The lead man in Amethyst was named Merrick in earlier postings but I've since changed it to Milican. Zackariah Milican Merricks will be his full name in the books of The Platinum Series including Amethyst. I felt that I had to change it now due the popularity of Anne Rice's book entitled 'Merrick'. And since they are both are vampire books/stories, I didn't want to deal with any controversy therein.
  I had originally chosen Merrick as a version of my maiden name of Merricks so I simply switched it back to a surname replaced the 's' at the end. It sounds better that way anyhow, in my opinion. The name Milican is also a family name it was my Great-Grandfather's first name. I wanted to give my lead character an easily distinguishable name and one that had sentimental meaning to me and my family. My Grandmother was so pleased to hear that I was using her Father's name as the lead in my book. I have since added other family members as important characters throughout the book. Like an alias name Milican will use is my late Grandfather Archie Lee Thompson but I changed it to Archie Harrison Lee. Harrison is also a name ancestor. My family who will read will undoubtedly find hidden gems like this all over the book.
   I wanted to pay respect to my family who made me who I am by honoring them with roles in my books. So they're always the 'good guys'.

My Writing Style

   This is a fictional book and all the characters are based on at least two or more real people & their personalities. I was once told a piece of wonderful advice by a friend/photographer, 'If you write from the truth then you'll never be wrong'. Thank you Carrigan.
  Another terrific nugget of advice given to me by my generous editor, S. Reece, 'Don't worry about the grammar or the structure that's what an editor is for. You are the only who can be creative and get the story out of your head.' I'm paraphrasing since she told me that over a year ago now. What I take from that is, don't get hung up on the formalities of writing, just write and you'll enjoy it more. And that's what I've done, I do enjoy writing, the story tells itself based on the strong character development I spent a great deal of time working on.
  Once I knew my characters, who they are, what they do, how they think & talk...all of those play a role in their decision making progress & thus guides the story. I let them tell me how to write it within the boundaries I have set.
  Also I've discovered that my writing style is called 'Mosaic', I write the pieces as they come to me not in chronological order. So I do have to go back and add some transitional scenes to bridge the gaps but that's easy. That's how was able the write 350 pages of the second book in the series, Garnet, before I've even finished first book, Amethyst.

BOOKS of the DEAD PRESS: FREE BOOKS

BOOKS of the DEAD PRESS: FREE BOOKS: "We all know that books that get awarded a bunch of positive reviews tend to get better sales, and better sales are the only thing that keep..."

Amethyst Website

http://twitter.com/#!/StephAmethystI had forgotten all about this website I create some time ago but I'll try to keep it updated as well.

The Final Chapter

  Working on the final chapter of Amethyst debating over how the end the book. It will be a cliffhanger for sure but the how & when are as of yet  unknown to me. Once I've written the ending scene I'll be going back through the entire book re-reading it. I'll be looking for continuity errors and of course grammatical mistakes, too. I am aware of some small but important scene are still missing so I'll be writing those next. And then it's off to my editor for the final revisions.

Amethyst Concept

This all began as a screenplay for a short film but after doing some research and character development, the story grew into a short story that developed into the novel. I have plans to adapt Amethyst, the book back to a screenplay for a feature length film.
Amethyst is just the first book in a growing collection of stories. I'm working on at least four other books to follow up Amethyst. This will be The Platinum Series & so far the titles are Amethyst, Garnet, Sapphire, Diamond & Onyx. I have thought about adding other titles as the story unfolds itself.
I let the characters tell the story of their lives based on their personalities and experiences. My lead is a young handsome man named Milican, who has a medical condition that restricts his live in severe ways. He finds love but with that will change he world forever taking him down a new untraveled path.
This is pivotal point of his young life where is must make some brutal decisions if he is to survive.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=147175615307857&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=147175615307857