Interview with Published Author Michelle Miles

Please welcome Yellow Rose RWA Chapter President and published author Michelle Miles. Michelle began her prolific writing career long ago in junior high when she and her then best friend wrote and illustrated their own Indiana Jones comic books. Star Trek fan-fiction quickly followed, as did Star Wars. Later, she dabbled in her own science fiction stories and historical fiction–princesses, towers, and handsome princes! Michelle finally found her footing on contemporary ground with her first novella, TALK DIRTY TO ME. Michelle is a member of Romance Writers of America and is a native Texan residing in Fort Worth. In her spare time she enjoys watching hockey, reading, adding to her shoe collection, and drinking coffee. Michelle’s latest book, TAKE ME I’M YOURS is available now from Cobblestone Press.

CC: Were you one of those kids who daydreamed a lot?

MM: Oh, yes. I used to daydream my classroom hours away. I always imagined myself as being saved by some hunky guy (at the time it was either Indiana Jones or Han Solo–I sense a theme).

When I was little, I thought I would be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader when I grew up. At the time, I took dance class from Texi Waterman, who was the choreographer for the cheerleaders (this was way back in the 1970’s. mind you) and so I go to meet a lot of them. As a youngling, I was awestruck by them. One of my favorite gifts as a child was my Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders pom-poms. I loved those things.

I took dance for fifteen years–classical ballet mostly. I really thought, when I was younger, that I would end up in the theater. But the theater bug never really bit me.

And then, when I first saw “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” I wanted to be an archaeologist. Of course, since I daydreamed my classroom hours away, I never really had the aptitude for school. By the time I hit high school, I was so over school. I knew college wasn’t for me. It was about that same time that I realized I could be anything I ever wanted to be–a damsel in distress, a cheerleader, and archaeologist–if I wrote books. And so, I wrote my first story and a writer was born.  

Sadly, I think my son has the daydream bug. He does it a lot. And I’m constantly battling the teachers about his inability to finish work and pay attention.

CC: When did you write your first story or book?

MM: The first story I wrote was in my freshman English class. My teacher was rather boring and English came easy to me. I always breezed through Grammar and Literature. So I filled the time by starting a short story about a princess, her evil uncle, the Duke, and the love who would save her from the Duke’s tyranny. Silly. Thank goodness it’s lost and gone forever.

Then later, I wrote my first full length novel. About 250 pages, handwritten, on notebook paper. Filled front and back. A science fiction story set in space and reminiscent of “Star Wars.”

CC: Did you read a lot as a child and, if so, what kind of books?

MM: I remember having tons of the Golden Books and playing Library with them. That’s one of my earliest memories of being surrounded by books. As a “tween” I read all the Laura Ingles Wilder books and then those really old books by Elswyth Thane my mother read as a girl. I was introduced to romance with Victoria Holt.

Then, I ignored books for a lot of years (tragic) because they forced us to read in school, which I hated. I never want to do anything if I’m told I have to do it. It’s just me.     As I got older, I discovered my true love – fantasy. I devoured (and still do) everything by Patricia A. McKillip. She’s a fantastic fantasy author. And, all grown up, I rediscovered romance again. I’m still a fantasy fan of all sub-genres. Dark urban fantasy is a big fave right now.

CC: Lets talk about your own books. Tell us about the Coffee House Chronicles.

MM: Ah, yes. TALK DIRTY TO ME is the first of the Coffee House Chronicles. I wrote it on a whim. Just for fun.

Back in 2002, I wrote a really bad story for NaNoWriMo about nanotechnology and a bunch of other crazy stuff. It was awful writing, awful plot, awful everything. But in that story I had a coffee house–The Bitter End. It sort of spawned the idea for the first book. That was the first book to feature The Bitter End and then it just went from there. Fast forward to last year. I started writing TAKE ME I’M YOURS with Marion and I had no clue where itwas going. So I decided it would be another Coffee House book and, VOILA, Graeme was born. I decided Graeme needed to be a web designer by day and a painter by night. Because what’s more romantic than the two of them together?

CC: How did you come up with the BEND IN TIME sotry? Did it require a lot of research?

MM: One of my first writing gigs was a serial for Keep It Coming, now a defunt site. But, it gace me the first glimmer of what it would be like to be a paid writerwith deadlines. I had two serials with the site and they were bi-weekly. Issues went out on Tuedays and Fridays. Which meant I had to write like a fiend to keep up with both serials.

Oneof the serials was THE ADVENTURES OF RANSOM ANDFORTUNE and it was a time tracel about a firl and a hit man stuck in time together. I really wanted towrite a time travel. To up the ante on the story, I threw in the hitman (Dane Fortune).

I eventially sold it as a serial a second time to another now defunct site. But the saving grace with that was that my editor worked for Samhain as an editor and took the serial on as a novel. I was already writing the Coffee House books for Samhain, so it kept me with them. And so,  A BEND IN TIME was born. My editor and I sectioned off the serial into two books and I sold the second one as A BREAK IN TIME. They’re both now in print.

CC: Name some ofthe books on your to-be-read stack.

MM: Do contest entries count? I’m judging some at the moment. The upcoming Karen Marie Monig boo, DREAMFEVER, for sure. I’ve already pre-ordered it. I’m currently reading Vicki Petterson’s SCENT OF SHADOWS, so the second book in that series is on my pile. Plus I have Nancy Haddock’s LAST VAMPIRE STANDING as well as her first book, LA VIDA VAMPIRE. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff I can’t think of off the top of my head.

CC: Are you a native Texan?

MM: YES! And a proud one. I was born in Mesquite.

CC: Does your writing reflect your real life?

MM: Oh, gracious no. It’s all made up.

CC: The Coffee House Chronicles sound like they were fun to write. How many more of this series are in yoru plans?

MM: I’m not sure. I do have one in progress about Marion’s friend, Delilah (from TAKE ME I’M YOURS) but I haven’t been very diligent about working on it. I got distracted by my gladiator book and now a futuristic that’s calling my name.

CC: Are you able to write every day? Do you set goals?

MM: I’m a sporadic writer. I wish I could write every day, but sometimes life-stuff gets in the way. Plus I volunteer for a lot morethan I should and my time has to be devoted to some things that involve writing, but not writing. If that makes sense. Now with it being summer and the kid home all the time, it makes it difficult for me to write at night. I kinda like hanging out with him and Man during the evenings and find myself ignoring the computer more and more. Now, all that said, when I do get the bug to write, I can usually crank out abour 30,000-40,000 words a month. Which is really not a good idea. I really must learn to set daily work counts and stick toit. Iadmire those who can.

CC: What words of advice to you have for someone struggling to become published?

MM: Never give up. Keep writing no matter what. And educate yourself on the industry as much as possible.

CC: Do you write in your day job, or is writing an escape or pressure valve for you?

MM: Fortunately, no. I don’t think I’d be good at technical writing at all. Writing is an escape for me. A way to get away from the doldrums and out of the real world into an imagined world where anything and everything can happen. I may not be writing every day, but I do think about it every single day in some form or fashion.