Mellie Miller

Obviously I need to check my bio... We will have been married 50 years in March 2026. I feel it has probably done quite a lot to influence my writing. I so many people who either can’t make their marriage work or aren’t willing to try to work things out. Others can’t find that one person who would be their soul mate. I want to offer hope for those still searching and perhaps a little encouragement to those who’ve lost that spark they once had. Will there still be wrinkles here and there? Sure, but in many cases, those can be overcome. 

I’m sure it does. We’ve lived in so many places I think I’ve tuned in to the spirit of them, gotten to know them better than simply visiting for a bit. Most of our overseas travels were because my husband was working there, like in the Middle East. Even though I didn’t live with him full time while he was away, I did go visit more as a resident than a tourist, so I got to experience everyday life in a different way. 

Definitely! I suppose that’s why several of my characters are musically inclined. Sometimes a character will develop their own “theme” in my brain. In other instances, such as Master of the Fleet, I actually have a song--sort of a sea chanty--that goes along with it. Someday, when I have a few, I’ll sit down at the keyboard and track it out so someone else can hear it. 

I’ve given up trying to figure out how they get there... For some of my characters, they just kind of slip in when I’m not looking. Part of the original Gambler’s Folly book brought up the idea that shifter women had healing abilities to help their mates, or the other males of their family, when injury or illness struck. Being shifters brings in another idea to medicine. Being part large cat or wolf might make a difference in treatment. So energy healers used to dealing with shifters, or who are shifters themselves could be a definite gift in their sphere. As far as martial arts, anyone in a world or environment which is dangerous, such as connections to organized crime or Interpol, or both, could benefit from a little self-defense training. As that danger may carry over into their personal lives, spouses could also benefit. I always loved doing forms, or kata. They harken back to my early dancing lessons. I love the precision, the striving for perfection of it, each move flowing into the other. I know. I’m crazy. 

Actually, I now have eight books in my series and two stand alone books as Sultonna Nadine. I guess I do write a little differently when writing non-fiction, though I do tend to write more as a storyteller than a chronicler of events, so to speak. I always had trouble writing essays, finding them too boring. I can’t resist a little bit of levity ere and there. 

One of the things I discovered when it all began was that attitude and mental or emotional strength played a great part in the healing and recovery aspects. Later on, when communicating with a fellow martial artists recovering fro cancer, I learned that martial artists, especially those who’d achieved a black belt level, ended to have a better time with the chemotherapy, recovery, and fewer recurrences. A lot of this has to do with deep meditation so many martial arts use, as well as what I call the warrior mind set. It’s sort of a mental shift ou make during an altercation, or a kind of focus and determination you develop during training. I hoped I could get some of hat across to others who were looking at the fight ahead. Obviously they weren’t going to suddenly become black belts, but they could learn to meditate, visualize, and learn to fight their anxiety. The fight is real, and a lot of it is mentally taxing. I wanted to share whatever I could to help others on this path. 

I’m not sure. Some of my characters are in difficult situations, though not necessarily health issues. I like to show others there is a way out, if you look for it. It might not be easy. Nobody is going to just hand it out. But if you look and are willing to do the hard stuff, you’ll find the path. 

I guess I’ve always been a dreamer, wanting to rebuild the world according to my ideas, so fantasy falls right in line. As far as the paranormal, part of that comes from having a favorite aunt who was a bit of a medium. So when I was younger, I thought the world would be great if we could do magic paranormal type things. So in the Esperance series, my characters develop various types of Talents--teleportation, telekinesis, mental telepathy, healing abilities, and a host of others related specifically to the work or crafts they do. In Gambler’s Folly I have shape shifters, partly because I always wanted to be a big black leopard when I was growing up. What can I say? I love cats! Moving into Maser of the Fleet, we enter a world where elemental magic is a way of life. Contracts are bound by magic, wedding vows sealed with all the elements of creation, even crops are boosted by magic. And if you can mix a little romance into the story, so much the better.  

Gambler’s Folly is a world built for pleasure, the vacation world of the galaxy. The capitol city, Speranza, is a vacationer’s paradise with fine dining, luxury hotels, and casinos. Think more Monte Carlo than Vegas. Of course there is a dark side to the world as well. The syndicate is the organized crime underworld, into all the usual activities. And that’s where many of my characters come in. They work for Interpol, both on Earth and Gambler’s Folly, traveling between the two worlds to fight crime. The special division employs a lot of shifters, for their various abilities, counterfeiting being a major problem the deal with. And where you have shifters, you have the possibility of soulmates, that one individual who completes you. In the case of shifters, the person you will genetically bond with for life. And Fate loves to play on Gambler’s Folly! Dive into this series for touching, sometimes sexually charged, sometimes a little tamer, sometimes love at first sight, sometimes enemies to lovers, tales of fantasy and romance. On Esperance, the various clans are ruled by First Lords wielding multiple paranormal abilities. In the first book I introduce Jareth, First Lord of Clan Brannach. He is one of the strongest First Lords anyone has known for a long time. In the following books, the lady who becomes his wife develops Talents of her own, but is struggling to get them under control. Book four continues her struggle and brings in her nephew’s own trials as he begins training to become his clan’s ruler later in life. Book three tells the story of a minor character from Book 1, a young woman who’s back story just drew me in. I had to tell her story. In this series, you’ll find the paranormal in everyday life, from the lumberyard, to the blacksmith forge, and everywhere in between. Find out what it would be like to live in a magical world. 

Grab a cup of your favorite beverage. This is kind of a twisted tale. At various times, I’ve been a part of the Society for Creative Anachronism. It is a group who develop individual personas, and then bring to life the clothing, artwork, fighting skills, music, foods, and nearly anything you can think of during the Middle Ages. There are tournaments, feasts, and classes teaching all the various crafts of the time. At the different events, there is usually some sort of music and entertainment to add to the merriment. Now, I said that to get to the next phase. As a musician, one of my favorite songs is Greensleeves. The most beautiful performance of this piece I heard at one of the feasts, performed a cappella by a man with a beautiful baritone voice. It put me in tears. At some point in time after that, my mind put Greensleeves, a feast, entertainment and fencing together. I thought it would be fun to stage a fight between a jilted lover and the woman who spurned his attention. The feast scene at the Baron’s Feast in Master of the Fleet began that way. If I had been performing it for real, the whole thing would have ended at the Baron’s table and a good laugh would have been had by all. But what if this was the beginning of a rather terrible relationship, bound by magic? In a magical world? And the story began. 

It depends. Sometimes I dream a scene from a story that just keeps recurring until I sit down and write it. This happened in Jareth, First Lord. Of course I then have to figure out where in the story this scene happens. Others are in answer to a bizarre question, like in Gambler’s Folly. An old song called South Coast is about a man who won his wife in a card game. Wondering how this could happen in modern times brought Gambler’s Folly into being. Some of the Gambler’s Folly books come from seeing someone who just looks like a wolf, or bear, or who knows what comes next? The Russian came from a picture I saw of a Russian rapper. One look at his face said this man is a wolf shifter. Whiskey Jug Genie came from an idea my husband had. When we bought our property, we found an old whiskey jug. Of course we wondered what had been in it and he suggested how funny it would be to read a story about a redneck genie in a whiskey jug, instead of the classic genie in a lamp. In general, the characters come first, and then the plot. The world is built around the plot as it develops. I am a certified seat of the pants writer. I can’t plot worth a darn. I’ve tried. The characters just laugh and laugh... 

The first one to come to mind is Morgan, from Morgan--The Pixie and he green Man. She enters the series in Book 1 in the Esperance series. After the first two books, I couldn’t get her out of my head. I had to find out what motivated her to leave her clan and go to someplace she’d never seen. And what happened to her after she was attacked? Did she ever find a happy place? The second one is Dante, from Dante’s Angel. Another minor character in the Gambler’s Folly series, he was such a shy fellow compared to the other men he worked with. I wanted to bring him to life and find a soulmate for him. I had no idea it would be Damiano’s cousin on Earth. 

I would like them to find a sense of hope beyond whatever struggle they’re facing. Even if my stories are fantasy, the struggles are real. And maybe with that hope a little hint of magic will enter their. I’ve heard so many different definitions of magic, and I’m not sure I believe in magic as a reality. But I think we should always look for the magic around us, in spring blossoms, gentle rain, sunsets over the mountains, and sunrises over the sea. And if you happen to see any of the wee folk, be courteous. 

Don’t sweat the first draft. It’s not meant to be perfect. Try to resist the urge to go back and edit while you’re still trying to write to story. There will be time to tinker it into shape later. But even the most skilled editor has to have something to edit. And if you haven’t put words on paper, so to speak, there’s nothing to edit. Just get that first draft done. And then you can sit back and shake your head and ask, “What on earth did I mean here?” 

AllAuthor gives me a place to showcase my books, complete with links and excerpts, so readers can have a glimpse of what I have to offer. With the book feature option, which is quite affordable, they send out posts for me and give me options for photos I can download and use for my own social media posts. I also love the seasonal banner feature, which lets me showcase up to three of my books in a holiday theme. I would highly recommend AllAuthor to any writers out there looking for a little more exposure.