About

Miranda fell in love with Korea almost as soon as she got off the plane. She spent much of her life teaching other expats about the language and culture of the country. After writing her master’s thesis on the topic of second language self-identity formation, she became extremely interested in people’s self-identity and how it is influenced by their surroundings. Having struggled herself to form a second-language identity, Miranda uses her novels as an opportunity to explore the multitude of identities people create for themselves.

Stories to Widen Your Mind and Heart

Hi there! Miranda here. I want to explain what it is I mean when I say I write stories to widen your heart and mind. Fast admission, I’m a bit of a linguistic nut. Words mean something and I’m always amazed at how deeply those meanings sink into our brains and culture.

In Korean, there’s this phrase, 넓은 마음- a wide mind. It was originally explained to me as being open minded. I took it that way for a few years, but I’ve come to realize that being open minded is not the same as having a wide mind. An open mind is like a door that swung open and lets anything in or out. The door itself doesn’t change. A wide mind, however, suggests that your state of being is in fact altered. It may sound like semantics but that’s a huge difference to me.

This is why when I was trying to decide what in the world I was doing out here in the world of fiction, I decided that all I really cared about was widening people’s minds and hearts. My promise to you is that I will always write books that give you new perspectives. They’ll be fiction but they’ll be based on truths. In my dystopian series, you’ll learn about the real difficulties that surround people raised up in war torn countries and dictatorships. How do I know? I research and read before I write. In my upcoming fantasy series, you’ll be exposed to the cultures and myths of countries you may not have heard to much about. Why? Because I’m dedicated to making this world a more aware, educated place.

So that’s it. That’s my promise to you. I’ll keep on learning so that I can pass on new knowledge to you. And I hope that you, in turn, take that knowledge and go out and do some good.