My mom induced my imaginations, says Nicole Belanger- Author of One Last Wish and many more books
A writer
from childhood, an author who write her heart out. The one who conceived
several beautiful books, Nicole Belanger speaks about her journey through words
and about her latest book One Last Wish.
Hi
Nicole, Welcome to the virtual chit chat
Q For a change, tell me about your
phantasms first, about your writings from childhood
Nicole: My mom wrote a lot
of poetry when I was little, and I enjoyed listening to the rhythmic dance of
the words as she spoke them. I remember wanting to create the same tune that
she played, but as a six year old I found that hard. I remember telling my
stuffed animals and imaginary friends little stories that I would make up and
pretend they were the greatest stories ever made. When I was in the second
grade, our teacher wanted us to make up a short story about anything we wanted.
Mine was called The Cat that Leaves Fish
Alone, and was about our pet cat, Tiger. Our teacher provided a blank hard
cover book and my mom typed up my story for me to glue into the pages. I even
did the illustrations. I still have this book on my bookshelf. Holding that
book in my hand at seven years old, a book I created, gave me a feeling that
had never gone away. Accomplishment.
Q
What were you like at school?
Nicole: I got good grades, did my
homework, and tried to blend in. I was friends with everyone, but I had a small
group of friends I actually spent time with outside of school. I played
basketball from the first grade to seventh grade, then in eighth grade decided
to stop so I could focus more on softball, which I played from first grade to
junior year of high school. High school was different. My freshman year I
joined a club called Reducing Sexism and Violence Program (RSVP) which I became
treasurer and secretary of my sophomore year and retained that status until I
graduated. At the end of freshman year, I got my first job at McDonald’s, which
I stayed with for four years until I started working at the hospital two years
ago.
Q
What are your ambitions for your writing
career?
Nicole: I’ve gone further than I ever
expected to with my writing. When I wrote Lost
Voice, I had no intention of sharing it with anyone. Now I’m three books
deep and I don’t really know what I want. I guess I’m just seeing where it
takes me. I love to write, and I love to share what I write with people. And if
my writing changes one person’s life for the better, I’m happy.
Q
So, what have you written?
(*Include books, novellas, short stories, poems, blogs, awards or anything of interest.)
(*Include books, novellas, short stories, poems, blogs, awards or anything of interest.)
Nicole: I’ve written a lot of things.
I’ve written poems, a few short stories, three books, etc. I tried to maintain
a blog for a while last year but I just didn’t have the time for it. I would
like to try to start writing it again, but for now I’ll stick with my books and
micro poetry. I also wrote a children’s book a year ago for a class I was
taking, but the manuscript is still sitting in a file on my laptop.
Q Tell me about One Last Wish
Nicole: One Last Wish is
my newest book that just came out. It opens up with the main character, Brooke Ryder,
finding out her six year old daughter who’s been missing for months has been
found. Unfortunately, though, her daughter, Sarah, was found dead. Brooke is
heartbroken, finds herself at a bar and meets a guy names Sean Crawford. Brooke
and Sean become close, and together try to find Sarah’s killer. But they have
to be careful, because they don’t know who they can trust, or if they can even
trust each other.
Q
Give us an insight into your main
character. What does he/she do that is so special?
Nicole: Brooke is a very determined
woman. She changes drastically from the beginning of the book to the end. At
the beginning, she’s broken. She finds herself spiraling and she’s not sure
which way is up. Eventually she’s able to snap herself out of it and tries to find
her daughter’s killer. She refuses to give up until she finds justice for her
daughter, even if that means going against an officer’s advice.
Q
What are you working on at the minute?
Nicole: I’m working through some ideas
trying to decide what to write next. I would like to write another
romance/mystery novel. I’ve discovered I like the romance genre. In the
meantime, I’m just writing micro poetry to pass the time.
Q
How do you think you’ve evolved
creatively?
Nicole: I’ve come a long way since my
first book. When I got One Last Wish in
the mail, I read the first chapter of each book. My use of description,
emotion, and even the flow of words has gotten much stronger with each book and
I hope it will continue to do just that.
Q
What is the hardest thing about writing?
Nicole: I think the hardest part about
writing for me is discipline. I’m very easily distracted, and because I write
on the computer, sometimes I’m tempted to check my email, social media, and
youtube random things rather than sticking to writing. I also find I sometimes
have to force myself to take just an hour to sit down and write. I try to write
2,000 words a day, even if I never use them for anything.
Q
Unlike several indie author books, yours
was edited well. Who edited your book and how did you select him/her?
Nicole: I used a company called
BookFuel to publish One Last Wish,
and the editor that was assigned to my book was named Windy. Windy did a great
job helping me edit this book. It was a large team effort, where she would
suggest places that needed more or less description and let me make the
changes. She then edited for grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.
Q
Tell us about the cover/s and how it/they
came about.
Nicole: My agent through BookFuel sent me
a questionnaire to fill out for the cover design before they started making it.
Some of the questions included what kind of mood I wanted the colors to be,
what I envisioned for the book cover to look like when I was writing it, etc.
From my answers, they created five different covers for me to choose from, one
of which was the one I chose. Once I chose it, if I wanted anything to look
different on the cover I could have them change it. Then they created the whole
sleeve and I had my cover design.
Q
Who designed your book cover/s?
Nicole: The book cover was designed by
someone at BookFuel.
Q
How do you market your books?
Nicole: I do my own marketing. Mostly I
market through twitter and my facebook page. A lot of my friends also help to
get the word out about the books, as well.
Q
Why did you choose this route?
Nicole: I chose this route because I’m
a working college student. I unfortunately don’t have the money to pay for
advertising. Occasionally I’ll spend $50 on a facebook advertisement for either
the book or my facebook page that runs for about ten days. But other than that,
I just advertise in any way that’s free until I can afford more.
Q
Do you have a trailer or do you intend to
create one for your own book/s?
(* please provide a link to trailer if you have one)
(* please provide a link to trailer if you have one)
Nicole: I do not have a trailer.
Honestly, I’ve never really been able to figure out how to make one.
Q
Do you think that giving books away free
works and why?
Nicole: I think it does. I’m not in the
industry to make money, I’m in it to share my work. People love free stuff, and
they’re much more likely to pick up a copy of your book if it’s free. It’s a
great way to get my name out there. If I do a giveaway, I only do a few at a
time, or I’ll do an amazon kindle free book giveaway for a short period of
time.
Q
What advice would you give to aspiring
writers?
Nicole: Just keep writing. Don’t worry
about it being perfect, there’s plenty of time to edit when it’s done. If you
don’t like it, that’s okay. That’s what editing is for.
Q
Where do you see publishing going in the
future?
Nicole: I see it going toward the
self-publication route. I don’t see people publishing traditionally anymore
unless they’re already a well known public figure.
Q
Is there anything else you would like to
add that I haven’t included?
Nicole: No, I think you covered
everything!
Q
How can readers discover more about you
and you work?
Nicole
Website: nicolebelangerauthor.com (not yet up, it’s in
the works and will be up soon)
Blog: nlbelanger.wordpress.com
Facebook: facebook.com/authornicolebelanger
Twitter: @nbelanger6
Lnkedin:
Pinterest: @nbelanger6
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Nicole-Belanger/e/B007AOQ4CM/
Smashwords:
Book Links: (* American, UK, etc.)
Blog: nlbelanger.wordpress.com
Facebook: facebook.com/authornicolebelanger
Twitter: @nbelanger6
Lnkedin:
Pinterest: @nbelanger6
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Nicole-Belanger/e/B007AOQ4CM/
Smashwords:
Book Links: (* American, UK, etc.)
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120883.Nicole_Belanger
Q
Thank you very much for taking the time
out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.
Nicole: Thank you!
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