So, you guys most likely already know a bit about me; and if you don’t, then that’s probably not what you’re here for. What you are here for, I’d imagine, is for my writings. So today, I’m going to tell you about every book and novella I’ve finished to date. Some of these works I still adore to this day, whilst others never saw the light of day, but each and every one of these projects was and is very important to me. Each of them helped to shape me into the writer I am today, and I think that that’s an important thing for all aspiring authors to remember.
Firstly, I thought I’d share a bit of ancient history: the first book I ever wrote was Fusion, a children’s sci-fi about genetically modified kids who were merged with animals. It was 200,000 words, and I can’t stand to look back at that novel nowadays even to laugh at how bad it was. Even still, I’m immensely proud that I managed to write, and finish it, at the tender age of 15. One day, I plan to remaster it with my current level of writing experience, completely reworking the story and characters.
My second, Equilibrium, was written a year later; it was slightly better than my first, but just as long-winded. It was a high fantasy set in a strange world of magic and reincarnated gods. It’s about an orphan girl and her adoptive brother, who is blind, as she struggles to keep him alive despite the weird events that seem to follow him around. She finds a magical sword, stops a war with sheer willpower alone, and then gets stabbed. Good times.
And finally, my third and final book from my teen years was Caged Fire, an urban fantasy/fairytale about a phoenix who was trapped in human form by an ancient prince. This was a lot more of a complete story than the first two, with much better pacing and tension building. Even now, all these years later, I can still remember the main story beats and I remember how I felt when writing them.
After these three books I took pause from writing. I became a trainee facilitator in a young writers’ group and frequented online writing communities. But I generally didn’t write anything longer than a page, at least not until January of 2019.
Now 22, I finally went back to writing of my own accord. This is when I began work on Riftmaster, which was quite the change of pace for me. It’s a science fantasy about a college student who is pulled from his own world by a mysterious and unpredictable force known as the Rift. Lost in the wide universe but not completely alone, he teams up with a mysterious stranger known as the Riftmaster, who claims to have lived out here for thousands of years. It’s a story of finding wonder in hopelessness, and humanity in the most distant corners of the far universe. When I was finished, I spent almost a year in editing hell before finally submitting to agents and independent publishers. I won’t spoil you any further, as this book is due to be released by Elsewhen Press in 2021!
Finally, in August of last year, our situation changed; we were due to buy a house, but plans fell through just before we began the process. With savings to spare, my fiancé and I decided to get married instead. We signed the contract with the venue on September 15th, and we were married 3 months later, on December 15th. How is this relevant, you ask? Well, during that time, my husband and I decided to present each other with a homemade gift. His was a beautiful rainbow collage, featuring photos of our favourite moments throughout the years, whilst mine was the next story on this list.
On the day of our wedding, I presented my husband a bound copy of a novella I’d written entitled The Forge and the Flow. The entire story was based on a comment he made in passing almost 6 years ago; “what if you took our two favourite animals, made them into aliens, and wrote a book about them?” and so for his gift, that’s exactly what I did. The Forge and the Flow is about two clans; the fiery Ailura (based on red pandas) and the easygoing Lutra (based on otters). It’s about two dramatically different communities learning to put aside their differences and get along. Stay tuned; I plan to upload the Forge and the Flow chapter by chapter right here on my blog!
And that’s it for all my finished books and novellas. Since this ended up being far longer than I thought it’d be, I’ve decided to produce a separate blog post for all my currently ongoing projects!
I hope you guys enjoyed this little insight into my history of writing, and I hope to see you all next week!
Miles Nelson Official 