I've been wanting to make this poll for quite some time, there have just always been chapters or other content to post first. Now it gets its own post, so I hope everyone can spare a minute to give some feedback. This is your chance to influence something major going forward with TWC.
Specifically, I am thinking of writing a few short stories set in the Nine Worlds. There was a poll about this a while back, with a decent amount of interest, but I've never wanted to focus on this to the detriment of other goals. Now I'm returning to the subject. You'd get the short stories here, of course, but they would also find their way into the special collected editions of TWC that might be coming over the next couple years.
Short stories would be posted in between main books and their existence or non-existence wouldn't have a major impact on the release pace of the main novels. But I'm less interested in discussing the basic concept of adding short stories than I am asking about what would interest people most.
This topic isn't terribly well-suited to a poll, but I've populated one with some basic options, both to inspire ideas and so those who prefer not to comment can contribute. Please feel free to comment any opinions, though!
Think of the first two as worldbuilding-based. There could be a story about the city of Norro Yorthin when it isn't in the middle of a crisis, for example, or about the everyday members of House Blacksilver and how they feel about the main characters. The most self-contained and traditional short stories would be featuring new regions of the Nine Worlds... these wouldn't be purely stand-alone, as the characters and details of those could be relevant in the future.
The next couple of options are character-focused. Prequels are an obvious choice (Theo in his past life, Fiyu meeting her relative, Nauda doing [redacted]) but perhaps the least "necessary" in that they'd somewhat duplicate information already in the novels. Stories about side characters are the opposite, fleshing out characters who weren't essential to the narrative.
There are also two more options to try to get a full spread of opinions. Let me know what you think!
(Side note: if you have Kindle Unlimited and haven't read Bloodcrete there, please consider it! I have a serious shot at some awards I've never gotten before, if I can get enough pagereads this month. Rereads don't count and this isn't really all that important, though, so no worries about this. Posting just in case.)