10 Questions with Author Nenia Campbell
We had an absolute blast chatting with author Nenia Campbell and getting a peek inside that brilliant, chaos-sparked brain of hers. She’s hilarious (seriously, follow her on Threads—you won’t regret it), razor-sharp with her wit, and completely unafraid to dive into the kind of spicy storytelling that most authors wouldn’t dare touch. We’re obsessed. Read the interview below.
1. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
I have written over 30 books! My current favorite (it changes all the time!) is RAISE THE BLOOD, my dark Crimson Peak x Ready or Not gothic romance with a villain love interest. I honestly think it's one of the best things I've ever written. I wrote the first draft in a month and had an absolute blast writing it, from start to finish. It's my love-ode to the gothic genre, filled with all of my favorite tropes from the Victorian classics and the resurgence of 1970s gothic pulps.
2. Tell us about your current release. Anything you can tell us that isn't in the blurb?
My most recent release was SINE QUA NON, a surprise sequel to my dark stepbrother romance, QUID PRO QUO. I worked on it while my father was ill and it became my sanity project; when I was overwhelmed, I would spend time with Nick and Jay, and help them unpack their trauma (and they do have trauma). QUID PRO QUO ended on a tenuous note of hope but I thought it would be interesting to expand on their story and explore the concept of writing about a couple that was already end-game but hadn't figured out how to be together healthily yet.
3. Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
I have several WIPs and projects and some are secrets, but these are the ones that are not secrets. I have a dark sapphic romance planned called AQUA REGIA, a five-book romantasy series that was previously published as YA/NA that I'm reworking for an adult audience, and a companion book to RAISE THE BLOOD written entirely from the hero's POV called MY BLOOD IS RISEN. I also have two very dark gothic romances I'm working on and a dark standalone romantasy.
4. What comes first for you — the plot or the characters — and why?
Plot! I usually get the idea first but I have to kind of ruminate on how to execute it. And then the characters come later.
5. How do you select the names of your characters?
I hoard names. If I see a name out in the wild I like, I save it and use it for later. Like Adonica Blake, the heroine of LITTLE DEATHS. I was reading a nonfiction book about comic book history and one of the golden age comic book writers had a wife named Adonica. I thought that was the prettiest name ever and had never heard it before, so I decided to use it.
6. How would you describe your book's ideal reader?
I write for burnt-out millennial eldest daughters who love the fantasy of being the center of an obsessive, dangerous man's entire world, because they've spent their whole lives being shunted off to the side to make room for others. I also write for the people who read Jane Eyre and thought it would be better with smut. Or that Wuthering Heights deserved a happy ending.
7. If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?
I am so, so sorry. ...PSYCHE! (And then I'd run away.)
8. What risks have you taken with your writing that have paid off?
I stopped trying to write to market. My books performed quite badly when I did-- I think because deep down, I resented feeling like I was being "told" what to write. Now I just write whatever seems fun or interesting to me and it's made me a lot happier.
9. What do you do to get inside your character's heads?
It's almost like meditation. I close my eyes, unfocus, and just think about what needs to be done. Forget what I would do-- what would the MC do? Sometimes it's uncomfortable, but I'll usually write it anyway because that slight rub of discomfort usually means I'm getting somewhere.
10. Would you share something about yourself that your readers don't know (yet)?
I'm friends with Stephen King on Goodreads. I'm still not quite sure how that happened but it's part of my lore now.
Bio:
She can be found on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aficionenias/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbeebooked/
1 comment
What a great series of questions! I’m a big fan of Nenia’s writing and her delightfully unhinged self marketing on Threads. I will fangirl this woman until she seeks out legal action to make me stop. #sorryNOTsorry