About M. L. Tilford

NY Times Worst Selling Author

Mike’s Story

Mike is a writer of all things funny. Whether it be Fantasy, SciFi, or Personal Essays, he really can’t help himself. He started writing in his teens (although what came out of those dark times can barely be considered writing), thinking himself the next great American author. It wasn’t for many years that Mike realized that he just wasn’t very good (between you and me, he still isn’t that great).

After reading authors such as Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and humorist David Sedaris, he realized that books could be funny. (I kid you not, that wasn’t even on his radar. Yeah, he’s that dumb.) He began writing once again, with comedy at the forefront, and everything just clicked. It’s hard to be a good writer when you are writing the wrong genre!

His debut novel “The Art of Myth-Direction” was initially conceived back in 2021, but wasn’t fully realized until early 2025. Mike’s idea was simple. Write a straightforward narrative so he could actually finish writing a novel for once in his life. And hey, it worked!

In addition to his Fantasy world (now known as the Spireverse), Mike also began work on a Sci-Fi novel that began from a simple concept: What if a Human went to work within a universe-spanning corporate system that was even worse than those on Earth? And the Gigaverse was created.

What started as a standalone novel has evolved into a trilogy, with plans for a more action oriented spinoff, and a ridiculous one-off space drama based on the in-universe soap opera called “Steel Hearts: Echoes of Andromeda”.

Mike also has plans for additional novels set within his Spireverse. So as you can see, he has quite a bit of work ahead of him.