This has been quite the year for high-profile clients. First it was Doug Brode, Hollywood storyboard artist on numerous movies, from Harry Potter to Thor and Star Trek. Then it was William B. Davis, the cigarette smoking man from The X-Files. Now it's Steve Babb, founder of the progressive rock band Glass Hammer. I have the privilege of editing the fantasy novel that inspired the band's new album. Here's a link to the first single off that album, Anthem to Andorath.

I've always loved Halloween. In fact, I like it so much I've decided to dedicate an entire series of novels to it. The first novel in the series is Pumpkins, is now available, and it's a great story to read at this time of year. Here's  a brief synopsis:

So far the book has gotten some great reviews. Here are a few excerpts.

Pumpkins is now available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle format on Amazon. I'm planning to bring out one book in the series over the next several years. Book 2, Brooms, involves witches--and curling. Book 3, Teeth, offers a completely different take on vampires in the 21st century, and it all starts with a seemingly innocent set of glow-in-the dark vampire teeth. Stay tuned for more updates on this series!

Who were some of your early inspirations as an author?
My favorite book as a kid was The Mad Scientists Club by Bertrand Brinley. That book about a group of boys with their own clubhouse who used science and their brains to cause mischief around town made my imagination go wild. When I first started writing, I thought about creating that same sort of feeling in young people.
 
How did you get started as an author? Did you start by writing books or something else?
I was a stay-at-home dad telling my children stories. One day they said I should turn one particular story into a book. Then they said they were serious. So I did.
 
You’re a prolific writer. How many books do you typically publish per year?
Between chapter books, picture books, and adult mysteries, I’ve written close to 50 books since 2014. But since I’ve gone back to work full-time, my productivity has slowed down. I’m on pace this year to publish one chapter book, one picture book, and 3 adult mysteries.
 
Now that you're working full time, how do you find time to write?
It’s really, really hard. At least it is for me. I usually write immediately after school at a local coffee shop while I wait for my sons to finish football practice. Then I find time on the weekend to escape the house and get some writing done. When I’m on deadline I usually write late at night as well.
 
How does your job as a teacher inform your writing?
First, along with being a dad, teaching is the other place where I learned how to tell stories. Second, both my kids and the students I teach are an endless source of energy and especially humor. They all make me laugh, and that helps my writing.
 
Ever think of quitting your job and writing full time?
YES! But . . . my wife and I have a shoe load of children (8), and we are currently in the thick of college tuition etc. So I have to work full time for at least the foreseeable future in order to make everything work.
 
The Math Inspectors was your first series. What inspired you to write it?           
First, as I reference above, I loved the Mad Scientists Club, and I wanted to recreate that in some way for my own readers. I loved the idea of kids, with a clubhouse, going out into the community and using their brains to do something. But what? Solving mysteries seemed like a good idea, but I wanted to add a twist to it. I am a math teacher, so I thought it would be cool to feature a group of kids who happen to love math and mysteries.

You’ve also written a number of other series for middle-grade readers, including the History Mystery Kids, Lunchmeat Lenny, The Pirate Ninjas, The Big Life of Remi Muldoon, and The Not Quite Cool Kids, among others. What attracts you to write for this age group? 
I have 6 boys, and I discovered early how naturally they were attracted to throwing stuff--any stuff--and playing video games. But I love reading and wanted my boys to love reading as well. So, I wanted to write the kinds of books that I thought would be attractive to young readers, particularly the 2nd-4th grade crowd, to really get them into reading, so hopefully they fall in love with it.

What led you to publish independently rather than going the traditional route?
I tried to get an agent with my first book, The Beef Jerky Gang. But after that I decided the odds of me making money weren’t great using either route, so I preferred going forward independently.
 
What are some of the biggest benefits of being an independent author? 
I love being able to make my own decisions about what I work on. I love NOT having to wait to release a project. I love being able to write what I want to write when I want to write it.

What are some of the biggest challenges? 
For me the business side of things can be a real challenge. My lack of attention to detail can really hinder me in things like advertising, which has been really hard for me to master. In general, there is so much to do, and there are times when it can be overwhelming.

Have you ever received offers to publish your books traditionally? What would it take for you to go that route? 
I have published traditionally through the foreign rights market. I look at this as found money. I look at publishing traditionally in the English market differently. For my kids' books, I would want to guarantee that I could get close to a yearly teacher’s income  from a property or series before I would publish traditionally. For my adult mysteries, I probably would NOT consider publishing traditionally unless it was silly money as I really like the income-generating potential of my adult genre fiction titles.
 
Can you talk a bit about your books for adults?
I write murder mysteries under the name Daniel Carson. These are considered “cozy mysteries”. For people familiar with the old tv show Murder She Wrote, these would be similar types of mysteries. Whodunits featuring amateur sleuths with little violence on the page. These are not hard-boiled mysteries. Rather, aside from the murder, these are typically light and fun with plenty of humor and feature a small town you’d love to visit.

What advice do you have for other indie authors who are just starting out?
Decide why you are writing. It's okay if that reason changes. If your reason to write is to make money while writing, that’s a great goal. If that’s your goal, I would advise you to choose writing some form of adult genre fiction (some category of romance, mystery and thriller, science fiction, fantasy etc.) as the most efficient path toward achieving that goal. The great thing about writing kids books is that if you happen to get lucky enough to have a hit, kids books can be really sticky and can produce income for many years. However, it’s really difficult to get a kids book to really hit. It is much easier to reliably produce income from adult genre fiction.
 
What are you working on right now?
I am working on the fifth book in the History Mystery Kids series of chapter books. I am also working on the second picture book in the How to Cow series. For my adult books, I am working on a cozy mystery and my first romance.

To learn more about Daniel, visit his author page on Amazon. His titles for adults can be found here.

That's right, folks, you can now listen to Up the Creek, Unlimited, and The Water War, all of them narrated by Kimberley, BC's own Tanner De Bruyne. The audiobook versions are available on Amazon, Audible, ACX, and Apple Books. You can listen to the first chapter of The Water War for free here. They'll make for great listening on that end-of-summer road trip!

​Who were some of your early inspirations as an author? 
Without a doubt Alice in Wonderland and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe — stories that take children into other worlds have always fascinated me. That apart, I have vivid and fond memories of being read The Wind in the Willows by my mother. Much later and into my teens I loved Dickens and Jane Austen — all that wonderful visual detail mixed alongside the historical fiction.
 
How did you get started as an author? Did you start by writing books or something else?  
I was not someone who grew up thinking I wanted to be an author. I was far too busy riding my pony, which took up every spare hour! However, I always kept diaries and loved writing long essays at school. Writing and "explaining" seems to be in my DNA and it’s perhaps not surprising that I became a professional copywriter and writing training consultant after university. Oh, and prior to that I taught English as a foreign language for several years and ended up writing the content for a weekly teaching syllabus, which I sold to the school. As far as fiction goes, I started a few "grown-up" novels in my post-university days, and those are all in a drawer here somewhere.  However, it was when our boys were little that I became inspired to write for children. Many of the picture books and short stories I read to them were great, but a fair few were not, and it got me thinking that perhaps I could do better! Nevertheless, it took seeing something magical for the spark to come. In my case it was a beautiful fox trotting down a path on a foggy November evening. I just couldn’t get him out of my mind, wondering where he was going and what he was thinking. Thereafter my rhyming  Ferdinand Fox stories started to emerge. I have had six fully written for years but only two self-published because organizing illustrations is so complicated, time consuming, and costly. I’m hoping finally to resolve that in the coming year now that I have more budget to play with.
 
The Secret Lake has become something of a phenomenon, continuing to top best-seller lists ten years after it was first published. What inspired the book?  
It was one of those magical moments that I mention above. Some friends of ours moved into a lower-ground/ground-floor apartment in converted grand Victorian terrace that backed onto a huge communal gardens area in west London near Notting Hill. The gardens are entirely safe and enclosed and made up of lawns and woodlands, just like in the film Notting Hill. The first time I walked out and saw all the children playing there, with the echo of their voices and the cracking twigs bouncing off the houses all around, my spine began tingling as I started to picture the children who must have lived in those grand houses 100 years earlier and played in those gardens and wondered what would happen if the children playing here today could meet those children from the past. It was a combination of that visit and location, and a magical woodland in Richmond Park called Isabella Plantation where we used to take our children that inspired the story. I grew up in the countryside and was allowed to go off into the woods on adventures for hours at a time, and both of the places above brought back those memories. Once the idea came to me it wouldn’t go away!
 
At what point did you realize you had a hit on your hands?  
It was a very long road. What I can say is that from the moment I did my first events in September 2011 at a local school and the local library, children, teachers, and librarians were captivated. To that extent I knew it was a good story, and it continued to be very well received at school visits. By the end of 2017, I had sold around 7,000 print copies, mostly at school events or local bookshop signings (including Waterstones, our largest bookshop chain, whose local branches welcomed me). Online sales were relatively low until then as very few people knew to look for the book. It wasn’t until the spring of 2018 that it began to sell in huge numbers, and that was all down to discoverability after I managed to get early access to Amazon advertising here in the UK. From that moment I saw online sales start to rise, and gradually more reviews started to roll in. Eventually, that translated across to the USA and Canada, further helped by getting access to Amazon Advantage advertising there. To be honest, I fully expected the success to be short-lived, but it seems to have carried on, which is very humbling. I never take it for granted though as trends come and go. I still remember paying £4 to park my car to deliver two copies on consignment to Waterstones in the early days and realizing that the cost of the petrol and parking was more than the royalty I might make!
 
Why do you think the book has resonated with so many readers?  
When I wrote The Secret Lake, I did so because I felt there weren’t enough "new" classic children’s adventure stories out there with a touch of magic thrown in — the sort that I had enjoyed as a child. Interestingly, when I sent it out to a handful of publishers way back in the early days, the response I got was it was "too traditional" and had been done before and that children were looking for something more modern. Oh, and it was the wrong length — too short! Ironically, I think the book has resonated for all the reasons it was rejected. Children still love a classic adventure, and many like a book of a manageable length. The fact that the two main characters are a boy and a girl help too, I think, as the story genuinely appeals to both. From the feedback I’ve had from readers, I also think the fundamental themes of friendship and loyalty across time have touched children’s hearts. And what’s really surprised me has been the demand for foreign rights. It’s now in translation in 8 languages despite being rooted in historical England, which I had understood initially might go against it.
 
What draws you to write for children? Do you plan to write for other audiences too?  
As I mentioned earlier, the spark for my stories is always external -- something I see or hear or feel -- and that, I think, explains the variety of age groups I write for. In other words, what the story will be is out of my hands to some extent. Thus, my latest picture book The Tell-Me Tree, for ages 4-8, was inspired by a majestic London plane tree that sits on Barnes Green close to where I live. Walking past it one evening, I suddenly noticed a face in its trunk and couldn’t get it out of my mind (as with the fox earlier). It took three more years before the story came to me after overhearing a parent’s conversation about a child who’d been unhappy at school. You can read the full detail of that over at my blog. This is probably the easiest way to explain what draws me to write, and it’s simply based on my reaction to things around me. The audience for my stories is, of course, dictated by the nature of the story. 
 
As far as adult fiction goes, I do have one futuristic story largely mapped out in the drawer. This is the one time I decided to sit down and try to plot in advance in some detail. The trigger for this (one of my "tingly" moments!) was something I heard on a natural sciences documentary radio program. That story will not go away, and my son (who also writes and has seen the outline) has been nagging me to get on with it. I just need to find the time! It’s aimed at new adult/adult rather than young adults, though I’d love to write something for YA at some stage.
 
With The Secret Lake in particular, what motivated you to publish independently rather than going the traditional route? 
As mentioned earlier, I did pitch the early drafts of The Secret Lake to publishers, but I didn’t get anywhere with it. Back in those days, there was no email; it was all done by snail mail! Whilst I didn’t get anywhere with The Secret Lake, I did have a "close shave" with my illustrated chapter book Eeek! The Runaway Alien. In this case Bloomsbury said they loved the story and my writing style but that the book was the wrong length for their lists. They asked for  more examples of my work; however, when it eventually came to nothing I realized that the chances of getting picked were not only very slim but also down to luck and the taste of the person reading your manuscript. At that point I put my writing in a box for 10 years and went back to my day job of professional copywriting. It was when I pulled it all out again in 2011 that I started reading about self-publishing and was immediately attracted by the control it would afford me.
 
What are some of the biggest benefits of being an independent author?  
Control, control, control.  I love everything about it! And the tools and platforms now available to support independent authors during their journey have come on leaps and bound since I first started self-publishing. In addition, there are fantastic communities of indie authors ready to help each other — both informally through niche groups and more formally through organixations such as the Alliance of Independent Authors and Self-publishing Formula.
 
What are some of the biggest challenges?  
Finding hours in the day to fit everything in! I am currently author, advertiser, marketer, PR department, illustration briefer, translation manager, foreign rights manager and bookkeeper! I’d say the main challenge within all of this is marketing, which is especially difficult for children’s authors as our audience is not online, don’t hold the purse strings, and prefer to read in print. This, in turn, means that "spur of the moment" online purchases are far less likely to occur in the way they might do for young adults or adults buying eBooks, which they know they can start reading in a matter of minutes. However, Amazon advertising has helped hugely by enabling us to promote our books to people already looking for children’s books. But there is a lot of competition and a big learning curve to try to fathom the algorithms!
 
Have you ever received offers to publish your books traditionally? What would it take for you to go that route?  
Yes, on a couple of fronts. I had one offer four years ago from a mainstream UK publisher to write the equivalent of my non-fiction book How to Self-publish and Market a Children’s Book, the second edition of which has just come out. I turned that offer down as it didn’t make sense financially. It also felt odd to contemplate publishing a book about self-publishing traditionally! Also, I worked out that by the time the book went to publication, after a seven-month cycle it would be out of date. They also had a format they wanted me to follow that didn’t feel right. With my professional copywriting hat on, I have a very clear idea of how I want to structure non-fiction and wouldn’t have felt happy trying to fit my content into a different template. It’s all about control! 
 
I’ve also had two separate offers to work with traditional publishers for my fiction. I’m more open to this if the financial rewards make sense. However, with the income an international bestseller can make me, that becomes quite a challenge when you start to apply traditional publishing royalty rates. But I’ll never say "never" if I get the right offer from the right team!
 
What advice to you have for other indie authors, particularly those who are writing for children?  
Be clear in your mind what age group you are writing for before you put pen to paper. Read as much as you can in that age group  (and those on either side) and become intimate with the themes, character ages, page count/length, use of language, frequency and style of any illustrations, etc. The biggest mistake aspiring children’s authors make is coming up with an idea and setting off writing but not being clear who their target market is.
 
What are you working on right now?  
Having spent the first part of this year writing How to Self-publish and Market a Children’s Book (Second Edition), I’ve had lots of admin to catch up on as well as tackling longstanding marketing catch-up tasks. For examples, I’ve just finished updating the cover of Eeek! The Runaway Alien, something that has been long overdue!  Next up, I’m finally about to sit down and start reading and researching the Victorian/Edwardian period and literature to see whether there are other stories around the world of The Secret Lake that are waiting to be told! I get so many requests about this but always say I will only put pen to paper if I can be sure any follow-on book would be as magical as the first. So, it’s very much a case of "watch this space" for now . It will all depend on whether I get my special tingly feeling!

I have something very cool for you today. To encourage more summer reading, I’ve teamed up with a number of bestselling middle grade authors to offer nine incredible ebooks, all of which are either FREE or just $0.99 each!

I can attest that all of these books are high quality and well reviewed, and you will not be disappointed! These deals are available from August 1-5 and the links are below. 

Here is the amazing lineup:

• Ben Archer and The Cosmic Fall by Rae Knightly (Only $0.99)
• The Book of Chaos by Jessica Renwick (FREE)
• Brother Wars by Steven K. Smith (FREE)
• Eeek! The Runaway Alien by Karen Inglis (Only $0.99)
• Epic Zero: Tales of a Not-So-Super 6th Grader by R.L. Ullman (FREE)
• Jack Jones: The Pirate Treasure by Zander Bingham (Only $0.99)
• The Math Inspectors: The Case of the Claymore Diamond by Daniel Kenney (FREE)
• My Fox Ate My Homework by David Blaze (Only $0.99)
• Pumpkins by yours truly, Kevin Miller (Only $0.99)

I also encourage you to subscribe to each author’s newsletter to learn more about them and their new releases. Also, these are some great deals with books that are rarely discounted so please spread the word to your friends and family.

I hope you’re having a great summer!

​Who were some of your early inspirations as an author?
For fantasy books, I’ve always loved Neil Gaiman. His middle-grade novels, Coraline and The Graveyard Book, are two of my favourites. In my opinion, the evil “Other Mother” in Coraline is one of the best villains I’ve ever read.
 
As a kid, I read a ton of Goosebumps books. They are the perfect balance of scary but not too scary for middle-school kids. R. L. Stine has a Masterclass on writing for children, so I jumped on the chance to take it. He explains how to write scary scenes for different age groups, and I found it so helpful.

How did you get started as an author? Did you start by writing books or something else?
As a child, I wrote short stories and poems for my parents. I would make them into little books with construction paper covers. Then at thirteen I wrote my first “novel.” It was not very good, and it definitely was not publishable, but my mom was super cute and supportive. She helped me proofread it, print it all out, and write a query letter. We took the address from a publisher in one of my books and sent it off to them. I received a really kind rejection letter stating that they don’t publish books written by kids, but they wished me all the best. It was pretty cute and one of my favourite childhood memories.
 
As an adult, I started and stopped many manuscripts. Life took over, and I wrote less and less, but then in my thirties the writing bug hit me again. I started and stopped a few more manuscripts, and then I finally decided to get serious and actually finish my first Starfell book. I took some online courses to motivate me, and I got it done.

What was your inspiration for the Starfell series?
This is going to sound really nerdy, but a Dungeons & Dragons campaign kickstarted my Starfell series. Fable was originally my wild magic sorcerer, and I was asked to write a backstory for her. That turned into a twenty-page document, and then the outline for a novel. I obviously had to change a lot to make it work as a middle-grade book, but that’s where the idea stemmed from.

What draws you to write for middle-grade readers? Do you plan to write for any other audiences too?
When I was that age, books meant a lot to me. I was always introverted and could be painfully shy, and reading was an escape from my anxiety. The books I read then really stuck with me. Those are the stories I remember so well, even now. At that age, they seem to hold a certain kind of magic, so those are the stories I love to tell.

I also write adult books in the small town, sweet romance genre under Jessica Anne Renwick.

Do you do this full time, or is writing more of a part-time gig?
​Right now, I write part time. I would like to eventually go full time with it though. For my day job, I am a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. So I am still surrounded by fun stories every day, and I’m grateful I can do that for a living too.

What motivated you to publish independently rather than going the traditional route?
I am an avid-podcast listener. While searching for writing podcasts, I found The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn, and she started me down the rabbit hole of self-publishing podcasts and information. I’ll admit I had some confidence issues at first, but after meeting my editor in person (who also self-publishes her own books), she helped me improve my writing and my belief in it.
 
At one point, I did have an agent for The Book of Chaos, but it never sold, which I’m okay with. Publishing it myself has taught me so much, and I’ve been able to get it into the hands of a lot of fantastic readers.

What are some of the biggest benefits of being an independent author?
I enjoy having the rights to my own work, my choice in editors and cover designers, and the overall control I have with the books.

What are some of the biggest challenges?
Finding a way to get my books in front of readers is always a challenge without a big marketing budget. Also, not having a traditional publisher’s name behind my books can make it tougher for some people to take a chance on them.

What are you working on right now?
Right now, I’m working on the fourth book in the Starfell series, the Curse of the Warlock. On July 1, I also had the rights of my short story, The Witch’s Staff, returned to me. It was traditionally published in an anthology by a small press. I’m getting an eBook version of it put together to give away as a freebie for my newsletter subscribers.

To learn more about Jessica and her books, visit her official website.

Unlimited is now available on Audible and Amazon as an audiobook and will soon be available Apple Books as well. You can buy/stream the book here, and you can listen to a sample chapter here. A perfect listen for those long summer road trips!

Pumpkins, book 1 in the Uncanny Icons Series, is now available in paperback and hardcover, and the ebook will be available on Monday, June 28. The book has already received half a dozen great reviews. You can read them here. If you'd like to experience it for yourself, you can buy the book here.