Over the past few months I've posted several times about the two upcoming anthologies which both feature stories that I wrote. (And since "Welcome to the Splatter Club" is due out on September 1st, and "Shadowy Natures" hits on September 10th, you'll be seeing more about each one in the coming weeks.) Anyway, today I'll be interviewing one of my coauthors from "Welcome to the Splatter Club," Nikki Noir. In addition to her interview questions and answers, scattered about you'll find a couple of her book cover images, along with her website avatar above. And stick around to the end to find her website address, along with where to locate some of her other works. This is probably self-explanatory, but the black text is me, and the red text is Nikki. Enjoy, and welcome, Nikki!
Thanks for having me, Paul! I’m
pretty much brand new to writing fiction, especially extreme and bizarro
stories. I have family and friends involved in the community and they gave me a
push to jump into the genre starting with reviews. I outline my journey into
this crazy world of fiction on my website Redrum Reviews.
As I go along, I’m taking chances at
writing stories and seeing if anything sticks. I have a lot of story starters
and teasers on my website, but very few finished pieces. My story “Grinder” happened to stick, and I’m
happy to make my anthology debut in Welcome to the Splatter Club #1.
1) If you could talk to
any writer, living or dead, who would it be, and what would you discuss?
Chuck Palahniuk. I really love the way he structures his
stories and I would love to ask him how the ideas come to him. Speaking of
where ideas come from, Carlton Mellick III, would be my next choice. Have you
seen his plots and cover art? How does a person come up with those ideas?!
2) Do you plan your entire
story or novel all out in advance, with a complete outline, etc., or do you
just start writing, and see where it takes you, making it up as you go along?
I usually get an idea—something extreme, crazy, or
sexy—then turn into a single scene right away. It’s graphic and fun, but it’s
usually isolated, there’s no real story to go with it. I think of it as a movie
trailer without the movie. No one is interested in that.
I have about twenty random scenes (trailers) jotted down
in notebooks, just waiting to be fleshed out. But that fleshing out stage
doesn’t happen unless that first scene leads into maybe three. Once I see three
loosely connected scenes, the possibility of something bigger, forms in my
head.
Plotting for me it more like making it up as I go. I
usually see the ending I want and those few pivotal scenes I wrote earlier. But
there is no road map connecting them, so I just start writing and see what
happens!
3) What writers have
influenced you the most?
One of my goals is to replicate the extreme horror of
writers like Kristopher Triana, Edward Lee, Wrath James White, and the like but
with a female slant to it.
4) What is your current
work in progress?
The Lockdown with S.C. Mendes. He works with me on pretty
much all my projects in one form or another and helped get me into this genre. Mendes
started The Lockdown book years ago, but never finished. The idea morphed
several times and eventually he came to me as a sounding board on how to change
the main character to a female.
The book has now turned into something super experimental.
I’m not sure it’s even horror anymore. It’s a dark YA mystery. We say it’s
graphic enough for an adult, but made for a teen.
5) Do you prefer writing
short stories, novellas, or novels?
Short stories and novellas! I think today’s world is
super busy and many readers want entertainment that they can enjoy in short
bursts. It can be hard to sit down with a 700-page novel everyday for months on
end.
6) What do you do to break
a case of writer’s block?
Bubble bath and glass of wine.
7) What’s your stance on reviews
of your work? Do you ignore them, read
every one, obsess over them?
I currently read all of them since there’s less than
fifteen out there, haha. But I like getting feedback. Especially at this stage
in my career, which is newbie. I changed my whole Black Planet book series
after receiving helpful reviews. Readers loved the story, but they hated that
the first book ended on an insane cliffhanger. I learned that even though a
book can end on a cliffhanger for a larger mystery, the immediate conflicts
need to be resolved. I literally had the book end with one character tied up in
a burning room, no resolution and it’s took almost a year to get readers the
next part.
Yeh, I don’t do that anymore, lol.
You can now get all four books in one 😊
8) About allegory and
symbolism—do you often intentionally insert these things into your
stories? Have you ever looked back on
one after you’re finished and realized you put in some of these without
consciously realizing it?
I don’t put any symbolism in on purpose. If it happens,
it’s all been done subconsciously. That’s not to say I don’t put significant
meaning into certain scenes and character actions, however, I don’t pick the
color of a character’s clothes or a location/address based off some great
significance of numerology or color symbolism chart.
9) What’s your
post-writing process? Do you edit
extensively? Do you use beta readers or
writing groups?
I use a lot of collaboration. Many times, I come up with,
what I think is, a really interesting idea. I have a concept or theme and can
type out a few scenes. Then I hit a brick wall. I usually collaborate with an
author and editor after that, bounce ideas around and figure out what the story
is really about and if we can do something with it. Then I go back to work.
After my first draft is done, I’m give it to several beta readers and be sure
to listen to their advice so I don’t have another issue like I did with Book 1
of the Black Planet Series lol
Beta Readers are super helpful and I think everyone
should think about using them. Most will give you feedback in return for a copy
of the paperback. Which is helpful for struggling writers with small pockets.
10) How much of your work
is based on your personal experiences, such as work, relationships, and so on?
Luckily, very little of it has to do with my personal
experience. Lots of murder, black magick, and horror sex.
11) Do you have any writing
rituals, such as doing it at a regular time every day, or writing in public
places, or while listening to music?
I know I should have set times, however, between kids,
work, family obligations, and everything that comes with life, my writing often
gets put on hold. It’s much easier for
me to write a review than it is for me to write an entire story due to this.
When I do have the chance to write, I stick to
instrumental music, something dark, slow, creepy like I’m in a haunted house
movie.
Thanks for stopping by, Nikki Noir! As I mentioned before, here are some addresses to locate Nikki's website, and some of her books.
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