Let's welcome today a special friend and fellow author Jessica Nicholls, who shares with us, in an interview, a few things about her and her writing!
Question 1 - Tell us
a little about yourself.
My name is
Jessica Nicholls, I’m a writer and mother.
Question 2- When and
where do you find time to write? Special
place? Certain hours?
I mainly write
during the school year, when the kids are in school. When my kids started going to school full
time, I began to treat writing like ‘my job’.
Now that I am in a rhythm, I am able to work in the mornings when the
kids are playing at weekend, and during the holidays. Occasionally I write in the evenings, when
I’m desperate to finish something, but even then I struggle. My brain functions best in the morning.
Question 3 - If you didn’t write, what other profession
would you have selected?
Most likely a
teacher, I do love kids and I have an appreciation for education. I know a lot of teachers write as well, but
that is such a tough job, I’m not sure I could do both as well as being a
mother :). Hats off to those who manage
it ;).
Question 4 -. What or
who inspired you to write your first book?
To be honest, the
genre of parnanormal romance and the concept of obsessive love plus a certain
phrase I heard ‘I’m going to fall into the arms of morpheus’ combined
themselves in my head. Not that I wanted
to write another paranormal romance itself, but I’m fascinated by the the
effect it can have on people (I include myself in this). I kind of thought, what if there was someone
supernatural/otherworldly who you had a connection with, how would you carry
that with you? What would happen to
someone in love with their fantasy? I imagined it getting to the point of being
a religion. That’s how Sylvia treats her
devotion to Morpheus.
Question 5 - What is the name of your most recent book and
if you had to sum it up in 30 or less words what would you say?
A dark fantasy
novel set in Manchester, England, involving a university student . Sylvia brings her adolescent obsession' with her to her adult life.
Question 6 -. What
age do you recommend your book for?
I struggled to pin
this down. There are a lot of adult
themes (desire, love, lust, etc.) BUT there are no explicit, detailed love
scenes though there is a lot of sensuality and fantasising. To be on the really conservative side I would
say 18+…but I don’t think it would be damaging for a 16 year old girl to read
it. It in no way promotes promiscuity
and I’d like to think that young women would be able to relate to it and even
take something positive away from it.
There’s a bit of Sylvia and Nyx in all of us ;)
Question 7 - Do you
have plans for a new book? Is this part
of a series?
I do have plans
for a new book - I’m rewriting a manuscript that I’ve been working on on and
off for a while, rather different to Into the Arms of Morpheus. I do have plans for a sequel to Morpheus
involving how characters progress but, I haven’t written anything yet. It’s still brewing.
I love it when
books are turned into movies, most of the time.
It’s a shame when its done poorly, obviously. It’s also a shame when it appears to be being
done purely to make money and not for any artistic or even enjoyment
purposes. A good example would be The
Lord of the Rings trilogy, those are such beautiful films and they totally
pulled me back into reading at a time when I wasn’t doing. That happens a lot - films luring folks into
reading who wouldn’t normally pick up a book. In the hands of the right film
maker, if a story can come to life visually it’s a wonderful thing uniting
audiences, readers, storytellers and film makers.
Question 8 - If you
were a villain from Disney, which one would it be and why?
If I was a Disney
villain, I would be Snow White’s wicked queen/step mother. I hate to admit it. I like to encourage my kinder, softer
side. The one who cares more about love
than about beauty…but I’m a woman. We
all want to be considered beautiful.
Sadly, a woman’s physical beauty is such an overvalued commodity in
today’s world. I’m torn because I admire
beautiful women too and I want to be one….but I hate how much emphasis is on
it. I want my own daughter to enjoy
being such a lovely girl, but I want her to appreciate that there is more to
life and women should be valued for other reasons. I fight my inner wicked queen on a daily
basis for her sake.
Question 9 - For or
against books turned into movies?
I love it when books are turned into movies, most of the
time. It’s a shame when its done poorly,
obviously. It’s also a shame when it
appears to be being done purely to make money and not for any artistic or even
enjoyment purposes. An example of great
books turned into great movies would be The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The films totally pulled me back into reading
at a time when I wasn’t doing. That
happens a lot - films luring folks into reading who wouldn’t normally pick up a
book. In the hands of the right film maker, if a story can come to life
visually it’s a wonderful thing uniting audiences and story tellers of all kinds.
Question 10 - Why should we buy your book?
You should buy my
book because it will pull you into a fantasy full of sensuality, dark obsessive
urges and you will have a new appreciation for lesser known greek gods. It will be like meeting a very exciting new
friend. Do it, you’ll like it.
Could you
share 3 teasers from your book, each consisting of 2 sentences?
Teaser 1 - ‘To
know that he could bypass all barriers like they were nothing, it scared and
excited me. I could imagine him in my
blood as I would lie down, waiting for his control of my dreams.’
Teaser 2 - ‘ I can’t help but imagine her in
a more mortal form. I can see her shiny
ebony hair swinging over her shoulders, her olive hands smothing down slim
demin-clad hips.’
Teaser 3 - ‘I will be
among their divine company soon. Make me powerful, make me powerful, make me
powerful, make me powerful.’
Where can readers stalk you?
Buy links
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Smashwords
Jessica
Nicholls is originally from Northern Illinois.
She lived in the Northwest of England for just over ten years, where she
studied and had her children. Currently,
Jessica lives in the Middle East with her husband and two now school age (yay!)
kids. Running, reading and watching
films are her favorite hobbies. Writing the type of stories she would enjoy
reading (anything dark and weird or romantic, or a combination of those) is a
passion.
