Hello there, fellow book lovers!!

Thank you again for joining me here at Indie Author Insight. A quick bit about me! I’m an author from the UK who writes fantasy and scifi. I’m also dipping my toe into crime fiction under the pen name S.J. Clarence. I currently have two books out—The Return of the Queen (romantasy) and AVA (dystopian).

I’m quite pleased September is over, to be honest. In the UK we have had more rain than I think I’ve ever seen before! It’s been a crazy few months in our house as we’ve had an extension built, and writing while someone is knocking a wall out in the adjoining room is distracting, to say the least! But it’s all coming together, and I’m desperately trying to ignore the dust that seems to reappear minutes after I’ve cleaned it up….

Back to books!

Is anyone else in the querying trenches? I’m currently out there, possibly sinking! My dystopian, speculative fiction novel, The Things We Left Behind, has gone out to many agents and publishers with no bites so far, but after some feedback from an editor, I think my query letter may not be quite up to scratch. If you think you might be in the same boat, I’ve added a link to a selection of successful query letters on Query Tracker, which I plan to sift through and study!

My Current Read — Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Blurb: Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman: he has a shy girlfriend, and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police.

But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy, he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys.

However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...

Interview with Ruth Miranda

Hello Ruth! It’s so great to have you here. Firstly, can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I'm from Portugal - south of Europe - and I've been writing since I started putting words together, I think. What inspired me was a profound need to put the stories in my head into physical form, turning them from images into words.

It sounds like your love of writing started at a young age. Me too! Can you tell me about one of your books or one of your series?

I've lately been working on publishing a long series (16 books+a novella) called The Borun-Ma. The first Volume and the novella are already out (Tales from the Borun-Ma and Carp in the Pond, Crane on the River). I started this series during the pandemics and have written the whole 16 books during the past four years. I'd call it a hybrid of portal fantasy, danmei, with a touch of wuxia and xianxia, as it was inspired by my lifetime fascination for China and other East Asian countries as well as my love for danmei novels and Chinese Dramas. I don't know if I have that many tropes in the book, but soulmates, 'I can make him worse', toxic relationships, especially with the self, mental health, reincarnation and transmigration. These all feature heavily in those tales.

There's explicit content, violence and all the trigger warnings you can think of - self-harm, dubcon etc, blood, etc.

Wow, a 16-book series in 4 years is impressive. That is a real achievement. As a mum of four, the pandemic was a crazy time; I would have loved to have been able to use that time to write. I am envious! But it sounds like you made good use of your time. What are you currently working on?

At the moment, I'm drafting a spin-off of the Borun-Ma series, as well as honing that series' second volume for publication. I have a few other projects I'm juggling, like the still unpublished books on my Byanamese Romance series, which I'm revising and rewriting slowly, but for now, the main focus is the Borun-Ma series.

Amazing, you have two series on the go! As all authors know, writing has its highs and lows. Can you tell me about the best moment of your writing career and how you overcame any lows?

I'm not very good at overcoming lows; they tend to pile up - it's how I'm built - while I try to move on from them. The best moment was probably a very private one: the day I published my first novel, A Study for Love, in 2016. I didn't tell anyone until after a moment and savoured that moment all by myself - even the first sales.

Low points are tricky. I hope you’ve got someone to chat about it with. I know whinging to my author friends helps me a lot. They just get it in a way other people don’t. Personally, I find marketing hard. Do you have any tips for other indie authors out there?

I don't. It's funny because I graduated in Marketing and Advertising and did a post-grad in Marketing and Commercial Administration, but I'm totally useless at it. I suck at marketing myself and my work. What I do is try to keep an active voice on social media, do a few promos a year, and hope that readers find my books, love and share them.

Social media definitely seems key to promoting your book these days. Can you imagine trying to promote your book and get yourself heard before it existed? It certainly has its benefits. Saying that, if you could go back in time, what advice would you give your past self re-writing?

None. I've made a lot - and I mean a lot - of mistakes, but eventually, those were what got me where I am, and those were what made me grow both as a person and a writer. I would keep everything as it is, really, or I wouldn't be where and who I am if I'd done things differently because I already knew better.

Mistakes are how we learn. I agree, they make us who we are. Talking of who we are, do you have any hobbies other than writing? I love to crochet and game!

Drawing and watercolouring. I've illustrated my Borun-Ma series by myself, first as a joke, because I kept drawing that world and its characters. I love map-making for fantasy worlds, as well. And reading, I read a lot.

How could I forget reading? Thank you so much for joining me on Indie Author Insights. It’s been great getting to know you and hearing about what inspires you. I’m still in awe at 16 books in four years. Go you! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I'd like to thank you for this opportunity, it's great when other authors give a helping hand navigating this crowded business and offer a chance and a platform from where authors can speak about their work!

Thank you. I’m so excited to help fellow authors. There is a sea of wonderful books out there that no one gets to hear about. We need to shout about them!

Quote from Carp in the Pond, Crane on the River by Ruth Miranda — “He was a crane, after all, and cranes mate for life.”

Fancy doing an interview with me?

Lastly, why do ducks have tail feathers?

To hide their butt quacks!

You’re welcome! Until next time, happy reading!

Lydia Baker x