THE OASIS KING: THE OASIS CHRONICLES

THE OASIS KING: THE OASIS CHRONICLES
Friday, January 12, 2024 by MARK DAVID PULLEN

PLEASE WELCOME

MARK DAVID PULLEN

FICTION FRIDAY

THE AUTHOR’S STORY

Daydreaming.

“It is a delicious thing, to write, to be no longer yourself

but to move in an entire universe of your own creation.”

-Gustave Flaubert.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a daydreamer. I’ve dreamt of faraway places and been swept away with swashbuckling pirates or soared through the air on the back of a dragon countless times throughout my life.

It’s been both a blessing and a curse.

Daydreaming does not often go hand in hand with high-functioning academia. It was very early on in my school years that I started to fall behind. First, it started with my ability to read. Reading did not come easy, but thanks to the help of some dedicated teachers and my dedicated parents, I was able to learn. I could not read well until the third grade. But by the end of the fourth grade, I was reading at a high school level. Writing came much simpler. I could scribble a picture and then draft a two-sentence story with no problem. But to read paragraphs consistently was a chore.

But I overcame it.

School continued, and I continued to fall behind. Something as simple as a lull in the classroom to a set of curtains was enough to whisk me away. It wasn’t always fun or exciting. Sometimes, it was a yearning to run. To run away and never return. To be freed from the shackles of growing up and the struggles that go along with it. But the escape came only briefly before I was yanked from the clouds and back to reality. Around this time, my family started attending church, and I was saved.

I had fallen so far behind by this time that I would have to repeat the eighth grade. It was at this point that some of the school staff suggested that my parents have me evaluated and that some form of medication might help keep me focused and on task. They responded by pulling my sisters and me from the public school system and homeschooling us. I flourished in this new environment. I could catch up on my work, buckle down, skip a grade, and graduate a year early. I must tell you, though, the daydreams never stopped. It was the change in the environment that allowed for academics to succeed and for a God-ordained trait that had become a part of my personality.

More on that in a moment.

I graduated and went straight into the workforce—no more schooling for this guy. In my adult life, I have always worked manual labor jobs. It’s a family legacy and nothing at all to be ashamed of. But every job I’ve ever had, and there were only three, and I left everyone in good standing for better opportunity, have all had one thing in common. These jobs as a tradesman have all had, to some degree or another, quiet moments. Moments throughout the day where muscle memory took over and the job got done without me having to labor over them mentally. I was there doing the work, completing the task, but my mind was thousands of miles away. Sometimes marooned on an island, sometimes turned into a talking animal, and sometimes I was running from dinosaurs that the aliens had brought back to life to help take over our planet.

It was in these quiet moments that God went to work on my heart, though I had no idea. One quiet moment in particular prompted me to sit down and write down some of these thoughts and daydreams. That’s how and when it all started. I wrote down one idea and thought, This will make a cool story. So that’s what I did. I wrote the daydreams down and presented the story to my mom, son, and nephews on Christmas morning in 2019. It was 25 pages in a loose-leaf binder, but it was so much more.

The Oasis King was born, and it was something people believed in.

Me included. God used those 25 simple pages to stir something up inside me. He spoke to me and assured me nothing was wrong with the living I was pursuing, but I was created for much more.

Fast forward six months and Covid is in mid-swing. For our wedding anniversary that year, my wife sent me away via Zoom to the Colorado Christian Writers Conference. I was not a writer, but I thought there might be something there, and the Lord laid it on my spouse’s heart, so who was I to argue? With the conference came staff meetings. My lovely wife set me up with a meeting with two agents and an editor, who got only the first page of my work to decide if it was good or if I had any potential. I spoke with many different people in the breakout groups. Some had been writing longer than I had been alive. As I said, I was no writer, so what chance did I stand?

Still, I was hopeful and daydreamed it might happen.

Both agents were not interested; big shocker there, and thanks to a scheduling error on my part, I missed the appointment with the editor. But on the final day of the conference, I got an email from one of the staff members, and they told me the editor had an open slot and would like to meet with me. I met with him, a gentleman named Terry, and right out of the gate, he liked the first page of my story. Can you believe it? Because I still can’t. He requested the rest of the story, so I sent him the other 24 pages. The conference ended, and I sent Terry the rest of my story and a few days later, he called. He politely informs me that the story is way too short for the industry standard for my target audience and publication but tells me rather cheerfully to keep working on it and stay in touch. It was my first real taste of rejection as a so-called writer

. . . or so I thought.

From June to November, life went on, and my “writing” fell by the wayside. The week of Thanksgiving came along, and while working, for whatever reason, I looked at the clock and thought of Terry. I asked a coworker to remind me to fire off a quick email to him while we’re on break. The day got crazy, and my coworker and I forgot about the email.

However, I no sooner stepped through the front door that evening when my phone rang from an unknown number. I don’t typically answer those calls, but I did, and it was Terry. He asked how the writing was going, and I was honest with him. “I am a husband, a relatively new father, and a functioning full-time employee. I’m working on it here and there.

Terry informed me, very nicely, that in the writing industry, when someone asks for your work, you get it to them in a timely fashion. He told me that the company he is acquisitions editor for, Morgan-James Publishing, publishes two stories in my genre for my age group a year and that he had hoped one would be mine. I choked. I told him I’d get right to work, and I did. I spent every free moment at my keyboard without sacrificing my family time. And, the week of Christmas 2020, Terry had my story …

and I had a writing contract.

I still have a full-time, blue-collar job, #everymanchampion, but here I am, a daydreamer turned published author, urging you to take time in those quiet moments. It is in those moments he guides your heart, and if you listen, you can hear him speaking audibly into your life.

ABOUT MARK DAVID PULLEN

Mark David Pullen is the author of the award-winning middle-grade series The Oasis Chronicles. His debut novel, The Oasis King, was released in February of 2023. His second book, Freedom Through The Narrow Gate will be released in September 2024. Being the boy who sought adventure and escape, he would use his imagination to create strange characters and unique faraway worlds. Some of those strange characters and faraway lands cemented themselves into his mind and later became part of the firm foundation for his writing style. His mission is to create wholesome, fast-paced action adventure stories where children can escape the daily struggles of growing up while learning positive values such as hope, determination, and resilience. He currently lives in Upstate New York with his wife, two children, and crazy pup Toby.

Website : www.theoasisking.com

Email : markdavidpullen@theoasisking.com

Facebook: @therealoasisking

Instagram : @markdavidpullen

Awards :

2023- PenCraft Literary Awards - Winner Fall Best Book

2023- PenCraft Literary Awards- 2nd place Overall - Christian Science Fiction Category

2023 New York State Book Festival Awards- Young Adult Category - Honorable Mention

2023 Columbia County 40 under 40 Award

2023- Outstanding Creator Awards ( 1st Place Action and Adventure, 2nd Place Middle-Grade Books, 3rd Place Overall Fiction)

ABOUT MARK DAVID PULLEN’S BOOKS

The Oasis King: The Oasis Chronicles

Click here to read the first chapter!

What Readers Are Saying:

“A Wonderful Trip to Fantasy” - 5 out of 5 stars

“Wow - A Whole New World! This book is fantastic, I can envision children, pre-teens, and even some 13 and 14-year-olds enjoying this story. ” - 4 out of 5 stars

“A cross between Narnia and Journey to the Center of the Earth for young readers” - 4 out of 5 stars

Brief Synopsis:

Dylan, Jack, and Tripp are looking for adventure, but when they find an entryway into a magical land, plagued by the malevolent Stranger, the cost of their new, exciting journey might prove to be too much.

While on vacation at their grandmother’s farm, cousins Dylan, Jack, and Tripp learn of a long-kept family secret and the power of wishing on a star. The boys are swept away to the Valley of the Oasis—a strange, primal paradise, where monsters and danger lurk around every turn. They find refuge with a lone hunter and his dogs, who have lost track of time and appear trapped in this magical land.

But the hunter and his dogs cannot rest for long. He is pursued by the Stranger, a strange green-skinned being from another time and place who also seeks to escape the Valley of the Oasis. As they narrowly escape the Stranger’s attacks, the boys worry that they, too, are trapped with no way home. Will the hunter protect the boys and send them home in time, before the Stranger closes in once and for all?

buy links

Amazon

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Freedom Through the Narrow Gate

Releases September 3, 2024

Brief Description:

Follow Jacob as he leaves the safety of the mouse village for a taste of blackberries and a daring adventure, only to come face to face with the menacing Swamp Rats and their vicious leader, Caine.

Jacob, inspired by his grandfather’s tale of “The Legend of the Great Mouse,” longs for an adventure of his own. When he steps beyond the village with his friend Rudy on a simple blackberry hunt, they are unexpectedly captured by the feared Swamp Rats.

Inside this dangerous realm, they meet a rat burdened with guilt and yearning for redemption. As the story progresses, Jacob befriends an unexpected ally as destinies intertwine. Through it all, they discover deeper truths about family, friendship, and the transformative power of forgiveness.

However, lurking in the shadows is the sinister Caine, an escaped lab rat who grows increasingly unhinged as the situation unfolds. Jacob and his allies must confront Caine’s dark ambitions as he navigates the swamps. Will they be able to outsmart this formidable foe, or will the story of their adventure end in tragedy?

Perfect for young readers who love tales of camaraderie, redemption, and high-stakes adventure, Freedom Through the Narrow Gate is a heart-stirring continuation of the world introduced in The Oasis King.

Links to Purchase :

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