A fresh website called StoryQuake.org transforms daily USGS seismic data into AI-created fiction, launching with the sci-fi comedy “Ryan Random and the Mall of the Multiverse.”
Over my career, I brought more than 20 TV shows to air and wrote another 60 pilots that never got produced. I lack the millions needed to make them now. But I do have earthquakes—and plenty of them.”— John Derevlany, Creator of StoryQuake & Veteran TV WriterCULVER CITY, CA, UNITED STATES, July 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — What fate awaits a TV pilot that never gets greenlit? For most writers, it simply collects dust on a hard drive. For seasoned television writer/producer John Derevlany, it’s handed over to the most unpredictable showrunner around: the planet itself.
StoryQuake.org introduces a novel storytelling experiment that converts daily California earthquake data into original fiction.
Every day, seismic readings are pulled from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) feeds and processed through a proprietary algorithm. This system translates raw tectonic numbers—such as magnitude, location, and even the fractional digits of Richter data—into dozens of instant creative choices that determine each story’s genre, tone, characters, length, and specific level of weirdness.
These real-world seismic instructions fuel a generative AI writing system built on a thoroughly human foundation: a detailed story treatment, character universe, and original hand-drawn artwork created by Derevlany.
From Fault Line to Plot Line: How the Algorithm Works
To connect hard geology with creative storytelling, the platform’s backend maps real-time physical metrics directly to narrative variables:
* The Tectonic Trigger: StoryQuake’s backend continuously watches USGS data feeds for seismic events in California.
* The Richter Blueprint: A larger magnitude might lead to high-stakes cosmic danger, while a minor tremor could spark a lighter, character-focused comedy. The event’s coordinates and fractional digits mathematically steer plot points, settings, and structural chaos.
* The Human Foundation: The algorithmic output is strictly guided by the pre-set boundaries, rules, and artistic assets of the creator’s universe.
StoryQuake’s first series, Ryan Random and the Mall of the Multiverse, is based on an unsold TV pilot about a hapless security guard working at a 4,500-store intergalactic shopping mall—a workplace comedy where the environment occasionally vanishes into the void.
“In three decades in television, I co-created or developed more than 20 shows that made it to air and wrote maybe 60 or 80 pilots that didn’t,” says Derevlany, whose credits include “LEGO Legends of Chima”, “Wayside”, “Gerald McBoing Boing”, and the upcoming animated action-comedy “Wildcat”. “I don’t have a studio, a staff, or millions of dollars to produce them. But it turns out I have earthquakes. Lots of them.”
Giving AI a “Random Spark”
Derevlany calls StoryQuake an effort to provide AI with the one ingredient it fundamentally lacks: the random spark behind human creativity.
“Great ideas aren’t engineered—they’re provoked by the world around us,” Derevlany explains. “StoryQuake connects machine-generated stories to something real and physical: the ground we stand on. The Earth moves, and a story is born.”
New stories appear on the site as California’s faults dictate, with each literary piece linked back to the specific, verifiable USGS earthquake event that generated it. Recent titles produced by the Earth’s movement include “Everything Must Slide!”, “The Full Price Prophecy,” and “The Stall of No Return.”
StoryQuake was developed by Derevlany with coding support from his son. The site openly and transparently documents its methodology—offering a unique, collaborative blend of human authorship and algorithmic production at a moment when the role of AI in creative industries is hotly debated.
About StoryQuake
StoryQuake is an independent storytelling project that uses daily California earthquake data to generate serialized fiction from human-created story worlds. Its first series, Ryan Random and the Mall of the Multiverse, is publishing now at https://storyquake.org/.
Media Contact:
* Contact: John Derevlany
* Email: jd@storyquake.org
* Websites: https://storyquake.org/ and https://johnderevlany.com/
John Derevlany
StoryQuake.org
+1 424-738-0002
jd@storyquake.org
