Wednesday 15 July 2020

A Slice of Cake With... Noelle Nichols

This week I am delighted to be having a slice of cake with Noelle Nichols.

Noelle is a writer, a creator and most of all a dreamer. She writes fantasy. Mostly inspired by Japan, but she's also written a few short stories that only have minor magical elements. Noelle focuses a lot on the internal struggle of characters, as well as questions that don’t really have answers to. Like the morality of killing, how we grow and help one another as a people, and what it takes to become a strong person. (What does strong even mean?)

Noelle is also pretty big on philosophy and thinking about the deeper aspects of the world. By nature, she loves trying new things. Noelle enjoys playing with words and figuring out what she believes in the epic fantasy scope. She's always said that her work is how she translates the world. Which Noelle feels is at the heart of herself as an author. Life is an adventure.

A Colorado native, Noelle lives in the mountains with her artist husband, three border collies and two cats. She spends most of her time creating things and learning about cultures and philosophy.

What kind of stories do you write?

I write stories where heroic characters put themselves between the enemy and the people they wish to protect. Their duty is to stay true to themselves and their people in order to restore peace back to their world.

Can you describe your writing why?

To me writing is a way to explore how things work in the real world. It’s a way to make sense of life and to figure out what would happen if a character did a thing or if a certain ideal was compromised. Would the character be willing to sacrifice A to get B? It’s a way for me to sort through the deeper thoughts of the world in a fun way, and it allows me to create worlds and characters that reflect what I wish the world and myself to be. 

Without writing the world seems…empty. I feel most alive when I’m bringing characters and scenes to life.

Share with us your favourite passage from the book you enjoyed writing the most

This is a small portion of a favorite scene from the first book in my series, Shadow’s Hand
It’s short to attempt to cut out most of the spoilers. :) 

I brought one knee up and rested my elbow, sinking my chin into the folds of my cloak. Finae sketched without care or worry. Her judgement of Hitori was simplistic and absolute, with no room for error. Bad people deserved death—only good people were allowed to live—but life was more complicated than that.

I watched the flames with unfocused eyes, analyzing the play of light and dark across the cold stone.
The False Shadows killed. 

Their transgression: taking innocent lives. However, more than a handful of them had been forced into being False Shadows and killing to protect those they loved. Were they to be charged with the same justice as Hitori? With Finae’s absolute judgement, some would say yes. Others, no. It mattered how a person executed their own personal judgement. When did we make exceptions to the rule of life and death?



Tell us about your latest project

The last project I finished was a short story, Guiding Light, that is set before my main series, The Shadow’s Creed Saga. It’s a piece that explores the holiday season with my main cast of characters and gives them a break from the twists and heartache of the main series. With…more heartbreak. LOL. No seriously, it’s a really nice little piece that has all the feels. There’s some fun foreshadowing about what was in the past of some characters as well as a great lead in to the main series with Kilo and his reason for pursuing being a Shadow.

What is your favourite cake?

Ice cream cake! Or homemade chocolate cake because let’s be honest, we bake to eat the batter.


You can connect with Noelle at her website - noellenicholls.com

Join me next week when E.M. Swift-Hook returns!

If you would like to take part in A Slice of Cake With... please fill in the form found here. I'd be delighted to have you.

You can also support my writing endeavours and buy me tea & cake - it's what makes the world go round! 


Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find out more about her books on her website clairebuss.co.uk. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.

No comments:

Post a Comment