Something Wicked Strikes: Interview with Nikki Kelly (Author of Lailah) and AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Fall is creeping up on us and that means it is time for the return ofSomething Wicked!

All during the month of October, you can expect guest posts, interviews, reviews and giveaways for all types of paranormal reads. Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings, Maja@The Nocturnal Library, Candace@Candace's Book Blog and Ali@My Guilty Obsession will be hosting again this year.

This event promises to be bigger and better than last year!

If you are new to Something Wicked, you are in for a treat. You can expect to find terrific paranormal reads almost every day of the month along with a giveaway!

I am beyond excited to be a part of Something Wicked Strikes this year!!! I am hosting the incredible, awesome, phenomenal...(Yes she is one of my favorite authors).........

NIKKI KELLY

I have read and absolutely fell in love with her new vampire series, Lailah. So of course I was beyond honored to have the chance to host her on my blog as part of Something Wicked Strikes. Nikki is not only a phenomenal author but she is a truly incredibly person. She interacts with her fans on a daily basis which also makes her a fan favorite because she goes out of her way to show her appreciation. It means so much to fans and bloggers when they see an author respond! ....Did I mention that Nikki is awesome???? .......

What inspired you to write Lailah?

As all the best stories start… ‘I had a dream…’ That is certainly true for how I came to meet Lailah. 

I had a dream about a girl assisting what appeared to be an injured vampire in a derelict shell of a building. The vampire himself was fairly easy to distinguish, but all I could see of the girl was her long blond hair cascading down her back. Then, like something from a horror movie, the girl’s neck twisted, and all I saw were these huge bright blue eyes. But as she blinked, they flipped into a sinister and downright frightening red. Then I woke up. 

I never dreamed of the girl again, but she plagued my thoughts, and so I decided to find out what her story was, by telling it. Lailah was my spark and the inspiration I needed to conceive and write The Styclar Saga. 

Lailah is written in the first person, and we go on a journey of self-discovery with her. Although Lailah is the pivotal point, I wanted to show that there is always something bigger going on outside of ourselves, and so then came the world-building; that is to say, establishing the bigger picture, and finding out what Lailah’s place and purposes were within it. 

Lailah is a YA PNR, but rather than creating new beings, I took existing creatures from mythology and spun them into something else. The same can be said for the worlds from which the beings emerged (the First and the Third Dimension), which are a spin on the concept of Heaven and Hell. 

One of the themes I wanted to explore within the story was pre-conceived notions, about people and the world. Light and dark, right and wrong, the heroes and the villains…

Vampires and angels worked well for exploring this, as they are traditionally known in mythology as being dark and light creatures. But the supernaturals in The Styclar Saga, for the most part, defy their very nature through their choices and can’t be placed perfectly within their boxes, just the same as us mere mortals.

I also wanted to bring something new, fresh and original to the table. In order to spin these known beings into something different, I had to first create and explore the worlds from which they emerged. 

In order to create an original history for them, I asked myself a lot of ‘what?’, ‘how?’, ‘when?’ and ‘where?’ and borrowed a little here and there from my own belief system too. 

And of course, with all the characters the question I asked the most was ‘who?’. Who they once were, who they are now, who they might be by the end of their journeys.

I knew early on what Lailah was, but it was only when I began to write her that I discovered who she is, and I’m looking forward to writing Book3 and finding out who she will ultimately become. 

Lailah was the spark that grew fast into a flame, and now she and her story consumes my daily life!

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The Styclar Saga