Q&A: Women's Paranormal Fiction Author L.C. Maxie

L.C. Maxie, author of "The Robin's Nest"

I met L.C. Maxie a few years ago through a mutual connection, and we've been writer friends ever since. I was on the beta reader and ARC team for her first novel, The Robin's Nest earlier this spring, and she agreed to answer a few questions for my readers about her experience as an author and bilbiophile.

Linda is a retired librarian and fellow Virginia author. She has published two non-fiction books that have been featured in Booklist. When she's not writing, she enjoys baking and taking walks with her husband and dog.

Enjoy the Q&A!

You just self-published your first novel, The Robin’s Nest. What was your inspiration for writing a women's paranormal fiction book? 

A little over a year ago, I read about these new books called “cozy fantasy,” that had started to sell really well and were drawing a lot of readers. I love anything and everything cozy so I was intrigued right away. I’ve always liked fantasy, but the long epic novels with complicated world-building and subplots take more effort to read than I am willing to put into them these days. To me, life is complicated enough. I wanted to read some sort of fantasy where I could escape without feeling overwhelmed. Cozy fantasy sounded promising. 

But before I had a chance to read my first cozy novel, the idea for this story popped into my head. After I shared the idea with some self-publishing insiders, they told me my story fit in better with the paranormal women’s fiction subgenre. I looked into it and realized their advice was sound, so that’s where I’ve placed it. I had to tweak the story a little to make it a better fit, but not a lot. The big difference between my book and most PWF is that my book is more on the light-side. Many paranormals delve into the dark. 

For others interested in writing a new genre, how do you recommend starting? 

It depends on your goals. Do you want to take your best shot at making decent money with the book, or are you writing as a labor of love, primarily to please yourself? 

If it’s to make money, do some research to see which genres that you like are selling best. For years, the romance genre has been on top of the popularity hierarchy. But there are tons of subgenres within romance and any other genre. You could see if any of those would be enjoyable for you to write and also have the potential to sell well. If you already have an idea for a story, I’d recommend doing research on genres that you think your book might fit into. Find the one that fits best and go from there. 

But if you’re writing to please yourself and making money is not your top goal, just find a genre you like and go for it. 

But no matter what your motivation is, you always need to find out what tropes are expected within that genre. Readers expect certain tropes and outcomes, and they aren’t happy if you disappoint them. But even so, there is always room for creativity. 

I know you’ve published two non-fiction books in the past. How was the process for writing your novel different from writing your non-fiction books? 

The process was completely different! To create my nonfiction books, research comprised two-thirds of the work. I spent almost two years researching my first book, and then I spent just under a year writing it and getting it edited and ready to publish. I approached those two books the same way I worked on large projects in graduate school. Research first, then writing. And the writing was straightforward. It required clarity, not creativity. 

For the novel, I spent most of my time taking classes and reading books on how to write a novel. I read books on getting emotion across, plotting, character arcs, and revision. The first draft was the most difficult part of the process for me. Once I got that down, I went back and completely revised the story. I eliminated some chapters and added others. Then I went back and tried to make the descriptions and the language as clear and evocative as I could manage. For me, it was definitely more difficult to write the novel than it was to write the nonfiction books. 

You’ve self-published three books at this point. What has been the most challenging part of the self-publishing process? Most rewarding?

The most challenging thing by far is getting attention for your work. Even if you publish through a traditional publisher, you are expected to do a lot of your own marketing. But those publishers have access to catalogs for booksellers and libraries that a self-publisher does not have. Bookstores and libraries are enormous markets that are still, sadly, largely closed to self-published authors. It’s not impossible to get in, but you must make a name for yourself first. Ways exist to do this, but it takes time and a lot of hard work. 

To me, the most rewarding part of self-publishing is that you get complete creative control of what you want to produce. If you have a vision for your book, it will likely be tempered by your publisher if you are traditionally published. They may want you to change things about your story to make it more marketable. And the changes they want to make may not fit what you had in mind at all. I enjoyed being able to let my imagination and vision take me where it wanted. 

How can readers support self-published authors like you?

Give us a chance. If something looks good, it costs little to buy the ebook and see what you think. If you like what you read, sign up for our newsletters. And leave reviews! No matter how good our books may be, people are less likely to give them a try if they don’t have a certain number of reviews. If you don’t want to write a short review, simply leaving a rating with no words can be very helpful. 

What does your daily writing routine look like?

I journal for around thirty minutes every morning. That writing serves as a warm up and to clear my head so I can focus on the more difficult, focused writing to come. After I eat breakfast, I check email and social media to get my thoughts moving. Then, I work out for twenty to thirty minutes. This gets the blood flowing and also helps me think better. Finally, around 9 a.m., I sit down and work on current writing projects for three hours or so. I try to write 2,000-3,000 words per day either on a novel or short story. Then, in the afternoon, I work on marketing or production tasks. 

What is one thing that has surprised you about being an author? 

I’ve been surprised at how much I love it. I’ve always been introverted, but every job I’ve ever had, even those in libraries, have been public-facing. I had to spend most of my time talking with people. I like people, but a lot of interaction is exhausting. So the luxury of spending most of my time thinking and working out ideas on paper has been heaven for me. I know not everyone would feel this way about it.  But I absolutely love the solitude and the thinking time. 

What are you working on next? 

I’m working on book two of the Whippoorwill Gap PWF series. In it, I talk about how the most-disliked character in book, her name is Olivia, got to be the way she is. She pays the price for her choices and learns to do better. As with the first book, magic is a big part of the story. I believe magic is part of life, we often just don’t see it. Life itself is a miracle. That’s what I want to get across in my books using my imagination. 

Where can people buy your books? 

For the first 90 days after The Robin’s Nest’s release, I enrolled it in the Kindle Unlimited program, so the ebook is only available on Amazon. Here’s the link for that book: https://amzn.to/3WQWeNb. After those 90 days are up, I will re-evaluate and will likely have the book available on Google Books, Apple Books, Kobo, Libby, and Hoopla.

My nonfiction books, Library Lin’s Curated Collection of Superlative Nonfiction and Library Lin’s Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs are already on extended platforms. You can click on the titles and find the links to purchase them. 

The print editions of all my books are available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and bookshop.org. 

How can people keep up with you online? 

I have a Facebook page, YouTube channel, and website.

But the very best way to keep up with me is to sign up for my email newsletter. You can sign up here.