Hello out there, my name is Mark Anthony Tierno. Okay, so you’ve not heard of me… yet, so I guess it’s my job to give you a reason to keep track of me. I am a writer of Fantasy and SF, and love mixing them together a bit. Even my big epic fantasy series, Maldene, has traces of SF that begin creeping in around the second book, expanding over time until you can’t tell where the fantasy ends and the SF begins.

Oh, what? Never heard of Maldene? Oh, my fault; silly me. Okay, let’s start at the beginning then. A number of years ago I began to get this idea in my head for a story that, amongst other things, involved the most villainous bad guy around. The kind of bad guy who can plan centuries in advance, that doesn’t take time out to explain his plans to the good guy (all too frequent a sight when I was goring up), and whose plans are so intertwined that even when you try to fight against them, you’re only falling into his trap.

Now fast-forward a few years. I finally decide that I have the time and inclination to start writing that series. At this point I’d already spent about 15 years developing the plot and world-info I needed in my spare time, as well as taking mental notes on every book I’d ever read. What I liked about the story or the way it was written ands so on. So I’d sort of taught myself. My first experiment was a short story called Project Looking Glass (which you can find on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BAAGQNY), which had a few friends comparing me to Isaac Asimov. Hey, great! Now time to roll up the sleeves and hit the big stuff.

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I’d already had my entire fantasy series planned out in my head, as well as the fact that these would be some pretty big books. The first in the series, entitled simply, “Maldene” clocked in at 330,000 words, and there’s only one in the series that’s shorter. The longest one? Well, Book 13 (yes, you read that right- a 13 book series!) is the big climax and that broke 570,000 words. But the most important part is that no one reading them has ever complained about them being too long or slow. Quite the opposite. When someone reads a 330,000 word volume and says he could do with some 50 more pages, then you know you have something.

Okay, but the story, that’s what you want to know about. Well, Maldene is a world far far away, one that has absolutely nothing to do with Earth. No lost colony or any of that stuff. This is a world of magic, mysteries, and many secrets yet to be uncovered. That’s where our hero come in at, the uncovering thing. What they do know is the very real legend of a wizard named Miro (pronounced My-Row). His evil dates back centuries at the least, and it’s said that even the gods fear him. Why? They aren’t telling, and as for what this über bad guy wants, well that’s one of the bigger mysteries. This first novel takes place on two different continents, the Sea of a Thousand Islands, and a sort of sister world. The scope is… Well, then dragon dies at the end of the first of 3 sections, if that gives you any idea. And there’s also about a dozen main characters. The dramatic end of this first novel (now released in 2 volumes because people tell me it’s too large for a newbie to put out right off the bat) is only the first chapter; the set-up. And just when you thought things were going nice, I slap you with a little cliff-hanger that usually has the reader screaming, “But Mark wouldn’t DO that?!”

The whole of the series of Maldene is 13 novels long, about 5.2 million words in total, has some 250 characters, and took me about 8 years to write them all once I started (taking most Summers off). Yes, it’s an epic that needs a new word tom describe it; I’m just scratching the surface here.

Okay, I see your hand raised. yes, the one in the back… Why haven’t I published it yet? Well, I sorta did, only to discover that Publish America will NOT promote its own talent. That and a few personal problems in my life cost me a few years. So I’m doing it myself, under my own label of The Vault Of Knowledge (which is also an in-joke that I will save for later). I have a brand new cover for both Volume 1 and 2 of the first novel that make the old publisher-supplied ones look like crayon drawings, and I even have Volume One all set up on Amazon, with Volume Two soon to follow (the old versions of each are actually still up there, but trust me the print quality is inferior to what I have now, not to mention the covers), and I even have a little extra I’m going to include in some future promotion… While the inside cover has a black and white world map of Maldene, I now have a full color, ancient parchment looking, map with a whole lot more detail and higher resolution. Maybe I’ll put it up as a freebie for those ordering both volumes at once, we’ll just have to see.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I might be back later with some writing tips or sneak peeks, but in the meantime all the info you’ll need to follow me and Maldene and even order stuff is given below. Just remember my tag line:

“A world beyond time… an adventure beyond imagining.”

-Mark Anthony Tierno

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My Blog – My personal page

Other places you might find me:

FB Fan Page – Maldene Group on FB

Twitter – LinkedIn – Goodreads

Barnes & Noble

Amazon:

UK – USA – Canada – Australia