>Get to know…author Lee Nichols

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Get to know…Author Lee Nichols 

Lee Nichols was born in Marblehead, Mass., raised in Santa Barbara, and now lives in Yarmouth, Maine. Which is probably why the four years she attended Hampshire College in Amherst, where she studied history and psychology, made her antsy. It was much too far from the ocean. She is the author of five novels for adults and the brand new HAUNTING EMMA series for young adults. She is married to novelist Joel Naftali, who sometimes writes as Joel N. Ross, and they have one son.

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How did you get started writing professionally? 
I got my start co-writing non-fiction books with my husband. We wrote three books together and then thought, “Wow, writing is way better than real jobs. Let’s see if we can write novels.” It took a few (very lean) years, but we both finally cracked the fiction market.

Who is your favorite character or type of character to write? 
I pretty much always write about female characters who are figuring out who their are, who they want to be, and what they want to do with their lives. Often, I include a romantic element, but it’s important to me that they be characters who can stand alone–the romance is always secondary. I also love writing quirky side characters and snarky best friends.
 

Who influenced or encouraged you the most? 
Probably my husband, who said, “Why can’t we be writers? Who’s to stop us?” I was definitely raised to choose a more practical career, though my mother couldn’t be more supportive and certainly my love of reading came from her.
 
 
Who was your favorite teacher and what subject did they teach? 
I loved my Greek History teacher in ninth grade. One of those teachers that made going to class fun.
 
 What interrupts or interferes with your writing the most? 
It’s a toss up between the internet and my son.
 

If you weren’t a writer, what type of work would you do? 
If I’d never started writing, I probably would’ve gone to music school and ended up teaching.


What do you consider the pros and cons of writing? 
The best thing is always having something to strive for, like writing a better book, hitting a sales list, getting an award, or simply hooking and satisfying readers. The rejection, whether it’s from agents, editors or readers, can definitely be challenging.


What question would you like an interviewer to ask, but somehow they never do? 
Maybe something like: “How did you get so perfect and brilliant?”

 
What would you like people to know about you?
That I don’t actually think I’m perfect and brilliant.
 

With your new series “Haunting Emma”  in progress, how much in advance do you plot out the story? 
I am a huge, world domination plotter. Could never write a book without my outline. When I started the Haunting Emma series I knew what the three books would be about and that I wanted a long story arc that would last through the whole series.
 

Where did the idea for “Deception” stem from? 
I wanted to write a contemporary Gothic novel, with a kick-butt heroine, and it sort of evolved from there.
 

You have several successful Adult books on the market, what made you decide to leap over to writing Young Adult fiction? 
When I started working on the idea for Deception, I kept making the character, Emma Vaile, younger and younger, until I finally realized it was a YA novel.
 
 
Will you continue to write in both Adult and Young Adult fiction, or is there something entirely different you want to write about? 
I hope to keep writing both. I’m dying to write a sci-fi YA novel, which would be a new direction for me. But right now I’m working on the third Haunting Emma book.

Read resident tween, Desilula’s review of Deception the first in Lee Nichols’ Haunting Emma series HERE! And, be sure to pick up a copy of Deception due for release June 8th, 2010!
PBD wishes to thank Lee Nichols for allowing us the chance to get to know her a little better. Please visit Lee’s website for more information: http://leenicholsbooks.com/