With authors Michelle Miles and L. E. Sterling
This summer, I reached out to fellow YA Fantasy author (and fellow RWA member) Michelle Miles so we could talk about books, writing, and our upcoming projects. Due to length, the following interview will be published in two parts. We hope you enjoy the conversation – and the book recommendations!
LE: Do you have a favorite summer reading spot?
MM: I usually read at night. That’s kind of my wind down. I have a thing for expensive sheets (laughs) and good bedding. I like to climb in my bed and read on my Kindle. I also read paperbacks, hardbacks, whatever.
LE: Do you have a weekend spot?
MM: Yes, sometimes I do. It’s another living area upstairs where I have a settee. I like to sit there sometimes to read and chill out.
LE: That sounds lovely! My favorite spot in the summer is a deck right off of our bedroom and our living room. We’ve just got some patio furniture this year. I sit in the chair with the umbrella up, and I have my little table with my water and my tea, and it’s like the happiest spot on earth.
MM: I love outdoor spaces. Wait, where do you live?
LE: I live just south of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.
MM: Well, I’m in Texas. It’s hot, so I don’t go outside in the summer! But we do have outdoor spaces that we really like to use in the spring and fall.
LE: What are the best books you’ve read this summer? How many books do you typically read a summer?
MM: (Pulling out her Goodreads app) My reading goal for the year was ten books, and I’ve already met that. Right now I’m reading a book called Illusion of Stars (by Sarah Marie Page). It’s a young adult fantasy.
I also read The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox this summer. It’s a very good gothic, witchy kind of romance set in England. It’s very good. I really want to read her other books now. And then I just finished a book called The Vine Witchby Luanne G. Smith.
LE: Oh, I’ve heard of that one! I love the sound of these!
MM: The Vine Witch was pretty good. It’s about a vineyard, of course, in France. It’s a historical type of book with a light romance, where their witches help grow the grapes and make the best vintage ever. And there’s some mystery and a murder and just all kinds of things and lots of magic. It was really good.
LE: That sounds like fun. I just finished Bride by Ali Hazelwood. It was incredible! One of my favorite books of the year! I also enjoyed Heartless Hunter – and I loved Earl’s Trip, by Jenny Holiday, even though it isn’t in the genre I publish in. (it’s a Regency romance).
Do you read a certain genre of books or do you travel outside of your lane?
MM: I definitely travel outside. I primarily look for Young Adult fantasy books. I love those! I’ve read Holly Black, I’ve read Sarah J. Maas, Karen Marie Moning, Gena Showalter. Those are more paranormal romances, adult fiction. But I also just like to look for things that are different, that are fantasy, that have magic, that are light romance. I’m on a light romance kick right now.
LE: That’s so nice. And I’m really wondering if there is anyone left on earth that hasn’t read Sarah J. Maas, honestly. I finished the Crescent City series this summer, as well.
MM: (Laughs) Right? Well, I have to be honest and say I’ve only read the Throne of Glass series. I haven’t read A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) yet. It’s on my TBR list.
LE: A Court of Thorn and Roses blew my mind. And then I read the first book in the Crescent City series, and my mind literally melted. By the end of the second book, I thought, oh my God, she has rewritten all of the rules of fiction! I am so impressed! I actually had started reading her Throne of Glass series and I was like, meh. Not as good as her other series. But that’s sacrilege. It’s like telling a Swiftie that Taylor Swift is no good.
MM: I really do want to read the Crescent City series. You only have so many hours in the day.
LE: Exactly. But I recommend it. Don’t you think that the best thing to do as a writer is read widely? I mean, why stick to your lane?
MM: Oh, absolutely! I think that’s how you get more insight into what other people are writing, how they write. It really helps you recognize what is good fiction and not good fiction. I absolutely think it helps you as a writer because you can see what other people are doing and how they’re doing it and what makes good storytelling.
LE: I absolutely agree. What kind of books or characters are your favorite to write? I’m always curious—do you have a set thing? Or do you just go off, like, ‘oh, I love this idea, I love this idea.’
MM: I’m a little of both, but all of my books have an action adventure-type twist, because I grew up on Indiana Jones as you can see (pointing to Indiana Jones poster in background) and Star Wars. I just love those types of stories of high adventure. There’s always a romance. I’ve written everything from sweet to spicy, and there’s usually magic.
LE: What are you writing now?
MM: I’m writing fairytale retellings. There’s always magic in it. There’s a sweet romance. They’re young adults. And in these types of stories, the characters are always kind of an underdog. And I really like Alpha males (laughs).
LE: Yes! I hope Alpha males never go out of style, to be honest. Do you find that when you’re writing something—a particular project like your fairytale retellings, for instance—you sort of gravitate towards that kind of book for pleasure reading?
MM: You know, I think I do. I’ve been seeking out those kind of books to read, and that’s how I found the two witch books that I read.
LE: Do you have a summer-versus-winter writing routine? Do your writing routines differ over the seasons?
MM: I’ve really tried to force myself to stay in a consistent writing mode. I used to not write as much during the summer. December was also usually lost because I’m so busy with the holidays. But, for the last year and a half, I’ve been consistently writing almost every day. It feels good!
LE: Right? It’s like flexing a muscle. Or training for a long distance run kind of thing. You have to keep at it! How many books do you have loaded on your Kindle at present? And how many do you take on vacation? Do you take your Kindle as well as physical books?
MM: I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many are on my Kindle – sixty plus, probably. And yes, if we’re on a leisurely vacation, like if we’re not going to be hitting tons of places, I will probably take my Kindle on vacation just to have some downtime at night and slow the brain down. I wouldn’t take a physical book, unless I was in the middle of a physical book, you know, reading a paperback or whatever. We are traveling to Scotland next month and not checking bags. We’re trying to keep our space available for clothes, so I probably won’t pack a physical book, just for the sake of space.
LE: Plus, you know, I heard this wild rumor that Scotland has bookstores! I’m learning to pare myself down. I have a Kobo and I have like, maybe 200 books on it—about fifty of which I haven’t read. But I also would typically pack two or three paperbacks—just in case.
I started thinking that was a little extreme, so I finally whittled my way down to: okay, I can have one paperback or I can have my Kobo, I can’t have both. These days my Kobo is winning, because I don’t know what would I do if I had no choice in books to read.
MM: (laughs). Exactly. It’s like, ‘oh I’m bored with this one. Let’s go see what else I have.’
LE: You mentioned you’re going to Scotland. Is that your dream vacation?
MM: Yeah, we were supposed to go in 2020, and that didn’t work out. We’re finally rescheduling that trip, Edinburgh, Inverness and Isle of Sky. I kind of have a thing for castles, so my husband’s calling this trip “Castle Mania.” I’m trying to cram as many castle tours as I can into ten days.
LE: Can we expect then that you’re going to start penning some Highlander time-traveling magic books in the near future?
MM: Yes. I am writing a three-book series for (publisher) Dragonblade that will be out next fall. I’m almost done with the first book. It is a Highlander Time travel series set in 14th century Scotland. The heroines are modern and go back in time.
LE: What can you say about the fairytale book you have coming out?
MM: I have a new fairytale series – I have ten books planned – and I launched the first book on July 9th. It’s a Cinderella Christmas fairytale retelling called Once Upon a Midnight Clear. The main character is Ella, who is gifted glass slippers from her fairy godmother. And she’s whisked off to the ball where she meets a person that she doesn’t realize is a prince from the Christmas realm of Rovenheim. She forgets the time and doesn’t take the magic shoes off before the last stroke of midnight and is transported into Rovenheim, and then the prince has to go get her.
LE: You’ve really turned that on its head with the Christmas realm! What other tactics do you use to keep fairy tale retellings fresh?
MM: First, I go read the original Grim fairy tales. Some of them are very, very dark. Then I just kind of try to think outside the box: what would make this different? How can I use the same elements from the familiar fairytales, like the glass slippers and the ball, and the midnight, and the magic and all of that? How can I use that in a different way?
My next book is a retelling of Snow White. Rather than living with the dwarves, she lives with elves and she has elemental magic, so she has to reclaim her throne from the Evil Queen. The third book, coming out (in September), is Sleeping Beauty. It’s about Rosamund, who runs away from home because she doesn’t want to get married to the prince that she’s betrothed to, whom she’s never met. And as she is traveling through the woods, she happens to meet a man who is really the prince from the realm she’s supposed to marry. It’s a little a story of hidden identity.
LE: Do you think then that one of the hardest things about these fairytale retellings is the marketing?
MM: I think it is a challenge to really stand out from the crowd. There are a ton of retellings out there. What I have learned is, people are hungry for those types of stories. They’re looking for fairytale retellings that are sweet romances. I think you just have to tap into that.
LE: What do you think your readers would say is their favorite thing about your books?
MM: They really love the world building. I try really hard to make sure when I’m writing a fantasy that the world building elements are there and they’re apparent, but at the same time I don’t beat the reader over the head with them. I like to let them infer things, to make up their own mind about what things are and how they look and how they appear, but gives them that sort of atmospheric feeling of you’re in a Christmas realm. What does that look like? And then, definitely, the twists and turns that I throw at readers, and I try to keep those foreshadowing moments in there. So even though they may not be surprised, they’re still surprised.
LE: I’d like to think my readers would say the same things about my books. Hugely intricate worlds, lots of action. How many books a year do you put out, typically?
MM: I try to do two to three. This year I did four, and it was a lot, plus a box set. I’d finish one, I’d start the next one while I was editing the first one, and just kind of keep that cadence going. That’s how I was able to write four books from last June 1st until, I think I finished the draft of the fourth book at the end of April. I planned out how I was going to release them, and I knew I wanted to do kind of a rapid back-to-back release of these four books because I’m launching myself into a new genre, young adult fantasy. I wanted to make sure that readers could expect more from me and they were gonna get it. It was a lot of strategic thinking about how I was gonna do this.
LE: I can’t wait to read them.
MM: Thank you!
Stay tuned for Summer Book Club Part Two. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
About Michelle Miles
MICHELLE MILES believes in fairy tales, true love, and magic. She writes heart-stopping urban fantasy, young adult and adult fantasy, and paranormal romance with an action/adventure twist that will leave you breathless. She is the author of numerous series that includes everything from angels and demons to fairies, dragons, and elves.
She is a member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA). A native Texan, in her spare time she loves reading, listening to music, watching movies, hiking, and drinking wine.
Where to find Michelle:
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Once Upon a Midnight Clear
A Christmas Cinderella Retelling
Once Upon a Time… in the holiday land of Rovenheim
A pair of enchanted glass slippers. A dark and dangerous queen. And the fate of a kingdom hangs in the balance.
Ella Rose Tremaine lives a life of drudgery as a servant in her own home, catering to the whims of her stepmother and stepsisters. All she wants is a life to call her own, but with no way out, she’s trapped. Even when the royal ball is announced, she is forbidden to attend.
Left alone on the night of the ball, a mysterious package arrives addressed to her. Inside, a pair of beautiful glass slippers. When she puts them on, she’s transformed and whisked off to the ball by none other than her fairy godmother—but with a warning. Remove the slippers before the last stroke of midnight to break the spell and all will be as it was before.
Lost in the magic of the evening while dancing with a handsome stranger, she is heedless of her fairy godmother’s warning. With the last strike of midnight, she is transported to the Christmas realm of Rovenheim.
Her arrival garners the attention of a dangerous queen determined to have the slippers for herself. She’ll stop at nothing to get them by issuing an ultimatum—bring her the slippers or she’ll destroy the enchanted realm and the Spirit of Christmas itself.
With time running out, Ella embarks on a perilous journey through the mystical realm on a quest to save it. She must embrace her destiny and discover the power of love and magic. But will it be enough to overcome the darkness that threatens to consume them all?
L. E. Sterling 