An Interview with Nikki Prince

Nikki Prince

 Nikki Prince lives in Riverdale, California. She is a mother of two, who always had a dream to be a published romance author. Raising children as readers, gaming, cooking, reading and, of course, writing are her major passions. 

Nikki is a multi-published author and she enjoys interracial, inter-genre romances. 

However, she asked me to let you all know not to “box her in” because there is always room for growth. 

I caught up with Nikki while she was hiking in woods near Modesto and the Wizphone  was soon as hot as her prose...

Amongst other presses, Nikki works for the Crushed Hearts and Black Butterfly Imprint HOT INK...

http://www.hotinkbooks.com/

Hiya Nikki...tell us about yourself.  I'm a mother of two young children under the age of ten, I'm a gamer, a writer, a reader and I love to travel.  I've wanted to write since I was 12 years old.  My dream finally became a reality this year when I was 42.  When I signed my first contract for a story I co-wrote with a friend in March 2012. 

Nikki's stomping ground.

What genre do you write in?  I write Interracial Erotic Romance (Contemporary and Paranormal)

 What made you choose this genre? I write basically what I love to read.  I've been reading romance books since the age of twelve and always wanted to write it.  

My first ever published story was called Hot For Teacher.
Was it, Wiz?

Yes it was. It featured a lunchtime triple - dipple between two young sixth formers and a brunette English teacher loosely based on one at our school. I was paid forty two pounds.
Wow!

It was a while ago. Anyway, carry on..
Okay! I write basically what I love to read.  I've been reading romance books since the age of twelve and always wanted to write it.   

Do you work in any other genres?  No I just write romance.

Tell us about your latest project?  My latest project that just got accepted by Evernight Publishing is the second book in my Karmic Lust Series called Demon Tempted.  My first book was called Demon Mine and is already out on Amazon.  I'm currently working on several short stories.

     http://www.evernightpublishing.com/ 

Thats a pretty smart tattoo there, Nikki!
It is, isn't it.

Anyone you know?
No, it's just stock! hahaha.


Hahaha. I get ya. How do you write? Are you methodical? Slapdash? A binge -er? Or a 1000 word a day grinder?  


I write whenever and where ever I can.  Some days I get 1k in words and other days not so much.  But I do make sure that I write something every day no matter how big or small.  I am also a pantster.  I write by the seat of my pants, I do not plot out.

With erotica, how important is inspiration?  I think writing anything takes inspiration.  For me it comes in different forms.  Sometimes it's music, sometimes it's just a thought, sometimes it's a picture.  Just depends.  Inspiration to write anything is important.

Is the post-Fifty Shades erotica boom about to peak? What's next?  I'm not sure what's next.  I just write what I love and don't compare myself to anyone else.

Comics, art or films? Which is your favourite form of visual expression?  I love all three actually.  I have a few comics that I collect.

Superman Flash Race. Flash 175.
Wiz Notes: If Flash loses this race, then what exactly is the point of The Flash?
One of the thorniest philosophical questions of the Silver Age era and one
I discuss toward s the end of Green Wizard horror bliockbuster
The Ritual - see right...

...I love to see great artwork and movies are fantastic.

So! What do fans of Nikki Prince have to look forward to in 2013?  I plan to finish the Karmic Lust series, more novella's and the like.  I will just keep bringing the heat!

Nikki, thanks for coming along to sit round the Cauldron and the best of luck in the coming year.

Thanks for having me round, Wiz! 

Contact: 

Http://www.nikkiprince.blogspot.com
twitter: @authornprince

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorNikkiPrince

http://www.goodreads.com/AuthorNikkiPrince 

An Interview with Ruth Watson-Morris

• Like some bearded, wizardly Captain Ahab at the wave battered prow of my own personal literary Pecod, I have spent the last three months hunting down my personal Moby Dick - the elusive and modest - shy, even  - figure of Ruth Watson-Morris.  
  
  
  Horrorist, fantasy scribbler, trilogist, creator of the  vast and complex world of the Voxians, metalhead, lasagna cook and  softly-softly networker and marketeer, I finally buttonholed Ruth at the launch of the  Indielit Scrapbook.  
  
  
  Ruth lives in the pastoral and inspiring shadow of the  Malvern Hills, one of the quintessential panoramas of the English countryside, and it was a simple matter for Wiz to pick up the Wizphone and chat to Ruth, as she fed the gorgeous German Shepherd you see below. 
  Here's what she had to say.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Tell us a bit about yourself, Ruth?
  
  
        What can I tell you! I am a mother of 3 grown up children, grandmother to 4 beautiful grandchildren, have an amazing talented husband who writes children’s books and a very large very black German Shepherd dog who lives with a very old collie cross (rescue). I have a degree in Psychology, with some History and education studies. ..
  
  
  
  
  So do  I, Ruth!
  
  
  What's that, Wiz?
  
  
  I have a degree  in psychology!
  
  
  Do you?
  
  
  I do, yes. AND I like history.
  
  
  Oh. That's good.  
  
  
  So we've got something in common
  
  
  Yes we have! I studied law as well and am quite disabled, hence my work as a writer.
  
  
  
  
  That is a beautiful Shepherd!
  
  
  Thank you for saying so.
  
  
  Here's one of my favourite dogs. This is Ted. Ted Bear. You can friend him on Facebook. I think your dog and my friend Kelly's dog would get on a treat! 
  
  
  I think they would, Wiz! hahaha.
  
  

  

  Ted Bear attempts to beat the Canine Cross-Channel record set
  by Captain Webb's dog, Walter.

  
  
  If you both lived in the same County, they could both go swimming together! Anyway, enough of matters canine. When did you write your first book?
  
  
  I first wrote Fantacia about 3 years ago, (maybe longer, I have been saying three years ago for quite a long time now!!) I did nothing with it for a long time, I wrote it to get my son reading before he hit University.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  You're one of the most consistent 
  marketeers and networkers on the circuit - 
  what tips have you for new authors?
  
  
  
  
  Just keep going, there are a lot of talented people out there all who deserve to make it, I will keep showing people my support especially great talents that deserve it. 
  
  
  Be passionate about your work and love what you do, because it's a guarantee that if you like it so will others!
  
  
  Excellent advice! So,what's your latest project?
  
  
  
  
  Sky is the book I am writing now, the end of the trilogy and I have some of the prequel set up. I have just had my first go at writing a children's version of the Voxian books, Bellazard The Reptilian series which has just come out and goes 
  
  
  
  
  FREE for 3 days 27th -29th of this month
  
  
  Download this Free Reptilian book here!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A UFO, similar to the one which descended upon Aberdeen this week, hovers above your house and tractor beams you into a gravity cell. Iglu the alien, your gaoler, is a kindly soul and allows you three books, two CDs and a DVD for your Infinite stay in space. What would they be?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This took me ages to work out!!!
  
  
  My three books would be:
  
  
  Lord of the Rings trilogy - Tolkien
  
  

  

  A Ring

  
  
  Industrial magic - Kelley Armstrong
  
  

  

  Kelley Armstrong Fantasy Epic

  
  
  The Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
  
  
  Wizards and Wands in Deathly Hallows here...
  
  
  CD's 
  War is the Answer - Five finger death punch
  
  
  No one Gets Left Behind FFDP!  
  
  
  and
  Rammstein  
  
  

  

  Liebe ist fur alle da - German Industrial Metal bashers

  Rammstein 

  Weird cannibal/BDSM cover

  (and they banned "Smell The Glove?!")

  
  
  DVD: Day After Tomorrow
  
  

  

  The Statue of Liberty surfing in the Apocalypse

  
  
  
  
  
  

  How do you relax away from the word processor? Do you get much free time?
  
  
  I tend to read other peoples work in my spare time, I love reading and enjoy reviewing books that are great no matter if they are Published by indies or big publishers, they can be good or bad no matter where they come from. Also spend time with my Kids and grandkids which is fabulous
  
  
  I hear on the Indie grapevine that you were once featured in the  Redditch Evening Standard! Congratulations!
  
  
  I was interviewed when the first novel went live. I was quite proud. Here it is!
  
  
  http://www.redditchstandard.co.uk/2011/10/07/story-New-horror-novel-has-a-happy-ending-for-Ruth-19645.html
  
  
  
  
  That's impressive, Ruth! So, which two authors would you most like to cook dinner for? And what is the house special, chez Ruth?
  
  
  
  
  Got to be Terry Pratchett he's fabulous, love DISCWORLD
  and 
  Kelley Armstrong just to beg her to carry on with the women of the other world 
  
  
  books. 
  
  
  She's finished writing them for now which is very sad.
   I have an Italian family (inlaws) who brought me up for a while, so I can make a mean lasagne, I also cook good shortbread

  

  All round Ruth's for a wonderful Redditch Lasagne!

   
  
  
  And what do fans of Ruth Watson Morris have to look forward to in the coming year?
  
  
  
  
  The coming year should bring the Voxian trilogy to a finish with Sky and give the fans Kathos the prequel, they wil discover the origins of Kathos and his people and how he journeyed to Vox, about the multiverse they all slip in and out of including the Hell dimensions, which will take them right to the beginning where Fantacia and Orion are leaving Earth.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Ruth, thanks for talking to us 
  here round the Cauldron. We wish you all the best in the coming year with everything you do?
  
  
  Thanks, Wiz. It's been great fun!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Find out more about Ruth here
  
  
  http://authorvoxiansseriesbooks.wordpress.com/
  
  
  
  
  http://www.facebook.com/TheVoxianSeriesOfHorrorScienceFictionFantasy
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Buy  Ruth's books here!
  
  
  Ruth Author Page and Sales
  
  
  www.lulu.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Badly treated blood drinking labrador-cross seeks non-vampire
  owner to love and to cherish. And a big sofa.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

An Interview with Rae Gee

Many of you will know that I'm compiling a catalogue for the Independent Paperback Gift Shop, and during the compilation process I met a number of authors including up and coming Steampunk author.Rae Gee, who, I discover, lives just down the road from me, the next county along in Leicestershire.

Naturally, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself and Rae agreed to take time away from her busy schedule to talk to us. 

You can also see how the catalogue is developing, as I am going to display Rae's catalogue page on the Gift Shop blog.

Its a Steampunk double bill.

http://independentpaperbacks.blogspot.co.uk/

Tell us a bit about yourself? Who are you? Where are you from? Do you write full time? Do you work?

Hi Wiz! Thanks for giving me time on your blog. I really appreciate it!

My name's Rae, and I hail from a small town just outside of Leicester. I wish I could write full time! That's my ultimate dream. That and make documentaries and take a huge, Easy Rider style road trip across America. 

During the day I work as an events manager for a care home. No two days are ever the same, which is just the way I like it. But one day I hope to walk out of there and to permanently in front of my computer.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=leicester&ie=UTF-8

Wiz Notes: Leicester is home to the National Space Centre. Walkers Stadium and for American readers, is the birthplace of cruise crooner, romantic balladeer and notorious used panties collector, Englebert Humperdinck. 

My mother loves Englebert Humperdinck, Rae.

Does she?

Do you know what his real name is?

Is it Arnold  Dorsey, Wiz?

That's right, it is. He has a pool outside his house with a big inflatable dome over it. Near Oadby.

Oh.

Okay. Anything else about you Wizardwatchers ought to know?

I have a tattoo of a Boeing 747 on my back haha.

Fantastic stuff! On to writing. How do you write? 2500 a day? Straight onto WP? Notepads? Lost Weekend style word binges?

I aim for a thousand words a day. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I manage 5,000. Sometimes it's lucky to make it a hundred. It depends what else is there to distract me, like someone jumping out of a pod from 24 miles above the earth. Now that was worth taking 3 hours out of writing for. I'd quite happily watch something like that every day over the multitude of reality shows we now have. 

Notebooks - There are notebooks everywhere. By the bed, in my work bag, by the computer, under the bed, under the sofa, by the TV. Scattered through them all are a multitude of ideas which, at some point, have to be pieced together. Only most of the time I seem to forget what I've written in them and go on a completely different tangent. And no, I don't plan at all! I'm a real “fly by the seat of your pants” writer.

Ray Milland - the everyday life of a writer. Lost Weekend 1945

You know, I haven't been on a Lost Weekend style word binge for a very long time. I did it about 10 years ago. The results still linger on a hard drive somewhere...

Lost Weekend Original Trailer

Tell us about Mars On The Rise, Rae: Mars on the Rise started as a paragraph while I was sitting on a train. 

Originally it was supposed to be for a friend to illustrate but, while sitting at one of the train stations, I looked at the bricked up arches. It went from there really. It follows Cedo Reilly, who's a storyteller on the pier. He finds himself being propositioned by Erus Veetu, who promises to make Cedo a star of the stages. 

Erus owns the country's largest weapons company and Cedo doesn't like what he does. He spends a lot of time trying to talk Erus out of what he does. There's a lot of twists and turns, dark alleyways and government conspiracies, 

Steampunk oddities, fearsome weapons and a man who has nothing to lose. A lot of people enjoyed it for the exploration of gay relationships in the Victorian era. I never set out to write it with gay relationships but, as we know, anything can happen when it comes to writing! You never know where the muses will take you.

You have a distinctive look. What do you wear when you write? Do you wear the top hat?

Haha, actually I do! Especially if it's cold! It depends what mood I'm in. 

Sometimes I just wear jeans and a t-shirt, sometimes I'll wear full Victorian clothing. You can imagine the looks when I have to answer the door to someone!

Moriarty out of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen wants you silenced and sends his gremlins to Leicester. You are captured while walking down the High Street and incarcerated in an Antarctic dungeon. Your gaoler, Faustus, is a kindly gremlin and allows you three books, two CDs and one DVD to pass away the time. What would you choose.

Books

“War of the Worlds” - H.G. Wells

“Anno Dracula” - Kim Newman

Brilliant horrorist, anthologist, archivist and fantasy fiction/Steampunk guru
Kim Newman

“Contact” - Carl Sagan

Introduction to Carl Sagan's Cosmos

CD's

“Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?” - Megadeth

Megadeth - Peace Sells

“Appetite For Destruction” - Guns N' Roses

DVD

“Firefly box set”

That's a bit cheeky!

Well it all comes in one box, doesn't it!

I'll let you off! What are your personal ambitions. Do you want to write full time? How feasible is that in today's crowded market place.

I'd love to write full time. It really is the dream and I'm hoping to achieve it one day. I think it is still feasible in today's market place. Yes, the market is more crowded but with e-readers becoming more popular and self publishing not being seen as merely a vanity press, I think it's a growing market. And if you can make a niche for yourself then the world really can become your oyster.

I'm also hoping to go back to documentary film-making. It was my first love when I was younger and not so confident in my writing. I want to go and make happy films rather than ones which show the harsher side to life. The world really is a dark place right now and it needs something to help lift it. Books help a lot of people to escape the drudgery but we do need something to help people feel better about themselves and to remind them that they're not just a number in a very big system.

At some point I'd also like to own a Spitfire. 

You can buy flyable kits from several places and I'm half tempted to give Rolls Royce a call to see if they'd build me a Merlin engine. 

I'd love to fly it for charity and to make people happy. 

That's the aim of my life; make people smile and think!

A writer and a musician arrive at your door with a bottle of vino collapso and a bag of Walkers. Who would you like them to be and what food would you prepare/go and eat.

David Ellefson (Bassist for Megadeth) and Carl Sagan. I'd love to just spend an evening geeking out with them about life, the universe and everything. As for what I've cook... Apparently I can do a mean curry when the mood takes me. 

One of Rae's amazing curries, potentially.

Rumour has it that my homemade meatballs are also fairly good.

haha! What do fans of Rae Gee have to look forward to in 2013.

We're holding the book launch for Book 2 of the Veetu Industries series in April. It's going to be an evening of Steampunk splendidness. Everyone's welcome to come and join us, so feel free to check out the website:

Rae, thanks very much for an entertaining interview. I'm sure our readers will really enjoy it if the writing in Mars is as good as the way you come across!

Thank you, Wiz. That's really kind. Best of luck.

You can contact Rae here.

www.raegee.co.uk
www.facebook.com/Veetu.Industries

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Mars-Rise-Rae-Gee/dp/1610403053/ref=tmm_pap_title_0/175-8855130-8756818?ie=UTF8&qid=1335703965&sr=1-1

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mars-Rise-Rae-Gee/dp/1610403053/
ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1345235197&sr=1-1

Late addition: Rae's novel and innovative
Boeing tattoo!

Lyrics:

"And you know all the long while,
It's the journey that you seek,
It's the miles of movin' forward
With the wind beneath your wings." ('River' - Izzy Stradlin)