Ivy is from my neck of the woods, Texas. I haven’t known her for very long, but I have had the chance to read the story she will be publishing in the Fall of 2016. Once she found the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) a few years ago, she got inspired to publish her own stories. Her passion is romance. She loves cooking, travel, wine, whiskey, and karaoke. Not necessarily in that order. Here she is, Ivy Nelson.
Thanks for stopping by, Ivy. I’m dying to know:
Do your friends and family know that you write romance?
Ivy: Yes! I tell everyone what I do. I have a lot of very conservative family so I do warn them that it’s probably something they don’t want to read but they are still very supportive. My friends, on the other hand, are very excited for me to publish my first novel.
It’s great that you have such a good support system. What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?
Ivy: Fixing a really bad timeline hole. I wrote the first draft and thought it was great but when I started reading it back I realized that a lot of my timeline just didn’t make sense. It took me a very long time to fix.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Ivy: I can knock out a first draft in 30 days thanks to NaNoWriMo. The editing process takes at least another couple of months. My first novel took me almost a year to write.
Sounds like NaNo gave you a solid determination to get your stories done. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Ivy: Just do it! Don’t let self-doubt stop you from putting words on the page. That was my biggest hindrance. Everyone has a story to tell and the world needs our stories! The writing community is kind and they will help you hone your craft but you can’t hone anything if you don’t write.
I agree! Just get the story onto the paper. You can always fix it. Do your romance novels feature sex and if so where do you lie on the spectrum between fade-to-black and explicit?
Ivy: I definitely fall on the explicit end of that spectrum. I am capable of writing something not so explicit but it’s just not as much fun for me. I can get just as lost in a fantasy while I’m writing a sex scene as I can while I’m reading one.
Steamy sex scenes are where it’s at in my book. Thanks for allowing me to interview you. This was fun!
Ivy is a 30-year-old romance/erotica/mystery writer living in Houston, Texas with her husband. Ivy has been writing for as long as she can remember and read her first romance at the age of fourteen. You could say it was love at first site. Since then Ivy has read anything she can get her hands on. While she has always loved writing, she let that hobby sit on the back burner while pursuing a degree in political science and higher education. The love for writing never left. In 2015, Ivy decided to give up her day job and focus on writing the type of thing she loves to read. Her first book will be available for purchase in the Fall of 2016. In her free time, Ivy enjoys cooking, travel, wine tasting and singing really old country music at karaoke bars.
You can also find Ivy on Twitter and her blog.
Very Sherry Terry 