Interview & Publishing Tips With Author Nicole Zoltack

It's the day before Halloween--time for a spooktacular story! What could be better than chatting with Nicole Zoltack, author of Black Hellebore? After all, her book has a witch, and magic, and murder, and romance.

Before we get to my interview with Nicole, here's a quick summary of Black Hellebore:

Once a year for the past decade, Nicholas Adams returns to Falledge and leaves a black hellebore on his girlfriend's grave. While fleeing Falledge, he spies a shady man sneaking into the laboratory. Nicholas chases after him and dies for his trouble. A witch brings him back to life, only Nicholas is not the same man. Turns out, magic combined with a black hellebore in his pocket changed him into a kind of a super man.

Julianna Paige, his girlfriend's twin and deputy of Falledge, struggles to solve several murders. Nicholas, and his alter ego the Black Hellebore, helps her, even as she helps him move on and start to truly live again.

Unfortunately, Nicholas wasn't the only one changed in the laboratory explosion, and now a super villain is bent on destroying Falledge, and killing the Black Hellebore. But falling in love might prove more dangerous than any super villain.

Dark and intriguing, right?

And now a few questions with author Nicole Zoltack:

1. From idea to final product, how did Black Hellebore come to be?

Gail Delaney, the EIC of Desert Breeze Publishing, mentioned to her authors about how she thought superhero romances should be a thing. With how popular they are in comics and movies, why not books? And so I immediately started to think up a hero and mentioned to her it would be right up my alley, and here we are!

2. Can you give us a brief summary of your writing process? Plotter? Pantser? Somewhere in between?

I am a pantser, although I am starting to kinda outline if having one sentence or a phrase for a few chapters ahead counts. :) I doubt I'll ever be a heavy duty plotter, but I must say, even that brief outline is helping me tremendously with writing White Hellebore.

3. Black Hellebore is published by Desert Breeze Publishing. Can you tell us a bit about your experience with a small publisher?

I'm very happy with Desert Breeze. They published my Kingdom of Arnhem trilogy and now they are publishing my Heroes of Falledge trilogy. I love their covers. Amazing! And there's editing and they supply the ISBNs and the file conversion and the uploading. I love that I have to fill out a long form for the cover art. That I have input. Covers are huge with selling books. 

4. Can you offer us any advice about book promotion? What's working for you and what isn't?

Ah, book promotion! So important and yet not easy at all to know what works and what doesn't. The best means of promoting is to first learn who your target audience is and to then find them without being all "buy my book." For instance, if you write about pets, go onto pet message boards and be an active participant and reach out to people that way. If you become friends with the other people on the forum, they'll check out your profile and learn about your books. Word of mouth is key, but finding those people who will spread the word about you in the first place can sometimes take some time, but it's so worth it. 

5. Is there any writing or publishing advice you'd like to share with us?

Never stop writing. Never stop reading. Never give up.

Excellent advice, Nicole!

Friends, do you love superhero stories? Creepy cool mysteries? Have you worked with a small publisher? If so, did you have a similar experience? Please share!

Connect with Nicole at the usual haunts: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads. 

Want to win Black Hellebore goodies? Enter here for a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Nicole Zoltack loves to write fantasy/paranormal, romances, horror, historical, for adults and young adults, novels, short stories, and flash pieces. She doesn't want to get boxed in by genre -- she might be claustrophobic! She's also an editor for MuseItUp Publishing and works as a freelance editor.

When she isn't writing about girls wanting to be knights, talking unicorns, and zombies, she spends time with her loving family. She loves to ride horses (pretending they're unicorns, of course!) and going to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, dressed in period garb. Her favorite current TV show is The Walking Dead.

Interview with Nicole Zoltack

Today our blogging buddy, Nicole Zoltack, has stopped by for an interview. The third book in her Kingdom of Arnhem series, CHAMPION OF VALOR, released May 1st.

Me: Welcome, Nicole! Can you give us a summary of your book series?

Nicole: The Kingdom of Arnhem series (fantasy romance for young adults and adults) is about the final war between two kingdoms - Arnhem and Speica.

Book I - Woman of Honor is about a young girl who wants to become a knight. Aislinn is willing to give up everything for the kingdom of Arnhem - her childhood, her life, even her heart. No matter the pain it brings.

Book II - Knight of Glory. Geoffrey leaves Arnhem to find her allies for the war against Speica and finds secrets, lies, and rumors that could tip the war in Speica's favor. He also finds himself torn between two very different and mysterious ladies.

Book III - Champion of Valor. Selliki loves the mage Gabrael but she is a selkie and love has never treated her race kindly when they love someone from the land. The final war between Speica and Arnhem is threatening the entire world. Lucifer has aligned himself with Speica and wants nothing less than to bring about the Apocalypse before its time. Only one kingdom will prevail; that is, if the world doesn't end.

Me: You're a busy mom with two small children. How did you manage to squeeze in enough time to not only write one novel, but an entire series?

Nicole: It isn't easy being a writer when you have kids. Son #1 is 2 1/2 , son #2 is 9 months (he'll be taking his first step soon!) I write when everyone else is sleeping, either late at night or early in the morning. What's wonderful is that both boys nap at the same time, so I can get dishes and other things done during the day and I try to squeeze in some writing then too, although if I'm honest, I usually try to catch up on emails and blogs then.

Me: Yes, reading blogs is a familiar addiction! What is your favorite part about writing fantasy novels?

Nicole: I love that anything goes. I can have people throw fireballs at each other. I can introduce races like selkies and dwarves. I can show dwarven women (why are they hardly ever portrayed?). I can change trolls so they aren't so monstrous and have magic themselves - the ability to dance on the wind. The freedom is what I love most.

Me: What a cool job--creating unique characters and intriguing worlds. Can you give us a small glimpse into your writing journey?

Nicole: Sure! I first learned about Desert Breeze through a publisher chat on a yahoo group. As the chat was winding down, Gail Delaney (the EIC) mentioned that she loved series, especially for fantasy and a few other genres. I mentioned to her that I had an unfinished manuscript that would be part of a series and briefly described it to her. She said to send it to her when it was finished.

The story I had mentioned was a Nano story (National Novel Writing Month when authors around the world try to write a 50K in November). I abandoned all other side projects and focused on the novel until I completed it. After finishing it, I submitted to Gail and waited. Shortly thereafter, she emailed me an acceptance for Woman of Honor.

Desert Breeze is a non-erotic romance publisher, which is perfect for me. My novels tend to have crossover appeal. Woman of Honor is a coming-of-age fantasy romance, so it's definitely for YA and adults.

Anyhow, I had mentioned to Gail about the series during the yahoo chat, and we worked together to figure out the direction that the series could take so that the entire series was fantasy romance, each book centering on a different couple. And that was that. I had sold a short story or two before this, but this was my journey to novel publication.

Me: That was quite an adventure. What quick tip can you offer fellow writers?

Nicole: Even if you can't write every day, work on your story every day. Even if that just means thinking about the characters and what kind of ice cream they like. The more you know and understand your characters, the more they'll leap off the page.

Me: Thanks for the visit, Nicole. We all wish you success with your trilogy!

Happy Mother’s Day to Nicole and all the other Mommy Writers out there. Readers, be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win some signed post cards and magnets. Each comment during the Champion of Valor Blog Tour gives you an entry for the grand prize: a copy of the entire Kingdom of Arnhem trilogy - Woman of Honor, Knight of Glory, and Champion of Valor.

You can find Nicole here: Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter

Her books can be purchased on Amazon here.