AMoRaR Interview – Julian M. Miles

A Month of Rain and Reads Interviews7 months ago10 min readAdd comment

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

Describe yourself like you would a character in one of your books.

At first glance he appears surly, a slight swagger to his gait lending credence to an air of insouciance. What tattoos are visible add to the overall effect.

Get closer and you’ll see there’s a tiredness to his eyes. You realise that once he might have been considered dangerous, possibly even cool. All that remains is a jaded familiarity with the shortcomings of humanity – including his own.

But, still… That smile suggests mayhem in mind.

Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside? What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?

Curl up with a book whenever you like! Rainy days, sunny days, it makes no difference. Get comfortable, make sure the beverages are effectively on tap.

However, making the moment perfect is rare: the choice of book has to combine with the feel of the day, and that’s never something you can plan.

What else do you want our readers to know about you?

I’m a compulsive, prolific writer who believes in letting his books ‘do the talking’. The cult of celebrity is not for me. Really: ignore me, enjoy my stories. Thankee kindly.

Why did you decide to self-publish, and what has been your biggest success so far?

I spent several months looking at traditional publishing back in 2011/2012, along with reading as much as I could about where experts (both real ones and merely loud people on the internet) thought it was headed.

At the end I concluded that what I wrote was too niche for mainstream publishing, and started investigating self-publishing options.

My biggest success? Complete strangers have said wonderful things about my stories.

What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?

Being able to schedule my own time every day.

You write fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, and I noticed a definite lean to the Lovecraftian among your book titles. Do you prefer to stick within the boundaries of each genre, or do you like to blend them together?

The majority of my current horror has a Lovecraftian base, but occasionally I like to do standalone works like Haajinn that shares no common ground.

I enjoy mixing genres when it fits the story, but make no special effort to hybridise everything. In truth, I don’t get a lot of choice: my stories often surprise me with where they end up and how they get there.

What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?

Justice (often opposed to law), personal responsibility, love/loyalty, social integrity (there’s enough to go round if the greedy bastards can be reined in early enough), respect for nature, respect for gods, respect for magic. There’s a common subtheme of diplomacy (in any form) being overrated or abused too often to be considered reliable (for all that it’s essential).

These are portrayed in varying ways within encountered power structures (for and against), attitudes, downfalls, resurgences, and so on.

Do you map out your stories, or are you more of a ‘write what comes’ author?

I have a storymaking engine in my head that occasionally needs to borrow my fingers for typing. After that, I get to spellcheck, continuity check, and tidy up.

There’s no predicting what I’ll write next. I have stories that have been building in fragments for over thirty years. Then again, my most recent book arrived entire, without warning, in seven days flat.

It’s chaotic, sometimes frustrating, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are you working on next? Can you tease us?

As mentioned above, I write in a non-linear fashion. I’ve currently got over thirty books in progress. Some may be finished soon, others will take longer. I can never tell.

But, since you ask, I’ve got stories… Here’s snapshots of the five front runners coming up to Samhain 2025.

[Modern Fantasy] Eighty years ago the atomic blasts that ended WW2 returned the morning lands to Earth. Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria; they all existed in some form, and a lot of beings on both sides weren’t delighted they came back.

Now the elves fly magical Gen 6.5 warplanes, bulletproof lizardmen are invading India, and a mad undead wizard is conspiring with fascists so he/it can rule the world once again. Plus the Cold War turned stranger than anyone could have predicted.

[Sword & Sorcery] The city of Vash is ruled by six competing clans overseen by the magical organisation their founders put in place two centuries ago. The Tower, as it’s called, is based in a spire that predates Vash.

There are many among the clans who’d like the limits placed by The Tower removed. There are a few who are plotting to make it happen. None of them realise the devastation they’ll cause if their plan succeeds.

Some of those in The Tower do. This is the story of the two guardsmen they recruit to help stop an apocalypse.

[Retro Action/Adventure] Born in the sticks in the sixties, stuck in a big city in the Seventies, a group of school friends started a rock band. When stardom didn’t arrive, they had a crazy idea and joined up. Fifteen years later, the survivors are the core of a PMC, still play rock ‘n’ roll, and hunt for lost Nazi loot in their spare time. They’re very good at all three. But when an investigation into a huge haul of Nazi secret technology and treasure goes wrong, they find themselves fighting for their lives against enemies closer than they suspect.

[Horror] The elder gods have been lurking at the threshold for millennia uncounted. Only a few want to return, but there are more humans than you’d believe working to make it happen.

Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in a Sussex coastal town. D.I. Dan Higgin has fought cultists and gods before, but this is something stranger still. As things escalate, along with the body count, it gradually becomes clear that it’s linked to dire secrets being stirred up by old enemies.

All he has to do now is find a way for his team to stop a clash between elder gods and eldritch fae that will kill thousands and possibly change the world into a new kind of hell.

[Sci-Fi] Humanity suffered profound shock when they found the organic population of the galaxy was exceeded by the robotic, and over half of the robotic denizens came from extinct civilisations.

Every sentient race strove to create life in its own image. Most of them succeeded – or ended in catastrophes so bad they caused in psychological blocks preventing further experimentation.

What happens when a robot’s creators die out? Unless some sort of killswitch has been included, the robots become the inheritors of their creator’s estates. What they do with them is where the problems start. When those problems turn criminal, the Cheva get involved: they stop those problems becoming rogue empires by any means possible. It’s dangerous work, but offers a thrill you can’t get anywhere else. That sort of things attracts unusual beings. Leyshai and Grish are two of them, and they’re having fun while doing good (most of the time) and roving the galaxy.

And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…

…book, in recent times?

Knights vs. Pirates (a graphic novel published by Reckless Hero) from writer Jay Martin and artist Chris Imber, with colours by Chris Jenkins.

…game, in recent times?

Sadly I’m unable to play most games due to a quirky form of motion sickness. I have a PS2 with eight games and that’s it. (Gran Turismo 3 still rules here.)

…writing advice?

Just write. Until you actually have a completed story, every other consideration is irrelevant.

…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?

You need a proofreader who’s not afraid of you.
Unfortunately, an understanding of using social media for marketing is essential.

…source of inspiration?

Anything, everything. Read, watch, listen. You never know what may spark a story, and even if it doesn’t, it’s all grist to your subconscious creative process.

…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?

Weight training and martial arts.

I also custom modify Eldar titans (old Forgeworld W40K) when I really need to focus elsewhere.

Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?

You can never write a story that’ll appeal to everyone, nor can you ever tell how a reader will interpret it. So just write the story you want to.

I’ve read so many books… So, truly inspirational works for me as an author?

The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road) by Guy Gavriel Kay
Echoes of the Great Song by David Gemmell
Centerforce by T.A. Waters.

Julian Miles

I grew up in Sussex, UK. After an interesting/strange childhood, a broken home in my early teens finished off my departure from normal. In the subsequent four decades I’ve worked at levels from loading bay to boardroom, broken more things than I’ve been charged for, and picked up a lot of stories along the way.

Reading has always provided an escape for me, and while I’ve always been drawn to science fantasy and magic, the darker sides of both led me via less-travelled paths to a love of Lovecraftian horror and classic sword and sorcery.

From those early influences, a marked dislike for wasted time led to a certain no-nonsense approach at odds with traditional Cthulhu Mythos fiction and, indeed, the niceties of office politics. (All the while I was scribbling notes containing fragments of tales, poetry, and RPG scenarios.)

When my unfortunate talent for breaking things led to both career and sequential relationship failures, my lifelong love of tale telling came to the fore to save me from a life of petty crime.

After starting publishing in 2011, I became a UK registered publisher in 2013 and haven’t stopped since. I’m a triple-going-on-quadruple genre author who’d be delighted if some (or all) of my tales work for you.

Why not come and see if my writing and your imagination get along?