Note: This post was originally
posted on 10/14/18 on the old site.
Hello everyone! I have a surprise to share with you guys today! Today I am doing an interview with the one and only author Nicki Chapelway! She just released her new book “A Certain Sort of Madness”, and trust me when I say you should go get it, then read it, then love it. It was just fantastic! And I could probably go and fangirl all day about it, but let’s go into this interview.
About Nicki Chapelway (from Goodreads):
Nicki has been writing since she was eleven years old. She published her first book “A Week of Werewolves, Faeries, and Fancy Dresses” at the age of fifteen, one year after she finished writing it. She enjoys reading, writing, swimming when she can, and fan-girling (in other words: obsessing over other peoples’ stories almost as much as her own). She also enjoys watching TV, her favorite movies and TV shows include: “Doctor Who”, “Avengers”, “Star Wars”, “Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit”, and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Nicki currently resides in Ohio with her family of eight and two dogs, Rylie and Zoey. She is now working on the next books in the “My Time in Amar” series- when she’s not distracted by other stories (both hers and others’).
Follow Nicki here on Goodreads.
The Interview:
Grace: In your own words, (without spoilers!), tell us a little about “A Certain Sort of Madness”. What is it about?
Nicki: “A Certain Sort of Madness” is about a slightly mad teenage girl from England who has grown up hearing that her home is actually the magical world of Amar. She has been forced to live in earth for her own safety, but that doesn’t change the call Amar has on her blood, or the fact that she has inherited magical powers, and dreams of an imaginary friend who she meets when she travels to Amar despite the dangers her mother claims could rise from such an act. When her mad grandfather kidnaps her mother, she makes a deal with her mysterious imaginary friend, and they work to try to find a way to save her mother. Unfortunately that comes with learning a way to defeat the most powerful man in Amar. So dragging her reluctant cousin in tow, she and her imaginary friend as well as a band of other misfits head to the faerie court to steal the most treasured possession, hoping to find a way to free her mother and defeat her grandfather. But sometimes sanity, love, safety, and truth are all just an illusion.
Grace: In “A Certain Sort of Madness”, you have an imaginary friend, lots of banter between your characters, and evil killer faeries. What inspired you to add these things in your novel?
Nicki: I got my inspiration from a lot of places. For instance I read a book last year titled “The Girl Who Could See” and it was about a girl and her imaginary friend. That idea got stuck in my head and over a year later when I was trying to figure out who Dante could be, the thought about how it would be cool to write about an imaginary friend surfaced. The banter, I am afraid came rather naturally, I am a sarcastic little ball of frizzy hair and I needed no inspiration for that. I’m not even sure if I could write a book without at least a little bit of banter. The killer faeries were the natural result of trying to figure out another plot point and trying to tie this story into its companion series “My Time in Amar”. In the first book “A Week of Werewolves, Faeries, and Fancy Dresses”, my characters ran into the same faeries that Alicia faced before entering the court, so I thought that it would be a cool idea to show what the Faerie World was like because I plan on having it play a key part in later “My Time in Amar” books. So even if Alicia will probably never return there, this is not the last you have seen of the faerie court.
Grace: What is your favorite quote(s) from “A Certain Sort of Madness”?
Nicki: A few of my favorite quotes would include these:
“All my life my mother has told me about the impossible. She told me that I had magical abilities, that Earth was not my home. That I could fly if I tried. But when it came to my imaginary friend she was always adamant.
He. Did. Not. Exist.”
~“A Certain Sort of Madness” ~ Nicki Chapelway
““That is amazing,” I whisper awed, moving my thumb back and forth.
The stubble on his cheek prickles my skin.
“How did you manage that?”
My imaginary friend licks his lips, his eyes settling on mine. “Manage what? To have a face?””
~“A Certain Sort of Madness” ~ Nicki Chapelway
“I blink. “I have a messed up family,” I say.
I don’t know if I’m saying it to Mother or simply trying to get the weight of what I had just been told off my lungs.
Mother reaches out and pats my cheek.
“Only the best for you, dear.””
~“A Certain Sort of Madness” ~ Nicki Chapelway
““Welcome to the faerie court.
I hope you enjoy your stay because there’s always the possibility
that you will never leave.””
~“A Certain Sort of Madness” ~ Nicki Chapelway
Grace: When you write your novels, do you write outlines before you begin or do you write from the edge of your seat?
Nicki: Um, both, either or, neither. It depends on the book. I have completely pansted books before. I have also plotted them. Generally most books is a hybrid between with me only plotting the main points and then forging a path through the murky details in between. This book I wrote mostly off of the edge of my seat, not even coming up with the main plot until I was a good portion into it, but I did have some definite ideas for where I wanted the story to go and what I wanted the end to be. I just didn’t know how I was going to get there until I wrote it.
Grace: Music can be very motivating or sometimes can inspire scenes while writing. Was there any music which inspired scenes in your book?
Nicki: I listened to music throughout writing the entire book. Most of the book was written to the song “Just Like Fire by P!nk”, but toward the end of the book I switched off to “The Greatest Showman” soundtrack. Mostly it was the background music, but one of the songs, “Rewrite the Stars” was particularly pain inducing and definitely helped write the very end of the book.
Grace: Psst! Guys! I made a Spotify playlist based off of Niki’s inspiration for her book. Check it out! =)
Grace: CAKE!!! What is your favorite flavor of cake? What about ice cream? (Hey, it’s the book’s birthday, we should totally celebrate!)
Nicki: I will die for the Dairy Queen ice cream cakes, especially the blizzard flavored ones, ESPECIALLY m&m. As for ice cream, pretty much ditto, m&m blizzard. So yes, I say let’s celebrate and have some of that.
Grace: Writing quirks! Do you have any odd, fun things you do as a writer?
Nicki: Does doing something different each and every time I write a book count? Because it seems like I try different tactics for each book I write. I say I’m still learning my method, but I’m beginning to believe that my method is madness. I also talk to my characters while I’m writing. Mostly mentally so my family doesn’t think I’m insane, but sometimes I’ll chuckle ominously while I’m in the middle of writing a sentence and say, “Oh, Dante, you have no idea what you are talking about.”
Grace: What kinds of things do you like doing when you’re not writing?
Nicki: Mostly reading, but I have also been known to be found sitting in front of the TV rewatching my favorite movies and/or TV shows. I also color, sometimes draw (though I’m no good at it), and I’ve been known to do necessary things like eat, breathe, and exercise.
Grace: Do you get writers block? If so, what kinds of things you do to get out of it?
Nicki: Oh yes, I get writer’s block. It’s quite horrible. Generally my writer’s block is caused by two things: either my brain is being lazy or my brain is being dead. If it is my brain being lazy the only cure is to write on until it finally decides to be productive. If my brain is dead… well, there isn’t much I can do there other than try to find some way to jump start my brain. Read books, watch movies, try to think up an idea for my book that excites it back to life. Often the problem with this writer’s block is that it looks like just a lazy brain from the start so I try to plow on and end up killing my brain even worse than it already was previously killed.
Grace: Who is your favorite character from “A Certain Sort of Madness”?
Nicki: I’m going to have to say probably Eugene. Even though I love all of my characters, he was the most fun to write about.
Grace: Ahh!!! I love Eugene too! Here’s my attempt at drawing him!
I look up to see a dark haired young man standing in the mouth of an alley between two rickety buildings. I blink once in surprise. He’s not what I was expecting. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but a tall young man with dark curly hair that rivaled Dante’s in the wildness department, was certainly not it.
He’s dressed in a shabby jacket and dark pants with a large patch in the knee. The pants don’t quite reach his boots, like he’s grown too tall for them, but there is something about his air and the way that he carries himself that almost makes it seem like he’s not dressed in rags.
He’s leaning casually against one of the rickety buildings, a monkey carrying a ratty top hat dancing around in front of him.
The illusionist looks up as we approach and quickly pulls something out of his pocket. I can’t quite see what it is, but when he throws it to the muck covered street, a green smoke fills the air.
“Have you come to to be awed and inspired by your brightest dreams and your worst nightmares alike?” he calls in a stage voice as the smoke billows out around us.
~“A Certain Sort of Madness” ~ Nicki Chapelway
Grace: Tell us a little about your naming progress. What inspired you to give these particular names to these characters?
Nicki: I wrote this book toward the end of my senior year in which I had been reading a lot of classics, I had also taken two college literature classes about this time, so I started coming up with the names of my characters based off of either the authors or the characters of the classic literature I’d read during this time.
Alicia Hareton, of course was named after Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”, but her last name I got from my favorite character in “Wuthering Heights”. Her cousin Olivia I gave the last name Linton, making it so that when her parents a Hareton and a Linton married… well that was a couple that I shipped strongly from that book. Dante was named after Dante Aligheri author of the “Divine Comedy”. Hector was named after my favorite character in the “Iliad”. Antony was named after my favorite character in “Julius Caesar”. Jane was named after either Jane Austen or Jane Fairfax. And finally, Eugene was originally going to be named Earnest off of “The Importance of Being Earnest”, but then the name Eugene got stuck in my head instead and so he was my only main character (other than the villain Marius who already had a name from “My Time in Amar”) who was not named after a classical character or author I had read during my senior year.
All of the naming processes for my books are different. But this was the one that I did for this book.
Grace: Any advice to give to aspiring writers?
Nicki: Don’t give up. Writing has its highs and lows, but your story needs to be told. And don’t try to limit yourself to just one writing process. Everyone’s writing process is different, what works for a bestselling author might not work for you, so experiment until you find what does work. Because you’re the one who actually has to write your novel.
About “A Certain Sort of Madness”
(info from Goodreads):
Insanity is catching…
Alicia Hareton is crazy. But that’s nothing new. Her insanity is inherited from her mother, just like her magical abilities and her blood ties to the strange and alluring world of Amar. She’s spent her life on Earth and yet Amar has always called to her, an intoxicating melody that she cannot ignore. Returning to Amar would put her life in danger, but Alicia has never let such technicalities stop her before.
However, when her mother is captured due to her reckless actions, Alicia will do anything to rescue her. That includes trusting her grumpy, sarcastic imaginary friend, who claims he doesn’t know her and doesn’t seem that imaginary anymore. Or that trustworthy. Together, with the help of her cousin and a band of misfits, they partake in an extremely ill-advised heist on the faerie court in order to find a way to defeat the most powerful mage in all Amar, who also happens to be Alicia’s grandfather. But not everything in the faerie court is as it seems, and soon this unlikely group find themselves fighting for their lives as well as the lives of those they love.
In a world of madness and magic, the lines between lies and loyalty are blurred and sometimes the only option you have left is to let the insanity loose.
Reasons Why You Should Totally Read This Book:
- The COVER!!! I MEAN IT’S BLUE!!!
- I LOVED IT (you can read my review here on Goodreads)
- An imaginary friend!
- A dragon!
- The banter and sarcasm between the characters that will have you laughing!
- A illusionists thief guy who owns a monkey!
- A semi-crazy character.
- Someone walking around the high heels throughout the WHOLE BOOK!!!
- A huge library.
- Killer faeries.
- Archery.
- BLUE dresses!!!!
- Urban fantasy.
- A beautiful, yet dangerous fantasy land….
- WHY ARE YOU STILL AROUND HERE FOR, GO READ THE BOOK, AND FIND OUT HOW COOL IT IS!!!! INSANITY IS CATCHING… GO READ IT!!!
You can find the book on Amazon.com here.
Thank you Nicki for being our guest on my blog today! Wishing you all the best in your new release and for all your future releases!
So who is excited to read “A Certain Sort of Madness”?
What is your number one favorite urban fantasy?
Come on, don’t be shy.
Urban fantasy has been my love since, well, since for a long time. =)
Thank you all for reading and
read near the stars as close as you can!
Grace M. Morris =D
Author of the “Team Vergate” series
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