I’ve had this quiet dream for a long time now: to take one picture of all my books together, and then take that same picture again every time a new one is added to the shelf. Just watching it slowly grow. That was really the reason I started self-publishing in the first place. I wanted to hold my stories in my hands. I wanted hardcovers lined up on my bookshelf where I could see, in a real and physical way, that they existed.
I never expected anyone outside of my friends or family to read them.
Lately I’ve been thinking about all the small things that led me here. The years I spent as a kid writing short stories and poems and lyrics. Always choosing things like creative writing and film studies when I needed an elective. The games like EverQuest, Elder Scrolls, and Final Fantasy that made me fall in love with deep, interconnected storylines. The anime and eastern cultural beliefs that showed me life is far more nuanced than the black and white thinking western culture leans on. All the hundreds of THICC books and series I used to carry home from the school library like I was hauling treasure.
I keep thinking about Mr. Larson too, my fourth grade teacher. I promised him one day I would publish a book, just like he did. Back then it was just a kid saying something she hoped might be true. But now I look at these books and think about that little version of me, and that little girl actually grew up and did it.
I think about all of that a lot lately. All those little creative choices I made without knowing where they would lead. And somehow, piece by piece, it became the foundation for a universe other people actually seem to care about too.
What has your life been building in the background while you were focused on surviving it?
Title: Blood of the Wild Gods: The Silence
Author: Mileena Rayne
Cover Art: A dark, atmospheric eclipse surrounded by fiery red and orange corona, set above a misty, haunted landscape — still water, treeline fading into fog. Palette is deep reds, blacks, and muted greens.
Title: Blood of the Wild Gods: The Chosen
Author: Mileena Rayne
Cover Art: The same eclipse motif, but the surrounding energy shifts to crashing ocean waves in vivid blues, teals, and rose-pink. The water is turbulent and alive where The Silence was still and desolate. The title sits inside the black disc of the eclipse.
Now, as humanity clings to the ruins of divine legacies, something far older and more terrifying begins to stir. The Silent God, a being erased from history and feared even by the divine, is awakening. Its whispers seep into the minds of five mortals, each chosen for a purpose they do not understand.
A stoic hunter, honed in the Godscarred Wastes, finds his skills tested not only by monsters, but by the terrifying power of the curse he carries and a destiny beyond human comprehension.
A compassionate healer, gifted with the vibrant magic of the Veil, faces a devastating choice: cling to the fading light she knows, or embrace a darker power to save a world drowning in silence, even if it costs her everything.
A fiery prince, forever in the shadow of his own bloodline, finds himself drawn to a destiny that could consume him.
A sacrificial cub, flees across a crimson-stained wasteland, carrying the weight of his mother’s death and a desperate yearning to outrun his fate.
A righteous Inquisitor, his faith forged in unwavering conviction, begins to hear a voice that challenges everything he believes, a whisper of doubt in the heart of his certainty, threatening to shatter his life’s purpose.
Bound by whispers they cannot escape, their fates will intertwine in ways that will reshape the world — or doom it to an eternity of silence. As kingdoms crumble and forgotten forces rise, the whispers grow louder, threatening to consume everything.
When silence itself becomes a weapon, the fate of the realm will depend on choices that defy destiny and truths buried in blood. The gods may be gone, but their echoes remain — and the age of silence has just begun.”
[ISBN] 9798309863389
Today, she works as an operating room nurse in a Level I trauma center and writes fantasy novels that explore the territories she knows intimately: survival, autonomy, religious control, and the long road to reclaiming a self that others tried to erase. Her work draws from lived experience, transforming personal history into myth and offering a mirror to readers who have survived their own cages.
She lives in Minnesota with her two daughters, where she continues to build the life she was once told she could never have.
The Chosen is her second novel.”
Five years ago, the world went silent. Now Rivenglade is a miracle in the wasteland — a haven of food, order, and unshakeable faith. At its center stands Lucien Altheris, the Golden Prophet whose light holds back the dark. To the refugees, he is a savior. To the town, he is a king.
To Mira Roehart, he is a jailer.
She has watched her neighbors trade their freedom for safety. She has watched her father surrender his will, and her best friend’s eyes turn bright and empty with devotion. In a town that demands absolute purity, Mira’s doubts are more than sins — they are a danger to everyone she loves.
They told her the dark was dangerous. They lied.
When Lucien decides to claim her — not just as a convert, but as a wife — Mira learns what his ‘salvation’ really costs. Forced into a marriage built on coercion and stripped of her agency, she is pushed to the breaking point. And when the Prophet tries to bind her soul to his light, the ritual goes terribly wrong.
His divinity does not purify her. It recoils.
Mira isn’t just a skeptic. She is immune to Lucien’s power — because something ancient lives in her blood, something the ‘gods’ are afraid of. Now the Prophet is hunting the only thing he cannot control. To survive, Mira must run toward the very darkness she was taught to fear — and decide what she’s willing to become to reclaim her own soul.
He demanded her devotion. He got her darkness.
Author’s Note: This novel contains dark themes, including religious extremism, gaslighting, and detailed depictions of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. It is intended for mature audiences.”
[ISBN] 9798279150960