S.D. Best-- The Magic Flute

Steven Best works in corporate IT by day, but by night he is an author. After picking up a few business degrees from Texas Tech University and wondering what to do with his life, Steven began trying to flesh out old half-written notes and drawings into a writing career. Having grown up reading the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, R.A. Salvatore, Robert Jordan, and C.S. Lewis it was only natural that fantasy be his genre of choice, although he has plans and notes for sci-fi, horror, and even western novels. By the time of his first daughter's birth last year he had written the early drafts of the first two novels of his Tales from the Green series. He stumbled across Amazon's Digital Text Platform at the beginning of 2010 while looking for a way to get his work onto the market and has since jumped into the world of self-publishing. Steven does all his own editing, cover art, and promotion for now, but plans to one day pursue traditional publishing for his current and future novels. You can find him around the web at various writing forums under the name Greenkeeper.


The Magic Flute: For a young boy named Alex Samuels, suburban life is a meaningless waste of time. Wake up, go to school, get kicked off the baseball team, beat the latest videogame, repeat as necessary. As he nears his thirteenth birthday his apathy knows no bounds. Things had been different when he had been a child, though. Back then he had believed in magic.

Fueled by his grandpa's fairy tales of his own supposed adventures in a magical world known as the Green, Alex had once believed he too could be a hero. That is until well-meaning parents had quashed his dreams with a harsh dose of reality. He long ago gave up on believing in stories of dragons and elves and magic swords; too bad they never gave up on him! When his grandpa gave him the old wooden flute for his birthday it became one more piece of junk in his closet. That is, until, real life monsters from out of the old stories come to visit. Now, swept away by the magical song of the flute Alex finds himself in the Green, a wild land in which humans are a myth long forgotten. Join him as he rediscovers friendship, heroism, and the magic of his childhood that was once lost.

Q: What will e-readers like about your book?

A: The Magic Flute is epic fantasy that is fun and lighthearted. It is a tale of adventure overlaying the main character's true quest to rediscover the magic and wonder he once knew as a young child. Though I market it as young adult I believe that there is something here for all ages.

Q: Why did you go indie?

A: I love the freedom and speed with which I can get my work to the readers as an independent author. I still have plans on shopping the Tales from the Green series around to agents and publishers, but not until the series in complete. I hated the thought of my first two books going unread on my harddrive while I finished the last one, though. By putting them online I am getting valuable feedback which will surely assist me in the long run.

Q: Who are your favorite authors in your genre?

A: I have been heavily influenced by C.S. Lewis, not only his fantasy stories but his essays on writing. I am also a huge fan of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and lately I have been devouring Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company. Of course, what kind of fantasy author would I be if I didn't cite Tolkien as a major influence?


Links:
TftG Book One: The Magic Flute on Amazon

Smashwords Author Page

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