A Dream Within A Dream: Three Daves Blog Tour: Author Interview & Giveaway

Three Daves
Author: Nicki Elson

Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance/Chick Lit
Release Date: February 16, 2010
Publisher: Omnific Publishing

Buy Links: Kindle / Nook / Paperback

Description:

Jennifer Whitney was the last American virgin. At least that’s what she felt like in 1986 as she began her sophomore year at Central Illinois University. She was proud of her decision to wait for the right guy, and yet she was getting restless. It seemed like everyone around her was doing it... and having fun doing it, too. She didn’t want to become the campus slut or anything, but surely there was a difference between a trashy skank and a nice girl with a little experience. Perhaps it was time to stop relying on fate to guide her and instead take matters into her own hands. And with that realization, Jen decided to find “the one” and lose her virginity, although not necessarily in that order...

Author Interview with Nicki Elson

Q: Do you remember how/when your interest in writing started?

The first thing I remember writing that made me really proud was a poem called “Alley Cat,” which I wrote for an assignment in the 5th grade. Many, many years later, I was reacquainted with my fondness for words at a job where writing was an important component of the quarterly investment reports that I prepared for clients. But I didn’t take up fictional writing in earnest until six years ago, when the Harry Potter series ended and I was bothered with an idea that just wouldn’t leave me alone until I had a novel-length fan fiction on my hands. After that, I was bitten by the love of fiction writing—romance in particular—and couldn’t stop.

Q: What were the challenges (research, psychological, etc.) in bringing this story or characters to life?

Remembering what daily life was like sans technology was a challenge. The story is set in the 1980s, which was actually a pretty revolutionary decade for personal technology with Sony Walkmans (or would that be Walkmen?) and (ginormous) cell phones hitting the scene, but insta-communication simply didn’t exist like it does today. That’s actually one of the reasons I chose to set Three Daves in that time period—e-stalking didn’t have a place in this story, and Jen is sooo the type of girl who would’ve e-stalked—but I had to double-check everything technology-wise to make sure it was authentically 80s.

Getting the slang right was also trickier than I’d expected. Beyond “awesome” and “cool beans” I wasn’t sure what was 80s and what didn’t come around until the 90s, at least not words that we actually used in the Midwest—“gnarly” and “tubular” weren’t exactly part of our regular vernacular—so it was fun cruising the 80s websites and reminding myself of the silly things we used to say, like “grody” and “barf me out.” But don’t worry, even I have a low tolerance for 80s slang, so it’s only lightly peppered throughout to add a touch of flavor.

Q: What was the easiest part of writing THREE DAVES?

Probably the sex scenes. Those came pretty easily (no pun intended…or was it?) but I’m sure that’s only because when I wrote them I had no aspirations of getting published and being read by people I know. I was just writing for fun. Had I known then that the story would one day make its way off my computer and into the wide world, I’m sure I would’ve been more stifled, which I’m very happy didn’t happen.

Q: What is your favorite scene or was your favorite to write? Don’t forget to tell us why.

Wow, this is a shockingly difficult question to answer. The scenes mentioned above are some of my favorites, but if I have to pick just one, I’ll say Chapter 28, which is one long scene and was the first to clearly come to me. I drafted a version of this chapter before writing anything else, and the rest of the story developed around it. But as plot details revealed themselves, I’d go back and revise—I can’t even tell you how many times I revisited that chapter. Note that I didn’t tell you anything about what actually happens in the scene—sorry, no can do, too many spoilers—but I’ll tell you that what I love about it is the raw, honest, exposed emotion.

Q: What’s next for you writing wise that you can share with us?

I’m working on an office romance of the chick lit variety. It’s pretty naughty, but in a sweet and funny kind of way. After being immersed in my most recent novel, Divine Temptation, which is more serious and darker-themed than Three Daves, I felt the need to return to light and fluffy for a while. But I’ll probably swing back to darker again after this one—I was surprised by how much I enjoyed delving into horror elements of DT. I guess I’m sort of a literary seesaw.

Writing wasn't something Nicki set out to do; it just sort of happened when she realized writing reports was by far her favorite part of her investment consulting position. She traded stock allocation and diversification for story arcs and dialogue and now weaves her creative writing time in with the other activities of her busy life with her family in the Chicago suburbs. Nicki writes with two goals in mind: #1 to keep the characters realistic, even when their circumstances are anything but, and #2 to make the reader feel. Her published works include Three Daves, a light-hearted romantic romp through a 1980s college campus, Divine Temptation, a romantic novel of angelic proportions, and short stories “Sway” (available as a single), “I Don’t Do Valentine’s Day” (part of A Valentine Anthology), and “Impressionism 101” (included in the debut issue of Insatiable: The Magazine of Paranormal Desire).

Author Social Media Links:
Website: http://nickielson.com/
Blog: http://nickielson.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NickiElson3D
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/by.NickiElson
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3379575.Nicki_Elson