Mike Conway

As you saw above, my name is Mike Conway, and I'm the author of many future bestsellers. I've been an enthusiast of fantasy and all things related to it all my life. From cracking open my first fairy tale from Golden Books to Superman and Spider Man comic books, to cartoons to eventually reading full novels, my life has been filled with journeys to strange and wonderful worlds.

In my early teens, I was given an assignment to write a short story for English class. With a copy of "The Road to Oz" beside me, I hammered out a short story. It was complete and utter trash, but that was the bug that bit me, and I've been writing ever since.

Say what you will, but I believe that fan fiction is a healthy thing to do. Throughout my teens, I monopolized my dad's Tandy 1000 writing fan fiction for Oz, Narnia, Justice League International, Forgotten Realms, you name it. Suddenly, I had stories to tell. Eventually, I started making my own worlds.

Now I have been published, and I'm well on my way to doing a lot more. I'm running a publishing company called Darkstar Eclectic Media which can be found at http://www.dsemedia.com.

Published
HeartQuest Revised Edition: Romantic Roleplaying in the Worlds of Shoujo Manga: While it's not being sold anymore it seems, I rewrote the supernormal powers rules, edited the whole thing, and included some additional rules and sample characters. All in all, a work I'm particularly proud of.

Spell Slingers and Sword Saints: An anime fantasy game using the same system as HeartQuest, I wrote the settings. Unfortunately, before it could go to print, the book was cancelled. Ah, well.

Second Chances: A short story detailing a redeemed paladin named Alex Goldheart and his magic-user friend Topazyl unraveling the mystery of his sister, who has been seen stalking him. The real mystery is, she died in a fire years ago!

Works in Progress
Gossamer Forest: Kind of a fairy tale version of "The Fugitive," it's the first of the "Faerling Chronicals." A fugitive framed for the deaths of his wife and best friend (who happened to be the galactic president), Arturo Whitestar flees to a backwater planet and meets Nibi, a faerling girl who has been watching the heavens for her true love. But not far behind him is a bounty hunter, known to be the best in the galaxy, and he's not above taking hostages.

The Unicorn: A shapechanging unicorn meets a hunter in the forest, and falls in love with him. But this is just the beginning, and their love becomes something that transcends the ages and even death and rebirth itself.

Heroes of Oz: This is almost done. An RPG based upon the Oz books. I'm co-writing it with a guy who knows the books inside and out. He wrote the information on Oz, and I'm writing the game rules. This is soon to be a major work.

I used to just sit at my computer and type, seeing where the story would take me and wonder why they would nvere end, or when they did, why they'd never end in a happy way or in a way that was satisfactory to me. Plus, I'd inevitably suffer from the illness known to many writers as "writer's block."

The idea of writer's block and of finishing a book just by writing whatever you feel like is simply a lie. I found out that writer's block comes from lack of forethought and the latter thing is just for hobbyists. But if you're serious about writing a book, like I was, you need a way to plan out and write a book as fast as you can (this especially since I found my ideas being used by sucky writers when I didn't go for it right away).

I discovered quite by accident a system by a man called Steve Manning, and his system "How to Write a Book in 14 Days or Less" was a godsend. I review it in another lens, but without his wisdom and technique, I wouldn't be writing this lens for you today. Yes, I seriously believe that. But armed with his speed writing and organizational system, I've been able to write and be published. You can find my review here or just check out his web site.