evolved from simply a "presence" to a dragon to an angel until finally becoming a supreme being who "owns" the entire organization called Darkness. Because of the development of Darkness, the creation of Miry and, later, the Magician led to more and more opposing forces against good.



With these and other villains such as Gratifa, the Robotic Confederation, and more, other protagonists needed to be created. Modeled partly after Judith of the Hebrew Scriptures who fought the dreaded general Holofernes, the character Jude Forque was created. The small, naive, elf-like girl became the apprentice of the wise and powerful Nasil the Great. Introduced in Episode II as almost a kind of "messenger girl", Jude continues to grow in power and wisdom under the fatherly care of Nasil. She would later become a very critical character in later episodes.



By September of 2002 when Tom was in eighth grade and a year-and-a-half after the idea was conceived, Tom began writing the first draft of Episode I: The Five Crystals. By January of 2003, the first drafts of Episodes I, II, and III were completed. Elizabeth Goc, a trusted friend of Tom; Kathy Smith, Tom's grandmom; and Donna Steele, Tom's mom; were introduced to the three stories and they began to read and critique them. By June of 2003, the drafts of Episodes IV, V, and VI were completed. Over the summer, Episode VII was completed. By the end of September 2003, Episode VIII: The Final Conflict, was completed. The drafts were read and re-read by Tom's "editors" and Tom himself and continued to rewrite the episodes.



In November of 2003, Tom Steele signed a contract with AuthorHouse and the plans for publishing commenced. The quest to find an illustrator began. After several months, Tom was introduced to A.J. Brutico. A.J. who at the time was in his residency, was interested in drawing the cover for the first five episodes of the "Adventures Across the Universe" series. A.J., had drawn for Marvel Comics and other projects and began working in April of 2004. By August of 2004, A.J. had constructed a masterful work of art that became the cover of "Adventures Across the Universe". "Adventures Across the Universe" became available for publishing in September of 2005.

From 2005 until 2007, A. J. Brutico worked to create the cover for "Adventures Across the Universe II: Darkness and Light". The cover was completed in May of 2007. The final manuscript was sent and approved in June of 2007.