Interview with an Author featuring Nicola Rose

The Literary Vixen presents…

Joining us today is Nicola Rose! Her latest release, Arrested: A Salvation Society Novel released today.

How long have you been writing?

I made a few half-hearted attempts at writing stories as a child. Then, when I was in my early twenties, I put a lot of effort into writing an epic adventure set in Ancient Egypt. But life happened and it was put aside. It wasn’t until I was on maternity leave with my first child in 2009 when I picked it back up.

However, I was soon sent spinning on an entirely new project after binge-reading the Twilight books! I’d always loved vampires (thank you, The Lost Boys) and I suddenly had a burning urge to write a steamy vampire love triangle (as did we all, haha!) I wrote about 90% of the first draft of Taste the Dark before letting the fear get to me and once again putting the book aside, focusing on my photography business instead.

Fast forward around four years to sitting at home with my second child and realizing what a waste it was to have written so much of a book and not at least try to publish it.

I haven’t looked back since and have just released my eighth book.

The vampire love triangle became a published trilogy (The Elwood Legacy). And I fully intend to return to that Egyptian mythology idea at some point, converting it into a new fantasy world.

Describe a typical writing day.

Procrastination. Procrastination. Procrastination.

I wish I was joking! I’m seriously bad at staying focused, but I’m trying to get better! All of my writing happens during the day when the kids are at school. It generally involves short bursts of writing followed by frequent distractions such as marketing work, TikTok, and household chores! Oh, and plenty of cups of tea!

Where do you get your inspiration for your books?

Everywhere. Nowhere. Some magical place that spawns them and then leaves me wondering how on earth I came up with it!

Twisted Ginni was entirely inspired by the cover – I purchased the premade cover without any story idea and then came up with the plot afterwards. And I’m currently sitting on several other covers waiting for stories – so I guess that’s my method for the foreseeable!

Do you have a favorite character that you have written? If so, who? And what makes them so special.

Gahhh, don’t make me choose!!

I’ll have to go with the Elwood brothers. They were the first characters I wrote and fell in love with. They re-ignited my passion to write. They’re everything my vampire-loving heart dreamed of – dark and dominant anti-heroes who kill for food, and sometimes for fun, and would burn down the world for their woman.

How do you deal with the emotional impact of a book (on yourself) as you are writing the story?

I guess I just let the emotion take me. I go with it and pour it onto the page. My frequent procrastination breaks soon help me recover from anything too heavy!

Are you on social media and can your readers interact with you?

I LOVE interacting with readers, I wish more would do it! Unfortunately, reaching readers on social media can feel like a massive uphill battle with no results. I do have a Facebook group and Instagram, but my real social media success came list year with the discovery of TikTok. Booktok is amazing!

When writing a series how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?

For my readers, I try to throw out the twists and turns. I love those scenes that come out of nowhere and surprise people. For myself, I must admit, it can be a struggle when shiny new characters are calling to me! So those twists keep me going, too. It can reignite a stagnant writing day when some amazing new thing about a character comes to me!

I also think that my writing improves with every book I release, so there’s that too!

Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with me?

Yes! I’ve always been very loose with my plotting, but I find that means I write slowly so I’m determined to plot the hell out of my next book! I’m currently plotting a Fae fantasy reverse harem and I’m SO excited about it. We’re talking brooding fae warriors, a delicious, wicked prince, and some epic adventure (plus, you know, all the spice with numerous men 😊

What advice would you give to other authors?

Write, write, write! Seems obvious, but sometimes the fear that it’s not good enough or that you don’t know where it’s going can stop you from writing. Don’t let that happen. You can’t fix a blank page. So just throw it down and new ideas will come to you as you go.

Also, be sure to connect with plenty of other authors, particularly the author groups on Facebook. Never stop being eager to learn and grow. There’s always so much out there to help if you just go looking.

Oh, and people absolutely DO judge a book by its cover. Get that right straight away!

What is the one thing you want people to know about you and your books?

To be warned that most of my books get pretty dark in places, and very explicit! Often the steam and darkness go together (blood, rough play etc). My passion is writing men who are dark, violent anti-heroes and villains, with all the angst and tension.

That said, my latest release (Arrested) is my first contemporary romance, and whilst there are certainly some explicit moments, it’s nowhere near as dark as some of my other books. You bet your ass I still wrote a dominant alpha male though!

Thank you Nicola Rose for chatting with me! I will include her information down below. Check out her newest release, Arrested today!

~Synopsis~

Grace

10 years ago, Kane Walker stole my heart.
One night of passion and emotional revelations was all it took. All of my pain and turmoil shared with someone who actually understood. Or so I thought. The degrading video that he broadcast to the world the next day proved otherwise.
But if I want closure, I’m going to have to face him again. And this time it won’t be me on knees — it’ll be him.

Kane

10 years ago, Grace Clemente ran away with my heart.
Grabbed it and took off without so much as a backward glance. I could have followed the same downward spiral of my life into complete destruction, but I chose to fix my mistakes.
If I’m ever lucky enough that she returns, she won’t find the deadbeat she expects. She’ll find the town sheriff. And maybe this time I won’t let her go— even if it means locking her up.

Nicola Rose is from the UK, where she lives with her husband and two boys. When she’s not writing or reading, she can probably be found on family days out hiking and mountain-biking in the countryside, messing in Photoshop, and playing board games in her pjs!