IN THE BEGINNING- Mark Miller

 I wanted a reminder of where it started. In celebration of the upcoming release of The Secret Queen, may I present –

From The Beginning (Sept 3, 2010)

I sat down with the purpose of writing a story for my children.

Thus, Empyrean was born.

(Kinda made that last sentence sound epic. Sheesh, writers can be self-important sometimes.)

Actually, I don't remember exactly from where the idea came. I think I had the idea of the final battle first, then had to figure out how the characters got to that point. Then it changed and grew, then changed some more. I wanted the main characters to be identifiable to my children. So, there is quite a lot of both my daughters in their Empyrical counterparts. My boys are in there, too.

There I was, finishing the climactic ending. The Fourth Queen was complete. I wanted to write a few pages at the end to give a sense of closure. Suddenly, Zandria heard someone crying. I know it was a little sadistic of me to leave such a cliff-hanger, but maybe that's my darker side trying to push it's ideas on me.

With that ending, a simple journey turned into The Empyrical Tales. As I write this, I know there will be eight stories. I have the titles to prove it. I have basic outlines and a through-story. Then it really will be epic!

My kids loved the story. I loved writing it. I submitted it. And submitted it. And submitted. Then one day, I got a letter from a little publisher in North Carolina. Comfort Publishing said "YES".

So, that's the beginning. Everything else comes next.

Mark Miller is the author of the critically praised fantasy series The Empyrical Tales. Book III: The Secret Queen will be available from Comfort Publishing on June 1st. For Trestle Press, Mark has written Small World Global Protection Agency; with his daughter, Sons of the King; and he produces the spiritual series One. Please visit www.MillerWords.com or like The Empyrical Tales on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/EmpyricalTales).