Q: In one sentence, tell me something that describes you as a person?
A: Slightly mad.
Q: How many books have you written? How many of those are published?
A: Hmm… *Reaches for spreadsheet* So far, I’ve written thirty novels, five novellas, and a book of short stories. All but eight of the novels and one novella are published.
Q: Do you have an upcoming release? If yes, tell me the title and impending release date.
A: I always have an upcoming release! I like to plan ahead, and right now, I’m writing for 2019. My next book published will be Rhodium on 31 March.
Q: Tell me about how you come up with your titles for your stories. Do you create the title before or after you write the book, and does it ever change from the initial title?
A: I try to keep a theme running through each series. For Blackwood Security, each book has a colour in the title. It kind of happened by accident—for the first four books (The Black Trilogy and Gold Rush), the colours came from characters’ surnames, and after that, I figured I’d just carry on.
The Blackwoods Elements titles are—you’ve guessed it—elements. So far, I have Oxygen, Lithium, Carbon, Rhodium, Platinum, and Nickel. It’s always fun trying to weave the titles into the story. For example, Rhodium is a restaurant, and Nickel is a cat.
Sometimes I come up with the titles before I write a book, and sometimes after. Nothing but Trouble used to be called Trouble Rides Again, and while I wrote it, Joker in the Pack was called House of Cards, but I couldn’t publish it under that name because of the TV series. And there’s a novella I plan to publish at the end of April in aid of a charity, and I still don’t have a freaking title for it.
Q: Out of all your characters in all of your books, who/what (sometimes a setting can also be an important “character”) do you think is the most interesting and why?
A: That one’s easy – Emmy Black. An assassin who’s addicted to coffee and hates pineapple on pizza – what’s not to love? She’s got so much depth, she’s quirky, she doesn’t hold back with her opinions, and every time I put her in a book, I learn something new about her. Oh, and she swears a lot which appeals to my baser nature J
Q: If you could “create” your own genre of what you write, what would you call your books?
A: Uh, I kind of have this problem every day. The books I write combine romance, mystery, thriller elements, and humour. Maybe comedic romantic suspense?
Q: Without quoting your back cover synopsis, tell me about the last book you published.
A: White Hot came out at the end of January. It’s a romantic suspense novel featuring one of my early characters, Dan. She’s a private investigator, and after a slight prang in Emmy’s car, she gets given a total mess of a case as punishment. Enter one shy music producer, three determined kids, and a dead call girl…
Q: Tell me something about yourself that is separate from writing.
A: I have a horse called Trev. He eats all my money.
Q: Who is your favorite Author?
A: Just one? No way! I can probably narrow it down to one per genre… Russell Blake for thrillers, Jeffery Deaver for mysteries, Janet Evanovich for romantic comedy, JA Huss for romance, and Helena Newbury for romantic suspense. I’ve just started reading a bit of sci-fi, and Barry Hutchinson’s Space Team books are hilarious.
Q: What is the last book that you read? (Not counting anything you wrote)
A: Play by Piper Lawson. Loved it!
Q: When writing, do you have a system or something you plan, or do you just write?
A: I like to have a pretty good idea of where a story’s going before I start. I’ve read loads of books on story craft and tried complicated spreadsheets and beat sheets, but what works best for me is just to write a couple of thousand words with a short paragraph for each chapter. That usually changes quite a bit as I go, especially in the middle. Characters often do unexpected things, bless them.
At the moment, I’m also writing an interactive story for my newsletter subscribers – at the end of each installment, they vote on what they want to happen next. It’s super difficult, and I have no idea how it’ll turn out!
Q: Why do you write?
A: Because I can’t not write. Why do I publish? Because I have a bunch of amazing readers who encourage me.
Q: Do you read your own work a lot? If so, what does it do for you?
A: While I’m writing and editing, I constantly read my own work over and over to make it the best it can be. But after it’s published, I hate to look at it, mainly because I keep wanting to change things and it drives me crazy.
Q: What is your favorite type of music? Is there one genre (or song, band etc...) that brings out your creativeness more than others?
A: I tend to write best either in complete silence or with white noise in the background. In a café, on a train… The Noisli app is good. Or sometimes Forensic Files on Netflix, because the narrator has a calming voice. Sometimes, I pick out a song or two that fits a book and play that for inspiration. Red Alert was about a pop star, and I had a whole playlist for that.
Q: As an author, I find that the hardest thing to write (for me) is the synopsis that will be on the back cover or book’s description. When you write, what is the hardest line to write, the first line, the last line or the synopsis for the book?
A: That totally depends on the book. Sometimes, I have a first line in mind and things flow from there. For Spooked (which isn’t published yet), I started with My date was going well until the dead girl in the back seat started talking to me, and the whole plot for the book came from that one line.
I used to hate writing back-cover blurbs, but now I write them in my head while I walk the dog and I don’t mind them so much. And the beauty of being an indie publisher is that I can just change something if it isn’t working.
Q: Any final thoughts that you want to give to your fans or even future authors?
A: Dream big, work hard, stay focused, laugh every day, surround yourself with good people, and most importantly, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Do that, and you can succeed at pretty much anything in life.
Website: https://www.elise-noble.com
Twitter: @EliseANoble