Win a $25 GC: Evolved by Archie Miller

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Archer Miller will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops.

When did you become interested in storytelling?

From an early age. I wrote plays and skits. As I got older I write radio theater for my University Radio Station. I also loved practicing the older art of storytelling as part of an oral tradition as in a Bard or a Native American Shaman. Both are great around a campfire at night with a bunch of youngsters for an audience.

What was your first book/story published?

This one actually. I had made several aborted attempts at writing a novel but this one was given life beyond my own mind thanks in large part to my Epitome Press family. They believed in me and my gift but also had the understanding of the process in such a way as to make me a better writer.

What inspired you to write Evolved?

Evolved began as a discussion between friends about the future of mankind as we know it. The discussion was how would the human species adapt to different conditions on exoplanets. That was the spark that led me to write story about eight uniquely evolved young people used by a corrupt politician for his own ends.

What character in Evolved is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Actually I would be Pieter's father Boris. Boris is devoted to his family an a very loving, albeit stern father and husband.

What is your favorite part in Evolved?

I think my favorite part is Michael's Nightmare. Without giving too much away it was the point where Pieter became the acknowledged leader of the group. It's also the scene there we get a look at the backgrounds and personalities of two critical characters.

What was the hardest part to write?

Loki's death. Loki sacrifices himself to save the group. It's Leeann's response to his death that was most difficult to write.

What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?

I was love to be a teacher. I admire teachers and what they do for our young people against all odds.

What well-known writers do you admire most?

My DNA as a writer includes Robert Heinlein and Anne McCaffrey.

Do you have any other books/stories in the works?

There are at least two more books in this series in the works. I also have two fantasy books in the pipeline. I am also exploring a story in the romance genre.

Humanity has spread to the far reaches of space with The Golden Door, a planetary colonization monopoly, selling off every desirable and not so desirable planet to desperate settlers.

Each new world comes with new challenges, and to meet that challenge the children are evolving.

When Pieter, and other gifted children like him, become the target of government research they must fight not only for their lives but the future of their kind.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Pieter’s eyes opened, but it was an exercise in futility. There was nothing but darkness for him to see. He knew he was awake because of the lancing pain running down his back and across his chest; the cover on his head was stifling and smelled of sweat and blood. He was upright in some sort of chair but he was unable to move. The back of the chair was straight and hard, and he was bound to it with his arms pinned behind his back. He struggled to breathe. His chest was stretched as his shoulders pressed into the chair behind him. A cry of pain rose in his throat, but he clamped his mouth tight to hold it prisoner.

As he gasped for air and strained to ease the pain in his chest and back, a voice from beyond the pain alerted him to another presence.

“Suka is awake.”

“Good. I want this suka blyad to remember this.”

With no way of knowing or seeing its approach a hand struck his face, slamming the back of his head against the hard chair. He could stop the scream, but not the tears that rained from his eyes.

“Little boy want to play,” the voice taunted him.

Something hard crashed into his stomach, forcing the air from his lungs. He tried to breathe, but was unable. What do they want from me?

A second fist slammed into the side of his face, whipping his head to the right.

“Don’t kill him,” the first voice warned.

“I won’t. But he’ll wish I had.”

About the Author:

Archer Miller emerged from the East Texas hill country and set his sights on finding the life of which few of his contemporaries dreamed. In 1974, he migrated to Boulder, Colorado to enroll at the Naropa Institute – now known as the Naropa University, a tiny Liberal Arts college founded by the renowned Tibetan Buddhist scholar and lineage holder, the Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1940-1987). Rinpoche was enormously influential in spreading the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the West.

Archer earned a degree in herbs and creative writing. He was a four-year Letterman on the Varsity Competitive Meditation Team.

After graduating in 1978, he took a year off to hike the Jack Kerouac literary trail. He became a top freelance gun-for-hire with dozens of ad agencies across the south and southwest. As a way to deal with the proliferation of Disco, he took up Zen Archery.

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