Latest Developments

Various and sundry interesting things are happening in the world of Jeffrey Aaron Miller novels, so let me dive right in. First of all, some of my books are getting new covers and new editions.

Garden of Dust and Thorns is now available as both a Kindle book and in a lovely trade paperback edition. Along with the paperback edition, there is a new cover. Compare and contrast the two, if you will. Which one do you like better?

Old Cover

New Cover

Then there's the new cover for Children of the Mechanism. First, I should explain the recent changes to that book. I got the rights to Children of the Mechanism back from the original publisher. This has given me the opportunity to do some revisions to the story. Nothing major but there were a couple of things I really wanted to change. At the same time, I lost the rights to the original cover art, so I won't reproduce it here. Instead, I cobbled together a new cover, and here it is.

Of course, I already mentioned Dreams in the Void in my previous blog post, so you can scroll down and check that out if you want. In the meantime, I recently published a new novel, which is available for Kindle and in trade paperback. Here it is:

It's the first book in an epic new fantasy series, and I'm already hard at work on book two. More on that one later, so keep checking back, friends. Oh, and feel free to click on any of the covers above to get to the right page for purchase. Thanks!

Dreams Belong in the Void

So let's talk about the novel of mine that has the longest and most tortured history. In it's latest incarnation, it looks like this:

The first novel I ever completed was a smelly mess I cobbled together with rotten scraps of fantasy ideas in the summer after I graduated high school (that's 1991, to be precise). It was the half-baked story of two brothers (who in this first iteration were called Kieves and Redert. Yep.) who discover a mysterious red crystal in a cave that possesses magical powers. They go some places, destroy some things, meet some people, and it all comes to a lame conclusion, leaving room for sequels that will never be.

Anyway, that first version of the story is sitting in a box in a closet forever. I don't even remember the title.

Ten years later, whilst newly married and living in a super tiny apartment with two cats (including one cat who tried to set himself on fire using a lit candle, but that's another story), I decided to try my hand at writing a novel again. I took the germ of an idea from the first novel and made significant changes. It still involved two brothers, but this time they had the slightly improved names of Jaeren and Korli. (I did say slightly improved).

The second time around, it became the story of a mysterious red suit that feeds on angry emotions. Various characters with weirdly spelled names appear and die, and it all ends in dramatic fashion. Thematically, it went from being "random fantasy tale #523" to a focused story about confronting and overcoming tragedy and grief. It almost got published once (by a Canadian publisher), but it wound up in a box in a closet forever. It was called Deep Water.

Despite the utter failure of attempt two, I felt I was onto something, thematically at least. So finally, about three years ago, I sat down and determined to make it work. The brothers became Jeren and Cen, and it became the story of a red suit, a shared dream, and an island nation slowly sinking into madness. It sat around on a hard drive for a while, but eventually I published it as two books: Bloodstone and A Whisper in the Void. It even had a nice hand-drawn map done by my wife.

And here we are, friends. The final iteration of the story. I combined the two volumes into one 187,000-word tome, made various minor additions, and now it is available as both an ebook and a trade paperback called Dreams in the Void. I even added a little pronunciation guide at the end of the book. The thing is heavy enough to be a door stopper.

As a tale about a gradual descent into pain and madness, I think it turned out pretty good, so check it out. There's the Kindle version and the Trade Paperback version to serve all your bookly needs.

One Million Words

I published my first novel, Mary of the Aether, back in July of 2012. Since then, I have written and published nine more, and I'm currently working on my eleventh. For the record, those novels, in the order they were written, are:

Mary of the Aether
Shadows of Tockland
Mary of Shadows
Bloodstone
A Whisper in the Void
Mary of Starlight
Garden of Dust and Thorns
Mary of Cosmos
Children of the Mechanism
Fading Man
Vale of Ghosts (unfinished)

That's a whole lot of writing, and it's mostly just the result of setting a daily goal for myself. Basically, I force myself to write at least 1,000 words a day, whether I feel like it or not. Most of the time, even if I'm not in the mood to start, once I get into the writing, I enter the zone. What is the zone, you ask? It's the creative head-space where catharsis happens, and it's a good place to be.

Now, my novels vary in length. The shortest is Garden of Dust and Thorns, at 87,000 word, and the longest is Shadows of Tockland, at 120,000 words. But the average length for all of my books is about 93,000. Why are we playing this math game? Because I wanted some idea of the total number of words I've written since I began this novel-writing frenzy.

As it turns out, the combined total is somewhere around 1,023,000 words. Yes, I've written over a million words in the last few years, and I show no signs of slowing down. In fact, the act of writing has become easier and more habitual than ever. I am certainly nowhere near running out of ideas, though I do find myself repeating certain themes and ideas throughout my stories.

For example, here are some themes that I see recurring over and over:

The dangers of bad leadership: Shadows of Tockland, Bloodstone, A Whisper in the Void, Garden of Dust and Thorns, Children of the Mechanism

Desperately trying to fix damage done through poor decision-making: Mary of Shadows, Mary of Starlight, Fading Man, Vale of Ghosts

Being destroyed by one's own obsessions: Shadows of Tockland, Fading Man

Being compelled by grief and loss to accomplish some great task: Mary of the Aether, Bloodstone, A Whisper in the Void, Garden of Dust and Thorns, Children of the Mechanism, Vale of Ghosts

Faith in a power greater than yourself: Mary of the Aether (whole series), Bloodstone, A Whisper in the Void, Garden of Dust and Thorns, Children of the Mechanism, Vale of Ghosts

There might be other major themes that recur throughout my novels, but those were the ones that came to mind. Anyway, I have no lack of ideas for novels yet to come. The one I'm working on now, Vale of Ghosts, is the first volume of a series, so I will be in that world for a while. And it is a very interesting and dangerous world, let me tell you.

The Fading Man Has Faded

Well, I recently finished the first draft of my latest novel. I am currently in the middle of The Great Slog, aka revisions. Here's the thing, sometimes when I finish a first draft and I go back to do revisions, I am greatly disturbed at the low quality of the prose. I mean, it's never as good when you go back and read it for the first time as you thought it was when you were writing it. However, Fading Man turns out to be better than I expected. At least in terms of the prose.

We'll see how the story plays out. I'm a little concerned at the bleakness of it. Yes, the man who wrote Children of the Mechanism, where kids are being dragged down refuse holes by dead-eyed robots, is concerned about the bleakness of his latest novel. But here's the thing, I always want to give some amount of hope in anything I write. We'll see if I managed it this time around.

What is Fading Man about, you ask? It is the story of a guy named Joe Mund and his troubled wife, Eleanor. Joe has memories of a place he's never been, a city called Verum. He has spent years trying to find this place, and his journey has finally taken him into a plague-ridden wasteland called Tockland, where the water is poisonous and scadglings roam the ruins.

That's not the official blurb of the book. It's more like the set-up. Now, as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, this novel is based on a short story I wrote when I was 20 years old. It is interesting to see how the 40 year old version of me approaches the same story. In the short story, the theme was all about trying to find yourself and figure out who you are. In the novel, it's more about the long-term damage caused by an obsession with self discovery. Perspectives change as we get more decrepit, I guess.

Anyway, I should have a free sample in a few weeks.

Listen to the Whispering

Well, you can now listen to the whispering in the void. The second volume of the Deep Water duology is available at Amazon and soon to be available at various other places. This completes the story and brings the reader right into the depths of Tesaria's troubles.

It's a fantasy novel, but it's not about elves and magical races of creatures, or world building, or the complexities of politics and power struggles. What it's really about is wandering through emotional darkness while coming to terms with grief. It's about how people try to make sense of their place in the world and in the universe during times of tragedy and hardship. That's what it's really about. It does, however, have magic and monsters and turgid emotions and pitched battles and chases and lots of good stuff.

A Whisper in the Void - Deep Water: Book Two

Well, the first half of the Deep Water duology is out. Bloodstone is currently appearing in various online markets such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Kobo. If you haven't checked it out, let me remind you that it's only $2.99. Folks, that's less than the Big Mac combo at McDonald's. Think of it! Also, it won't hasten the hardening of your arteries. Awesome!

Anywho, the second volume (and, therefore, the conclusion) of the duology is on its way. It is called A Whisper in the Void, and it should be available in a couple of weeks, so now is the best time to read the first book. Why is it called A Whisper in the Void, you ask? Because, ladies and gentlemen, at some point in the book, something incredibly significant is whispered in a void. That's why. What sort of a void? Well, that remains to be seen, but, really, how many different kinds of voids are there?

Deep Water: Bloodstone

Deep Water is a duology. That's like a trilogy with one less book. The first volume is called Bloodstone, and the e-book should be available in the next week or two. The second volume is called A Whisper in the Void, and it will be another month or so before that one comes out.

Anyway, here is the cover design for Bloodstone:

And here is the book's blurb:

A shared dream has begun to trouble the people of Tesaria, a dream of helpless drowning, of suffering in some watery place. The loremasters say the dream is a bad omen, but no one really knows its origin or its meaning.

In the midst of this uncertainty, the Elite Guard of King Helathius begin rampaging through the mountain villages, seeking a stolen artifact. After a tragic encounter, a young man and woman--Jeren, son of a village patriarch, and Aleas, a merchant's daughter--find themselves on a desperate flight for their lives into the lowlands, seeking a safe place to hide.

But there is nowhere to run, for a dreadful power is at work in the heart of the nation, and no one can hide from the time of cataclysm that approaches.

Bloodstone

Okay, let's talk about the next novel. In order to do that, I first need to give you a little history.

Way back in 1991, I successfully completed my first novel. It was intended to be the first of a trilogy, but it was terrible, just absolutely terrible. I don't even remember the title of the book, but it's in a box somewhere in a closet.

Despite it's awfulness, there was a glimmer of an idea in that book that stayed with me. In 2001, the year I got married, when Lisa and I were living in a tiny apartment called Colonial Arms in Fayetteville, I sat down to attempt another novel. I took that glimmer of an idea and developed it more fully and completed a novel called Deep Water. It was good enough for a publisher to hold onto the manuscript for eight months, but it never did get a contract offer. Deep Water is also sitting in a box in a closet somewhere.

That brings us to the present day. I always wanted to go back and rewrite Deep Water completely and make it work, so I finally did that back in 2012. However, it wound up being one enormous bloat of a book, so I turned it into a duology. Volume One is called Bloodstone. Volume Two is called A Whisper in the Void.

What is it about? It's a fantasy novel set in a magical kingdom called Tesaria. Here is the book's blurb to explain it:

A terrible artifact has been stolen from the king, and the Elite Guard rampage through the mountain villages, seeking the thief. After a tragic encounter, a young man and woman--Jeren, son of a village patriarch, and Aleas, a merchant's daughter--find themselves on a desperate flight into the lowlands. But there is nowhere to run, for a dreadful power is at work in the heart of Tesaria, and a time of cataclysm has come.

There you go. Obviously, that doesn't tell you a whole lot about the actual plot. Thematically, this is a book that is very close to me. It started as a glimmer of an idea. It became something very intensely personal when I rewrote it in 2001, and it has only become more so with the latest (and final) version.

The first volume will be available within a couple of weeks. Look for it on this page right here, folks.