Burnout.
It happens to all authors, but it is also what led to the creation of The Witches of Vegas. Between 2009 and 2013, I had written four books and a short story. Along with all the writing is the marketing and promotion involved. Sometimes, that can leave little time left over for the actual writing.
This was a time when the literary world wasn’t as friendly to books published through independent publishers. Social media wasn’t as prevalent in the process, and we didn’t have places such as NN Light’s Book Heaven to showcase our work. For most writers who weren’t published through the big publishing houses, it was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears for little return. I also had a limited knowledge of the industry and limited time, my career as a guidance counselor always takes priority for the sake of my students. By 2013, I was also planning a wedding (we were married in May 2014). It was hard to keep up with everything, and in the literary world, once you lose momentum, it’s easy to get left behind.
Without the motivation to write and sales dwindling on the books I had out there, I decided to quit writing. I loved the experience, but life was busy, and I was burnt out, both in creativity and in promoting. I was content with the knowledge that I was a published author, and no one could ever take that away.
Another interesting fact about me is that I used to perform as a professional magician. I paid my way through college by working at local night clubs and hotels performing both stage and close-up magic. Eventually, I gave that up, but I utilize those skills as a high school guidance counselor. I teach my students magic and co-run the performing arts department where we put on shows. Magic helps my students in building confidence, teaching teamwork, and learning to follow step-by-step instructions.
Thriving as a guidance counselor, I was sure writing was in my rearview mirror. I still had ideas for great stories, but I was no longer motivated to put pen to paper. Years had passed. Then, one night at around 2 a.m., I started thinking about the long and tedious practices that I put my students through. They were worth the time because it led to great shows. Still, when the audience would watch our shows, they wouldn’t know much work led to those performances. To them, the magic may as well had been witchcraft. That’s when it hit me like a bolt of lightning.
Imagine if witches used their powers to put on a magic show. Most people wouldn’t know the difference; the audience would just see it as amazing magic. For the witches, it would be a perfect way to hide in plain sight, because they could practice their powers without being discovered or persecuted.
I figured these witches would end up in Las Vegas because that’s the magic capital of the world. They’d amaze their audience. Plus, they wouldn’t incur the cost of the typical magic show since they’re using their powers to create the performance. But how would this affect the rest of the Las Vegas magic community? They’d never be able to keep up; what would happen to them?
Over the next few nights, the characters popped into my head as if they were speaking to me from another reality, telling me their stories. I started asking my characters questions, like why they’re doing the show, what are their motivations? I asked them about their lives… and they answered all my questions. They spoke, and I wrote it all down.
So, five books and multiple awards later, I am left with questions. Is “The Witches of Vegas” series a fictional story I wrote? Or is it a true story from another reality where they are telling me about their adventures so I can share them with our world? What I do know is that The Witches of Vegas series is not a continuation of my writing career. In a way, I restarted and became an author all over again. That’s why I call myself a “born again writer”.
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Title The Witches of Vegas
Author Mark Rosendorf
Genre YA Fantasy
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
Where can Witches and their vampire mentor practice their powers without being discovered or persecuted?
By using their magic, the Witches of Vegas become the number one act performing on the Las Vegas Strip—a great achievement for them, but not so much for the magicians—who can't possibly keep pace.
Isis Rivera is the adopted fifteen-year old daughter of The Witches of Vegas. Zack Galloway is the teenage nephew and assistant to the last magician left in the city. Although they should be rivals, when Valeria, a four-hundred-year-old witch with a long-seeded grudge against humanity arrives in Sin-City, both teens act to bring their families together to stop the evil hag in her tracks.
But can the combined witches' powers and the ingenuity of the magicians be enough to stop Valeria from taking over the city and possibly the world?
Excerpt
Sebastian’s voice boomed through the theater. “Ladies and gentlemen, for the last five and a half years, you have had the opportunity to experience The Witches of Vegas four nights and three afternoons a week right here at the Sapphire Resort and Casino’s main theater. But today, you will be the very first audience to witness something truly spectacular!”
Isis’ shoulders tensed. A knot formed in the pit of her stomach. She had levitated many times, but never in front of more than four people. This time, it would be in front of over four thousand strangers. Wow, goosebumps popped out all over her arms and legs. She took deep breaths, just as they taught her, in through the nose and out through the mouth. It always helped calm her nerves. Right now, they really needed calming.
“We are about to bring out a new, young witch to the stage,” Sebastian explained. “She will have you believing that a young girl can become lighter than air!”
“Lighter than air.” Isis closed her eyes and chanted under her breath. “Lighter than air.” Her hands and feet tingled with each step toward the stage. The magic flowed through her veins like a steady leak from a faucet.
“Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the future goddess of magic, Isis!”
The crowd applauded. A slow, soothing music played through the speakers. Isis took a deep breath, then stepped out from behind the curtain. She could hear the audience but couldn’t see them behind the blinding spotlights. “Lighter than air,” she whispered a few more times.
Isis raised her right foot as if resting it on the first step of a long staircase. She placed her left foot next to the right. A few inches separated the soles of her bare feet from the stage floor. The crowd let out an “ooh.”
Time to make them “ahh.”
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Author Biography
Mark Rosendorf is your typical average all-American guy with an overactive imagination. By day, he is a high school guidance counselor for the New York City Department of Education’s special education district. By night, he is the writer of The Witches of Vegas series. There have been four books in the series with the fifth slated for release in November, 2023. The Witches of Vegas has won the prestigious RONE award for Young Adult Fiction while the sequels have all been finalists for that same award. The fifth and final book of the series is due out in November, 2023.
Mark has moonlighted as a professional magician, an experience that is prevalent in pages of The Witches of Vegas.
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Title Journey To New Salem (The Witches of Vegas 2)
Author Mark Rosendorf
Genre YA Fantasy
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
The Witches of Vegas are back, and their lives will never be the same again.
A year has passed since The Witches of Vegas saved the city from the evil Wiccan vampire, Valeria. Since then, the show has hit an all-time high. So has the romance between teen witch Isis Rivera and teenage magician, Zack Galloway.
Things couldn't be any better for them until Isis develops seizures that cause her power to spiral out of control. Fires and earthquakes are just the beginning of the chaos caused by the misfired witchcraft. Unable to find a cure, Isis' family journeys to New Salem, a fabled village of witches which may or may not even exist. Meanwhile, Zack ends up face to face with the only being who may have a cure...Valeria. But does he dare pay her price?
Excerpt
Isis ran back behind the wall. She then commanded
the illusion of herself behind the far left wall to step
through and stare out into the audience with a hand on
its hip. It received a collective gasp. To them, it was as
if Isis had stepped through one wall on one side of the
stage, and then come out of another wall on the
opposite side of the stage. She had practiced this many
times, but this was the best she had ever pulled it off. It
was now time to bring it home…
Whoa!
A pain ran through Isis’ chest. It felt like a mallet
slamming against her heart. She tried to take a deep
breath, but it was a struggle, like sucking a watermelon
down her throat
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Title Witch’s Gamble (The Witches of Vegas 3)
Author Mark Rosendorf
Genre YA Fantasy
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
It's been nearly two hundred years since Isis, Zack, and The Witches of Vegas saved New Salem from the Wiccan vampire, Valeria. Now, Isis is a vampire and the most powerful witch in the world. Zack is also a vampire, and the president of New Salem. They thought the threat was long behind them. But Valeria escaped into the past where she set history on a horrific path.
Now, everything has changed around Isis. New Salem is destroyed, Valeria is queen of Earth, and no one has heard of Zack. To save reality, Isis must travel through time, reliving events from a history she barely recognizes, and find a way to set reality back on course. Not that she has any idea how to do that, or how to avoid the all-powerful Valeria in the process.
Isis will face challenges she can't possibly overcome, yet she must, or every single life from the past, present, and future is doomed.
Excerpt
“I-I don’t understand a thing you’re saying, yet I feel like I need to.” Isis kept her tone as calm as possible. “Please, explain to me what you saw in your dreams.”
“You must understand.” Domina’s eyes looked to the night sky. “I see it each night in bits and pieces. I knew it was coming, but now I know my dream is here. Everything changes when it arrives.”
“What changes, Domina?” Isis’ fists clenched. “What is coming?” Domina’s mouth popped open.
“You need to go through time again. Only one minute ahead. That should be enough. Yes, in that minute, you avoid the change.”
Lightning shot through the sky. It forced Isis to look up. The gray smog that covered the village had disappeared. It was the first time in a decade Isis saw the stars. Another lightning bolt passed, then several crisscrossed from all directions. There were no clouds, just stars. Which meant no rain or thunder, either.
“What’s going on?” Isis frowned. “What is this lightning?”
“I do not know about lightning, only that it is about to come!” Domina shouted with an intensity Isis had never heard from her. “You need to go now!”
“I don’t understand. Go where?” Isis could barely hear her own voice over the weather overhead. “What’s about to hit—”
“Time!” Domina lunged and shoved Isis, knocking her to the ground. Everything blurred around her and, even though she was falling backward, a sensation overtook her body as if she were being forced forward.
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Title Witch Way to Vegas (The Witches of Vegas 4)
Author Mark Rosendorf
Genre YA Fantasy
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
The war with Wiccan vampire, Valeria, is over. Despite a battle that spanned multiple timelines and realties, fifteen-year-old witch, Isis Rivera, and teenage magician, Zack Galloway have survived. Along with Isis’ adopted family, they now reside in peaceful New Salem, a hidden community of witches. They should be living happily ever after, but the battle, along with memories from the original timeline fill Isis and Zack with emotional trauma that negatively affects Isis’ Wiccan power.
A decision is made by the family. Before settling into New Salem, they will return to what is most familiar to them, the Vegas stage. But another show has already taken their place. The Wiccan Circus, a performance run by a powerful witch named Erisa Cross, is now number one on the Vegas Strip. But is there more to her than meets the eye?
The Wiccan Circus’ teenage performers are headlined by Erisa’s daughter, Amelia Cross, a rebellious witch who is used to getting what she wants. And what she wants is Zack. Isis will find her relationship with Zack tested like never before. With her family’s lives hanging in the balance, can they discover the true agenda behind The Wiccan Circus before it’s too late?
Excerpt
Isis’ throat closed up on her. Breathing suddenly became a chore. She remembered the pressure in the pit of her stomach caused by the sense of fear that came from every single village resident including herself. In that reality, she—no, the other Isis, vampire Isis— turned the energy around the village into a clear but solid dome. As the blasts throughout the sky grew louder and brighter, the dome shook. It was night, yet the blasts lit up the sky like a blinding inferno. But two centuries of experience helped Isis hold it together. She had to, because every man, woman, and child in New Salem would die if she didn’t. She held on for three straight days, refusing to let all their deaths be on her conscience. They had to survive. They did survive—
“Isis, stop!”
Zack’s panicked voice woke Isis from her thoughts.
Energy crackled around her hands like bacon on a skillet. Each of her fingers emanated a white glow. Glass covered her feet and the floor around her. The fireworks had stopped. The farmers, children, and adults all along the grounds were looking to the school with eyes pointed her way. Isis placed her hand against what used to be the window. A clear shield sparked and vibrated at her touch.
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Title Wiccan Mirror (The Witches of Vegas 5)
Author Mark Rosendorf
Genre YA Fantasy
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
A year has passed since teen witch, Isis Rivera, teen magician, Zack Galloway, and Isis’ Wiccan family survived the war which spanned time and alternate realities. They now live a peaceful existence in the comforts of New Salem, a hidden sanctuary for witches.
However, a return trip to the Vegas strip for a Witches of Vegas reunion show leads to more than the family bargained for. Zack is abducted through supernatural means and Isis finds herself the prime suspect of a murder.
These events coincide with the arrival of an enemy from a history that no longer exists, who is on a mission that will lead to the end of the world. It will take the combined efforts of The Witches of Vegas and New Salem’s Task Force to save every single life on Earth. Luckily, they have a plan.
Enter Harry, a boy from the future who will be Earth’s last surviving human. He has come back in time to let everyone know that their plan to save the world, and all life on it, won’t work. How can The Witches of Vegas win when they are destined to lose?
Excerpt
Sebastian always smiled when addressing the audience, but not this time.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he continued, “The Witches of Vegas are not just a show made up of talented magicians. We are also a family. Right now, a family situation has come up, so we must cut the show short.”
The audience groaned and booed. Understandable after less than fifteen minutes of “magic.” But, damn, this may have been Isis’ best use of the energy on the stage, and instead of a buzz in the air, all she heard were boos.
The lights in the theater came on. Isis could now see who was standing near the stage holding the family’s attention. The older and well-built man with the blond ponytail made her gasp.
“Paul!” Isis exclaimed.
The vice president and head of the task force for New Salem. He had traveled all the way to Vegas to see their show once before, and he did it in support of a family under his charge. This time, he wore a far more serious and official look to him.
“Please accept our apologies,” Sebastian said to the audience. “You will receive a full refund for tonight’s show. We hope to make this up to you soon. Meanwhile, we ask that you make your way out of the theater in an orderly fashion. Thank you for your understanding.”
“Dad,” Isis whispered to him. “What’s going on?”
Sebastian eyed Paul from the distance. “I have no idea, but for Paul to come all this way, and ask us to stop the show, something major must have happened in New Salem.”
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