Hello fellow book lovers,

This is a quick mid month newsletter as I’ve had such a great response to my author interview sign up that I can do 2 a month.

But before we get onto that, Lucy and I had the pleasure of chatting with D.L.Lewellyn about how Introverted Indies started and what we are all about, as well as our books. So please check that out here.

So, without further ado, here is the lovely Nikki Brooke who I had the pleasure of chatting to under the Introverted Indies umbrella. She’s a fellow dystopian sci-fi writer, too!

An Interview with Nikki Brooke
Author of Plagued Lands

Thank you for joining me at Indie Autho Insight, Nikki. It was so great to chat with you a few weeks ago, I am excited to chat up. So, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your writing?

Hi, I'm Nikki Brooke, an Australian sci-fi author and scriptwriter, but honestly, I've been writing stories since I was 8 just because I love storytelling. My first “book” was a five-page, hand-illustrated fantasy story I bound myself. I still have it, and it makes me smile every time I look at it. After high school, I earned a diploma in Professional Writing and Editing and thought I was on my way. But life had other plans—crippling depression and anxiety held me back for years. It wasn't until I worked with a life coach that I started to believe in myself again, and now I'm finally living the dream I've had since I was a kid. I'm bisexual and through my writing I hope to bring more authentic bisexual representation to books and films, as well as showcasing intelligent and strong female characters.

My debut dystopian novel, Plagued Lands, came out in November 2024, and I can hardly believe it. It’s been a wild ride to get here, but I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.

I have family in Australia and it has always been my husbands dream to live out there. I love that you still have your first book, that is so special. Can you tell me more about Plagued Lands?

Plagued Lands is a YA dystopian and the first in a trilogy. In the future, cities surrounded by glass bubbles promise safety from deadly diseases. But a resilient teen uncovers a dark secret kept from the people. Now she risks her health to expose the truth and save her little brother. It took me about 8 or so months to write it in 2020 and because it was written during the pandemic, everyone assumes it was inspired by Covid. But in truth, I had the idea years before and only started writing it then because of the comparisons to what we were going through and saw it as a sign that this book needed to be written.

It was actually inspired by an early morning drive on a Sunday when no one was around and I was surprised to see just one random man. It wasn't that strange, but it got me thinking, what it if was strange to see someone outside? In what circumstances would this be weird? And I came up with the idea that no one went outside the glass bubble cities without wearing hazmat suits due to fear of diseases. Questioning circumstances is how I get many of my ideas.

Covid still had some influence on the book though. It’s mentioned in it as a historical disease, and I gained insights on pandemics, like lockdowns, or using facemasks and sanitiser, and built that into the book.

One of the key themes is choice—the choice over your own body and medical autonomy or how to live. With people now, particularly women, losing their bodily autonomy, the theme is highly relatable. Another theme is greed and power, like most dystopias, and what might happen if people of influence go unchecked—which is something to pay attention to in today’s time. There's also a bisexual FMC, although her sexuality is not a major plot point, she just happens to be bi. It's important for me to have this representation and show that bi characters can be the hero of any story. Because it's written for a young adult audience, there are no graphic scenes, however there is still violence against children which some people might find triggering.

Sounds like a great book. Dystopian is my thing—it’s on my list to read! Are you working on anything else at the moment?

I'm working on both the prequel and sequel to Plagued Lands. The prequel is a short novella and doesn't really form part of the trilogy as it's not essential to read, but it goes into the main character's backstory in more depth.

Although it's not essential, I thought it would be fun for fans of the series. But there will be a full length book 2 and 3 still to come. I'm also currently recording the audio book version of Plagued Lands. It's the first time I've narrated a book so it's taking some time, but I have a professional audio team helping me which gives me confidence in a quality end product.

\In addition to the Plagued Lands series, I've also written a separate series and I intend to release the first book in that series in 2025. It's called The Huxian Fox. It's a fast-paced fun and sassy space opera, inspired by Han Solo and Princess Leia, but sapphic, with a bit of Indiana Jones thrown in too. It's about two teenage girls who team up - despite their differences - on an Indiana Jones style treasure hunt across space.

So lots of stuff happening in 2025.

I love the sound of the Indiana Jones style one! Being an author is amazing, and I don’t think as writers we can imagine not doing it, but it can be tough. What have been your highs and lows? And how did you deal with the hard bits?

Easily the best moment has come recently when I launched my debut novel, Plagued Lands in November. I did a huge launch online where me and a load of other authors posted games and competitions to celebrate it, and there was also a live ig interview, which was incredible and fun. And then I had an in-person event in Melbourne a few days later with loads of friends, family, and fans, all coming out to support me. I had people queuing up for autographs and photos, which was so surreal. Days later I was still buzzing from all the love and support I was shown. Oh, what am I talking about?!! I'm still buzzing from it!

My lowest point was in 2019 and early 2020. I had dreamed of being an author my entire life, but I still hadn't followed that dream. I had terrible writer's block and hadn't opened my computer to write in 6 months. I had severe depression and couldn't see a future where I could be happy. This was from a build up of years and years of self doubt and anxiety where I had convinced myself that I could never publish a book.

I was lucky enough to meet a life coach. She helped me to see that I am capable, that my words are valuable, and that I can make my dreams a reality. She used NLP and timeline therapy techniques to help me overcome my limiting beliefs. And suddenly I was able to write again. In fact, I wrote more than ever. I finished my first novel which took me 17 years to write (still unpublished) and then started writing Plagued Lands in that same year. I also started submitted shorter works to competitions and anthologies and found out that people really like my writing. That then helped me to believe in myself even more.

I still suffer from depression and anxiety, but now I'm able to recognise how it impacts my writing. I've got tools now that help me to overcome the bad times. It's always taken a lot of work, but I have the underlying belief that I am a good writer now, and that makes a tonne of difference. To help even more, I recently printed out some of the best reviews I've received for Plagued Lands and stuck them around my desk. It's so wonderful to see that people love it.

I am so sorry to hear that you struggled with those things. The self-doubt is such a big thing as a writer. You put your heart on your sleeve with your book and then hand it over to people to pick apart. I am so pleased you’ve found a way to deal with those thoughts and feelings. That’s amazing. So, how do you find marketing? That is my biggest hurdle at the moment!

Oh, I totally agree!! I guess every job has it's downside and marketing is the worse part of being an author. I'm not sure if any of my marketing is that successful and I'm still exploring a lot of options. I think the best thing to do is to network with people. Making real human connections definitely has helped get the word out about my book. Other people talking about my book seems to give it more credibility, plus it opens it up to new audiences. And it's the most fun part of marketing. I'm an introvert (like most of us) but when I meet other people interested in the same kinds of stories as me, the same stories I write, then it's great to geek out about them. I now consider a whole community of readers and authors my friends who I have met through bookstagram. It's wonderful and we're all so supportive of one another.

The author community is amazing and everyone is so supportive. If you could go back in time and talk to your former self, what advice would you give yourself? Or would you do anything differently?

Oh, I wish I could whisper positive thoughts in my ear from the time I was 8, throughout my teens, and when I studied writing after high school. If I had believed in myself back then, I would have several books published by now. Of course, my writing has improved over the years, but I don't think the technical skills were the real issue, they were always bound to get better with practise.

The main issue I've had with writing was not believing in myself. And I wish I knew to network with other authors more when I was younger. I've learned the most from other authors than I have from any course I've done.

Authors are just all-round amazing people! So, other than writing do you have any other hobbies?

I love to travel. I try to do an overseas trip once a year (depending on my finances and time available, of course). So far I've been to 38 countries and I am always thinking about where my next adventure will be.

And I like to do visual art too, but I don't get a lot of time for it between my day job and writing. At least I have a day job I love though. I work in the finance team of a company that helps people who are blind or low vision. Yes, I work with numbers as well as words and I love both. Although my great passion is for writing, I still love working in finance too.

I cannot crochet to save my life, unfortunately, so I have a lot of respect for people who can!

Thank you so much for chatting it’s been great. I can’t wait to read Plagued Lands.

I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about my book, Plagued Lands, and the other projects I'm working on. It's amazing the support you're giving to other indie authors and I appreciate it so much. Thank you!

It’s been a pleasure! Lastly, where can we buy your books and keep in touch?

www.nikkibrooke.com/books/ or www.nikkibrooke.com

Thank you for reading!

Lydia x