My genre is fiction but with various sub-genres, depending on the title. My main novel, Gideon and the Crimson Samurai is fantasy adventure - however my novellas, such as Mother Gaia are more dystopian. Writing fiction has always felt natural to me. Perhaps it’s because I have always had a creative mind and found the real world quite boring and limited. As such, I prefer to write about things that would most likely never happen in the real world. This has always been the appeal to me about fiction, and the beauty.
What do you find most challenging about the writing process, and how do you deal with it?
The most challenging part for me is making it all come together. As a writer, you create worlds, people, beings and your own laws. However sometimes it’s tricky, bringing all these things together and making them all relevant by the end of the story. So far, my best solution is to not rush anything. Imagination is a beautiful yet mysterious thing sometimes, and with patience your mind free to think up alternate ways your story can go. In a nutshell: I just enjoy the story and don’t rush it.
When and where do you do your writing?
I am a night writer, so I have the habit of writing at late hours of the night. I also prefer writing on my desktop computer and not my laptop. Something about the stability of a desktop helps me to write my work better.
What have you learned about promoting your books?
I learnt that readers can come from just about anywhere, which is why promoting is such an important thing to do. I also learned early on that there isn’t a “one show fits all” approach, which weirdly makes me feel better about promoting. I like the randomness of what opportunity reveal itself, depending on what writer you are.
What are you most proud of as a writer?
My most proudest achievement was being invited by Purbeck literary festival, to present my novel: Gideon and the Crimson Samurai. It was an insightful experience and I got to speak with aspiring writers of all ages.
If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be and what would you talk about?
I would love to have dinner with Japanese author Yuya Aoki. He made a three novella series called Psycho Busters and I would love to talk about how or why he thought of such a story. Of course I would need to learn japanese first.
Author Bio
Ricky Baxter is the author of Gideon and the Crimson Samurai, Mother Gaia, A Sinless Horizon and The Worst Death. He is an avid blogger and speaker, giving advice and thoughts to fellow creators from all walks of life. His other works include Colours of Destiny, a Youtube visual novel.
Currently Ricky lives in London, England, where he writes and blogs. Starting out as a composer since graduating with a Ba(Hons) in music and multimedia, Ricky worked for many independent short film directors, gaining notable IMDB credits . Since then, he has embraced his earlier passion of writing fictional stories.
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rickyleebaxter/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/WriterRLBaxter
Website: https://rickybaxter.wordpress.com/
On Amazon: http://amzn.to/1S1q74n
On Goodreads: http://bit.ly/22hXjHm