Spotlight and Guest Post: Nicole Lieren, Author of MORE THAN ONE NIGHT

Today it is my pleasure to have Nicole Lieren as my guest:

Write What You Know…Or Not!

As a debut author, I receive a lot of great advice from both published and aspiring authors. The great thing about advice is that if one thing doesn’t work for you, there are usually two or more varying opinions waiting in the wing for their turn to guide you.

One piece of writing advice authors hear a lot is: “Write what you know.” In other words, pick subjects, professions, locations, etc. that you are familiar with for your story, scenes and characters. Not bad advice. There’s less fact checking on Google (translates to less time spent in the research phase of a book) and less expenses if you’re one of those people who need to “see” things.

Following that advice, I started writing “More Than One Night” with a few things that I know. Details such as the location of the story. Our heroine, Melodie, is a children’s librarian in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago. As I live in that area, I was able to write those details with confidence. Of course, our hero is from Mississippi and I’ve never set foot in the great state – so that required some quality time with my BFF Research Assistant, Google.

Another example that falls into the “what I know” category came from the first date for our hero and heroine. Daniel and Melodie meet on a plane trip to Dallas TX (another location I’m familiar with) and they have their first date at a place called The Glass Cactus while listening to an 80’s cover band. Again, all things I know as not only have I partied at the fine establishment, but I happen to think the 80’s was the best decade of music ever (like totally, for sure LOL)

What was very hard for me to write, though, was the fact that there’s a strained relationship between Melodie and her mother. They’ve never really had a good relationship and it makes life very difficult for our heroine. As I’ve been very fortunate to have a loving and supportive mother my entire life who I love and adore, writing a very different mother/daughter relationship was very unfamiliar.

When it comes to love and matters of the heart, having been married to my real world hero for 27 years, there is a lot I can write about that I know. However, Daniel and Melodie are faced with some challenges that are unfamiliar to me so part of the challenge in telling their story was to have them teach me what they knew of life, love and each other. Together, we were able to get them to their happily ever after.

I hope you enjoy reading this story of courage and the desire to overcome the challenges of our past to find the love each of us deserves. Thank you for letting me hang out and share a little about myself and my characters today with you!

Live, Love, Laugh

Nicole

Thank you Nicole!  Here is a spotlight of your book for my readers!

MORE THAN ONE NIGHT (Heroes of the Night #1)

The Few. The Strong. The Brave. 

Melodie Alexander, a children's librarian, prefers to live life between the pages of a book. But when the death of her best friend prompts her to step out of her comfort zone, she finds herself directly in the path of self-proclaimed bad boy, Daniel Bresland.

Daniel knew how to be a solider. Life after war? Not as easy. He served his country in Afghanistan, both in the military and as a private contractor, but fighting the war came at high personal cost. Now he's determined to keep his relationships "casual" in order to protect his heart and prevent anyone from getting too close.

A chance encounter between Melodie and Daniel on a flight to Dallas proves that opposites really do attract. But when scars from the past threaten their new relationship almost before it starts, Daniel must decide if he can risk opening his heart again to convince Melodie he wants more than one night.

AMAZON