RomanceLover2018

January 2020

Please tell us about your fanfiction journey. How many fandoms have you written? How did you find a home in the Fifty Shades community?

I started reading fanfiction back in 2013. The Vampire Diaries was a favorite show of mine. I watched it through my entire undergraduate at my college. I enjoyed the main characters but the one that didn't have a proper storyline was a girl named Caroline. She was the ditzy blonde until she became a vampire. As sad as it was, she morphed into a better person when she became a supernatural being. Several seasons later we are introduced to the Mikaelson family. They are the original vampires. The bad boy one, who is also a hybrid (Werewolf/vampire) is immediately captivated by her. They had moments, but they were never truly explored. I was completely disappointed when the show ended as she was with someone who in my opinion was beneath her. Enter fanfiction. A friend of mine read it religiously. Always on her phone. I asked what she was doing, then she opened me up to this entire world where you could take your favorite characters and make storylines you wanted for them. I was intrigued and immediately logged into the site. I had read like ten stories over that weekend. I was hooked. After a couple of months I decided to try my hand at writing FF. It was under another username which was deleted a long time ago, but I wrote a very lengthy story. I had gained all these people reading it and met so many women who loved what I did with her character. I wrote so many for The Vampire Diaries. Easily spent almost two years with it. But once that died down, I moved on to other fandoms. I lost my inspiration for the different plots and wanted to try my hand at something else. That was what led me to the beautiful world of Fifty Shades fanfiction. The fact that EL James work was based off a Twilight fanfic already intrigued me. I absolutely love the community and the women (and men) who just enjoy a good romance story. I admit mine are a bit outlandish, but isn't that the point of fiction? The opportunity to live in a world that is completely lavish, with everything you could ever want?

Do you have any advice for fellow authors on how to handle literary criticism?

It's funny because I published my first book ever on November 1, 2019. It was a historical romance and I've always wanted to. I have about seven positive reviews, but I just received my first one-star review two days ago, and a two star review yesterday. In the beginning I was terrible at receiving bad reviews or criticism. Believe it or not writing fanfiction helped me with this specific beast. My advice for authors is simple. You should be your biggest fan of your work. Writing has shown me that there are several people in the world who will read and even love your work. But there are also others who will not. At the end of the day, if you love what you write, and you are satisfied with your manuscript, then that is all that matters. I'm lucky because I have a strong support system-my sister-and as long as she loves it, I am happy with what I produce. Long story short, believe in your work when no one else will.

When not writing, what activities do you enjoy? What energizes you and fuels your writing?

Reading. (Laughs) I absolutely love reading. Too much. Fanfiction, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. I'm also a huge movie buff. A part from owning too many to count, I am at the movies with my best friend who is fortunately my baby sister. What fuels my writing are people. Whether it's someone I met at the store, or on my daily walk. What has fueled my writing lately is music. I don't know, but I think of all kinds of possibilities and scenarios when I'm listening to music. It can even put me in a good mood.

What are your favorite tropes?

Synecdoches! I love them, and I think my writing has morphed into slowly including them. I like people, places and events to mean something more than what they are.

Are you also a consumer of fanfiction? If so, what do you like to read?

YES! I have one goal when reading fanfiction: To read the most romantic, dramatic and fluffies tales. The more the merrier. I absolutely love reading Fifty Shades, Twilight, and Vampire Diaries. However one that caught me by surprise is True Blood. I loved the show in the beginning, stopped watching it midway through but again I was stunned to find another community of fans who gave it the ending(s) it deserved. I need all my FF stories to end happily. People kill me. We live in the real world every single day. I read for enjoyment and escapism. To discover a world that I could never be in. But I could in my brain. That is what I read.

What is something that your readers might be surprised to know about you?

When I was fourteen years old, my parents and sister took a trip of a lifetime. I'm from San Francisco, Ca. and my father rented a van, and drove across the country. From California to Virginia where my parents are originally from. We went from Virginia to Florida. (Disneyworld) Florida to Canada, (Toronto, Mississiuaga) Canada to Maryland, and Maryland back to California in time for school. It was the best experience of my life. What I learned, what I saw I will cherish for the rest of my life. I think that is why I incorporate traveling in my stories. Everyone needs to live life. To just pack a bag a go. See what the world can teach you. Maybe it's because my parents were the original hippies and they passed that on to my sister and I. March to the beat of your own drum and all that.

You can find books by Nicole Renee online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.