Nicola Haken!!!
I am so
happy I get to have an interview with you!!You know I am a huge fan!!
But, I’ll stop swooning all
over you (xoxo) and get on with it…
I’ll start the interview by teasing you, my friend.
During the Saving Amy Blog Tour, you revealed 20 Fun Facts about yourself. And
Look at that! Take my hand includes a Gleek (check), Twilight movies (check)
and a character or two who detest school (check)..How did you accomplish that?
When I reached your first mention of Glee, I was
laughing..When the mention of Twilight came, I was like : ”Yeah she totally
entered the book this time!”
Haha. Is that a good thing or not? J I’ll be honest - I have no idea how that
happened! I see a lot of myself in Emily – the only difference being I have a
much filthier mouth J I always start out with a plan for how my
characters will turn out but somehow they always end up changing themselves
whether I want them to or not. Emily and Rachel remind me so much of me and
best friend so it just seemed ‘right’ that they liked the same things.
Amy’s character is very different from Emily’s, which
is one of the things I admired about your work. What inspired Emily’s
character?
Well I had Dexter’s character mapped out
first. I knew immediately how I wanted him to go but it actually took me a
while to figure out where Emily fitted in. I’ve always been drawn to broken
characters so instinctively I started wondering how Emily could be broken too.
But then I decided I wanted Dexter to be REALLY broken and it made more sense
that Emily would need to be the stronger one of the pair.
As
for how her whole character turned out… like I said earlier they sort of decide
for themselves. Now, please don’t call the psyche ward on me when I admit this…
but it’s almost like I can actually hear them talking to me while I’m writing.
If I close my eyes I can literally see the
scene I’m writing playing out like a movie in my head… Okay, on second thoughts
I totally wouldn’t blame you for calling a psychiatrist J
In both Saving Amy and Take my hand, we see characters
struggle with addiction of some kind as well as suffering from abuse. Was that
your goal? To point these matters to the public? Do they hold any significant
place in your heart? I for one want to
thank you for raising these matters to the surface, because thousands of people
suffer because of them and they need to know they’re not alone. Reading about
others can be very helpful to them and their families and be quite eye-opening.
I don’t have firsthand experience with all the subjects I write about, though
there are bits of me and my life hidden in all my stories in some way. But
nevertheless I do feel they are issues that need
to be talked about and need to be understood and accepted a lot more than they
currently are. That is one thing I do have
experience with – people who are quick to judge things they don’t understand.
Self-harmers? They are attention seeking.
Addicts? They bring it on themselves.
People who commit suicide? They’re weak and
selfish.
Those are just a few of the comments I have
heard too many times. But nobody grows up aspiring to be any of, or carry out
any of, those things. People should remember that just because they aren’t
aware of someone’s deeper internal struggles, doesn’t mean they’re not there. Fear
of being judged or criticized may be the deciding factor in someone feeling too
ashamed or embarrassed to seek help and that in my opinion, is so very wrong.
I feel I only glossed very briefly over the
topic of addiction in Saving Amy, choosing more to focus on self-harm. She
hadn’t had chance to be completely consumed by the drugs she dabbled with
before she found the help she needed. Though that was something I really wanted
to explore. I have read so many books where someone is an addict for a few
weeks, goes to rehab for a few days and gets their happily ever after. That is not real life. Yes my books are
essentially fiction however I do like to reflect real-life issues as best I can
(obviously I like to embellish certain things – a guy with a pot-belly and zits
who comes in from work and whines about the price of the latest gas bill wouldn’t
make such a hot book boyfriend now would he? J)
That’s where Dexter
comes in. I knew straight away I wanted Take My Hand to be part of a series
because I knew Dexter’s story was too complex to wrap up in just one book. He
and Emily have a long road ahead of
them before they can even begin to
think about getting a happily ever after. Book 2 especially will take readers
on an intense ride, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end J
Not to mention any spoilers or anything, but we see
that Emily is much stronger of a person than Dexter, despite her shyness. Of
course, Dexter has been through worse, as many would point out. Personally, I
found it very refreshing for the girl to be the rock for support, rather than
the other way around. Did you want it to be this way or did it just happen like
that?
I completely planned it that way. If I was
certain of one thing before anything else to do with this story it was that I
wanted the hero to be broken. I knew when writing Saving Amy that I wanted to
delve deeper into the issue of addiction and I also knew I wanted to really
focus on a guy this time. I love writing from a guy’s POV it’s so much fun to
be inside their heads (or pretend to be!).
As
you’ve probably figured out, I loved Take my hand. It is surely a romance.
However, it refers to so many sensitive subjects, such as abuse, addiction and
people with special needs (I don’t particularly like the term, so if you know
of any better, please correct me Nicola!). You involved all these matters and
still did it in a graceful way! And that is another reason why I admire your
work. But didn’t you find it difficult to do?
I find it emotional for sure, but not necessarily difficult. It’s my
favourite kind of writing! I like to do things a little different. There are so
many types of different people in the world and hope I reflect that in a good
way. Again, unfortunately some people (I say ‘some’ because I am sure it is the
minority of people) are too quick to judge people with disabilities and I hope
I manage to pull of the fact that it makes entirely no difference to who they
are. If Emily didn’t describe Rachel’s wheelchair, I doubt the reader would
have any idea she was disabled. The same goes for the issues of abuse, drugs,
and everything I have written or intend to write about. It’s impossible to
physically ‘see’ what makes a person who they are by what they look like or how
they cope with life. Again it boils down to me wanting to reflect real life and
I’m so happy you think I handled it well.
I don’t remember if I ever told you but I do have an
exceptional memory. And if I remember correctly (which I do lol), you also
mentioned on your Fun Facts that you have a vast collection of tattoos. Soo,
how many do you have? Have you had any new done, since the Saving Amy Tour? Spill
it, sister!
I don’t have any new ones but I am sure
there will be more in my future! Give me a minute while I count….
Right, I have a
half-sleeve on my left forearm with lotus flowers, cherry blossoms, peonies and
a dragonfly with black swirly stuff (I’m pretty sure that’s not the technical
term!) knitting it all together, and above that I have a Japanese lucky cat
(for no other reason than I think they look cool!) and a little girl angel with
‘Nanna’ inked underneath it. On my right wrist I have a pretty bow and on the
top of my arm I have a pretty big koi fish surrounded by water and Japanese
cherry blossoms (I hope to turn that into a full Japanese sleeve one day). On
my back I have a sugar skull and roses that spans the full width of my
shoulders (that one was done in one 9 hour sitting. I was seriously trembling
by the end of it!) and last but not least, my favourite of all, is a picture my
eldest son drew when he was 7. My tattoo artist traced the picture and
recreated it on my lower leg, right down to the places he’d smudged out of the
lines when colouring it in. I plan to get one of those when all of my kids turn
7 J
Ok now prepare for a very hard question..Hope you’re
ready..Here we go..Who is the hottest man on the planet, according to you? Your man is excluded, I’m afraid..No offense,
Mr.! And who is the hottest book
guy you’ve read about? Again, your
fictional men are excluded!
Oh my god are you seriously expecting me to
choose just ONE??? And don’t worry – I wasn’t planning to choose my hubby
anyway J (Hubby if you’re reading this – you know I
love you!!) Ok, don’t judge me, but I’m going with Robert Pattinson. Watching
him on screen makes me go all giddy inside… he’s so… woof! Oh no but that means
I can’t choose Ian Somerhalder, Henry Cavill, David Gandy, Charlie Hunnam….
Damn.
Book guy? Now you’re really asking something
making me nail it down to one. I have so many (*cough* book slut *cough*) but
right at the very top of that humongous pyramid has to be the one and only
Christian Grey *swooooooooons big time*. Guess that means I won’t mention Dean
Holder, Jake Wethers, Kellan Kyle, Woods Kerrington, Andrew Parrish, Rush
Finlay, Jared Ryel, Gio Vecchio, Gideon Cross, Jack Henry, Travis
Maddox….oooops!
Sorry – I just
totally cheated J
And the previous question inspired this one. You must
have seen all the buzz about the 50 Shades of Grey movie. What is your opinion
on that? On the cast and the buzz itself. I
read and heard about some crazy stuff that left me reeling about the human
sanity, to be honest, like the hate mail the author received.
I am SO excited for
the movie! I thought Charlie Hunnam would have made the perfect Christian Grey
and if he were here with me now I would give him a piece of my mind (right
after stripping him naked of course haha)! But seriously, it’s all fun. Or at
least it should be. The people who
have taken it to the extreme sending hate mail or starting petitions are
ridiculous and I refuse to spend too much time thinking about them. As hard as
I’ve tried I just don’t understand it. If you don’t like the books or the
choice of actors, don’t watch – simple. I think people see EL James and the
actors involved with the movie as public property, forgetting that they are real
people too. It’s wrong and stupid and I just don’t get it. Besides, I’m sure EL
James is too busy living a fantastic life with all the money she’s earned from
writing such an amazing series to be bothered by the sad little people hiding
behind their keyboards.
This is what I call a Random Question. Tell us
something that you simply want to share with us. It could be something
completely random or it could be about the sequel of Take my hand..Mmm yes I’d
like to hear about that..lol
I suppose I should say (in case you haven’t already guessed) I like to talk a
lot! But because I think that’s pretty obvious I’m going to say this instead - So
many people have shared their love for Rachel and Jared with me and I don’t
think too many people are aware that they are getting their own book. It’s
actually my current project. Book 2 (Hold On Tight) is now finished and being
sent to my beta readers (yay!) and Rachel and Jared’s story (Lean On Me) is
book 3 in the series. Then, everyone’s stories will be wrapped up nicely (after
a bit more drama and a few more surprises of course!) in
book 4 J
My last question is about last things…
Last book you read: Double Full by Kindle Alexander. It went straight to my all
time favourites list!
Last movie you watched: Twilight of course! I’m seriously not exaggerating when I say
I watch them ALL the time J
Last album you downloaded/listened: More Glee songs J
Last concert you went to: The Script. LOVE those guys. Danny O’Donoghue? Mmmm yes
please!
Last country you visited: Tenerife.
It’s like a second home to me. I love it because it’s filled with British
people lol. I am a home-bird and a fussy eater so somewhere hot that also has
plenty of British restaurants is the perfect holiday place for me J
Last person you stalked
online: Kindle Alexander. I’d never heard of her before
reading Double Full and now I want to read everything she’s ever written!
You cannot believe how
much fun I had compiling the questions!
I had so much
fun answering them. Thank you for compiling them for me – you are AWESOME! I do
hope I didn’t ramble too much and
take up all the space on your blog! J
Nicola xxx
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