Julian M Miles

Julian grew up in Sussex, UK. A broken home in his early teens took him off the ‘straight and narrow’, and he’s never gone back. In the subsequent four decades, he’s worked at levels from loading bay to boardroom and picked up a few stories along the way. His first loves were science fantasy and magic; the blending of ancient and futuristic. He started writing at school, extended into writing role-playing game scenarios, and thence into bardic storytelling. In 2011 he published his first books, and in 2012 he published more (along with releasing the smallest complete role-playing system in the world). Since then, he’s published over 40 new books, along with a dozen omnibus collections. He has no intention of stopping and would be delighted if you'd care to join him for a tale or two.

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Thank you for joining us today, Julian. I'm excited to learn more about you. In that vein, why don't you tell our readers a little about you and what kind of projects you work on?

Thank you for inviting me along. In short: I'm a tattooed eccentric with a tawdry past who writes a lot. Longer version: I've been creating books since 2011, but started writing much earlier, at school. Life got in the way as I blundered from a blue-collar job to a white-collar career, then fell for my own hype and got fired (not my finest moment, but highly educational - eventually). With a marriage behind me and an uncertain life ahead, I turned to the quieter of the two things that had never let me down: stories. (For the curious: the other is a lifelong love of rock 'n' roll.) To my surprise, I found creating stories came easily to me. Since then, I've published 50 books, with a further 7 already written, and over 30 more in progress. I'd be delighted if you came to see if your imagination and my writing get along. Keep an eye on what I have available and what's coming at lothp.org.

One of the amazing things about you is that you play in a variety of genres. Is that by design or happenstance?

It's luck. I write science fiction, fantasy, and horror, with no control over the stories that tumble from what I call 'the storymaking engine' in my head. (I rarely have any clue about what's happening within them, either. Strange as it may seem, I'm often surprised by how my plots resolve.)

With such disparate works, how do you keep track of it all?

All of my stories (over 1000 and counting) occur within half a dozen shared universes, spread across time as well as distance in many cases. I have a rough idea of when/where the science fiction and pagan fantasy ones happen. My modern horror tales - apart from 'Haajinn' - they are all set within one universe, and I have a detailed chronology of that, as there are many more books yet to come. My 'sword and sorcery' works are all set in the fantastical realm of Khyr, and occur over the 10,000 years that realm has existed.

There is a broad chronology, but I'm only building the detailed history as stories arise to show me it. On the practical level, I maintain a folder for each project that has useful prose and a 'filing cabinet' folder for all those still at the stack of notes stage. (I do not use any writing packages such as Scrivener or Dabble, and I maintain four backup sets across three different types of media. These do not use backup software, I just drag and drop between the storage.)

I almost always ask an out-there question, so here's yours: if aliens came to Earth and asked to take one human with them to explore the universe, would you go and why?

If they could extend my lifespan: yes. There's so much to see - and that's just on Earth. Imagine how much is out there! Plus, I suspect I have more stories to write than will fit in one human lifetime.

Is writing one genre more or less challenging than writing other genres?

Yes. I find I can switch between science fiction and horror with relative ease (unless I'm writing some really weird horror, which takes a few hours for me to 'change track'). However, fantasy - especially my pagan fantasy - requires a change of mindset that I cannot engage like flicking a switch. It takes a few days.

While the genres may be different, do you use the same process for writing your stories? Or does that differ too?

Short-form stories start with me getting two sentences or the image of a scene coming to mind. From there, I can get the core draft written in between 30 minutes and an hour. A core draft is the bulk of the story, including the main plot elements. It will usually increase in size by up to 50% when I revise it to become the first draft. My long-form stories arrive in three ways.

1. An idea arises with such intensity I fall into a writing frenzy and complete the story over the next few days, usually working to the exclusion of everything else except sleep and occasional eating. I've achieved 9000 words in 18 hours while in these writing stints. 'Haajinn' was the most recent example. Went from not the remotest clue to a whole novel in under ten days.

2. The story builds in - often unconnected - fragments of prose over anywhere between two weeks and 25 years (and counting). When the accumulation of prose and notes reaches a 'critical mass' (exact details and criteria unknown) a writing frenzy ensues to collate and complete the work. ('The Borsen Incursion' was finished in this way: after several years of fragments, I did 40,000 words in 11 days to complete it.)

3. Very rarely, I realize a book I thought to be building slowly is actually one where it will never be done unless I simply sit down and start writing - working with what I have, but not necessarily starting from any of the prose already written. 'The Ballad of Septimus Mak' is the most recent example of this (after fourteen years and two false starts).

While you are definitely prolific, writing isn't your only talent. Can you tell our readers a bit about what you do when you aren't writing?

I'd be inclined to disagree, but I do also design games, both board games and RPG. My first, Gallant RPS, was published in 2012. I have four more in varying stages of completion.

Well, that was informative. Thank you for sharing. Before we go, please tell us about a forthcoming project or release.

My next book will be published by the end of May 2023 (the exact date to be determined by when my editor is done with mauling it). It's a novel called 'Haajinn', is an occult thriller, and features an extensive dive into the alternative mythology of the jinn, along with my trademark levels of mayhem. I wrote an entire lost book of Solomon during the worldbuilding, and have included it as an appendix.

The novel after that will be released at Samhain 2023 (Halloween, 31st October), and is a pagan fantasy adventure called 'The Ballad of Septimus Mak' and features pagan sorcery, dragons, fey, draconic magic, knuckers, scheming, romance, betrayal... and my trademark levels of mayhem. The release year will conclude as it always does in late December with the release of the latest in my annual anthology series (volume 13 this year). It's a digital collection of flash and short speculative fiction with a sci-fi bias. For further details of the books I currently have available and the assorted forthcoming attractions, do visit lothp.org.

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Highlighted Works