In addition to writing my own books, I edit books for all sorts of other writers, both fiction and non-fiction. Last year I edited a sci-fi novel called Kelvoo's Testimonial, by Philip Bailey, which is about a group of aliens who get swindled when some fast-talking humans attempt to colonize their world. It wound up being chosen as one of the top 7 indie science-fiction novels of 2022 on Kirkus Reviews and made their list of the top 100 indie books of 2022. It's always exciting to see one my clients do well, so congratulations, Phil!

Ray Knightly, author of the Alien Skills series, whom I interviewed back in January on this site, has released a new action-packed dystopian adventure novel called The Knowledge Seeker, and it's just in time for Christmas! Here's a brief excerpt:

You can find out more about the book on Amazon.

Dustin Brady is a best-selling author who writes funny, action-packed books for kids that can consistently be found at the top of various Amazon best-seller lists, making him the envy of middle-grade authors everywhere. Although Dustin regularly gets locked out of his own accounts for forgetting passwords, Dustin still remembers the Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Genie code for infinite lives. (It’s SLXPLOVS.) Dustin lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, kids, and a small dog named Nugget.

The Trapped in a Video Game series has become such a phenomenon that I feel like I have to start with that. Can you tell me what inspired you to write it?
My goal with this book was to write my 10-year-old self’s favorite book ever. I made a list of all the things I was into at that age, and one of the things at the top of that list was the game show Nickelodeon Arcade. At the end of that show, real kids got to “go inside” a real video game. That was one of the things I would think about all the time as a kid.
 
At what point did you realize you had a hit on your hands? Did it happen with the first book or later in the series?
I specifically remember an evening about a month after I wrote the first book when I was walking the dog, and I had 15 sales for the day. I did some optimistic math and figured that I could be a real, live author with income like that, then I literally did the Rocky thing where he’s jumping with his fists in the air. It obviously wasn’t a bestseller at 15 books a day, but that was a hit for me, and I’ll always remember that. 
 
Why do you think this series resonates with so many kids? Speaking of which, do you have any idea how your audience breaks down in terms of gender?
Because I wrote the book for my 10-year-old self, it’s almost all action. There’s a legitimate cliffhanger every 10 pages or so. It’s just fun and easy to read. That connects well with boys, specifically boys who are reluctant readers. Judging by the reviews, probably 80-90% of my readers are boys.
 
The Trapped in the Video Game series is published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Has that been the case from the beginning, or did you initially self-publish it?
I initially self-published it. I’d been selling other types of products on Amazon for a while at that point, and I felt like I knew enough about how to market on Amazon to try my hand at self-publishing. About a year in, the series had sold around 50,000 copies, and Andrews McMeel expressed an interest in republishing the books. I was nervous going in, but the relationship has been amazing.
 
What are some of the advantages of going with a traditional publisher over the self-publishing route? Have you—or would you ever—consider self-publishing?
The books have sold over a million copies and been translated into nine languages, and Andrews McMeel is a big part of that. They’ve been able to expand distribution to physical stores, get a bigger presence in schools, secure foreign translation rights, and explore film rights. They have been great. Having said that, there are some titles that work better for self-publishing and others that are a better fit for traditional publishing. Traditional publishers are much slower and generally can’t take as many chances as indie authors. I have continued to self-publish other series even after signing with Andrews McMeel and will likely continue doing both. 
 
Before you started writing for middle-grade readers, you wrote the Life Lessonbook series, collections of humorous essays that started with A Marathon Is Really Long When You Have to Pee. What caused you to shift from that sort of writing to writing for children?
That series came from a blog I wrote every week for about two years. Writing the blog taught me a lot about writing consistently and helped develop my writing style, but there’s not really a market for that type of writing. I always wanted to write books like the ones I enjoyed most when I was a kid, so making the switch to children’s books was a way to continue writing things I loved while attempting to earn a living as an author.
 
Who were some of your early inspirations as an author?
I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and many of Ronald Dahl’s other stories. I also really enjoyed Matt Christopher’s sports books.
 
How did you get started as an author? Did you start by writing books or something else?
After college, I worked at a small local newspaper, then a magazine for high school athletes. Trapped in a Video Game was my first book—I wrote that at age 30.
 
Are you able to do this full-time, or do you have a day job as well?
I’m very fortunate to be able to do this full-time.
 
What advice do you have for other authors who are just starting out, particularly those who want to write for middle-grade readers?
I always tell new writers to finish writing something and share it with someone who might enjoy it. For me, the best part of being an author is entertaining or inspiring an audience—even if it’s just one person. For middle-grade writers, my biggest piece of advice is to think about the stories you loved reading as a child and why you loved them. Try to fill your stories with those types of things.
 
What are you working on right now?
I just turned in the manuscript for the third book in my Escape from a Video Game series of interactive stories. Right now, I’m working on the puzzles for that book.
 
I know you like classic video games, but do you still play? If so, what game(s) are you excited about right now?
Definitely! I just finished Spider-Man for the PS4, and I’m playing through the Miles Morales Spider-Man game for the PS5. Both are amazing games! Also, I play Tetris every night with my wife after the kids go to bed, and although I can’t say Tetris excites me, I always get excited about Tetris time because it means we made it through bedtime.

You can learn more about Dustin and his books by visiting his official website. 

Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases made when people click on the links  in this post.

Today I'm doing something completely different and hosting my very first guest post on this blog. This post comes from author M. Liz Boyle. Liz is the author of the Off the Itinerary fiction series for young adult readers, the wife of a professional tree climber, and the mom of three energetic and laundry-producing children. Liz resides with her family in Wisconsin, where they enjoy hiking and rock climbing. Liz and her husband have also backpacked in Colorado and the Grand Canyon, which have provided inspiration for her writing. She makes adventurous stories to encourage others to find adventures and expand their comfort zones (though she confesses she still needs lots of practice expanding her own comfort zone).

Hey, readers, writers, and adventurers! Thanks to Kevin Miller for the opportunity to guest post. Today’s topic? Engaging the senses to immerse readers in our stories.
 
As an energetic hiker, wannabe climber, national parks traveler, and always-ready-for-the-beach girl, I love outdoor adventures. As a writer I love sharing adventures and inspiring others to experience their own. When I write adventure stories, I want my readers to feel the adrenaline surge, hear the roar of the snow, see the rush of floodwater, and feel the heat of the flames. I want my readers to grow from the experiences along with my fictional characters. Playing to the senses helps readers engage in the characters’ adventure.
 
Think about how much of life is experienced through our senses. Imagine if fruits and vegetables were all gray, or if all food tasted like broth. Imagine if you couldn't feel the horse’s mane, smell the cookies baking, or hear your favorite song or the birds’ music. Our senses enrich our whole lives, and sprinkling sensations into our writing enriches our stories.
 
Life without senses would be woefully boring. Now I’m not saying that people lacking a sense or more have less enjoyment in life. Not at all. In fact, they may enjoy life more than someone with all their senses because they’re so in tune to the senses that do function. Readers love to get lost in a story, and authors can use sensory descriptions to make that happen.
 
So, as authors, how do we write scenes that totally immerse the reader in the story? Let’s study a few passages.
 
Sight

• “Holly Angelo looked like a redheaded scarecrow dressed in pink goose down. She was over six feet tall with limbs like a daddy longlegs.” -Peak, by Roland Smith

 
Smith could’ve written, “Holly Angelo was tall and gangly,” but with this vivid description, we can see her in our mind’s eye.

• “Anyway, my eyes are hazel, which to me looks like a mix of muddy colors. Like when I’m painting with watercolors and am too impatient to wait for the paint to dry before I apply another color, so the painting becomes muddy and ruined.” -Just Another Girl, by Melody Carlson

 
This description makes it clear what the narrator’s eyes look like, and also what she thinks of her eye color, so it does double duty and never even uses words like brown, green, or gold.

• “The other boys scrambled out and started up the hill.” -Up the Creek! By Kevin Miller

 
I don’t have to have to be told that there’s high energy in the scene, because I can picture them scrambling out and up the hill.
 
Feeling

• “My legs were shaking uncontrollably from fatigue. My neck and shoulders felt like they had been worked over by a sledgehammer.” -Peak, by Roland Smith

 
With this description, we can put ourselves in Peak’s climbing boots and feel the aching muscles right alongside him. Obviously this is much stronger than saying, “All my muscles hurt.”

• “In the next half-hour, my legs went numb. For a painfully long while, I thought they must be on fire. Then it felt like my thighs were being stabbed with dozens of needles and I wondered if that’s how acupuncture feels.” -Chased, by me

 

• “In the parking lot, the wind was so damp it felt like getting hit in the face with a soaked towel every time it gusted.” -A Shadow on the Snow, by JPC Allen

 
Smell

• “[Dad’s] rough cargo shirt smelled like all the things familiar to me: gasoline, campfire smoke, the lavender-scented laundry soap I used when I washed our clothes under the pump.” -Kalahari, by Jessica Khoury

 
Khoury didn’t say, “Dad smells like a garage,” and I think we all agree that this detailed description puts us in the narrator’s spot, breathing in the specific smells around her.
 
Hearing

• “It was nearly impossible to make out his words between blasts of static.”....”I’d turned up the volume all the way in order to hear him better, so the sudden round of pops that cut him off hit my ear with almost physical force.” Kalahari, by Jessica Khoury

 
I feel like I’m clutching the radio, straining to hear my own dad, much more poignantly than if the author had said, “We had a bad signal.”
 
Taste

• “No matter how disguised with onions or cabbage, or sage dressing, turkey is always turkey.” -Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink

 
This weary-of-turkey description simply and effectively puts readers in the narrator’s place at the table.

• “I swallowed the last bite of granola and melted chocolate yummines...” -Ablaze, by me

 
Okay, So What Next?
 
Looking through these examples that transported me (and hopefully you, too) into the scenes, one thing that hits me is the absence of some of the most obvious key descriptive words.
 
In the Sight excerpts, Smith didn’t tell us Holly is tall and skinny; he showed us by comparing her to a scarecrow and a daddy long legs. Moving onto the eye color example, Carlson didn’t use a single color’s name, but instead compared the hazel eyes to a watercolor mess. We can imagine the color without being told the color!
 
In the feeling excerpts, none of them contain words like hurt or pressure. Instead, the authors again used comparisons to explain. It’s one thing to say “it’s wet and blustery,” but by comparing the wind to getting slapped with a wet towel, readers can experience the weather as the character does.
 
In the smelling example, the author doesn’t give any indication to whether these scents smell good or bad. They don’t smell nice, and they don’t stink. Instead, we’re told exactly what the smells are and that they’re familiar smells to the main character. It puts us in her shoes.
 
In the hearing example, we aren’t told, “It was hard to hear him,” or “His voice was faint through the static.” With the blasts and pops, we know it was hard to hear him, and we know how badly she wants to hear his voice!
 
In the taste excerpts, I again noted that we aren’t told if the food tasted good or bad or boring or overcooked. We can imagine the seasoned turkey and the soft, melted granola bar because that’s what is said.
 
For authors, I think this means that we should focus on explaining sensations without using obvious descriptors. Don’t tell me she’s tall, show me what she looks like. Don’t tell me your legs hurt, show me how bad they hurt. Don’t say he smells woodsy, tell me exactly what he smells like. Instead of telling me the cell service is spotty, show me how impossible it is to communicate. Instead of telling me the food is good or bad, show me that there’s not a bite left or that nobody asks for seconds even though they don’t act full yet.
 
This exploration of descriptions has made me realize that comparisons are often more effective than a string of carefully chosen adjectives. I’m not by any means casting off adjectives (they are perfect in many situations), but I am suggesting that as writers, when we want to launch our readers into our scenes, let’s describe scenes with comparisons and clear explanations.
 
Readers, what are some of your favorite sensory descriptions you’ve read? Writers, what are some of your best descriptions?

To learn more about Liz, visit her Amazon author page or her personal website.

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.

​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!

​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.

You have quite an impressive resume as a storyboard artist, prop artist, and concept artist. How did you get into that line of work? 
I was originally going to be a comic book artist until I saw Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I was about 19 or 20, and the art design really clicked something in my mind that film might be a more interesting career choice for me. I didn’t really see myself drawing men in tights forever, and film was something which I’d always loved. I moved to LA, got a job as a runner for Joel Silver’s production company, until someone there noticed my art.  My first film was House on Haunted Hill around ’98, I think.
 
What role does a storyboard artist play in the filmmaking process? 
I help the director design all the shots, usually for special effects and stunts through the film. Basically, I create a “comic” for the crew so that everyone knows what the shots or effects will look like, long before they shoot them. 
 
How closely do you work with the director?
Very close. I’m there to work with them one on one to clarify their vision so that they can present a clear, shot-for-shot vision to the crew. On most films we usually meet three times a week, and most meetings go about 1.5 hrs.
 
What are some of the favorite film projects you've worked on? 
JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot. Iron Man. Thor. Looper. Planet of the Apes. MIB: International. There’s been a lot, but those all hold very fond memories. And of course, my own series, Forbidden Science, for which I was creator and head writer.  That was the best creative experience I’ve ever had. The show had more "T and A" than I’d originally envisioned, but it was an incredible experience seeing my own ideas being filmed and then shown on Cinemax each week. It’s now on Amazon Prime. I’ve been surprised how long of a life one little sexy sci-fi series can have. Even though it only ran one season, it’s been watched all over the world and is still going.
 
What prompted you to transition into writing? 
I always had an interest in storytelling.  Sequential art, like comics and storyboards, are storytelling, but they’re someone else’s story usually. With writing it’s 100% your vision, your voice.  I left screenwriting because even if someone buys or options your script, it doesn’t mean it will get made. Most of the time it won’t. And I got tired of having a pile of scripts lying around.  With a novel, it’s out there for the world to read – which is why I wrote my debut novel, The Ship. I’d had the idea and the twist ending for over ten years.  I was saving it for when I was ready to finally write a book.
 
Tell us about The Ship. What's the premise of the novel? 
A young woman awakens within a crashed alien vessel 35 years after being abducted. Basically, I took some of the tropes from the 80’s and 90’s sci-fi horror films and shows and gave them a modern scientific facelift.  I loved the X-Files back in the day, along with The Thing and Aliens, and wanted a book with that kind of mystery and excitement. 
 
Do you plan to continue the story in subsequent books? 
While The Ship is a stand alone novel, I do have a plan for two sequels.
 
What attracts you to the sci-fi genre? 
Concepts and ideas. I like to play around with some of the old sci-fi tropes I grew up with and give them a modern twist for the 21st century.  Today’s sci-fi often seems to be taking real world situations and turn them into a futuristic story. I have no interest in that. Give me big ideas; big concepts and an exciting story with a fast pace, and I’m hooked. That’s what I did with The Ship, so hopefully others are looking for that kind of sci-fi as well. 
 
How does your background in film affect your writing process? 
Film and TV taught me to write with a tight structure and keep things contained in both the POV (point of view) and scope, so that the focus is always on the characters. The closer you stick to the characters, the more tense and thrilling the story will be.
 
What book or film projects are you working on right now? 
I’m working on the sequel to The Ship now.
 
What do you do for fun outside of work? 
I collect video games and vinyl records. Call of Duty with a Prince record playing is my nirvana.

It's time for another instalment of my series of interviews with other middle-grade authors. This time it's Zander Bingham, a.k.a. Brett Swain, who writes the Jack Jones Series and other books with the assistance of his wife, Diana. Seeing as they work as a team, I invited them both to be part of this interview. Enjoy!

​Who were some of your early inspirations as authors?
Brett: My path to becoming an author, and my journey into books and reading, came about in a rather unconventional way. As a child and even a young adult, I didn’t really enjoy reading very much and often struggled to get through assigned books at school. Instead, as personal computers emerged in my “tween” years (as my kids call them), I took to them like a duck to water. I’d spend hours and hours tinkering with computer parts and learning to code in the text-based languages of the era. And I played, perhaps, too many video games.

I was never interested in fighting/war games. Instead, I consumed titles produced by companies like Sierra Entertainment with great passion: Kings Quest (Roberta Williams), Police Quest (Jim Walls), Gabriel Knight (Jane Jensen), Space Quest (Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy), etc. The graphics were, at least early on, fairly simplistic, but I was drawn to the narrative-based journeys, with problem solving and exploration unfolding over weeks or even months depending on how complex the puzzles or mysteries were. These were my stories (and I still play games like these when I can).

Books really entered my life in my late twenties/early thirties when I discovered the travel and adventure genre, some factual/biographical and some fantastical. Around this time, the release of the Kindle e-reader, and increasing content for it, also made books a lot more accessible and convenient for me and likely contributed to my growing interest in the written word as a source of entertainment and inspiration.

Diana: I was an avid reader as a child. I would read anything I could get my hands on. I loved Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak. I devoured Ann. M. Martin’s Baby-Sitter’s Club series. I had one of those glow worm dolls where the face lit up, and at bedtime, I would pull out the little torch from inside the doll and pull the covers over my head and read late into the night. Growing up I recall being introduced to Roald Dahl books when I was around eight. After reading George’s Marvelous Medicine, I was hooked. In high school and college, I enjoyed reading John Grisham novels. 
 
How did you get started writing? Did you start by writing books or something else?Brett: I started with books. Diana and I were at a junction in life and deciding which direction to head professionally. We’d become aware of the self-publishing world, and it spoke to us as a great fit both personally and professionally. The idea to write children’s books for this age group was born from reading to our growing boys and a desire to create contemporary and relatable adventures that were wholesome and safe.

We researched the space and the process that people had followed to take an idea and turn it into a book, and we figured it was worth a shot. I sat down at my laptop,
opened Word, and began tapping away.

For me it’s been incredibly enjoyable knowing I’ve found a practical use for my wild and immersive imagination. Writing books for a living allows me to indulge the thoughts and journeys my mind likes to conjure up rather than having to push past them to “get back to work,” and that is truly a joy.

I've always been interested in the co-writing process. What does this look like for you? 
Brett: I have a lot of ideas for stories. Some make sense to move forward with, others not so much. I make notes on them all and then slowly build the story in my mind. Assembling the cast of characters, who they are and what motivates them, is an enjoyable part of the process too. I usually have the beginning and the end sorted out. Then I work on the middle to make sure it all makes sense and is believable and entertaining. I plan ahead as a way to get started but find the stories and characters evolve and change as I go. I write a draft and then give it to Di, who reads it and gives me feedback. We go back and forth until we feel we’ve created a great product that readers will enjoy.

Diana: Oh, to be inside the mind of a writer! Brett has SO many ideas floating around and will often casually mention during meals or on walks, “I’ve got this new idea for a series . . .” I find it remarkable because I’m not the story maker, but if he’s ever stuck on how to make something seem viable or how to connect some dots in a believable way, we’ll collaborate and share thoughts until we reach an aha moment where we agree that we’ve found the path forward. Then Brett will write the story, and I’ll handle editing, proofreading, and reworking details if necessary. Then we enlist an outside editor (by that point we’re so close to the story it can be easy to overlook things), and then we publish.

You've chosen to publish under a pen name. What motivated that decision? 
Brett: From the outset I had ideas that crossed multiple genres and audiences, so I felt that creating a pen name would ensure I could keep a space for each “world.” That way readers won’t get confused if they discover a children’s bedtime book alongside an adult contemporary fantasy fiction novel. Pen names are like tabbed files in a filing cabinet. They help to keep everything organized and compartmentalized, which is helpful to readers just as much as it is to me as the author. If I ever write a non-fiction book, I’ll probably publish it using my real name.

What is the Jack Jones series about? What inspired you to write it?
Brett: Jack Jones is a children’s series that follows three savvy kids who embark on various fun-filled adventures. It has a mild Goonies meets the Hardy Boys feel to it and was born from wanting to read safe but fun and engaging stories to my boys at bedtime. I wanted to keep the stories fairly realistic, so readers could picture themselves in these situations. I’ve loved having input from the boys on various elements of the books—the titles, the content, and the type of quest the characters might venture on next. It’s been fun collaborating with them about story ideas and things they’d like to see happen to the characters.

What draws you to write for middle-grade readers? Do you plan to write for other audiences too?
Brett: We have two boys, ages 10 and 6. They were just 7 and 3 when I launched the first Jack Jones book, so I wanted the series to be age appropriate, I wanted to spark their imaginations and share ideas for adventures that I wish I had as a kid, and I wanted to make sure they weren’t scary, so they would be suitable to read before bed.

We’re very close to launching our first picture book – it’s a bedtime story about dreaming big, so it’s for much younger children, newborn to five years—so I’m excited to see that one come to fruition.

I have also written two books under a different pen name in an adult contemporary fantasy series. One book is published and the other is in the editing stage. I plan to make it a trilogy. Unlike the middle-grade books, these novels are 120,000 words plus and take more time to write and produce. I’ve also got an action-adventure series buzzing around inside my head looking for a way out, kind of James Bond meets Jason Bourne but maybe a bit grittier, which would be a different audience—and pen name—again.

What motivated you to publish independently rather than going the traditional route?
Brett: I’ve always enjoyed working for myself, so I really like the self-publishing model. I was also fortunate to have previous experience running a business, so I was comfortable and familiar with those elements, albeit a very new and unfamiliar product. With access to resources to be able to manage all the moving parts you need to get a book to market, it was an exciting notion that drew me to want to write and publish books independently. We spoke to authors who had gone both ways with this, and one thing that resonated more than any other was a comment from an author who went the traditional route and now feels as though she is one of a thousand books at the publisher vying for attention. She has no control over production schedules, marketing, or promotion.

As unknown authors, not wanting to fall into that same situation, we enjoy the fact that our books are all we work on and can give them the required attention all the time. Our publishing future is in our hands, and ultimately, it suits the company vision much better.

Do you do this full time, or is writing more of a part-time gig?
Brett: I have been writing full time since 2016. I wrote the first three Jack Jones stories--The Pirate Treasure, The Haunted Lighthouse, and The Lost Temple—one after the other and launched those in 2018. I also worked on a contemporary fantasy series (for a mature audience) during that time as well, with the first book launching in October 2019. 

Diana: It’s definitely a full-time venture. Long hours, seven days a week. I’ve heard that self-publishing is a marathon, not a sprint, but Brett and I are a team of two, so we’d like to be producing more books. Our goal in the next 3 months is to be releasing a new book each month. We’re definitely ambitious.

What are some of the biggest benefits of being an independent author?
Brett: The flexibility to write, produce, and launch your own books is incredibly rewarding and satisfying. From a business perspective, it’s great to have full control over each element of the publishing process.

What are some of the biggest challenges?
Brett: It takes a lot of hard work and discipline for sure. It’s also not always easy to “turn on the creative.” I’ve found that consistency and writing every day is the best way to keep it flowing. If I had to pick the biggest challenge, it would be finding ways to increase my output and get the ideas out of my head and down on paper faster. Second to that is working through all that my imagination dreams up, and then melding it all into marketable products. Ultimately, to be able to keep doing this as a career, selling a lot of books is necessary, so we need to make great products consistently. That means understanding and paying a lot of attention to all the components that contribute to that. Like they say, “Congratulations, you’ve written a book. Now the real work begins.”

Diana: Everything is in our hands—finding our audience, getting the message out to them, and sourcing illustrators and cover designers, editors, and proofreaders. It’s all on our shoulders to make your books the best they can be and then making readers aware that the books exist. We don’t have the backing of a publishing house with a formidable team of experts to shape and guide the story, so every element is scrutinized to perfection. Having said that the indie community is incredibly supportive, and while self-published authors might be on their own when it comes to getting your books out to the world, there are some amazing resources and successful self-published authors who are happy to share their knowledge to help others, which I think is rather unique to this industry in the best possible way.

What can we expect to see from you next?
Brett: I’m writing two new middle-grade series right now. I’m one book into a series of adventures set in space, so millions of miles away from Jack Jones, but I think readers in the same 6-12-year-old range will enjoy some new adventures with quirky characters and some goofy cosmic fun.

I’m also working through the third book in a mysterious castaways series aimed at a slightly older middle grade audience set on a deserted island, so lots of exciting new content being created. I really am loving writing these new adventures; I just need to write faster! Beyond this, once these series are moved into the production phase, I’m well into the planning of two additional series. One is a less comedic space adventure, and the other is a mystery/detective series. So many ideas swirling around!

Diana: We’re wrapping up illustrations on the seventh Jack Jones adventure, and we have the final draft of book eight almost completed as well. Then we plan to produce a boxed set for the holidays with the complete Jack Jones collection. It is exciting to see the series come full circle after three years of producing these classic adventures. Edits have begun on book two in the contemporary fantasy series, so we are hoping to be able to launch that in early 2022.

To learn more about the Swains and their books, visit their official website.