Being an indie author is a lot like being a mum. I have two wonderfully challenging, sometimes obtuse, often hair pulling, irritating, confounding and then randomly awesome WIPs (works in progress). I also have two children – haha! The key juggling point is time. Time to think, write, edit, format, publish and promote my beloved books on top of keeping two smalls alive and well. It’s a lot. And I get grumpy when I can’t write when inspiration is knocking and then I get guilty for being the grumpy mum.
All that aside, I love and adore being a writer. My kids aren’t too bad either! It’s both challenging and rewarding and when you get a moment to catch your breath you suddenly realise how much you’ve achieved and how far you’ve come. You get that ‘wow’ moment.
Three years ago, I was not a writer. Today, I have 15 published titles and it is my business. I am a multiple award-winning author who is beginning to earn a small crust as a result of my imaginations. That is a thrill like no other. There are people out there who have never met me, I don’t know them and yet, they have picked up one of my books, read it and enjoyed it. I think that will always be a source of joy for me.
My latest projects include working on Haunted, an anthology of Halloween inspired short stories and poems written by a group of very talented indie authors. It is the second Sparkly Badgers anthology and the first one that I’ve been solely in charge of and the pressure was intense. Obviously, I wanted good writing in the anthology but also there was an element of imposter syndrome as I wondered – who am I to say yes or no to other writer’s submissions. In the end, I enlisted some help for the selection process from Brent A. Harris, one of the Inklings Press guys who himself is a great writer and incredibly generous with his time and expertise.
Haunted will be released at the end of September and will be a free ebook which is very exciting. All the authors involved in the anthology will have the book to giveaway in their newsletters, competitions and giveaways and I can’t wait to find out what readers think of the spooky tales.
Here’s the blurb:
Join us on a pumpkin spiced, ghost-riddled, spooky journey amongst the imaginations of fifteen horrifyingly excellent indie-authors. Let them take you on a candle-lit journey through the minds of the depraved, departed and desperate as they tell you their haunting tales. Lock the doors, close the curtains and don’t turn off the light!
You may be asking who on earth are the Sparkly Badgers? Allow me to introduce them – they are a collection of indie-authors who get together on Facebook and support each other with their writing endeavours. We share marketing tips, promote other authors, give shout-outs for new books upcoming, have a weekly critique spot, flash fiction prompts and writing exercises to improve our craft, a weekly blog share and of course the Sunday check in where I make sure everyone is alright and that cake has been eaten. Very important! If you’d like to join the Sparkly Badgers group, come find us on Facebook. We also have another anthology available to buy and all profits go to the Avon Riding Centre for the Disabled. The Sparkly Badgers’ Christmas Anthology is available on ebook and paperback at mybook.to/SBxmas.
The other project I’m working on at the moment is the third in my hopeful dystopian series, The Gaia Solution. Beta readers are hopefully enjoying the first part of the book while I scramble to finish writing the second half of the book – I’m afraid the summer holidays beat me on time management this year. In addition to working on that, I’m also gearing up to go wide with books one and two so The Gaia Effect and The Gaia Projectwill be available on Nook, Kobo, iBooks as well as Amazon and a whole plethora of independent book outlets plus large bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. The Gaia Solutionwill obviously join them and there will be a box set and an audio book collection in the semi-near future.
Here’s the blurb, or at least, this is the blurb at the moment lol:
Kira, Jed and their friends have fled New Corporation and joined the Resistance, but their relief is short lived as they discover how decimated the human race has become and learn of an environmental crisis that threatens to destroy everyone’s safety. Kira and Jed must travel up the mountain to the New Corporation stronghold, City 50, to bargain for sanctuary while Martha and Dina risk everything to return to City 42 and save those who are left. Gaia, the fading spirit of the Earth, uses her remaining influence to guide Kira and her friends but ultimately, it’s up to humanity to make the right choice.
It’s been a real roller coaster writing this series because The Gaia Effect was my debut novel, my first book baby to be released into the wide-world and really, the first time I’d ever let anyone read my work. I have always loved reading and making up stories, I loved writing stories and poetry as a young girl but life, as if often does, got in the way and my writing was set aside. It wasn’t until I had my son and found, by chance, a local writers’ workshop at my library that my passion for story telling was reignited. I took a break after writing The Gaia Effect and wrote a completely different genre, a humorous fantasy novel, The Rose Thief, inspired by my love of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. In between these two books I’ve released collections of short stories and flash fiction as well as poetry books and had short stories published in other anthologies.
The Gaia Solution isn’t up for pre-order yet but if you want to be kept in the loop you should sign up for my author newsletter - http://eepurl.com/c93M2L. You’ll get a free copy of The Blue Serpent& other tales, my flash fiction collection, as well as Ye Olde Magick Shoppe, a short story from my humorous fantasy world, Roshaven. If everything goes to plan, The Gaia Solutionwill be out this November. In the meantime, you can get your hands-on book one, The Gaia Effect, at mybook.to/gaiaeffect and book two, The Gaia Project, at mybook.to/gaiaproject.
I can be found lurking on Facebook in my author group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BussBookStop/and you can follow me on Twitter @grasshopper2407. My website has the details of all my books and various other projects including the first chapters of bothThe Gaia Effectand The Rose Thiefso be sure to check it out at www.cbvisions.weebly.com.
Thank you, Claire, for stopping by and sharing a little about yourself and your books. Scribblers you need to go out, right now, and grab these books. They are amazing, and a lot of fun to read. Remember you can help out both Claire and I by liking and sharing this post with your readers friends. If you have a question for Claire leave it below and she’ll swing by and answer it. Until next time have a great week.
Author Bio
Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet based in the UK. She wanted to be Lois Lane when she grew up but work experience at her local paper was eye-opening. Instead, Claire went on to work in a variety of admin roles for over a decade but never felt quite at home. An avid reader, baker and Pinterest addict Claire won second place in the Barking and Dagenham Pen to Print writing competition in 2015 with her debut novel, The Gaia Effect, setting her writing career in motion. She continues to write passionately and is hopelessly addicted to cake.