Right in time for Christmas, I am happy to present:
Stories of Queen's Day
2012
Sylvan's Wish
In between novels in my
Empyrical Tales series, I like to visit my characters and celebrate with them. It is my pleasure to share these stories with you.
Queen’s Day is the most special holiday in all of Empyrean. Once a year, Father Odin returns to celebrate the victory of the first queens over the Forgotten Evil.
Author Mark Miller brings you holiday themed stories from the land of Empyrean. You can see more of these characters in The Empyrical Tales novels. Book I: The Fourth Queen, Book II: The Lost Queen and Book III: The Secret Queen are available now. Book IV: The First Queen is coming soon from Helping Hands Press. Miller also has a great selection of family friendly and young reader stories currently available from Trestle Press.
For 2012, Sylvan’s Wish takes inspiration from the Christmas classic, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Olena and her small, wooden friend Sylvan go to bed on the eve of Queen’s Day and wake up in a magical world. Before Sylvan’s wish can be granted, they must face the frightening rat-like Tylomites. The message of this take on the Nutcracker Prince shares the joy of the holiday season.
It is also available on Nook, iTunes and Kobo.
So, from all of us in Empyrean,
Happy Queen's Day!
I wish I was announcing this for The Empyrical Tales, but sadly I'm not. I am, however, happy to say that another author friend has a movie in the works!
Keith Rommel asks:
How often do you get a look at an independent writer's work being considered for a movie in California? The name of the novel is The Cursed Man by Keith Rommel. Here is an audition clip for the role of the antagonist, Dr. Anna Lee.
James L. Perry is the producer and has been working hard to bring the characters to life.
In this scene, Dr Anna Lee is questioning a grounds keeper that works at SunnySide Capable Care Mental Institution. There is a belief that the patient she has come to care for is cursed. The curse he carries is the entity of Death has taken a liking to him and kills anyone that speaks to him within
twenty-four hours.
Cassandra Vincent image used from IMDB.com Photo by Dave Piggott
Keith and his stories can be found at
http://keithrommel.weebly.comFor all you producers and directors reading this, please add my books to your list next. I'll even write the screenplay adaptation. In fact, I even have one screenplay ready.
That doesn't sound too desperate, does it?
Part of the fun of writing an ongoing series is creating new characters with each story. I have the same core characters from the beginning (two of which I love almost like they were my own daughters). A large part of the newest plot has to do with a great guy I call Karl Lumpkin.
The Secret Queen
Book III of The Empyrical Tales
is now available
from Comfort Publishing
wherever fine books are sold.
Karl describes himself as a "free thinker of old". In The Secret Queen, he is a sixteen year old boy that has an uncanny knack of predicting the future. He is witty and odd. Karl serves as a big brother figure for Olena on her journey to the south.
Some readers may recall Eisenhahn talking about Wizard Lumpkin in
The Lost Queen. Is it possible that these are one and the same? Eisenhahn talks about an old man in his past, while Olena meets a young man in the present. I can say that there is definitely more to Karl than seen at first glance.
Oh, and Karl has his own Twitter account for when he visits our world -
@WizardLumpkin
With the official release of The Secret Queen today, you can meet all of the new characters that cross paths with Olena on her quest to discover the secret!
Also, the Kindle version of
The Fourth Queen is ONLY 99 Cents for a limited time. It's not too late to start at the beginning! Click
HERE for
The Fourth Queen.
http://goo.gl/3ctUl
With the official release of
The Empyrical Tales Book III: The Secret Queen about a week away, I wanted to revisit the original purpose for this blog. Originally, I had intended to give a "making of" commentary and work my way through the story. Like Book III,
Book I: The Fourth Queen closely follows the plot of the Hero's Journey. Check out the archive to see older posts, but I left off with "The Ordeal".
The Ordeal is the point where the story reaches a central crisis. The aspiring hero character either literally or metaphorically dies in order to be reborn as the hero. It is a point where the hero must face a dark version of, in this case, herself. She must challenge the villain and it must be extremely difficult to defeat him. This should be the time when the hero faces her greatest fear. As Joseph Campbell said the ordeal signifies the death of the ego, an apotheosis.
*****SPOILERS*****(Highlight to read)*****In The Fourth Queen, the older sister, Zandria, is the hero figure. She has passed through the other stages of the journey and has reached the Ordeal. Instead of a single event, Zandria's ordeal spans a few chapters. The hero's death occurs as she rides the pirate ship called The Dragon's Wing. When the ship crashes, Zandria is knocked unconscious, symbolizing her death. Her rebirth does not occur until a few chapters later. Zandria faces the villain who has chased her the entire story, the lead werewolf. This confrontation is her greatest fear because this monster killed her father, which started her on this journey. The difficulty comes from the setting: Zandria does battle over the open maw of a bottomless pit. Once the wolfman is defeated, Zandria is "reborn" to face the climax of the story and her resurrection.*****END SPOILERS*****
I should mention that
The Fourth Queen is ONLY 99 Cents for a limited time on Amazon Kindle. Why not check it out and follow the Hero's Journey for yourself? Click
HERE to get it:
http://goo.gl/pQGgk
As the June 1st release of The Secret Queen draws near, interest in The Empyrical Tales series is growing.
Here is a brand new review of Book I: The Fourth Queen from The Reader's Roundtable.
Jaymes said, "
Mark Miller has added his own unique spin on the fairytales..." and "The Fourth Queen is a really good beginning to a captivating series."
Please click here to read the full review: http://youngandtherestless.thereadersroundtable.com/?p=381If you haven't traveled to the land of Empyrean yet,
Comfort Publishing recently released both titles for Kindle. You can get The Fourth Queen
HERE (
http://goo.gl/ObwtL) and Book II: The Lost Queen
HERE (
http://goo.gl/yYzSq).
Over the next thirty days or so, I will begin introducing some of the new characters from
The Secret Queen. Many of them were inspired by Egyptian mythology and dinosaurs. I look forward to sharing this next adventure with you.
Not really.
At least, not yet.
With mega-book chains closing their doors (Borders) and online booksellers battling for eBook domination, authors are faced with the daunting task of connecting with their readers. How do we get our print books out there? How do we connect with our digital readers?
Here's the thing: I love to write.
Along with that, I truly enjoy meeting fans and aspiring authors. So, I will take every opportunity to get out there and meet some great people. One of my favorite activities is visiting classrooms. I have found that teachers these days do an incredible job of motivating kids to read. When an author walks into the classroom, that is a springboard for their hungry little minds!
Teachers: Please send me emails, I would love to come to your class, at any grade level. If I can't drive to you, then I can use Skype or Google video chat.
Another fun suggestion is that my books can be used for fund raisers. I've done it before. It's unique and leaves a lasting impression.
Take a look at what I've got coming up:
April 18 - Lake County Library System: Local Authors Day - The Lake County Library System is proud to announce the second program celebrating local authors and their books. The Spring Local Authors’ Day will be held in the Lady Lake Public Library on Wednesday, April 18th from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. In addition to meeting some of the best authors from around Florida, participants can enter for a prize drawing sponsored by the Friends of the Lady Lake Public Library. http://tinyurl.com/btkfhvf
May 7 & 8 - Great Wolf Lodge (Charlotte, NC): Home School Week - Comfort Publishing is once again parterning with
0 Comments on I Do Birthday Parties, Too! as of 1/1/1900
on her blog.
Please help me for Christ sake