Miles Cornelius displays his newest novel, "Blood City."

local author is bringing horror, murder, mystery, and a touch of fantasy to readers.

Miles Cornelius of Baker City has self-published four books: “The Black Forest,” “Yellow Gloves,” “The Last Prom,” and his most recent book, “Blood City.”

Cornelius, 55, said he had long wanted to be an author.

Many of the stories that became books are ideas he formulated when he was in elementary school or high school.

“It feels really good,” Cornelius said of seeing those concepts in print.

He’s excited about writing more stories and sharing them with others, hoping his readers will enjoy them.

“The Black Forest” is a science fiction/fantasy short story while the other three are murder mysteries and horror.

The writing process

Every author’s writing process is different. Cornelius said that when he’s crafting stories he imagines himself in certain situations and ponders what he would do if he were one of his characters.

From that, he develops a plot.

For his most recent book, “Blood City,” he imagined working as a police officer in Seattle, searching for a serial killer. He then came up with the elements of who he would talk to, how he would look, and who the other characters were.

“I just go with my imagination,” Cornelius said.

He said the first story was inspired by his children.

He has written characters based on himself and on a friend he had while serving in the Navy.

“Those two characters are characters we created together,” Cornelius said.

Moving to Baker

Cornelius grew up in Porterville, California, where he graduated from high school. He moved to Baker in 1988 with his parents.

His father’s sister and her husband had a church in Baker and they asked his dad, who was a preacher at the time, to help. Cornelius decided to move with them.

He joined the Navy in 1990, returned to Baker in 1994 and has been here since.

In addition to writing, Cornelius works at the Oregon Department of Human Services in Baker City. He processes applications for SNAP, Oregon Health Plan and other programs.

His novel “Yellow Gloves” is centered around Baker. Before he went into the military, Cornelius worked at the Sunridge Inn as a housekeeper. The book’s plot involves a housekeeper at a hotel in a place called Baker Falls, a nod to Baker City.

Cornelius began writing in the fifth grade. He said he didn’t become serious about the craft until he was working at the prison in Idaho. His job was to send the lunch menu out to staff members. In those emails, he added bits of a short story every day for his coworkers.

That short story soon turned into his first novel, “The Black Forest.”

“That was the first thing that I ever published,” Cornelius said.

His next three books were based on stories he originally wrote during high school.

“Yellow Gloves” and “The Last Prom” were both written and published in 2021. Cornelius said he wrote them simultaneously.

He began “Blood City” in October 2022 and it was published in February of this year.

More books in the works

Cornelius is currently working on his fifth novel, a ghost story, and is two chapters in.

Simultaneously, he has been working on a sequel to “The Black Forest.” He is 13 chapters into the sequel.

Cornelius hopes to sell his books at this year’s Christmas Bazaar. He also hopes to do a book signing at Betty’s Books and Birds on a Wire Mercantile.

His book series is called “A Misty Night Story.” This is from a passage on the back of one of his books: “Oh a cold misty night, you walk along a fog shrouded path. You hear a noise behind you. You turn to look and it is the last thing you ever see. Misty Night Stories are dedicated to the supernatural, unusual, and the unknown. What awaits you in the following pages could terrify you and even make you laugh.”

His books can be found locally at Betty’s Books and the Baker County Library.

They are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Hoopla, and other online libraries. “Blood City” is available on Walmart’s website and he is working to have it available in stores.

Audible has audio versions of his books.

Cornelius self-publishes his work through Amazon, which provides the service for free. Amazon does collect a portion of royalties.

After he writes and edits his books, Amazon has a self-publishing website where authors can use tools to copyright their work.

“They do the physical copies and make the books available on the websites,” Cornelius said.

There are other self-publishing options — Draft to Digital and IngramSpark are two examples.

Authors upload their books to the sites, which help with distribution to publishing companies.

Cornelius said the process is easy and is simple. His first book cost him $450.

Cornelius said he has had book reviews from readers in the UK and Australia.

“I just go with my imagination.”

— Miles Cornelius