Welcome Nerine Dorman who writes for Lyrical Press!!

Nerine writes for my brand new publisher Lyrical Press with whom I have a release coming in January 2011. I am still 'meeting' Lyrical authors online so it is fabulous to have Nerine here today to tell us a little more about her and her work. Welcome!!!

1. Who is your favourite author and why?
My all-time favourite authors include Neil Gaiman, early Poppy Z Brite, Jacqueline Carey, William Burroughs and Storm Constantine. My main reasons for liking these authors is because they are very good at evoking setting, with textures, sights and sounds that are incredibly vivid but also dreamlike. Sometimes gritty, always beautiful dark, evocative and often erotic prose.
2. When did you first consider yourself a writer?
My first attempts at novel-writing took place while I was bored during high school. I was always drawing, reading or writing in class. Don’t ask me how I managed to still get good grades. I drove my teachers crazy. Always a dreamer. My first attempts started at age 13 up until 19, when a boyfriend discouraged me by telling me I was too sentimental, and I believed him because he was studying a bachelor in arts at the time. I started again when I was 26, running the whole gamut of bad fantasy short stories featuring supernatural creatures and things that go bump in the night. I always considered myself a writer, but I lacked the know-how of getting my butt on a chair until ’round about 2007 when I wrote my debut urban fantasy novel Khepera Rising.
3. Describe your writing space?
My writing space is wherever I happen to be sitting near a computer or scraps of paper. Now that I have my netbook, I write everywhere… On the train, during down-time at my day-job at the newspaper, on movie sets, at my husband’s photoshoots… It never ends. My “office” at home is my couch, however.
4. What are you reading now?
Not enough. Currently most of my time is taken up reading submissions for one of my publishers, for whom I’m also a content editor. I review genre fiction novels for my day-job, for fun, but it’s never books I’d willingly read myself, and I’m usually quite disappointed by some of the material from authors who should know better. Out of my own choice I’m busy with an Aldous Huxley, which is quite heavy going: The Devils of Loudon, but I’ve a few William Burroughs titles waiting in the wings.
5. How many books have your written? Which is your favourite?
I’ve written about six novels, I think, although I’ve buried the second because it was just so bloody awful. My favourite is Camdeboo Nights, which I’ll be rebooting as an adult urban fantasy story later this year. I’ve just rebooted my fifth, which I’d still written before my netbook days, in longhand, in notebooks. I got about a chapter into the second draft then the story took me down a few paths I hadn’t expected.



6. What comes first, plot or characters?
Very often I’ll have a very vivid image of a character. Then I’ll ask myself what sort of story they want to tell. It all sort of unfolds from there. But plot is very important, to show enough conflict and character development going through to a satisfying resolution.
7. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
What’s that? I have more stories to write than I have time.
8. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I like being at home, in my garden, where I maintain a collection of succulent plants. I spend a fair amount of time helping out on my husband’s indie film sets. Most of the time… I’m writing, reading or editing. I start getting a bit anxious if I’m separated from my computer. I do, however, enjoy travelling and meeting new people… So long as I can also have some quiet time for the words… Other than that, I have a deep-rooted fascination in Egypt and associated esoteric philosophies.
9. Tell us about your latest book?
I’ve just completed a fantasy in a pseudo eighteenth-century setting, playing with themes of colonialism and cultural conflict, with a dash of Lovecraftian mystery. The protagonist is a botanist turned reluctant vampire, who inadvertently starts a war and has to learn to rely on himself to make decisions instead of being manipulated by others.
10) What’s next for you?
Having recently sold my first work of erotic fiction, which I’ll be publishing under a different name, I’ve already started the second. At the moment I’m alternating between works that will sell (erotic fiction) and my “serious” books where I invest the full extent of my creativity, and I find I enjoy the contrast between genres. The erotic writing is fun, a bit of a holiday while I recharge my batteries for the next work of dark fantasy, which often require a lot of mulling over of ideas before I’ll start outlining.
Useful links:
http://nerinedorman.blogspot.com (writing-focused blog)
http://nerinedorman.livejournal.com (not-so-serious blog)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=49386633567&ref=ts (Facebook group)
http://twitter.com/nerinedorman (Twitter)

Fabulous to meet you, Nerine - I hope my visitors make you feel welcome with lots and lots of comments, hint, hint!! ; )